How Do You BACKUP Your Stuff?

[Andrew Maule]

Let me elaborate...

I know how to backup my server, my computer, etc. but how do you do it?

I backup to an external 500gb hard drive but I'm looking at getting Mozy (mozy.com) or something similar just in case of a house fire or a burglary. Is anyone else using a service like this? I know I can automate backups to my web server but I'd rather have the security of my data explicitly guaranteed by a service or something.

Anyway, how do you backup?

[ObsidianKnight]

The only time I normally see offiste backups is for mission critical data. I work in IT and backups are done nightly. This even with medical service companies where I work, allows the system to backup to tape drives, then the tapes are taken offsite.

Myself, I generally maintain 3 copies. One on my home pc, one on rewritable cd, and one on my websites. I backup regularly, but only maintain recent copies upon changes. So a site that only updates the DB, gets a copy of the site, and daily backups of DB. no sense in backing up a static site every night.

You have to go with what works for you. Chances of a housefire, might be slim. Computer crash and burn is more likely. So plan what you think will be most effective. Do you want to have to keep lugging a new cd or two home with you each night?

[Trieu]

I should be backing up my files, but for some reason I havent done that yet. The only way I do is backup on cd/dvdrom

[BillyBee]

Carbonite!! Super easy and you never have to think about it.

My computer died about a year ago, and I used Carbonite to get everything back. Very inexpensive, too.

[Jesus Perez]

Mozy. My D: drive already failed 2 weeks ago. All I had to do was plug a new one, right click the new, fresh 500gb drive and select "restore". Then wait for the download (113gb) which took 4 days or so.

Anyone that is backing up to an external drive is not planning properly. ALL drives fail. Normally within 5 years. Some sooner. I'd rather pay someone $49/yr for the peace of mind that everything is on RAID 1 arrays with tape backups.

[Ron Killian]

Guess I am doing it wrong as well, use a external USB drive, which of course is just a hard drive.

[Traffic-Bug]

I backup important documents (PDF word etc) to Google documents. It is free but you have to upload it one by one. I think there is something available from Google like offline client to get this done automatically. Also you can get 25 GB free from Microsoft by using Skydrive for your file storage.

[Teenage Genius]

Most companys backup to a tape drive or hard drive then take the drive offsite. My mum takes her boss's backup drive home with her each night.

I back up to an external hard drive.

[dogisland]

My server is backed up to amazon S3.

For each site I own I automatically zip the files to something like mysite.com.zip and also any databases mysite.wordpress.zip mysite.anotherdb.zip. Each of these is then transferred to amazon S3 by a script called s3sync.

[Blase]

I used to be a National Sales and Marketing Manager
and I was the last one to leave work every night
so I had to change the backup tape on the server
and take it home with me.

I learned that off site back up is a good idea.

I have lots of customer data I can not lose.

I use Carbonite for off site.
I have my main hard drive in my pc
a secondary hard drive on my pc (dup customer files)
External back back up in my office.

I know it maybe overkill, but I sleep good.

[serrow]

carbonite. super cheap when u dig up the coupons. I am sure some of the folks here run the affiliate program too.

[Evita]

Carbonite here too!

Never have to worry about forgetting to back up.

Evita

[stevenlean]

I make a full cpanel back up every few days, download the zip file to my local hard drive.

[Roy Carter]

Originally Posted by BillyBee

Carbonite!! Super easy and you never have to think about it.

My computer died about a year ago, and I used Carbonite to get everything back. Very inexpensive, too.

Thanks for that, I'll go check it out. I get paranoid about this sometimes!

[SexySarah19]

i use livedrive, it constantly backsup your data in the background

very cool service

[Chris Lagarde]

My advice is to always have two types of backups. Both must be automatic otherwise you won't backup your data in a timely manner.

1st backup type - backup your entire hard drive to an external hard drive using a program like Acronis True Image. It takes a perfect picture of everything on your computer hard drive--the programs, your windows installations, and every little tweak you have setup.

If your hard drive fails, or you get an virus that can't be rooted out, then reimage your hard drive. My 142 GB hard drive took about 3 hours to be restored last week after I somehow got a virus (first time a virus has affected me in 4 years).

Be sure to set True Image to backup every night. Also alternate your backup files.

Monday - Backup A
Tuesday - Backup B
Wed - Backup A
Thur - Backup B
Friday - Backup A
Saturday - Backup B
Sunday - Backup C (a 3rd full backup done once a week)

Why the alternate backups? You don't want to only have one backup file that each night is overwritten. What if your only backup file gets corrupted while being overwritten AND your hard drive crashes?

2nd type of backup - automatic backup of your most important data. Backup is done via your internet connection. Good services include Mozy and Carbonite. You don't want to backup your entire hard drive this way because it will take you days to do a restore. Personally, I can't wait days for my computer hard drive to be restored.

For all those who are only backing up to an external hard drive only you should pat yourself on the back. Most people aren't backing up their data at all. These same people are plunged into a world of hurt when their hard drive fails.

At the same time, an external HD backup is not sufficient. Below is a paragraph from an email sent to me by a professional screenwriter. His entire professional life was on his computer.

He DID backup to an external hard drive which was stored in an old bomb shelter in his basement. He even had hard copy backups. None of these precautions helped when a highly pressurized gas main broke in front of his house. His house filled with gas, ignited, and burned to the ground.

Excerpt from his email:

For example, my computer, with ten years of writing on it, six complete
screenplays, two novels and the better part of five more, all my ideas,
thoughts, fifty pages of carefully chronicled dance moves, all my
photographs-- that's the heavy loss. Of course I'd backed up a bunch
of the files, but the back-up is in another room of the house. Also
burning. I have hardcopy back-ups of some of the screenplays and
novels -- safely stored in the basement, which is currently exploding.

[xga]

I put 2 hard disks in my PC and write a script to automatically copy my important files from the main drive to the backup drive.

If the main drive dies on me, I will get new drive, reinstalled the OS and copy the files back from the backup drive.

In the way, I will lose at most one day of my work. Not the most ideal backup solution, but at least it is cheap and simple.

[kjkumar]

alternate days

Google yahoo diigo

[oneempowered]

Here's a quick tip that works for a lot of recently deceased HDs: Stick it in your freezer overnight, then try to access it again to retrieve your data.

Seriously, it's worked for a lot of HDs.

[Platinum Matt]

I have Acronis backing up to an external hard drive (scheduled so it's hands free) and I have Mozy backing up to their secure servers (scheduled again so hands free)...

But when I lose my data... I get VERY scared. Because the times I have THOUGHT I was was safe and the backup solution has not worked are too scarey to think about.

I relied on Powerquest drive image to restore my data and it failed when I needed it.

[nikolaaa]

I backup on external drive and on online storage (idrive - it's the cheapest solution)

[Chris Lagarde]

XGA - I used to have your setup - two hard drives on one motherboard--one drive backing up the other drive. Well, the motherboard went wacky and scrambled the data on both hard drives! I was able to recover most of the data, but I did learn my lesson.

[hitman22]

i back up my computer by burning to cd

[Howdie4U]

Discovered Windows Vista HomePremium missing one morning, as well as my network connection! Quite a mess here...I have backup on CD, but this will not work. And the the Wizard does not work either - is there any other way to restore my computer?

I hope someone can help me with this terrible problem...

Thanks,
Howdie

[FrankPinch]

I simply use 2 medias, a USB key for daily work, and a big 300GB usb drive for backing up all my stuff, mostly work stuff

[jerryaa]

I keep two copies. One on my USB key and one my laptop.

[Matt Gannon]

You need at least 2 copies at all times in-case one fails, I use external hard drive, and a USB hard drive.

[tekwarrior10]

I like true image from acronis . i like to use a 8 g thumb drive for files . or if you could always use a raid drive solotion

[sashas]

For your actual sites, if you use Wordpress, use a plugin like Wp-Db-Backup. It'll backup copies of your database daily/weekly/monthly and send them to an email address.

For the data sitting in your hard drive, I suggest getting an external drive. They're pretty cheap these days. A 1Tb drive should be enough for a few years.

[Mukul Verma]

I keep it on a external drive (it is about 200 GB) and leave that is my safety deposit box.

FrankPinch, that is a good idea to keep your daily stuff on a USB, I am gonna do that as well.

[Howdie4U]

Hi -

Okay - everyone can say how they 'save' their data...but how do you 'fix' the problem? I have the backup on the CD, but the system will not accept it - due to the hijacker's nerve - & windows and the internet connection are gone as well - to restore the system with what is available to me - how can this be accomplished?

Thanks,
-Howdie

[Jay Jennings]

I use TimeMachine (comes with Leopard+) -- plugged in a 1TB drive and every hour all changes are backed up. I can bring TimeMachine up and "go back through time" to restore any file at any given time. I can also plug that HD into a new machine and restore the whole thing.

Best part about it is there's no thinking involved. =:) It just does its thing in the background every hour.

Plus, every month or so I just drag my development directory to a blank DVD and burn that -- just to be on the safe side.

Jay Jennings

[lisag]

I use Carbonite for offsite backup and Memeo backup for onsite. Memeo streams to a Buffalo 2 TB Raid drive setup I got from NewEgg for short bucks. I actually DO sleep better knowing I'm double backed up.

I customer of mine wrote me just today to ask for a duplicate of something he purchased from me because his hard drive crashed and he lost everything. How sad is that when backup is so inexpensive.

Carbonite has a free trial; no credit card needed to try. Use offer coge GLENN or RUSH for additional discounts. Online Backup, Computer Backup Software & Remote Backup ? Carbonite.com

Memeo comes free with the Buffalo NAS but you can buy it separately at Memeo® - Simplify Your Digital Life. | Memeo Share, Memeo Backup, Memeo Software, Memeo Sync.

No affiliate links.

[SimonHarrison]

Serverside stuff is backed up and stored offsite via remote access.
Clientside I just made a simple batch file which I kick off most nights which wangs data from my drive to an external.

Not the most scientific approach but has served me well.

[MemberWing]

syncplicity.com
You get 50GB @ $10/mo.
It does real time background off site backups for you.
So all your data with all up to the second changes propagated to the remote syncplicity servers. You just pick directories that you want to sync and it does the rest.
No need to do silly email attachment backups and no need to remember anything.
It also has version control if you want to revert to previous modification of your documents.
Just 2 weeks ago my hard drive crashed and my azz was saved by syncplicity. Within few hours i was back up and running with all the latest and greatest version of my stuff.

Gleb

[Scott Ames]

Originally Posted by BillyBee

Carbonite!! Super easy and you never have to think about it.

My computer died about a year ago, and I used Carbonite to get everything back. Very inexpensive, too.

That's what I use too.. I tried a stand alone drive but found I was simply not doing it. Carbonite makes it painless and automatic.

[Jerry-Leventer]

I've been using Norton Ghost 2003 which creates an exact image of my drive, called a CLONE. That way, I can just insert the backup drive and it boots just as the original did, only all the stuff is as old as the backup. So you want to do it at least once a month.

The technician at Central Computers in Santa Clara said they use EasyGig II (or EZ Gig 2). But I dont' know where you can get it. So I just use Ghost.

Just be sure to create a bootable CD/DVD ROM disk to run the program off of.

[akasher]

I use a jump drive!

[Don Schenk]

I've lost perhaps a dozen hard drives over the past 20+ years, while operating several computers at work and two at home.

From this I became a backup devote, however it is still a PITA to have to format the replacement drive, install the OS, re-install all the programs (one at a time) then dump in the data backups.

Does Carbonite or Mozy even back up the OS installation and the programs too? If so, then a re-instal would be sooooo much less work.

While I'm on this question, I have a hard drive on one of my computers that has been acting iffy, it's backup up to an external as I write this. Is there a software that will let me make an exact duplicate, including OS and programs, all onto a new drive so I can just replace the old drive with the new?

It looks loike Ghost is now a network program.

:-Don

[Daret]

A external drive does the job for me. It can be really convenient at times.

[Mark Freedman]

I use two methods:

I use SyncBack for scheduled automated nightly backups to external drives. I make two backups (for a total of three copies) of everything this way, although after reading a couple of other posts here, I'm now considering alternating each of those backups on separate nights.

I also use Mozy to backup my most important files. I'd love to backup everything on Mozy, but it would take more than 24 hours daily to do this, and even though they claim unlimited space, I'm sure they wouldn't be able to handle the terabytes I need to backup.

If we go out of town, I put half my external drives (one of the backup copies) in a fireproof safe. I'm considering changing that to an offsite before we go away in the future.

Yes, hard drives fail on a very regular basis. As soon as one fails, I try to replace it ASAP, because I'm never comfortable with a single backup. I have a graveyard of old hard drives I always plan on one day reviving. I should probably dump those already.