Question on a Back up for my Computer

[GMG]

Can anyone suggest a back up system for my computer.

Several weeks ago I had a major melt down. Lost my operating system (Windows XP), my pictures and my bookmarks, my email is on a Cox server so no problem there.

I would like to have some way to back up my computer. Probably 500GB would do it, as I don't have a lot of stuff.

Any help would be appreciated!

[uzigalil]

how about using carbonite

[hoisumguo]

Western digital USB drive. No power brick easy to keep multiple just in case.

Don't use carbonate backup. Have had two friends lose data with them and their answer was "oops sorry". Which isn't the exclamation used by my friends losing their family photos.

-Hoi

[dynamomark80]

I have a separate internal drive just for backups. I have it do the regular backup stuff as well as make an image of the C: drive itself. Seems to work for me.

If you really want to have redundancy look into RAID setup, particularly the mirror type. In short it is two or more drives that act as one. The data on one drive is a copy of the others. If one drive fails data is still on the other.

[den888]

USB external harddrive with a 2nd copy of important stuff on box.com (first 5GB free).

[kojak5150]

Google Drive

Google Drive give you 5GB Free, then 100GB for 4.99 a month.

It can be access with any computer/smartphone/tablet that can access the internet.

[the86d]

Seagate MFM/RLL drives were terrible for dying before they should have, and WD drives have failed almost as much as Samsung drives... recently.

Then again I just lost 3 drives, one of which is under warranty and a Seagate.

I wouldn't get one of the WD USB 3.0 passport drives, as 2/3 died withing a year of bare-minimal-use.

I personally don't trust my data on Internet-based-storage...

My plan when I dump Server 2008 is to Raid5 (Linux Kernel RAID, works with any SATA hardware supported by Linux Kernel, NEVER hardware specific proprietary RAID unless I have an identical card in an anti-stat bag) data drive, and have 2 backups, one eSATA and one LAN-or WIRELESS-BASED (or via MoCA: http://www.actiontec.com/products/pr...5#.UgjQU6yjbAc) in an alternate hidden location... mainly for my motion-detect camera stuff.

[the86d]

Might I suggest doing what I have done for a long time now:
Windows on a separate drive from your data. If you have to install windows again, or the Win drive craps out, you would still have all your data untouched (and you don't need to copy/move it anywhere. You should backup that data-drive too, of course. You could also go with a smaller drive for the primary/Windows drive, as who really needs 2TB on a primary Windows drive? (Well... some might, but not many... just more crap to parse-through on failure of ANY sort.) PST's and bookmarks could be scripted to backup nightly... robocopy script.

[smird]

http://www.crashplan.com/ I've been very happy with them. I use them both at work and home.

Only negative is how long it takes to get a complete back up. Compared to a local drive.

[gunnerstuff]

I use an SSD for boot drive and twin 1TB drives in a RAID 1 configure for all my data. Then I have a 2TB Seagate ext. drive as backup. I run a program called Cobian backup, it's free, highly customizable and works very well.

[olhunter]

Pretty happy with Paragon. It's free.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/download.html

You can make a complete bootable backup of your drive to a file and then restore it when needed to a new hard drive. It will only backup used clusters so if you have a 500gb drive with 200gb free, it will only need about 100gb compressed.

You can create a boot disk too if your old HD won't boot at all.

For your weekly data, just use a thumb drive.

[stephenn82]

Western digital USB drive. No power brick easy to keep multiple just in case.

Don't use carbonate backup. Have had two friends lose data with them and their answer was "oops sorry". Which isn't the exclamation used by my friends losing their family photos.

-Hoi

i agree. once you have everything loaded with your OS, create an image to that hard drive. it wipes again, no worries, you have it all. another thing, start using google chrome and get a google account. no matter where you go, your bookmarks are linked to your account, and have them with you forever. you can get a 500gb drive for 60 bucks online depending on where you shop!

[LAmike]

Use an external hard drive for local backup, another one to keep at a separate location and an online backup (like Crashplan).

[remusrm]

Can anyone suggest a back up system for my computer.

Several weeks ago I had a major melt down. Lost my operating system (Windows XP), my pictures and my bookmarks, my email is on a Cox server so no problem there.

I would like to have some way to back up my computer. Probably 500GB would do it, as I don't have a lot of stuff.

Any help would be appreciated!

did you recover your data? dont use online stuff ever! want true proven back up? use one hd to back up your date, no os. Then back up that backup to another external hd.

[Clever]

Kingston 1TB USB Flash Drive