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Do you do backups?

NullSmurf

NullSmurf

Das Bruce
Joined
Jan 18, 2006
Messages
7,858
Location
Aurora, CO USA
Shooter's ordeal with his notebook makes me wonder. I worked IT for most of 15 years before moving away from "stupid user tricks". I'm amazed even today how otherwise intelligent and educated individuals begin to drool around computers. That said, what would you lose if your computer suddenly went toes up?

My employer provides a measly amount of network storage for personal backup - something like 100MB. Hell, I have 2GB worth of email alone! I used zip drives up until about 2 years ago when I was issued a notebook with USB 2.0. I then purchased an external enclosure with a 100GB - got it at an office supply on sale for just under $100. I may buy myself some backup software to make it easier, but for now, I use a cmd file to back up my files to this drive most days at lunch. Frequently, its still running after I get back, sucking cycles and tying up my drive. There must be a better way.

What do you use?
 
I use Acronis True Image on my home computers
It is easy to use. It backs up email as well as system & data files.
 
I put an extra big honkin drive in the main house computer. Whenever I think about it I copy some files to it...periodically I create a DVD of the important stuff and bring it work or throw it in the safe. It's not very organized, but there isn't really anything on any of the home computers that I can't live without...

Recently one of the guys I work with had his laptop drive go bad. The local folks were able to replace the drive (the company buys only 1 or 2 different models of laptops) and because he has been using the company approved backup process (to a web site somewhere), they restored his laptop for him. He said that in less than 2 hours, he had his laptop back with everything on it, including his internet favorites!
 
I go the CD route as well as bilder stated previously.
Anything that is ultra important and can't wait, I use a 512MB USB stick.
 
For my desktop at home and work, I have installed a second hard drive. Then, I wrote a simple batch file that copies all my documents from C: onto D:. That way, unless both hard drives pile up at the same time (never seen that with a decent UPS / surge protection), I'm covered. With 250 GB hard drives for less than $80.00, it seemed like a no brainer to me. And, I use the second hard drive for storage of CD / DVD images, etc.

It's automatic, quick, and I don't have to swap media. I run it once a week...... :thumbs:

Regards - B.B.S.
 
Ok, anyone needs to buy some backup solution?
I have tape drives libraries, small LTO drives, bigger Super Loaders from Quantum. I have disk based backup, I have software, I have everything
Whoooo wants to buy? whoooo wants to buy?
 
We use Retrospect by Dantz (now owned by EMC) ...it's great if you're not doing industrial size backups. it also comes in as a home version loaded with some One-Touch back-up systems(they are great for home users! Acronis is very very good too. But work needed a little more and went with Dants. We are now going to Networker as we have way too much to back up. A few people at work bought the Maxtor One touch...they like it!
 
I need to figure something out too... I used to use an old ass compaq running windows 98 as just a file server but it went belly up So i took the secondary HD that i used as the storage out and and put it all on CD's... A LOT of CD's
 
Write to CD RW weekly. store separate in a firevault.

and often save on a jump disk i keep on my keychain, then upload to another computer.

(and yes I have had a hard disk crash twice so this way i only lost a few hours of work, rather than months!)
 
For my home/travel computer I use a 4 gig USB pen drive for info I need readily available, an 80 gig handheld USB portable HD for larger stuff, and periodically back-up my entire system to an image using Norton Ghost. Now for my stuff at work, that is a much different story - NetApp FAS270 3 TB NAS.
 
I use a Western Digital external drive with Dantz Retrospect software for my laptop. I just back up the whole drive on a regular basis as the external has much more capacity than the laptop.

Retrospect isn't the best software, no incremental backups are possible with the version I have. It is either all, or select manually.

Back in the day I had a program called MyBackup. It would do incremental, changed file backups. Saved tons of time, and media (not that that matters anymore). Anybody have a line on something that works similar?

Now for my home computer... about 6-8 months ago I copied some of the "important" type files to a DVD. I may update that soon :blush: In reality though, I use the laptop for work and personal, so most of the really "important" stuff is on the laptop.
 
gandolf565 said:
I use a Western Digital external drive with Dantz Retrospect software for my laptop. I just back up the whole drive on a regular basis as the external has much more capacity than the laptop.

Retrospect isn't the best software, no incremental backups are possible with the version I have. It is either all, or select manually.

Back in the day I had a program called MyBackup. It would do incremental, changed file backups. Saved tons of time, and media (not that that matters anymore). Anybody have a line on something that works similar?

Now for my home computer... about 6-8 months ago I copied some of the "important" type files to a DVD. I may update that soon :blush: In reality though, I use the laptop for work and personal, so most of the really "important" stuff is on the laptop.
Click to expand...

The full version of retrospect does incrementals.
 
I took an old box (PIII for godsakes!) and loaded Fedora on it, a cheap PCI SATA card, and a couple 200GB SATA drives in there. On my wife's Windoze box, my Win2k gaming/media workstation, and my son's WinXP box, I loaded rsync client software and pull files to the linux system at night with a cron script. Pretty flawless, and even my college-age son is asleep by 4am. :) There's lots of web-info on doing backups using the rsync command. (What xcopy WISHES it was.)
 
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