Have you backed up recently?

I have seen this type of thread on another forum so I thought I'd start one here. Every so often I get a topic reply e-mail with the title "Have you backed up recently?" and it always reminds me to back up data I really don't want to lose. Thats the point of this topic. Subscribe to it (post something on this topic to do this or click the link below) and whenever it is bumped you will receive the reminder. I hope to do this every fortnight or so to remind everyone!

Click here to subscribe to this topic so you will be reminded to backup your data.

Now for a lecture...


How can I backup?
Backing up can be done in the simplest of ways. Simply copying data to a CD that you don't want to lose, or to another hard disk. This is by far the simplest way to back up data.

You can also turn to commercial backup software such as Norton Ghost which will backup your data automatically, archive it for 'x' number of days, and also just do it incrementally so it saves disk space.


But why should I backup? I've never lost anything before.
Ever heard the saying "there is a first time for everything"? Its true, and it will happen to you one day, and most likely right at the moment that you really don't want it to happen (like a coursework deadline).

Don't tempt fate and backup!


But I don't have the disk space. What am I supposed to do?
There are several ways and types of media to backup your data to:-
- Hard Disk
- USB Stick
- CD/DVD
- External Hard Disk
- Tape drive (expensive!)
- Online storage

I'm sure everyone can utilize at least one of those types of media.


I really don't have the time to backup
What happens if you lose 2 months of work due to a hard disk failure, and you have no other copies of it? Does it really seem like such a time wasting job now?

It takes no more than a few minutes to start a backup running. Do it while you have your dinner or you are going to be out for a few hours and away from the computer.



I hope this has given everyone the insight as to why it is important to backup your data.

Backup now!

Click here to subscribe to this topic so you will be reminded to backup your data.

I do a hackjob of a backup. Tarball a series of folders I need (Home directories and the SQL db's) and send it to my local network, and let it be that. I don't do it on a regular schedule, but rather, when I remember. I do it manually, but it's really not a problem with me. There's about 10 users on my server, so I have to backup a lot. I do believe in backups, incase a server goes down or you miss payments and it gets canceled, or for some reason, you just /can't/ pay. However, with my provider, he'd usually let me pay double next month if I can't pay one month.

All my personal data gets backed up by Timemachine on my Mac. From there, I'll usually back up my music once or twice a year to DVD's, and any preferences, like my Firefox profile, and email data gets backed up to a password protected truecrypt volume, as well as backed up to an online backup solution (daily), and on to an external hard drive once or twice a month.

At work, I do both automated and manual backups - my virtual machines get backed up to tape every night at 3AM, while the rest of the data that's been collected for over 10 years gets backed up to an external hard drive, and a tape whenever I remember (usually 2-4 times a week). I do plan on switching to Windows Server 2008 as soon as possible, as I'm no good at writing *nix shell scripts, which is what is preventing me from fully automating the backup process. We've also just become Carbonite resellers, so I will probably be trying out that service if they offer a business-grade backup solution.

So, all in all, the last time I backed up at home

I know the importance of backing only too well!

Good article too, Andy

We now have a 2tb home server (running gentoo) and scheduled backups for all our home PCs. I also try to get everyone to backup to each others computers too.

yeppers, I back everything I download to CDs and DVDs but now I nearly loss 2.5 gbs of stuff from CDs which I recovered, so I purchased an external hard drive to back stuff up with now.

Well, I have now 24,8 GB of data in my 40 GB HDD, and never backed up.

1. Everything is in one partition, shared with Windows.
2. I have no forms: My MP3 player only have 128 MB, my CD burner is dirty, technician won't give my DVD burner back to me...

CD burners are what, $30 now? DVD burners are about $40. You could go out and get a 4GB USB stick for $20. External hard disks are coming down in price now. 500GB is only $120 now.

In UK/USA it's cheap, but here not.

The cheapest DVD burner I found is around $50 (R$ 100).
1 GB sticks are around $75 (R$ 150).
And 500 GB external HDDs cost around $500 (R$ 1000).

Short answer: A lot of bad prices

Crap,
I've forgot.
I'll start now xD
(Gigabyte network FTFW)

I need to do one, but Acronis doesn't work after I did a repair install.

Yes, in fact I did. Last night I backed up:
~/Documents
~/Pictures
~/Music
/Volumes/scratch/Movies

I still need to backup (will do it tonight)
/Volumes/scratch/Software

Last night was actually a tertiary backup for me. I usually backup up my stuff to my second internal HD (/Volumes/scratch), and (like yesterday) also back up to my external 500GB. So if one fails I have at least two others to fall back on.

Well I backed up my photography/photoshop work at school yesterday after Phase 3 power went out (but my system was on a different power phase )

Otherwise no

anything that i have that is really important i generaly have more than one copy of it, but pretty much everything on my computer i can get again

Yep, I use Cobian Backup (freeware) http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm

and my main PC backs up daily at 18:05 to an external HDD

I guess backing up to floppies just isn't the "hip" thing to do anymore...

But yeah, I backup stuff on a usual 3-months basis (Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall backups for each year). The Spring backup actually should happen soon. But I backup ALL school-related documents that I absolutely need to a floppy disc, CD, or on Google email account.

My question to you now, is what kind of free and fast online storage services are out there that promote backing up to their servers? I plan on getting an external hard drive with my iMac / MacBook in a few months, but perhaps I can do this to get a quick start?

Does having most of your data on a RAID1 drive count?

Yeah, i'm forced to once a month, why, because I only run a 10gig drive
as my slave, which is only used for downloads...
It fills up every 1 to 2 months, so to empty it, I burn it to DVD...
Sure I could run a bigger hard drive, but then I'd get too lazy to back it up,
so by running such a small drive, Iv'e forced myself to backup...
The problem is, 10+ years of backups make a lot of disks stored, especially
since Iv'e only owned a DVD burner for 6 of those years...

No. RAID is NOT a backup.

Repeat... RAID IS NOT A BACKUP

This is a VERY common misconception. All RAID does is offer redundancy if one disk fails. It does not offer a backup solution. If you save a file, but realise you need the copy that you had before that save, its too late. Its copied to both drives. Therefore its not backup.

Backup means having archives of your files, e.g. multiple independent copies.

...I always backup at least once a month now...anyone who's ever stored ANYTHING valuable on a maxtor drive knows this first hand.

I have several Maxtor drives that have been great to me. I also have a Seagate and some Western Digitals. Never had an issue.

Iv'e been through more seagates than I can remember, followed by
Fujitsu...
& mostly brand new one's...
So far the only drives that have not let me down is Samsung (touch wood)...

I have personally had numerous maxtor harddrives fail, and none of any other brand.

I mean how can you trust a company that sells drives with inbuilt keyloggers to steal your World of Warcraft login! http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/12/some ... ith-virus/

Grrrrate, I get one for Christmas, 1st one I've ever owned, I just checked
on the Seagate Sight after reading your post, & mine was purchased at the time
the infected ones were sold...

& hows this, when I 1st read your post I said out load to myself, hahaha,
imagine the grief this is gonna cause some poor unsuspecting sod,
attempting to store stuff for easy access when traveling, then I went to
the sight you posted, looked at the drive, & thought, gee that looks like
mine, hang on a freakin minute, it is mine, nooo, suddenly the
hahaha turned to "WHAT - YOU %$*%^$%^ sh**cans..."

No backup for you, Mr. KenOath!!

I only back up stuff that i require or no one else has