How often do you back up?

System

hansi wrote: »

So what would happen if your computer "died" and you lost the data?

Oh no, I don't back up at all - I need to do some major research here as all my photos and documents are on my computer.

If it died and I lost everything I would be gutted

charlieheard

hansi wrote: »

So what would happen if your computer "died" and you lost the data?

I'd go to my set of 3 weekly backups on disk or to my online backup. As I said, it's only madness if it is your sole backup.

F1_Fan_3

I use bullguard as my anti virus etc.. and that give 5gb of free on-line back up. And it's very easy to use, just shows as a extra drive from my computer.
Can't go too wrong for a couple of quid for 3 PC's.

kollkolen

I take backup weekly. As a designer, I have to keep track of the weekly work. According to my weekly work, my salary get counted. I used to take it on local server and also on my own 80 Gb external HDD.

kitsonian

Should take backups on a daily basis, but invariably tends to be weekly or even fortnightly.

smart_cookie

After a life shattering experience with my old iPod which died suddenly, taking my amazing music collection with it (tragic, isn't it?), I now back up music much more regularly. As for important docs, I know it sounds silly (and has probably already been mentioned), but I backup by sending myself the doc as an attachment. Then it's saved in two of my email addresses and I don't need to carry around a usb stick to access my in-progress files.

psb

smart_cookie wrote: »

After a life shattering experience with my old iPod which died suddenly, taking my amazing music collection with it (tragic, isn't it?), I now back up music much more regularly. As for important docs, I know it sounds silly (and has probably already been mentioned), but I backup by sending myself the doc as an attachment. Then it's saved in two of my email addresses and I don't need to carry around a usb stick to access my in-progress files.

Smart-Cookie I'm sorry to sound totally ignorant, but I havent a clue really on how to back up but reading the whole of this section since it started back in 2005 I am now getting really worried about it all. I did in fact manage to backup my photo's to a usb flash stick (I think thats what you call it) some 2 years ago - so long that I have forgotten how I did it! I have XP Home but have not worked out how to download the automatic backup system that is supposed to come with it!. I will sort it out but need to find an 'Idiots Guide' in order to do so but right now please could you tell me how you backed up all your music (re your iPod crash) as my husband like you is a music buff and has such a large music collection for his iPod that if he lost it I can't stand the thought of all that sobbing for days on end - help please what did you do and where did you back up to? If you could make it in as simple a language as possible it would be appreciated or even send me a private e-mail.
Much appreciated
psb

GetRealBabe

Hi

I only started to back up when I installed windows 7 on my laptop and netbook. I saved a system image on a external hard drive. Really need to do both again sometime soon.

My desktop PC has Windows XP I back up software, music and other stuff on an external hard drive.

GRB.

dazzer21

I have a Mac running Leopard. Time Machine is invaluable and incredibly useful - that's running constantly in the background and backs up to a 1TB G-Drive. I also back up using Retrospect EVERY night without fail - it contains a full system-wide backup and only backs up files that have been modified that day to the database. That's to another 1TB drive - the iMac's drive is 500MB. SO I guess my answer would be 'daily'...

smart_cookie

psb wrote: »

Smart-Cookie I'm sorry to sound totally ignorant, but I havent a clue really on how to back up but reading the whole of this section since it started back in 2005 I am now getting really worried about it all. I did in fact manage to backup my photo's to a usb flash stick (I think thats what you call it) some 2 years ago - so long that I have forgotten how I did it! I have XP Home but have not worked out how to download the automatic backup system that is supposed to come with it!. I will sort it out but need to find an 'Idiots Guide' in order to do so but right now please could you tell me how you backed up all your music (re your iPod crash) as my husband like you is a music buff and has such a large music collection for his iPod that if he lost it I can't stand the thought of all that sobbing for days on end - help please what did you do and where did you back up to? If you could make it in as simple a language as possible it would be appreciated or even send me a private e-mail.
Much appreciated
psb

Hi psb! I will try to make this as simple as possible, but I am a (secret) geek, so forgive me if I get too technical and please ask more questions if you get stuck

1. I have lots of (legal) cd's of my own, so I rip them to my computer using itunes (itunes' own help menu can explain how to do this) and then simply drag and drop the saved albums to my ipod when it's connected to my computer. I then delete these from my computer to save space.

2. If I borrow music from friends, such as rarities, I back up the digital music files to an external hard drive (you can buy a cheap one from ebuyer.com, or any site that sells computers and accessories) by dragging and dropping them onto the drive.

3. If your husband has lots of music on his iPod but has no copy of them anywhere else, i.e. he does not have cd's of the music he has, or digital files (such as mp3's) of the music he has on the iPod, then he may need some software to "grab" all the music from his iPod and then save it to an external hard drive. There is no other way to get music from an iPod that does not exist anywhere else, unless some very smart person somewhere has found a loophole. Try searching online for free software that will do this. I use cnet for legal free software, as it is safer. I can't give you any names as I use a Mac, so don't know what works best on XP.

Hope this makes sense and helps!