What's your backup strategy?

The other day, I became extremely aware that with my RAID 0 setup, that my data was fairly vulnerable to disk failure.

So, I went out and purchased an external hard drive (320 GB drives were on sale at Futureshop for $150 CDN), did a full backup of My Documents (127 GB), and wrote a simple batch script that uses xcopy to do incrementals on shutdown. I now feel much safer.

But, I was wondering what other geeks did to protect their data. Backing up to DVD seems to be the method of choice, but I think it would be a PITA (not to mention pricey) for anyone with even as little as 20GB to backup.

What do you do? Do you feel confident with your method? Is it quick and simple?

 

I received an exrenal hardrive...320GB, for Christmas. I've backed up "My Documents" to that. The information that came with it still recommended backing up to DVD or CD as well.

 

I use acronis true image to backup my thing on anothers harddisk that's it...

 

My laptop and desktop both carry back ups of each other. On top of that the laptop is backed up to a WD Passport remote HD, and the really really important stuff is backed up again to a flash drive. Photos are backed up again to DVD/CD.

All methods are clean and simple to use.

 

my 'back up stratagy' is major geeks!!

 

Same as most of you. Back onto DVD/CD for some stuff, external HDD for other. Flash drive for small, portable probs, and alternate computers for backup systems (and hardware too, I guess).

Of course, none of this does any good, if you don't actually DO the backups regulary. rolleyes

 

I just use a second hdd to backup things. Nothing is full proof.

 

I pray nothing fails..

 

I used to do that too...until I discovered not all prayers are answered

 

i started to back up to DVD+RW's seems to be easy. when i dont need the stuff on a disk i just delete the stuff on the disk and rewrite to it

 

I have some important documents stored on a cd, things like old essays that I've written at Uni, letters etc.

But I also have 2 hdd's in my comp and I have a backup of all important stuff on the primary disk neatly tucked in on the secondary, using Acronis True Image. I also have a restore image, again True Image, on a secure partition on the primary hdd

I don't back up as often as I should, but I also don't think I would have that much I would miss in case my hdd fries, what I would miss is already secured.

 

But, the stupid, non-geek asks, "What exactly should I back up from the primary?"
What exe files, OS files, etc. should I back up?

I run WinXP Home SP2 on a P4 3.0gH system. I have a spare ext. hard disk drive to back up on, but WHAT and HOW should I back it up? Help a dummy, please?

confused

 

It all starts in how you organize your data. For instance, know where you keep the files you don't want to lose. I store pretty much everything in My Documents (sounds like most do as well). Then, I copy the My Documents folder to an external drive on my server. If I make changes to the local My Documents (add a file, remove a file, etc), I also make that change on the remote My Documents. If you keep data and files in other folders, just remember that when you do your backup. That way, if something happens, you'll have that data as well. Only once have I created an image of my hard drive. I'd rather keep my important data and rebuild windows than reload from an "iffy" image.

 

Regarding .exe files, there is GENERALLY (some exception) no reason to back them up, as they are just the launcher for the program. To back up the install file makes more sense, something like .setup, or in the cases when the install file is a .exe file, then it makes sense to back it up.

About OS files, if you want to make reinstalling easier, make an image of the entire C-drive, no sense in just backing up single files! That way any programs that are installed will remain on the image as well.

 

Not a good idea, laurieB.

Even MG can't help you retrieve stuff if your hard drive fails completely, and it can happen.. Bazza

===

 

don't

 

I use Carbonite

http://carbonite.com/

 

I use XML drive (free tool) to take an image of my fresh install setup/configured. Since I don't have a secondary drive on my laptop, I created a second partition to place the backup image and when something goes wrong, I can just replace the boot partition HD with that.

I could potentially lose my image only if my hard disk crashes, otherwise, I should be OK. My old school laptop doesn't have a DVD burner either, so there's no way I can fit a 1.4GB in a CD lol. But my strategy is to expedite the format and install process of Windows XP when something goes wrong (ie virus, file loss, etc.). I basically can cut the process from 1 hour to 20 minutes max.

 

I use Karen's Replicator (a good, simple, no-frills program http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=3917 ) to back up to an external SATA drive. I try to point everything I can to one "my documents" folder to make things easier.

 

Not too up on it myself!! All my photos are also on Yahoo Photos, and occasionally, if it's been awhile or if I've recently saved a lot of stuff in my documents, then I'll burn a DVD of My Documents.

I don't do imaging of my HDD because I personally like to do a clean reinstall, and build things back the way I want them!! Guess that's just one of them geeky hobbies!!

Other then that...I'm like Kodo...I just pray nothing happens!!

Roger

 

Wing and a prayer.....

 

Me too. I even go as far as to move the 'My Documents' folder to another partition so that they don't have to be touched if I wanna mess with my system partition.

 

Yahoo Photos doesn't retain your image size though, instead resizes it which I don't like...same goes to other photo galleries, etc.
Re-imaging is the same way as doing a clean reinstall and building things back, it's just a more streamlined, faster process. Your geeky hobbies can be applied somewhere else such as editing photos, online gaming, etc. Just my IMO of course.

 

Prayer. That and every couple of years burn a DVD, and/or transfer the entire directory to another computer.

 

Your are 100% right in all your reply, however...there is one thing getting in my way..........

I'm...........LAZY!!!!
Roger

 

CD-R, DVD+R DL, Flashdisks and of course the Ubuntu FS.
Although that last one is out of order atm, it crashed a while back and now refuses to go past grub loading stage and I can't be arsed to fix it.

So basically my strategy consists of putting stuff on cd-r or dvd+r. All my schoolfiles are also stored on the schools e-mail and on Gmail.

 

Like several others, I use Acronis True Image to make an image & locate it on another hard drive. I generally create a new one every couple of weeks. Since I 'experiment' a lot with my computer, I've had to restore from the back-up image twice in the last year, both times with complete (and fast!) success. Restores a fresh XP SP2 with all the updates in about 6 minutes on my computer. The larger 'fully loaded' images take longer, of course, but it still rocks.