How often do you back up?

closed

You should invest in some blank dvd's

Yorkie1

So, a few newbie questions about backing up (before I tackle closed's how to debloat my laptop thread!) which I really hope you can help with (or should I start a new thread?)

1. Is it recommended to back up in two ways - to burn to blank DVDs (or CDs if my machine won't record to DVD), and to copy to an external hard drive (of what capacity, any recommendations)?

2. Most of my data is in My Docs / Photos, which I can understand how to back up. But how do I copy across the email contents?

3. I know you can't see my lappy, but is there anything else which is relatively standard on a PC which I need to also back up?

4. When you back up to each of the methods, do (can?) you over-write the previous back ups, or save new versions?

5. Is it likely that any hidden problems (i.e. causing my lappy to be slow) will exist in the data which is backed up, and which I would thus transfer back to the PC in the event of problems?

Edit: Am running Vista and IE7.

Many thanks in advance.

trenae

Sadly, even though I know better, I don't back up nearly as often as I should. (and I've even had a computer crash on me).

This thread is a good reminder though, will need to make a note to back up soon.

marcosdjcm

Yorkie1 wrote: »

So, a few newbie questions about backing up (before I tackle closed's how to debloat my laptop thread!) which I really hope you can help with (or should I start a new thread?)

1. Is it recommended to back up in two ways - to burn to blank DVDs (or CDs if my machine won't record to DVD), and to copy to an external hard drive (of what capacity, any recommendations)?

2. Most of my data is in My Docs / Photos, which I can understand how to back up. But how do I copy across the email contents?

3. I know you can't see my lappy, but is there anything else which is relatively standard on a PC which I need to also back up?

4. When you back up to each of the methods, do (can?) you over-write the previous back ups, or save new versions?

5. Is it likely that any hidden problems (i.e. causing my lappy to be slow) will exist in the data which is backed up, and which I would thus transfer back to the PC in the event of problems?

Edit: Am running Vista and IE7.

Many thanks in advance.

1. Absolutely definitely much more cost effective and time saving to back up to a portable external drive nowadays. DVD-Rs have had their day now that big drives are cheap. Pay about ~£35-£40 for a 500GB drive (make sure its portable, its more practical than the ones that plug into the wall for power, you'll thanks yourself in the long run)

2. Use backup software that manages it all for you, Apple Macs use a program called Time Machine that handles it all beautifully and i'm sure there are PC equivalents. You dont need to do any manual drag-and-drop file copying when you have one of these programs managing it for you.

3. Using the backup programs, all the important stuff will be dealt with for you

4. Get a program that does incremental backup, and then you dont have to worry about it, the program will do whats right.

5. Possibly, but having a backup is important either way.


Vista....kill it, upgrade to Win 7 sometime, and stop using IE for the web, download Firefox or Chrome. It will help with security on the web.

And please check you have an anti-virus running, AVG Free as a bare minimum

gabixli

I back up every week for my business data and every month for my personal data. To be honest it really does depend on how scared:eek: you are in losing a particular word, excel document (etc).

richiehp

Every month since my last computer crashed! I back up my stuff on my external hard drive

mrmarble

Can't believe so many people are not backing up! And as well as a local backup, if you value your data, you should look at an online backup service like Crashplan, Mozy or Jungledisk. Disk failure is inevitable at some stage!

wpdesire

everytime my pc is up for reformat. haha! i know, i'm awful

Maverick1984_2

lol! People always seem to realize how important it is to back up only after they lose all of their most important files.
It's vital you back up at least once per week. It is a pain at times, but in the long run, you will avoid a load of headaches.

free4440273

Maverick1984 wrote: »

lol! People always seem to realize how important it is to back up only after they lose all of their most important files.
It's vital you back up at least once per week. It is a pain at times, but in the long run, you will avoid a load of headaches.

absolutely agree !:beer: