Best way to backup data?

This is probably an extremely stupid question to all you experts out there, but I was wondering what the best way to backup data is, without spending a ton of money? Right now I only have a CD-writer and a regular DVD drive, so I've been backing up my files on CD-RWs or CD-Rs, which is getting tiresome since I always have to use about 10 seperate CDs. I usually have about 6-10gb to backup, and most of the files are image, video, and text files. Would the best thing to do be to buy a DVD-RW drive and start backing up on DVD, or is there a better way to go about it? I can't spend a whole lot of money right now, so I guess I'm looking for the best thing to do to be both cost-efficient and to make sure I have all of my files backed up in case my hard drive explodes (or whatever it is that they like to do), since I'm pretty paranoid. Thanks

 

i personaly like tape back up although their expensive.
and setting up a schedualed backup so data will be copyed to another computer via a lan, which costs nothing if u have 2 computers and a lan (network).

 

I use the LAN method as well.

I found a recommendation for a free program called Syncback. It syncronises folders, so only updates changed files. It is exactly what I was looking for. It also does normal backing up. I use it on the LAN, but you could probably install an extra harddrive. Since it only updates the changes, the backups would be a lot quicker, also, HDD to HDD is the fastest way to transfer data.

You could set it up to syncronise on a CD writer using Packet Writer program (eg., InCD).

Syncback:
http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/syncback-hub.html

Matt

 

So any ideas for a good external hard drive that's at least about 30gb, and less than $100? I found this one that seems good, but if there's something less expensive that's just as good that would be cool. Also, is it possible for external hard drives to crash and lose data?

I don't really wanna do the automatic updating thing, so could I backup about 10-15gb of data on this, then disconnect it, and a few weeks later reconnect it to either add stuff, or delete some stuff and back-up updated versions?

Thanks for the replies...

 

Absolutely! Optical storage is much more secure, provided the disks are stored safely (i e., protected from strong light and abrasion).

I'm sold on my DVD±RW, and Roxio software. I can back-up incrementally by drag-and-drop and for this I can use either dvd-r, dvd+r or dvd-rw disks.

Drag-and-Drop with roxio is ideal for that using dvd-rw disks. You've got 4.7GB which will last indefinitely at the pace you're describing.

 

Argh, I'm so confused. See, that's what I thought in the first place, that burning things to CDs/DVDs was safest because they can't crash. I don't really need to back up 40gb+ of data at once, so I figured buying an external DVD burner and using a couple disks to back stuff up every few weeks would be best. Plus, a DVD burner could come in handy for other stuff too.

Would this DVD burner be suitable for backing stuff up safely?

Ahhh... hard drives, DVDs, hard drives, DVDs... *faints*

 

Looks fine to me and the price is right. you should be able to find dvd-rw disks in small quantities, like 5-10 that'll last you a long tine because you can erase them and reuse them as well as erase/overwrite files etc.

 

Ditto to Christer's remarks re: Replicator - awesome software, as is most of her stuff. Simply put - nothing better at any price. Combined with regular schedule of Ghost Imaging, one is as close to bullet proof as it gets.

 

I use ghost imaging and place the images on DVDs for safekeeping. More secure than magnetic storage like tape or disk.

BTW marilyn, You aren't averse to opening your case (you installed a video card) and installing an internal DVD is just as easy and you don't need to worry about drivers. I suggest you purchase an internal from newegg online. Note the $30 rebate.

 

What are ghost images?

And in the meantime I was trying to backup some stuff to regular CDs, and on some of the folders I keep getting error messages like this: http://img61.exs.cx/img61/3378/cdbackuperror.gif

Most of the stuff I backup seems to come out ok, but for some reason certain folders can't seem to get burned onto the CD properly, even after a few attempts.

 

Ghost images are made by Norton's Ghost program; they are images (binary bit streams) that capture every 'bit' on the imaged disk (= partition), including the boot records and partition tables.

The error message is hard to decipher without looking at your computer. I guess it means that the path to the files is too long and I'd move the files closer to the root, e.g., c:\pictures\ instead of the long path.

Do a search of the forum for 'ghost'; there are some long threads of interest.

 

The beauty of using ghost imaging is if you crash and burn, you can replace the entire system backup. For another excellent thread , take a look here:
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24885

As for backing up data and keeping it safe, the only safe backup is offline. Out of your computer and on the shelf. If you get a destructive virus it'll probably destroy all partitions, not just windows. I use a hdd tray. It mounts in the PC just like a cdrom. A second hdd I use for backups just plugs right in. After backups, I unplug it and put it on a shelf. Very simple and quick. The hdd tray costs $7.00. You can get one of the newer external hdd USB drives and just plug it into a USB port. I use Acronis True Image and write a compressed image of my hdd on the backup hdd (there are many backup programs available). Just kick it off and go watch tv. If my system goes totally out I can boot a cd (generated by True Image earlier) and restore my entire hdd to the same reformatted hdd or another new hdd. Boot up the restored hdd and I'm right back were I was without having to reinstall anything. I even have multiple sets of backups in case one is a problem.

Ramona

 

BTW, you need 2 partitions or disks to use Ghost or similar imaging software because the program can't copy a disk to itself. I make the image to a second disk and then copy it to DVD. I multiboot, and can get both my windows images on a single DVD with room to spare. It's good to have periodic images in case one is corrupted (tho I haven't experienced that).

 

I use Acronis True Image 7.0. It runs in the background every 24 hours and does a backup to a physically separate disk. Every 7th backup it creates a whole new backup, on the other days it does just an incremental backup. I had to write my own app to get it to work in this configuration but it works great.

 

Chris (H), sounds good (automatically by-the-book ). Was there much involved in creating the "app ", eg. was it a matter of setting run times?

Matt

 

It works fairly simply. I don't know how familiar you may be with Acronis but when you setup automatic backups it creates a .tib file which is nothing more than an XML file telling it the drive/partition number, compression level, backup name, etc. Acronis then sets "it's" scheduler to run the .tib file.

By creating a .tib file and then launching it with Acronis I could have it save it anywhere, with any compression level, run anytime, etc. Basically, every new "whole" backup is placed into a numbered folder. 1,2,3 etc. And then the incremental backups, since they are built off of the whole backup are placed in the same folder. I could set it to do incremental backups for 30, 60, or 90 times every 6, 12, 18, 24 hours and then create a whole backup. Acronis doesn't have that kind of functionality built in, unfortunately.

Once Acronis is done my program sets the backup archive to Read-Only. An incremental backup literally takes less than one minute unless I've installed a lot of large programs since the last backup for obvious reasons.

The best part is that it does it all while Windows is running. My program just flashes an icon in the tray while Acronis is running letting me know that the backup is in progress. Once the backup is done it removes the tray icon and checks the Acronis log file to make sure the backup was a success, otherwise, it launches a window displaying the log file. <--- that's something I'm still working on. It also prevents you from shutting the PC down while in the middle fo a backup, though it can still be killed through Task manager if needed.

The only thingthat bugs me that I haven't figured out, is that when Acronis creates a scheduled backup file (.tib file) it adds some sort of drive and partition serial number, which changes anytime you reformat or re-partition. I haven't figured out how to get that info. If I couold find that I could make the program much more easy to use.

EDIT: That was rather long winded.

 

Be carefull when having a drive image program automatically back up for you.
If you get a virus, or have some other problem, that will become part of your image rendering it useless. That would be a bad day.

I think an image should only be done on a puter that has been cleaned up, defragged ect...

Dale

 

I'm not too worried about it. I have an updated virus scanner constantly running and I have an image for every 24 hours going back I think 60 days now.

Acronis saved me HARDCORE when my smoothly running overclocked 2.0 P4 started crashing the computer and corrupting my hard disk to where the system wouldn't reboot under a load. It took me about 15 formats/partitions/restores from Acronis to finally figure it out. I even bought a new hard drive thinking the problem was hardware related. The chip always ran at the same 35C @ idle temp... I guess age takes it's toll anyway though as I had to back the chip down 100MHz.

 

Here's what I do prior imaging.
Empty temp folder, delete temp internet files, delete cookies, run scandisk (or the equivilant), run a virus check, defrag the drive being imaged, restart the machine, create image to separate partition on my harddrive.

IF I am going to burn a copy (done every once in awhile) as well, make sure that you verify the the Burn was completed proper.

I only know of one way to know for sure if the burn was done complete (a bad cd for instance) and that is to create two images. One to a separate partition, and one for burning.
After burning, you must restore it to really know if it is going to work later on when you REALLY need it (harddrive failure for instance).
If it works, you are done.
If it doesn't, then you have the first image that is on a harddrive partition that you can still restore and save your butt.

Remember, a failed restoration of an image will leave NOTHING on that drive!!

Ask me how I learned about a bad image burn......the hard way of course grrr.
It left me reinstalling Windows not to mention all the lost data.

Dale