Backups... Do You?

Just as a matter of interest I wonder how you all back up your files. I am sure we all have data, photos and documents on our computers that we would be devastated about if we lost them.

For example do you, as someone I know, have network attached storage (NAS) which is permanently on and runs a back up program every night. (Don't get confused by the term it is just a computer with a hard drive(s) attached to the home network)

Personally I don't go that far; my own backups are just a couple of USB hard drives with a rather old fashioned batch file which I plug every couple of days and back up all my important files, photos or videos.

(A batch file is just a simple text file which basically tells the computer what to do - a left over from the days of DOS)

What do you do? Do you just copy your libraries to a DVD? Do you use a program like 'Briefcase'?
How do you safeguard those important files?

Re: Backups... Do You?

I don't bother to back up everything. I just have either a CD or a little stick drive for anything I want to keep. Anything of size (photos etc. which the family share) I put onto my son's portable hard drive which has tons of space.

Re: Backups... Do You?

I used to back up everything onto an external hard drive or a Dingle Dangle Dongle as my goddaughter calls it but I have to admit to being a bit lazy about it lately.....

Re: Backups... Do You?

Most of our stuff gets backed up on to an external hard drive - especially Hubby's photos. We had to have the main computer wiped last week & re install everything so we had to back up everything before we started that.
My sisters PC died on Monday They take hundreds of photos & put them on an external drive & a DVD so fortunately they didn't loose anything of importance when they had to get a new Tower.
On my laptop I back up (Mainly family History stuff) on to the external drive & have a copy on the main computer. Just hope the external drives dont pack in

Re: Backups... Do You?

We use the Carbonite system to backup our files.

Re: Backups... Do You?

I have about 25,000 photos and 1,000 artwork and construct files, I regularly back them up to a second external hard drive by simply copying the directory across. As some of these photos are very valuable, I have a second HD and will make a second back up to that. (This may sound overkill, but it has saved me a few occasions). Most of them will get copied to my laptop for demo purposes, but that acts as a third. External HD's are really cheap these days and I have several, one I use for all my media, such as home movies, films and whatnots and I use a small HD to backup letters etc etc.

One useful program I found for XP is the PowerToys add on, which can be downloaded from Microsoft. There is a small utility called SyncToy which can copy directories both ways and update and backup files. Really useful for large volumes of files.

I never, ever leave anything 'valuable' on the PC. It only takes a small virus or HD fail to destroy it, and any HD which is not physically connected to the PC is immune to viral damage.

I used to back up photos to DVD, but my collection is about 200GB and would take far too many discs, so I don't bother with that.

Re: Backups... Do You?

I dont put very important stuff on the computer anyway, just Feature films, documentaries, music, photo's, (of which my two children have copies), and pictures I like. If the whole lot were to disappear tomorrow it would be no big deal.

Re: Backups... Do You?

I don't think it is overkill, I have at least two backup hard drives and those NAS systems I mentioned can be set up with two drives where effectively one is merely a copy of the other - the more valuable your files the more care you need to take and with USB drives so cheap there is really no excuse.

All my batch files do is copy the directories across but it is just a little mechanised so I don't even have to think about it. The Windows library system makes is so much easier now to back up to different places.

Interesting to hear how people go about these things.

Re: Backups... Do You?

I have a little web development business. I keep all of my clients files backed up on a external drive. I can take the drive with me and my laptop when I go to the cottage in case I need something. Plus the laptop, has copies of the main tools that I use.

This practice was a life saver for me last summer when the mother-board fried in my desktop.

Regards,
Steve MacLellan

Re: Backups... Do You?

I too use an external hard drive, which backs up the whole computer and system image every seven days and also just before we go on holiday. I know from experience how awful it is to lose all your files and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I keep the hard drive in a fireproof safe, along with other irreplaceable paper documents for safekeeping..