How does everybody back up their PC?

J

Jamin43

banned
I've never been one to back up my PC drives. I know it's probably not the best practice - and I'd like to get some better type of system for backing up my PC - at a minimum important documents.

What's the general hardware / and or process that people use to backup their PC's?

Are there several options to choose from?

Thanks
 
Jamin43 said:
I've never been one to back up my PC drives. I know it's probably not the best practice - and I'd like to get some better type of system for backing up my PC - at a minimum important documents.

What's the general hardware / and or process that people use to backup their PC's?

Are there several options to choose from?

Thanks
Click to expand...

All of mine is on a storage drive.

There are several ways, that one, so just get another hard drive and use it for storing stuff that is important

You can get an external hard drive to do the same

Back the stuff up onto flash drives, memory sticks, SD cards etc

Burn the stuff to DVD

Store the information on multiple computers if you can.

The more of the above you can do the safer your stuff will be becaues if one goes, you still have the others to get the information off of
 
I have another Hard Drive purely for Data, C: drive for the OS and Programs and D: drive for the data. All the programs are set in "Preferences" to save in their respective folders on the Data drive.

If "Windows" go belly up I can format and install a new OS without losing any data and periodically I export to data folders my Email preferences, address book, driver backups, router settings and registry.

Once a month I burn the "Data" folders to DVD and always keep two, throwing away the oldest DVD.

Besides important documents I have tons of photos and that is something I don't want to lose.

I like to keep two backups because the "Data" D: drive can fail also so one backup ain't enough if you have important stuff. Then again you could go on forever :D
 
I backup all the programs such as word documents, pictures, music, and files that I downloaded from the Internet. Everything that can be replaced by a reinstallation I pretty much don't bother with. When I want to back a file up I put it in a designated folder and then transfer it to an external hard drive about every two to three weeks.

Drive imaging is a very useful tool as well (copying an image from one hard drive to another). I used Norton Ghost to do that with my master hard drive.

External hard drives are the best tools to use in my opinion for backing up large amounts of data. I used to use flash drives but I found I lost them because they are so small.
 
I bought this component, am still using it and I would recommend it. If you are looking to buy an external hard drive look at this:

Rosewill RX35-AT-SU SLV Aluminum 3.5" Silver USB 2.0 External Enclosure - $20
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182156

About any Serial ATA hard drive will work with it. If you ever want to make an external hard drive into an internal hard drive simply remove the hard drive from the enclosure.
 
2048Megabytes said:
I bought this component, am still using it and I would recommend it. If you are looking to buy an external hard drive look at this:

Rosewill RX35-AT-SU SLV Aluminum 3.5" Silver USB 2.0 External Enclosure - $20
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182156

About any Serial ATA hard drive will work with it. If you ever want to make an external hard drive into an internal hard drive simply remove the hard drive from the enclosure.
Click to expand...

Am I correct in this :

That device you posted turns an internal SATA drive into an external SATA Drive via USB port and docking station?

If that's correct - it looks like the most user friendly idea. I don't want to add a bunch of DVD's and other data storage that I have to find a place to store. But I'd also like a reliable backup location in case of a worst case scenario.

So you store everything normally on say your C or D internal drive - and then periodically ( say weekly ) drag your internal storage and overwrite the data on your C & D Drives?
 
I backup onto a large external hard drive. I just copy the files I want into a new folder named similar to backup-laptop-20090627 in an organized fashion.
Some external hard drives come with backup software that works on Windows, but I've never used any of them.

Also, CDs and DVDs are very good for permanent storage. Some people backup to DVDs and put them in a safety deposit box; this way your data is still accessible if your house burns down. Also, some paper-shredders come with CD shredders - look into this if you don't already have one.

If you have an additional internal hard drive, you can easily back-up to it. However there are many drawbacks to this. If you're computer fails (like if your CPU burns up), your data is not easily accessible. If an electrical surge manages to hit your computer, your data will be lost. If your house burns down, it won't be accessible, etc. But, this method is still good for intermediate backups.

Remember, relative to other components, hard drives are quite unreliable. Always try to have your data in more than one place.
 
Jamin43 said:
Am I correct in this :

That device you posted turns an internal SATA drive into an external SATA Drive via USB port and docking station?

If that's correct - it looks like the most user friendly idea. I don't want to add a bunch of DVD's and other data storage that I have to find a place to store. But I'd also like a reliable backup location in case of a worst case scenario.

So you store everything normally on say your C or D internal drive - and then periodically ( say weekly ) drag your internal storage and overwrite the data on your C & D Drives?
Click to expand...
In my opinion, an external enclosure, stuff backed up to it weekly. Put into a fire safe or somewhere that might survive a fire/water to keep as backup purposes.
 
Jamin43 said:
Am I correct in this : That device you posted turns an internal SATA drive into an external SATA Drive via USB port and docking station?
Click to expand...

Yes, that is correct. About any Serial ATA hard drive will work with this enclosure.

Jamin43 said:
So you store everything normally on say your C or D internal drive - and then periodically ( say weekly ) drag your internal storage and overwrite the data on your C & D Drives?
Click to expand...

No, I transfer information from my internal hard drives to my external about every two weeks (more often if it is data I value). Any data really value I have three copies of. Some on flash drives as well.

Might I also recommend the following hard drive as this model seems to have a good track record for reliability:

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320 gigabyte Hard Drive - $52 (free shipping)
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10005615
 
What about using the original software that came with your computer? I've never done it this way and was wondering if it would work. Its for Windows XP uses by the way
Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Back-up

You can chose exactly what and how much you want to back up onto a seperate drive.
The only thing though, is that once it's all backed-up, it appears as one file called 'System Back-up'. Don't know how you used it from there.
 
The Master

I'm a master at backing up PC's because I've been doing it for untold years. It's so simple it's sad. Put in a 2nd hard drive. Each hard drive should be partitioned with a small and large Partititon. 1st drive is for the C:\ and one for the data. 2nd drive is for the future C:\ and data. IMAGE, (pick one which works for you) Your C:\ twice. Once to your data on both drives, in case the HD for you OS fails. Now you have a backup of you Data and 2 backups for you OS. I hope you didn't put your data on the same partition with your C:\
 
golden039 said:
I hope you didn't put your data on the same partition with your C:\
Click to expand...

Right now - yes - that is the case. But it doesn't really matter b/c I'm eventually going to re-install everything next summer anyway after I purchase Windows 7 after the free period is up :(.

It's my first build - I was looking to get things up and running first and foremost. I'll deal with partitions when I update everything. In the meantime I'll need to backup any data before the re-install.
 
To be honest i dont actualy back much up at all,All my setup files for apps and a few games + my movies are on a 5oogb external drive,i only back up my bookmarks and word documents thats about it.

I dont keep any personal info on my machine so.
 
rewritable dvd's for smaller amounts that you don't mind spending the time burning. Then place these dvd's in an empty and clean dvd spindle thingy (the things that dvd's come in). You can then erase these dvd's later and use them for future backups. Use an extra hard drive for amounts that you don't feel like spending the time burning dvd's for. Just backup any important stuff that you can't download or reinstall from somewhere. Dvd's are cheap and hold a decent amount, extra hard drives aren't cheap but hold alot. Not sure any other option will provide a good price/space ratio.
 
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Im figuring most are want to talk and me is incremental backups.
Family pictures, documentation, freeware, updates or what ever. have to hd's. i want to add just the older files and programs for archiving purposes.
How and what software you using that will update the new directories or programs you have. they may be newer programs and then auto delete the older on the backup hd. don't want to backup and replace same files. newer ones is ok.
 
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