# What's the easiest and least expensive way to backup the data on my laptop? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 26, 2009, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-easiest-and-least-expensive-way-to-backup-the-data-on-my-laptop/511672 "2009-09-26T20:01:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-easiest-and-least-expensive-way-to-backup-the-data-on-my-laptop/511672/21 "2009-09-28T05:47:33Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > Not so! > [HFSExplorer](http://hem.bredband.net/catacombae/hfsx.html) Ah, interesting! But does it do any good if the PC is locked down (because it belongs to a school or library)? Does it do the same for USB drives (which I realized way too late I was actually talking about when I first brought this up, not hard drives - oops). ---
**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-easiest-and-least-expensive-way-to-backup-the-data-on-my-laptop/511672/22 "2009-09-28T07:39:49Z")
You can try Microsoft SyncToy with an external 500GB USB hard-disk. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-easiest-and-least-expensive-way-to-backup-the-data-on-my-laptop/511672/23 "2009-09-28T08:02:31Z")
[RIGHT] > [@Derleth](#): > > No such thing as a good online backup solution. Having a good offsite backup solution is not in any way similar to having a (necessarily bad) online backup solution. > > If you fail to see why, ask yourself what happens when [carbonite.com](http://carbonite.com) leaves the online backup business. If you think they have any legal duty to save your data, you are in for a shock. So what if they leave. What are the odds your computer grenades the same day? Hard drive failure is not the only avenue of loss. Theft, fire, and natural disaster can destroy on-site backup. Risk has to be weighed against the cost of the loss. If it’s a business then off-site storage represents a safer option. It’s cheaper in the short term and easily absorbed as an expense. If your life isn’t tied to your computer then an external hard drive is worth the risk especially if the software can be set to keep old versions of a file as well as newer ones in case it’s corrupted.[/RIGHT] ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-easiest-and-least-expensive-way-to-backup-the-data-on-my-laptop/511672/24 "2009-09-28T12:16:57Z")
> [@astro](#): > > I agree, but there’s no winning these comparisons. Modern external drives are insanely cheap relative to historical costs and storage capacity, but anytime you start touting “great deals” someone will chime in and point out how insensitive you are to people in tight circumstances and that asking them to spend more than $50 - $100 for a solution to back up from 100 gigs to one terabyte of data is an unbearable burden. Um, see my post. 100 for a terabyte = .10/gig. .25 for a blank DVD-R = .05/gig. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-easiest-and-least-expensive-way-to-backup-the-data-on-my-laptop/511672/25 "2009-09-28T13:10:32Z")
[Mozy.com](http://Mozy.com). Automatic and free. If they go out of business, I’ll move to another backup solution. My data is worthless to anyone but me. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-easiest-and-least-expensive-way-to-backup-the-data-on-my-laptop/511672/26 "2009-09-28T14:18:33Z")
A few thoughts… I do the “two external drives” approach, keeping one at the office always. The only time they are close to each other is when I bring one to work and bring its brother home. It’s pretty easy these days with those little Passport drives. DVDs at .25/per can be troublesome. A common source of DVD/CD recording and playback issues is cheap media. Indeed, it is not unusual for a DVD burner to simply spit out the “cheap stuff” while it handles better media quite well. As **Telemark** mentioned, a simple hard drive copy isn’t a true backup since you can easily overwrite it with bad data in a fit of backup excitement. There are many options for using software to keep incremental backups, however. One can do this to an online server or to a USB drive. This way, even if you do some great harm to many files and then calmly back up the butchered files, you will still have the unbutchered versions available in a prior backup. I use rsync to do this, twiddling hard links to imitate what Apple’s Time Machine does. [Here’s a paper](http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/) that describes the process I use. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-easiest-and-least-expensive-way-to-backup-the-data-on-my-laptop/511672/27 "2009-09-28T16:57:29Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > My data is worthless to anyone but me. This doesn’t make sense because I’m not contemplating theft. I’m contemplating the scenario that occurs when a trusted part of your backup system goes away without even emailing you first. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-easiest-and-least-expensive-way-to-backup-the-data-on-my-laptop/511672/28 "2009-09-28T22:05:32Z")
Check out [zipzoomfly.com](http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Home.jsp) for external and internal hard drives. I’ve gotten Fantom Drives (external) for around $80.00 and hitachi internals for as low as $63.00 and that’s for (in each case) a terabyte of space. You can buy enclosures for internal drives so they work similar to an external drive. They all back up with USB ports (an eSata port is a lot faster but few laptops have then). GFI Backup is a great free program you can use to backup your data. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-easiest-and-least-expensive-way-to-backup-the-data-on-my-laptop/511672.md?page=1)