I'm backing up my stuff right now (17 DVD+R DL's worth )

a lot of it is my collection of OS and software ISOs (thank you OSBA and betaarchive!)

So. Every time when I install OS, I make a backup of this OS. And I save my configuration, preferences and activated status

But I never backed up my documents/soft/etc. directory because I have one HDD only for my DATA (1Tb)... Because I don't know, where I will keep my backup (it's about 450Gb with compression)... It's too expensive to buy 50-100 blank DVDs every month. But I can use DVD-/+RW. But it's too easy to break them.

And I didn't backed up my Beta collection... (backup will be about 400Gb)....
Does anybody have an idea?

May be I need to buy low-ended "Backup PC" but with a lot of HDD space?

Just buy another 1TB drive and mirror them. You can get software like SyncBack SE/Pro to do it for you.

An external Hard-Drive maybe?

EDIT: Andy beat me to the punch.

Good idea..
But it's the way for my Main PC. But I think, I can't put more HDDs in my Main PC.

And I have 3 (1 is sometimes in use) notebooks and 2 (Old and New) PCs in my family.
And one of these PCs is my Beta Archive. And I want to backup notebooks in Automatical mode.

What do you think about little Backup server with FTP acess?



Hmm. After 6 months of activity using my external HDD died. (Trascend StoreJet 160)

Get a decent brand like Western Digital. I have 2x500GB over a year old now, still working. Only turn it on when you run the backups.

So, It will be not easy
Thank you:)

I backup up my stuff on my external harddrive (TrekStor DataStation maxi.mu 750 GB), also i burn OSes on CDs/DVDs to install them on the PC. I usually backup my mods (for games), my savegames and Firefox settings.

Hmm, i use my 500gb ext. hard drive to handle backups of my PC's 750gb hard drive. however, i want to invest in a home server someday to handle it for me.

Server is automagically backed up every 12 hours (6 hours for db/mail) and every 2 days offsite.

Home computers aren't backuped up but instead kept in sync with each other whenever 2 or more are on.

hmm backup you mean that thing i err kinda forget to do except when i reformat i copy game saves and stuff to my data partition on my 2nd 500GB HDD. Clearly i need a backup solution but as soon as i get a new hdd i fill it i dont know where the space magically it just happens to disappear and it means that DVDs are too small for backup. good thing ive been changing hdds pretty regularly seems to have gone from something like
1.2 -> 1.5 -> 3 -> 3+3 > 3+40 -> 15+40 -> 40+80 -> 80+160 -> 160+500 -> 500+500
its not really anual changes although it was from 15+40 -> 160+500, and as you can see im not going back to 1 hdd

Server 1 backups:
Once logged in.
Storage backups to I:\ (AUTO)
Websites backups to I:\ (AUTO)
Media backups to I:\ (AUTO)
Media synced to external 1TB (MANUAL)
Kryce-Online backups to I:\ (AUTO)
I:\ backups to D:\ Server 2 (MANUAL)
Server 2 backups:
Once logged in.
D:\ backups to E:\ (AUTO)
E:\ backups to F:\ (AUTO)
F:\ backups to G:\ (AUTO)
Works nice up to now server 2 gets switched on daily for backups

Since I had a couple HDD failures last year I switched from making no backups at all to regular backups.

I use a mixture of manual backups, for webspace and some documents, and automatic backups by Acronis TrueImage. It automatically creates backups of my personal files, emails, workfiles etc. every couple of days and every couple of weeks it makes a backup of my windows system partition which I can easily reinstall in case of a HDD failure. Bootable DVD to set the system back up and a bootable Windows environment on DVD filled with several first aid tools.
The backups are currently stored on another internal HDD, which is unfortunately way to small, and I make additional on DVD whenever I feel like it.

The only thing I want to improve is the space for the backup, I plan on buying a 1TB SATA HDD just for backups and my personal beta archive (mostly games), since my current disk is getting too old and small. Other than that I'm pretty happy with my current backup system and I don't worry about losing files anymore.


I remember the days I could make a backup of my important files from my 20MB (yes, MB, not GB) HDD on a few floppy disks...data has become much too big and with broadband internet, we can make sure that even the biggest harddrive is getting filled in no time.

i...Never backup...As it would Take ages...Time that i do not have, I do not have any other storage medium, Uploading Files to online backups take forever, not to mention my internet connection is as unstable as can be...
But hey, My HDD is pretty new, And HDD failure is utterly rare, And in most cases, can be fixed manually (ever heard of head swapping?).
So...Yeah...

thats a perfectly reasonably reason to take until disaster happens, admittedly im pretty lazy with backups if i ever do them, mostly cause of lack of storage, my samba server in my cupboard has a 6gb hdd i think

The chances of a disaster happening are so small that you are more likely to get struck by lightning, and the chances to get struck by lighting are so small that you are more likely to die of a falling coconut thrown by a monkey...
Now, If you have to preform a Major reinstall, like i am, backing up may be a good idea

I personally just back up source codes and what not, also tv shows on my External Hard Drive, I format frequently because I cant seem to find the perfect set up for my CPU I wana dualboot, but I can't find a OS (linux wise) that fits me. However, I have kept my Vista for a few months now... I love the idea behind Debian but it [censored] me off that I can't easily install my graphics card drivers because they are all about 'FOSS'. In any case its a great distro!

I Never backup, I know tht on this pc there is nothing worth keeping. Everything on here can be recreated. All i back up are ISO files of operating systems.

Of course i did, it would be when i lose everything.

I have a Western Digital 500GB External HDD That I use to backup.

Congratulate to me!
I have bought a middle PC (about 450$ without HDDs)
System:
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5300 @ 2.6Ghz
2Gb RAM
Gigabyte G31M-ES2C Motherboard on 31G Chipset
HDD: Sys - WD Caviar Blue 160Gb
Another HDDs are on way to me (1 + 1 Tb WD Caviar Green + 500Gb Seagate Barracuda)

I'll install Citrix XenServer 5.5.0 on this PC.
And I'll have 2 VMs for backup/system store.

1st system: Microsoft Windows Home Server v1
vHDD: 1Tb (I'll store all my media and files here)

2nd system: FreeNAS 0.69.2.4700
vHDD: 1Tb (Backups of Windows PCs/Notebooks and this Home Server through the SMB/CIFS) + 500Gb (Time Machine backup through iSCSI for Mac).

And after this I'll have 1 empty HDD which installed in my main PC. And this PC will make backups on this HDD.

So, you can see - this system is well thought-out.
And after this I won't have problems with backups

I acquired 2 208.9MB laptop hard drives that I am going to use to back up all my maps when I start creating them again. I have a laptop as a backup machine if my current one fails, and no matter what, all my schoolwork is safe, backed up to my external weekly and stored in 2 user accounts at school(one for XP and one for 7). Plus, at the moment, all my projects consist of the same code, which is easy to re-write.

I have 3 spare desktops under my bed, which in can exchange parts from if my PC crashes and I am currently writing a script that backs up my computer, laptop and spare laptop, when I plug my external in. Although it will only back up My Documents, App Data and My Desktop.

My backup system has changed dramatically now.

I'm setting up a centralized backup system ATM.
All PCs back up every week (full) to my new 1TB HDD; and with incremental backups done using diffs daily.
The 1 TB HDD is mirrored every month to a off-house location (at uncle's house) to an IBM rack (he used to work there).
Mirroring is done manually, by carrying the drive there, as in from the car, then plugging the drive in and doing a dd.

considering my collection/backup is not more than 100GB .. i use a couple of dat 40 tapes to back it all up

I backup every 12 hours
Backup drive has 15GB free cock!