How often do you back up?

weeman_4

Hello,

One option you could use is online backup, there are a couple of different ways to do this, i never remember to Burn my data to a CD as a backup. So i signed up to a service from a company called Databarracks, there website is https://www.databarracks.com. I pay a small amount each month and they backup my data over the internet automatically.

Or they have just launched a new product i am looking at using which is free! (i know some people in here like the sound of that!) it's called https://www.buddybackup.com it lets you backup data to friends etc...worth a look.

The real thing about this is that it can be set to run automatically and it is stored on there servers in a bunker!! (read the site if you are interested) so i don't have to worry about remembering the backup......sod's law says they week i forget to backup me hard disk dies

Laters

skinnerneil

I use a little shareware product called filesync
http://www.fileware.com/download.htm

Allows you to sync files between 2 disks (either hard drives or flash drives).

Takes a few minutes first time but then only has to change any files which are amended thereafter. I use it daily to sync my documents & settings onto a portable HDD which I then lock in the safe at work and take laptop home.

One tip - in the tools, options, file system - make sure you check the box to ignore 2 second time difference between NTFS and FAT32 file systems otherwise it may pickup files which dont need changing.

I had a HDD break on me a few years back - cost £ 600 to get important data off it by a professional data recovery company. I was told at the time that HDD failures can be quite common.

Basically - if you have data you cannot live without - backup daily without fail and store the backup somewhere safe.

CrustyMcMuffin

I backup weekly to a secure website of my own, I know not everyone has a website so you might want to consider opening a gmail account and using that as an online backup area. You get 2gb of space which is usually large enough to hold the vital files you don't want to lose. Plus there's the added bonus of it being online as most folk who backup tend to keep their DVDs etc in the house and if there's a fire it will all disappear.

I have plenty 15 invites for gmail left, so if anyone is interested drop me a PM with your email address and I'll send an invite.

Jamiepullman

CrustyMcMuffin wrote:

I backup weekly to a secure website of my own, I know not everyone has a website so you might want to consider opening a gmail account and using that as an online backup area. You get 2gb of space which is usually large enough to hold the vital files you don't want to lose. Plus there's the added bonus of it being online as most folk who backup tend to keep their DVDs etc in the house and if there's a fire it will all disappear.

I have plenty 15 invites for gmail left, so if anyone is interested drop me a PM with your email address and I'll send an invite.

I use gmail for backing stuff up too. Also writely for storing documents (let me know if you want an invite) and flickr for storing photos. Basically if the google servers blow up, I'm in trouble, but if my computer does, I'm not.
Jamie.

skinnerneil

Further to my earlier post I have been trying an online backup service for a couple of weeks now and it seems to work pretty well.

https://www.datadepositbox.com

You select which files/ folders to backup and it automatically backs them up as you work. All encrypted so very secure.
Takes a while first time (best to leave on overnight) but then it backs up any changes to documents or new documents etc.

Means you never forget to backup. Of course you need a broadband connection. And you can access documents remotely if needed.

It even manages to backup my huge outlook file (currently 300 MB) by making small changes after I close outlook down.

Costs US$ 0.01 / MB per month. Means $ 6 per month for me.
30 day free trial.
I dont work for them ! Just keen on this service.

I still use Filesync to keep a local backup.

phatty_2

Does anyone know if it's safe to back up to Gmail? I mean Gmail might notice you are wasting their bandwidth and delete your emails/attachments.

WestieFan

I have just got myself a nice new 300gb external hard drive and want to back everything up. I installed the Backup thingy on the XP Home disc, but I noticed the readme file and it says this -

NTBackup Backup/Restore and ASR release notes
Backup/Restore
ASR
1. ASR is not supported on home edition.
IF you install NtBackup from the CD to the Home Edition, ASR functionality will appear to work fine during
the backup session. Since the setup does not support ASR in the home edition, there is no way to initiate
the ASR restore in case of a disaster. If you need to restore from this session, install Windows XP manually
and then restore from the ASR media.
2. Backup to CDRW
If you decide to backup to a CDRW, you cannot target that device directly. You must create a backup set of
650MB or less and backup to a file. After the file is complete, copy the file to the CDRW.

Can anybody tells me what ASR is and what this all means? Is this a waste of time and would I be better buying some backup software (skint at the mo, so would rather work with freebies!)

Thanks in advance

Chippy_Minton

WestieFan wrote:

Can anybody tells me what ASR is and what this all means? Is this a waste of time and would I be better buying some backup software

1. ASR is Automated System Recovery, a part of the Windows Backup Utility which backs up system settings. See http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=302894 and the article 302700 link for more. You can still use the Backup Utility to backup your programs and files.

2. Means what it says: Windows Backup can't backup files directly to a DVD/CD drive. You have to create the backup on your hard drive and then copy the backup file to a CD or DVD media. The mention of 650MB is basically the maximum capacity of a CD. DVD is around 4.7GB, double that for dual layer.

Another limitation of Windows Backup is that the backup isn't compressed, therefore backups take up more space. You could compress them manually using the Windows compressed folders feature (or other WinZip type utility).

Apart from those 2 limitations, Windows Backup is a decent backup utility with the ability to do full, incremental and differential backups and certainly better than nothing.

BTW I use StompSoft PC BackUp.

garcia

On the subject of backups, since reading this thread I've been backing up every week using Nero Backitup.

I've specified 6 key directories which I keep my data on and the backup comes up to about 3.8 gig, ideal for a DVD-RW.

Only problem is it seems to be backing up *files* rather than directories. What I mean is that it will say fileXXX missing from directory - even though I asked it to perform a full backup every time (i.e. not incremental). So its keeping track of files for some reason, and it knows when I have deleted a file. I don't want it to keep track of files - just to backup the specified directories each time.

Anyone know how to fix this??

Many thanks.

Gadge_2

Phew wrote:

Please can you tell me the difference between Norton Goback and Norton Ghost. I bought a laptop from PC world and got Norton Internet Security 2006 plus a disc with Norton Ghost 10, Norton Ghost 9 and Norton Goback for £29.99, and am wondering if I need to install all of them or just one. Please will someone let know.

Thank you.

I have used Ghost 2003 which I think was Ghost 8 possibly and it is very good, if it works the same way then you only need to install one of them ie 10 or 9

the wizard in 2003 is very simple and straightforward and can burn the image to DVD or CD's and make them bootable, but you will possibly need a floppy disk drive for the boot information, it will ask and advise you

if you partition your hard drive, you can copy the SYSTEM partition to an image on the DATA partition, and ghost the image back when you need it

But that way will not help if your hard drive fails, DVD/cdr are better but can be a pain to use as your system gets bigger over time

install it and have a play