How often do you back up?

Nine_Lives

I've only just started myself tbh.

Only once have i had a total system failure & lost everything. This was many years ago.
I used to for many years, back up my files to CD/DVD and then format. The putting-things-back routine could take the best part of a day.

So i recently bought Acronis True Image Home 2011 & it makes life so much easier. Just make an image of the drive, save to an ext HDD & you're set. I've not had to use it to save anything yet.

I also have a 1TB internal HDD which i shall leave unconnected - in case of a surge, which then wont be fried.

I'm not doing anything other than browsing at the moment so my next backup will be when i've saved a few things, but my sisters machine which she uses for college work is scheduled for weekly backups.

eneville

K_P83 wrote: »

I've only just started myself tbh.

Only once have i had a total system failure & lost everything. This was many years ago.
I used to for many years, back up my files to CD/DVD and then format. The putting-things-back routine could take the best part of a day.

So i recently bought Acronis True Image Home 2011 & it makes life so much easier. Just make an image of the drive, save to an ext HDD & you're set. I've not had to use it to save anything yet.

I also have a 1TB internal HDD which i shall leave unconnected - in case of a surge, which then wont be fried.

I'm not doing anything other than browsing at the moment so my next backup will be when i've saved a few things, but my sisters machine which she uses for college work is scheduled for weekly backups.

This just reminded me of something. There's a neat free program out there called CloneZilla. It's capable of taking images of a vast array of systems, from disk to network storage, which is very useful if you only have one disk on your home network which is suitable of holding all your images. Simply download, burn to a CD and boot your devices from it.

http://www.clonezilla.org/downloads/stable/iso-zip-files.php

I think I liked it in the past because it used readily available means of transporting the backup images over network.

Hope this helps someone.

googles_2

At least once a month put a copy of C: drive onto Acronis. Similarly other three drives onto external iomega drive.

mikemaple

I use Ginie timeline - free. It's doesn't do system files in it's free version but it is a continous backup - so no worry about forgetting to leave the laptop on or to run a backup.

(I've also got a NAS which it backs up to and that NAS backs up to a USB external drive) - maybe overkill

Lewiiss

I back up every day and then about monthly I do a backup to the cloud incase anything happens to my physical back up. I got about 10tb of memory for all my data and backups physically.

rhythmsoup

What would you do if a malware problem meant all your photos become infected and your AV application didnt detect it, if you are simply backing up your photos to the same backup everytime then you could possibly overwrite a good backup with an infected one. (Im using photos as an example here because once a photo is created the file should never change).

Of course you can version backups and archive older ones, but most people will just have a backup drive perhaps and external use connected one and just backup their files to that.

What do you folks use to mitigate this risk? Id be interested to know.

SimonOlder

Anyone have problems with timeline? hate the way I have so many versions of my computer on my hard drive. can't work out if they are all duplicates or what. Really annoyinh if you're looking to clear some space

mezz200

I have an on line backup that saves all my data and photographs from gotabackup.com whenever I make a change it saves the new version so I won't lose anything. Whilst this doesn't save my OS it does make sure I won't ever lose my data when my hard drive dies. Also it saves the last 30 (I think) versions so if I do get a virus I can restore an uncorrupted version.

mistergadgets

Not often enough, clearly!

gemma1990_2

when i had this laptop as soon as i booted it up for the first time it was asking me to backup, so i did, i haven't since. that was xmas last year...