Best way do backup data these days

[BeBMan]

I mean for personal use, best in the overall sense (price, speed, handling etc)

Usually I was putting the most important data on CD. But over time I have so much stuff that it would require several CDs. I'm speaking about ca. 5 GB, and it gets more and more relatively quick.

I can only read DVDs currently - should I go for a DVD recorder and throw away the read only drive? Any better ideas?

[Kuciwalker]

DVD's

[LordShiva]

Cheap hard drives

[SlowwHand]

DVD, I second the motion. Nero, if you have Nero, does a good job.

Shiva, I know someone that doesn't burn a thing. Instead, she does as you say, and buys all these hdd's.
I can only guess at her filing system for them.

[RGBVideo]

Any better ideas?

memory sticks

*.RAR -files

edit: by "memory stick", I mean "USB stick". sony

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by LordShiva
Cheap hard drives

DVD's are at least 5-10 times cheaper per GB.

[BlackCat]

Incremental backup - you don't have to back up your whole pron collection each time.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
DVD's are at least 5-10 times cheaper per GB.

But much more of a pain to swap around, file, etc. Plus, you can't rewrite to them (rewriteable ones are more expensive), so you need more GBs in the first place.

A 400GB PATA hard drive and a cheap external enclosure won't set you back more than $150 (probably less). Or, you could buy a 3rd hard drive to go with the two already in your computer, put them in RAID 5, and have redundancy as well as increased performance

[Pekka]

Depends. How important is this data, how often do you use it?

If important, use multiple back up methods, as in DVD, perhaps USB stick, maybe a shell as well.. Or you could buy more HDDs... External HDDs aren't necessarily a bad idea.

If not so important, the cheapest way is DVDs at the moment.

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by BlackCat
Incremental backup - you don't have to back up your whole pron collection each time.

I knew someone would make that kind of comment

[RGBVideo]

what else could it be than pr0n if it takes >1gb to store (presuming it's compressed) and you need to use it on multiple PCs?

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by Pekka
Depends. How important is this data, how often do you use it?

If important, use multiple back up methods, as in DVD, perhaps USB stick, maybe a shell as well.. Or you could buy more HDDs... External HDDs aren't necessarily a bad idea.

If not so important, the cheapest way is DVDs at the moment.

It's quite important since the bulk of the data is my own gfx stuff (one multi layer pic can go easily over 10 or 15 MB, not to mention 3d meshes or animations which can be much bigger), which I can get nowhere else when it's gone. I think DVD is good....additional backups are maybe overkill though

[Pekka]

Sure. Well, just figured how important it is, DVD might get easily corrupted when you throw it around the house like a frisbee...

[loinburger]

Cheap hard drives don't really provide much in the way of backup, because cheap hard drives have a tendency to break. DVD's are fairly sturdy unless you're using them as drink coasters.

[Blaupanzer]

USB stick (or so-called thumb drive) is the most portable, if you move data between machines. Otherwise, just do a backup to a DVD-write drive. Sell your old drive to friend/e-bay or contribute to some semi-tech-savvy charity.