How Do You Back Up Your Files

[Sprayber]

I need some solution for backing up my laptop and I'm not sure what route I should go. I've had an external hard drive and had lots of issues with it. I would like something portable and I've looked in stores and there seems to be endless options. I'm just curious how people here back up your files.

[Wezil]

I burn to CD but I'm a long way from being tech savy.

[Sprayber]

Originally posted by Wezil
I burn to CD but I'm a long way from being tech savy.

I thought of that but it seems cumbersome. I'd like something that can go with my laptop and be plugged in or be accessible on other computers. I know there are online places but I don't know if I want that.

[Wezil]

It is cumbersome if they are files that will be accessed and/or modified with any frequency.

I have smaller text files that are in this category. I actually still back these up to floppy.

[snoopy369]

There are a lot of solutions out there... most external HDDs come with a simple of course, but if you don't prefer that solution (and an external HDD is not necessarily a good one) you might look into Retrospect (which is not free, but if you have a lot of valuable information it's probably the best bet).

Basically the options are:
1. External HDD: Easiest to use/access, least reliable, moderate expense.
2. RAID internal: Hard to do for a laptop, fairly reliable, also fairly expensive.
3. CD/DVD: Hardest to use/access, most reliable, cheapest (if you own a CD/DVD writer).
4. Tape drive: Easier than a CD/DVD but still harder, very reliable, fairly expensive (due to drive purchase)
5. Online: Reliability depends on the site, as does expense; easy to access if you have online access. Can be slow if you have a lot of files.

If you have a ton of stuff, a RAID array of external HDDs can be the best option, if you're careful with them (make sure they are well cooled, powered adequately, etc. - not just a Passport or something, but a higher quality drive). A lot of it depends on the value of your information, and how much of it really needs to be backed up. If it's just a few hundred MB a week, then CD/DVD is fine - just get a software capable of a differential backup and go with it (I think even Nero can manage that?). If it's in the GB/week, a HDD may be a better option.

You could also consider a hybrid - like a weekly or daily backup on HDD, and a monthly or less frequent complete backup on DVD (complete backup of documents, anyway). If you're careful to put all documents in your My Documents folder and subfolders ofr that (or some other folder), it's fairly easy to limit the backup to only that...

[Nostromo]

I used to do it manually. Weekly for my documents (doc files, etc.) and monthly for all my files (movies, music, etc.). For the weekly backups, I use a flashdrive and for the monthly backups, an external HD. But since I have a huge amount of data to backup (lots of music), the monthly backups took forever. The main reason why it took so long is that I wasn't using any backup program, so that meant full backups all the time. So now I'm using the backup utility that comes with Vista. I did my first full backup yesterday and it took forever. But the next backups should be a lot faster, since they're supposed to be incremental.

[Winston]

Buy another computer and start doing everything twice.

Instant backup!

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Wezil
It is cumbersome if they are files that will be accessed and/or modified with any frequency.

I have smaller text files that are in this category. I actually still back these up to floppy.

Floppies definitely are very low on the 'reliability' factor...

[snoopy369]

http://www.download.com/8301-2007_4-9954109-12.html?tag=blog.4

You might look at that... Cnet had very good things to say about it ("Syncback") and it's freeware, which is always good. It does the basic backup functions quite nicely and should be very easy to use.

[Nostromo]

I doubt that that CD/DVD's are that more reliable than a good quality external HD. Maybe CD/DVD-R are more reliable, but I'm not at all convinced that CD/DVD-RW are. And people will most likely end up backing up their data on a CD/DVD-RW. Backing up on a CD/DVD-RW as always been a pain as far as I'm concerned. I'd rather use a flash drive. There's no fuss and they're a lot faster.

[Sprayber]

I appreciate all the information.

I had an external a couple of years ago and it worked great for awhile but the damn thing crashed on me while my computer kept going along just fine. I want something I can rely on to keep my pictures, music and documents while allowing me to access it without a lot of pain. I'm limited on my space on my laptop and I just got a new one for my wife who is going back to school and don't really want to buy another one just yet.

I need to stop being such a damn packrat with files on my computer I guess

[snoopy369]

Oh, i'd definitely say CD/DVD-R, not RW. Multiple uses is always very questionable.

Flash drives are not all that reliable, themselves... they're probably reliable enough for 'normal' usage but not for anything you truly need to trust will survive. CD/R or DVD/R are the least likely to be damaged or suffer data loss of any solution by far.

External HDDs are in the scheme of things fairly good, if you are careful with them in terms of space, heat, etc. - but they will eventually have problems, particularly if you're using most of the space. I generally recommend them first for normal users because they're easy to use (and thus they actually WILL back things up), but someone like my GF (a PhD student with 5+ years' work all on her laptop) you can't afford any risks.

[Nostromo]

@ Sprayber. The moral of the story: never ever backup your stuff on only one device. How much room do you need anyway?

[Nostromo]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Oh, i'd definitely say CD/DVD-R, not RW. Multiple uses is always very questionable.

Flash drives are not all that reliable, themselves... they're probably reliable enough for 'normal' usage but not for anything you truly need to trust will survive. CD/R or DVD/R are the least likely to be damaged or suffer data loss of any solution by far.

External HDDs are in the scheme of things fairly good, if you are careful with them in terms of space, heat, etc. - but they will eventually have problems, particularly if you're using most of the space. I generally recommend them first for normal users because they're easy to use (and thus they actually WILL back things up), but someone like my GF (a PhD student with 5+ years' work all on her laptop) you can't afford any risks.

My PhD thesis is on my flash drive, on my internal HD, on a couple of CD-R's and on my external HD. And I have even a couple of printed versions. The only flaw in my plan is that they're all in one place. If the terrorists nuke Montreal, humanity will lose something important

Flash drives are great for daily or weekly backups. I wouldn't use CD-R's for that purpose, though. And my external hard drive is on only when I backup my stuff, otherwise its off. So there's no heat issue there.

[Dry]

My files are backed with nuclear weapons!!!!