Data Backup Options

Turbinator · 01-21-2006, 10:18 PM

Hey,
I had to reformat my hard drive and lost a bunch of information. I think I picked up a virus. My Outlook Express address book was wiped out along with some other stuff?!? I don't want to go through this again.
I have a DVD burner now. Should I buy an external hard drive? Which is easier for creating a backup? Burning DVDs or an external hard drive? I see some people run 2 drives in parallel. If the virus bug attacks again wouldn't it get into both drives?
I am looking for the least complicated way to save my information and to put it back on my C drive as required.
Thanks
Tom

suprasteve · 01-21-2006, 10:59 PM

you can mirror a whole drive on an external and that makes it easier, but dvd's are definitely much cheaper, my suggestion is to just make a separate partition and keep all your important stuff on it and make the OS on the other partition

Turbinator · 01-22-2006, 05:08 PM

Will my data be safe from virus attacks with a seperate partision? I want to increase my security in addition to having a backup.

JSquier · 01-23-2006, 09:06 PM

If you partition it, you will be able to format just one partition at a time, but if you loose a drive, you're done....that's always been my fear. What I am wanting to do is have one large drive, partition it into two seperate drives (one windows the other storage) Then I will have another internal drive at backup ONLY. Basically just use it for important info like famil pictures and word documents and such.

ack · 01-24-2006, 03:53 AM

I use more than one comp to do my backups. If you have an old comp lying around i would suggest buying a bigger hard drive for it (if it has a really small one) and then just using thar for storage.

01-21-2006, 10:18 PM	#1 (permalink)
Turbinator New Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 2	Data Backup Options Hey, I had to reformat my hard drive and lost a bunch of information. I think I picked up a virus. My Outlook Express address book was wiped out along with some other stuff?!? I don't want to go through this again. I have a DVD burner now. Should I buy an external hard drive? Which is easier for creating a backup? Burning DVDs or an external hard drive? I see some people run 2 drives in parallel. If the virus bug attacks again wouldn't it get into both drives? I am looking for the least complicated way to save my information and to put it back on my C drive as required. Thanks Tom

01-23-2006, 09:06 PM	#4 (permalink)
JSquier Silver Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 208	If you partition it, you will be able to format just one partition at a time, but if you loose a drive, you're done....that's always been my fear. What I am wanting to do is have one large drive, partition it into two seperate drives (one windows the other storage) Then I will have another internal drive at backup ONLY. Basically just use it for important info like famil pictures and word documents and such. __________________ LIAN LI PC-60BPLUSII Black Case ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe CrossFire Radeon XPRESS 3200 Athlon 64 4200x2 Manchester 2.2ghz-stock w/Zalman cooler CORSAIR 2 gig (4x512M) DDR400 PC3200 Sapphire x1800XT 256mb MAXTOR 320 gig 3.0gb and 300 gig ATA150 2 NEC DVD±RW drives 500-Watt Antec p/s Dual Dell 17" LCD

01-24-2006, 03:53 AM	#5 (permalink)
ack Silver Member Join Date: May 2005 Age: 19 Posts: 151	I use more than one comp to do my backups. If you have an old comp lying around i would suggest buying a bigger hard drive for it (if it has a really small one) and then just using thar for storage. __________________ http://www.ack-network.com -great hosting, software, and advanced computer techniques.

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01-21-2006, 10:59 PM	#2 (permalink)
suprasteve Diamond Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Atlanta Posts: 1,355	you can mirror a whole drive on an external and that makes it easier, but dvd's are definitely much cheaper, my suggestion is to just make a separate partition and keep all your important stuff on it and make the OS on the other partition

01-22-2006, 05:08 PM	#3 (permalink)
Turbinator New Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 2	Will my data be safe from virus attacks with a seperate partision? I want to increase my security in addition to having a backup.