Reading through this thread got me thinking about file backup systems. At work, there’s a server for backups of all our files, and I save everything there fairly regularly (probably a lot more often than any of my co-workers), but I don’t do anything for my PC at home. I’m not all that worried, since there’s nothing vital or irreplaceable, but it would be a pain nonetheless. Also, my current PC is getting old and ready for replacement, so any system that makes it convenient to transfer files to a new machine would be spiffy.
Basically, I have about 50+ gigs of music, game data (downloaded objects for The Sims 2, mainly), and photos (I keep everything on Flickr, with copies on my work PC, but a safety backup would be nice). I have a CD burner, but not a DVD-burner, so putting things on discs would be unrealistically cumbersome. Speed is not really a factor, but I’m not around at home much, so a system I can start and then leave running while I’m at work or in bed would be good.
Several people in the thread linked above mentioned Mozy, which looks like it would be just what I need (the $5 monthly fee for unlimited storage is reasonable). Is there anything in particular I should know, or comparable services I should look into? In particular, if I save files there, can I download them to a new machine (dumb question probably, but I’d feel even dumber if I found out too late that I couldn’t)?
Someone else mentioned Yahoo Briefcase, but the 30MB limit is too small for I’m looking for.
If you’ve got 50 GB of data, online backup is not for you.
The easiest way is to buy yourself an external USB HDD or two and use Windows’ own backup software to make a backup.
If you’re feeling more adventurous, buy yourself a very cheap PC with two big HDDs and put Windows Home Server on it. Be sure to install PP1. Stick the Home Server somewhere out of the way. Network the two together and your Home Server will back up your client every night.
Keep in mind that if you only back up your data and your hd goes south, you will still need to reinstall all the software. This can be a timeconsuming task, even assuming you have all the disks. If you image the hd (I use Acronis True Image), restoring your hd can be as simple as loading a boot cd and everything (including the os) will be restored from your external hard drive.
You can also use the image to restore individual files and you can add to the image incrementally (so it doesn’t take much time).
For what you’ve got going on there, I’d also recommend a USB external HD. You can often catch them very reasonably priced (on sale).
The backup software I’m using is SyncBack SE (freeware). You tell it which directories you want backed up. You can set it to run whenever you like.
Here’s my setup: I have two external HDs, one at the home office and one at my ‘downtown’ office. Every morning at 5 am, SyncBack runs and backs up any new files (at each location).
I’d get an external USB drive and Acronis TrueImage. Have TrueImage back up everything, there’s no reason to pick and choose. TrueImage comes with a scheduler, I set mine up to do an incremental backup every day and a full backup on Fridays. When disaster strikes you can do a bare-bones bootable Windows restore to a new hard drive. If you want to be 99.9% safe, get two external drives and rotate one off-site each week/month.
Thanks! I’ve been looking for Windows drive imaging software to compare with what the Mac provides (I knew it existed). My Windows partition isn’t huge, but after I recreated it on the new larger drive, I still had to reinstall XP from CD, download SP3 and the dozen or so later updates, then reinstall AVG, ZoneAlarm, AutoCAD and CS3. This took about six hours total; if I’d been restoring my work PC, it would have been much longer.
Whatever method you use, I would recommend trying to test restoring your data before a problem occurs. When my HD went bad, I attempted to restore a Norton Ghost backup, but it only found less than 2/3 of my music. Thankfully I had an alternate backup on my ipod, but the problem would have been avoided if I checked my backup beforehand.
I use and external HD and Mozy for backup. 50 GB is doable over a an online system ( I have just under 20 GB on Mozy) , but it takes quite a while, at least initially. You can break it up into segments and after your initial setup, only new items are backed up.
One thing to consider (and why I use both and external HD and online), is that the HD is fine for the most likely lost data scenario (dead drive, virus, etc), but in a catastrophic loss (fire, flood) that external HD is dead as the one on your computer.
I use the online for truly irreplaceable data, mainly photos and video that can’t be reshot. That’s another way to minimize the amount of online storage. Only backup the things that you can’t replace, should if come to that.
For your needs, it sounds like the external HD is the way to go.
There are lots of online backup services, but I would never trust them. You are sending your valuable data to a total stranger, and you totally lose all control over it. You don’t even know for sure in which country your data will be physically stored.
No matter how respectable it looks from the outside, a corporation can die overnight. (Remember Enron?)
If one day the stock market collapses in Japan, or if the top manager of the company runs off to Venezuala with his gay lover, you could lose your entire business , your career, etc…
Imagine logging onto your standard daily backup service, and suddenly there is just a blank screen saying “404 Error”.
(me, I do my backups ( ~20 gigs, once a week) by simply copying onto 4 or 5 DVD’s, and then take em home )
Worse, perhaps, discovering that someone in India has been farming backups for bank account information, credit card info, and old tax returns. How much do you trust the person you are outsourcing your backups to? And what information is on your PC?
Yes, I wouldn’t want to be worrying all the time about what sensitive information I accidentally backed up to the Internet, once it’s out there the two worst things that can happen is that it never goes away or it DOES go away and you never get it back. Either way it’s out of your control.
I used an extra internal drive. There’s almost no disaster that’ll kill both drive and I think that having the drive in your machine rather than rattling around the desktop, being bumped & thumped, is more secure anyway.
I used the built-in windows software and the windows scheduler and do a daily backup of my selected files & directories to the other drive.
I think the 360+ GB drive only cost $80 or so. Cheap insurance and uses hardware you already own.
I strongly encourage you to take ethelbert’s advice at post #4 as well as thelurkinghorror at #9. I speak from (a not very fun) experience. External USB HD with an image of your OS would be my recommendation as well.
I use an external hard drive and Acronis Trueimage. Backing up is all completely automated. You can restore individual files or the whole image, and if Windows won’t boot, load it from an Acronis boot disk.
Does it for me.
ETA: Sorry - just read thread properly; like what ethelbert said.
no disaster except for…
a fire
a burglar
an electrical surge
a flood/tornado/hurricane
a crazy co-worker who goes postal
a disgruntled co-worker who’s about to quit and go work for your competitor
Backups should be stored physically in a separate location
My plan is to install one of those removable hard drive tray kits (example) and have two drives, one to keep off-site for security and one to keep in the drive for incremental backup, then swap them regularly.