What is the best way to back up data from my computer?

[kwassa]

I had a near-crash experience with my old desktop, fortunately it was only the power supply giving out, and the hard drive and motherboard were fine. I realized that we have five computers in the house with no real back-up, with years of work on them.

I've been looking into external hard drives, and hear very mixed reports about them, though I am currently leaning towards the FreeAgent Pro 500 mb, though this seems to change daily. Does anyone have experience with such drives that they can give me some insight into what works and doesn't?

What do loungers use, or do loungers use any type of back-up at all?

Thanks!

[PeaceNikki]

1. Buy an external hard drive

Here's an article with some reviews.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1912905,00.asp

[kwassa]

8. Thanks for the link!

[pokerfan]

2. Offsite backup

You can do that with any backup medium, but why not use the internets? Online backup services such as http://carbonite.com/">Carbonite guard against loss of data due to theft or natural disaster as well has disk crash.

[hobbit709]

22. I would never give anyone offsite access to my data.

I back up on external drives, backup computers and data DVD.

[Pierre.Suave]

3. I think that more important than the medium used,

is the method you choose to backup with.

Manually backing up, never works. You need good backup software, that is reliable and easy to work with. Do you use a mac or pc?

[kwassa]

5. I use a PC

what appeals to me about some of the HDDs is that they come with automatic backup software.

[Pierre.Suave]

21. I cant help you then.

I am a Mac guy.

[IronLionZion]

4. How much data are you backing up?

If money is an issue, try burning a bunch of CDs. I put my important documents backed up online on xdrive.com which gives 5 GB free and on USB flash drives. I have a 4GB and 2GB drive.

I'm also considering getting an external hard drive as well for the bigger stuff. There is software out there than can automatically back up your stuff every night or whatever. Syncback is free. I also have used Bounceback in the past.

[kwassa]

7. Are Syncback and Bouceback backup software programs?

Are they freeware?

[IronLionZion]

20. yes they are software, Syncback is free, Bounceback came with an external hard drive nt

[NJmaverick]

6. If you have 5 computers and they are all on a network

Consider purshasing a networked storage device. They usually come with software for automatic backups and will greatly reduce your work load.

http://computers.pricegrabber.com/network-storage-devices/p/69/

[kwassa]

9. I've heard that they are hard to configure

Is that true? The concept seems perfect.

My wife is the chief technologist in our family, and has set up the router.

[NJmaverick]

10. Depends on the unit, some are pretty easy, others are more difficult

You just need to do a little research, before picking one.

[Rabrrrrrr]

11. I write it all down on paper.

:P

I have a freeagent 250G external USB drive, and it works like a charm. No problems at all with it.

[kwassa]

14. Pencil or crayon?

Pro version, or regular Freeagent? What do you use for back-up software?

[Rabrrrrrr]

16. Blood. Children's blood.

I don't know if I have pro version or a regular - it's just a USB drive, and I know it's frm Freeagent.

For backup software I just use Windows Explorer. The only things I back up are my own files; I don't back up all my software and OS. I have those on CDs, and can reinstall them if I ever need to.

I try to make a CD of "my documents" (everything I create goes in there, except for large sound files and/or other large art/photo stuff) once a month, and try to remember to also back it up to the USB drive once a month. I also backup the entirety of my email (I use The Bat!) every month or so.

[Jimbo S]

12. I use a DVD burner

Try to backup once a week. Currently, I'm three weeks behind. :scared:

[kwassa]

17. I expect to use the burner on my new computer for this ...

my old desktop is from the pre-burner era.

[SKKY]

13. Here is my setup for my Home Computer...

I have 4 250GB SATA hard drives. Three of the drives are in a Raid 5 configuration, and the 4th is where the Operating Systems Live (I run Windows Vista and Ubuntu) and is NOT in a Raid. Real Simple, the "stand alone" drive is C: and the other is partitioned for Drive E and F. I have a 1 TB IOMega external that, using the software that came with it, backs up everything on E and F Weekly. I understand that this may be a little much for the "casual" user, but you could also do something simple like having 1 hard drive, partitioned into two separate partitions, install the operating system and all your programs on 1 partition, and save all your "Data" on the 2nd partition, and do the same thing to back that partition on weekly, monthly, or whatever works for you. I have many videos and pictures that I consider priceless, so I spare no expense in protecting them.

[kwassa]

15. Thanks

The partitioning suggestion is interesting. I'll just have to figure out how to do on these hard drives.

[SKKY]

18. It's quite easy. You can do it from Control Panel - Administrative Tools....

...or when you do a clean install of Windows.

[kwassa]

19. Thanks for the tip.