Best Ext Hard Drive, 1TB, ethernet connection?

Sooler

You could also consider making use of 25 Gb free online storage - Sky Drive http://explore.live.com/windows-live-skydrive for backing up files that are suitable for storing online.

diable

Sooler wrote: »

You could also consider making use of 25 Gb free online storage - Sky Drive http://explore.live.com/windows-live-skydrive for backing up files that are suitable for storing online.

If the company goes bust then so does your data.

Sooler

it's only a backup, no one would only have one copy of their data. Wouldn't think much chance of Microsoft going bust.

diable

Sooler wrote: »

it's only a backup, no one would only have one copy of their data.

There are millions of people out there with no backup of their data, any IT analyst will tell you they can hear the crying and wailings of the people who have lost precious photographs, data etc etc etc .........

CountryGoose

rich_jtg wrote: »

Remember that emptying your laptop's hard drive onto an external drive isn't a backup, just transferring!

The most cost effective solution would be to get a USB drive as stated previously.

You do ideally though need some 'off-site' backup which could come in the form of uploading to Flickr or Picasa where your pictures are concerned. Other important documents could also duplicated online with a service such as Sugar Sync (5GB free) or Dropbox.

Many 'wise' people follow the 3-2-1 back-up rule. Others just blame someone else when their hard disk fails.

rich_jtg is bang on the money here: If you don't want to lose it, back it up.

If you're running out of space on your laptop, then get a USB drive to extend the space you have. (I'm guessing that the laptop will be replaced in a year or two and that makes it uneconomic to swap in a new drive, unless you feel up to the job).

Then take back-ups. Personally, I have all the data from my hard drive mirrored on an external drive on a rolling back-up. I also have weekly copies on two NAS drives in different locations in my house/garage.

The NAS drives hold all my music and a common itunes library - If both of these are lost I can (painfully) rebuild them from the original CDs/DVDs. I very rarely download music - buy the CD, rip it and you have a good backup.

Imagine how you would feel if all of your photos were lost in a fire and you could have saved them for the cost of two NAS drives, or as another has suggested, as NAS drive and paid for space on Picassa, or another cloud site.

My early career was in Technical IT - you'll find it's those with an IT background that take the backups. The really wise ones actually do a trial restore occasionally.