Best backup strategy for me?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by karenr, Aug 5, 2008.

  1. karenr

    karenr Private E-2

    Hi,
    I'm trying to figure out how to best backup my data, given my limited budget. My 3-year old Gateway notebook running XP Home has a 30G hard drive, with a CD/DVD drive that doesn't write DVD. I have an 80G external HD. That's all I've got at the moment.

    I've been moving a lot of data off my laptop to the external HD, but that defeats the purpose of backing up, since I need the data in TWO places. I have about 30G of mp3's to back up, plus lots of Word documents, stuff that doesn't compress well. So I figure my options are to get another external HD, or a DVD-write drive.

    Which makes more sense, including the issue of cost?

    I've been copying/moving files manually, to have more control over the process, and am not sure if any backup software could give me any advantage, but if so, I'm all ears!

    Thanks,
    Karen
     
    karenr, Aug 5, 2008
    #1
  2. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    Hi Karen

    While a DVD RW drive is a great solution its capacity is small and with you having 30GB of Mp3 and other data, then you would need to burn multiple DVDs each time you did a backup ( could use DVDRW disks in lieu of DVDR so you could reuse them, but they are slower to burn than their R - Read Only brothers )

    External HD is good but will as you need duplicated data backups be very limited to the size of your hard drive, so you may end up buying two larger hard drives over time to account for your ever growing data.




    Two questions

    1. How often does your data change, or is it just the odd file? if just new files your adding to the PC are the ones needing backup then I'd be tempted for the DVD route and use DVD as a catalogue/archive of your files.

    2. Whats the capacity of your external HD and how full is it?

    If you need this data backed up in duplicate, its a cheaper solution to go with DVD in my opinion than multiple hard drives, DVD drives are cheap these days and the disks arnt too expensive either, while it would take considerably longer to burn DVDRs with large amounts of data over copying to DVD, its much cheaper to duplicate each backup disk.

    I would then use your DVDs ( duplicated DVD backups ) for archive purposes and the existing external HD for your day to day common used data files, which will leave your small 30GB internal HD free from being filled, give you an external HD free for new and common used files and duplicate backups on DVD.



    But on the subject of software this free option for backups may be a good solution for HD backup as it can copy only new files and changed files to the backups http://majorgeeks.com/Karens_Replicator_d3917.html
     
    DavidGP, Aug 5, 2008
    #2
  3. karenr

    karenr Private E-2

    I have a large amount to archive, and files to add to that every few days. I need to have it fairly accessible, though, and I'm thinking that multiple DVD's might be cumbersome, but that's just one thing to factor in.

    80G capacity, and I'm using 49G so far.. although I've been managing space poorly so I could get it down further, and it doesn't look like I'll run out of space there too soon. What IS running out is my internal HD - only 3G left!

    Ok, so this is starting to make sense.. The external HD becomes more like an extension of the internal HD, so the two together make up a more decent sized HD :), and then the DVD's are for archiving.

    Ha, and it's got my name on it.. will check that out.

    About a DVD drive, anything special to know about what to look for? And could I put it in myself, or would it be safer to hire my local geek to do it? It's a tricky balance between trying to save money and trying not to destroy my computer ;)

    Thanks so much for the great help.

    -Karen
     
    karenr, Aug 5, 2008
    #3
  4. karenr

    karenr Private E-2

    on second thought.. maybe an external DVD drive? Pros/cons compared with an internal drive?

    I see a Samsung external DVD drive on Newegg for $54, and then there's the cost of blank DVD's, vs. a 160GB Western Digital external HD for $79. Hmmmm...

    Thanks again.
     
    karenr, Aug 5, 2008
    #4

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