Computer Gurus: Backup recommendation sought

[GA Russell]

I am not currently backing up my computer, and I would like to change that.

As I see it, I have two options.

The first would be to subscribe to Carbonite for about $50 a year.

The second would be to purchase a portable hard drive. I saw one on sale the other day for $69.

Which do you recommend? Is it easy to transfer my entire hard drive onto a portable one occasionally?

[mjzee]

I assume you have a PC and not a Mac. I also assume you have your Windows installation discs and your other discs in case your hard drive dies. You therefore want to back up your data files. If they're in a "My Documents" folder, look at the size of that folder. If it's small enough, you could back it up to a USB drive. Otherwise, get an EHD (external hard drive) that comes with backup software. Then it's super easy: once you do the initial backup, you can then schedule incremental backups, which take far less time.

An alternative is to create an exact mirror of your hard drive. You'd need an EHD that's the same size, and mirroring software such as Norton Ghost. None of this is difficult.

On my Mac, I have a program named Super Duper, which performs nightly incremental backups to an EHD. Because I have a sizeable investment in digital music, I separately perform a monthly incremental backup to a portable EHD, which I then unplug and keep in a closet. This is to protect in the event of a power surge.

[GA Russell]

Great! Do all external HDs come with the backup software, or would I probably have to buy that separately?

Yes, I'm using Windows XP. I have my OS discs somewhere, though I haven't seen them since my move in June.

[Shawn]

Many external hard drives come with pre-installed backup software, I've had good luck with my Seagate drives, picked up a 1tb drive for about $80 on sale.

My main recommendation, have more than 1 backup. As mjzee stated in his post, have one plugged in, one you backup monthly and leave unplugged the rest of the time...and you should always have a 3rd stored at an offsite location in case of fire or theft. Safety deposit box at the bank is a good choice.

[Brad]

I think Seagate are the best out there.

[mjzee]

I've had a Seagate fail on me. I've found Western Digital to be very reliable and easy to use. I also have a Maxtor that works fine.

[John L]

I've had a Seagate fail on me. I've found Western Digital to be very reliable and easy to use. I also have a Maxtor that works fine.

They will all fail eventually. You have to expect that.

[Quincy]

This is not a complete solution but I would recommend Dropbox as well for certain files or photos. It's much easier and faster than emailing certain things to a Gmail account (which is another way people sometimes back stuff up). Dropbox has different uses as there are private & public portions. The public can be useful if you're trying to share music or a video clip with someone(s) as those files are typically too large to email. The private can be yet another safe spot for whatever your needs are, such as a folder with pictures of your worldly possessions for insurance purposes in case of fire.

[A Lark Ascending]

Many external hard drives come with pre-installed backup software, I've had good luck with my Seagate drives, picked up a 1tb drive for about $80 on sale.

My main recommendation, have more than 1 backup. As mjzee stated in his post, have one plugged in, one you backup monthly and leave unplugged the rest of the time...and you should always have a 3rd stored at an offsite location in case of fire or theft. Safety deposit box at the bank is a good choice.

Plus one in the nuclear fallout shelter we should all have dug in our back gardens.

Edited November 23, 2010 by A Lark Ascending

[mjzee]

I've had a Seagate fail on me. I've found Western Digital to be very reliable and easy to use. I also have a Maxtor that works fine.

They will all fail eventually. You have to expect that.

No, this was within the first month.

[Victor Christensen]

I would recommend an external harddrive, that is what I do. I have WIN 7 Pro and backup to a WD 1TB EHD, I only do it once a month and keep the EHD separate from the rest of my computer, only connect it when doing the backup. I take regular backup of my music library, but do that on a CD-R, that is the only thing I don't want to lose, I have spend so many hours making that.

Vic

[GA Russell]

I've had a Seagate fail on me. I've found Western Digital to be very reliable and easy to use. I also have a Maxtor that works fine.

They will all fail eventually. You have to expect that.

No, this was within the first month.

I've been browsing newegg's site, and it looks like there is a high failure rate in the first month or so, and very little after that. It looks to me like it would be wise to spend the extra ten dollars on the one-year extended warranty.

Anybody have an opinion of iomega?

[mjzee]

It's creepy to have a hard drive fail on you, because it has all your data on it. If the EHD is only a month old, of course you're going to return it. But there's a lingering question: could someone else get it to work and then have all your data? And you'll never know.

[mjzee]

Staples is advertising for Black Friday a Western Digital 2 TB EHD for $99. I believe this comes with backup software. It seems like a great deal; 2 TB will last you a long time.

[porcy62]

I have a LaCie hooked up to iMac throu firewire 800 port, excellent and superfast.

[Christiern]

A 2 TB external drive an now be had for about $90 (my first 1GB cost $1,200!) I have a 1TB Maxtor hooked up to my iMac and designated as my Time Machine drive (Time Machine being an automatic backup that is a part of the Mac OS X). I also routinely back up important files, including my photos, on a DVD RL discs, and I keep a USB flash stick to which I copy all important work files before closing the app used to generate them.

For instance, I work every day on 2-300-year-old slave records, so it is vital that I maintain and regularly update a backup. It only takes seconds to do this, and the comfort factor is high.

Odds of avoiding grief are lowered considerably by backing up your backups.

[JazzMode]

I am not currently backing up my computer, and I would like to change that.

As I see it, I have two options.

The first would be to subscribe to Carbonite for about $50 a year.

The second would be to purchase a portable hard drive. I saw one on sale the other day for $69.

Which do you recommend? Is it easy to transfer my entire hard drive onto a portable one occasionally?

You sould backup your computer. I use and recommend you Handy Backup - reliable software for computer backup, it has right price ($39), right features, and is easy to use.

[ejp626]

Well, this is a very sad tale, but perhaps someone can help. I knew my computer was going bad, and it actually got to the point where it would often crash in the middle of burning backup CDs and DVDs. Sometimes, though not always, it would crash while trying to transfer large files across a USB port. So of course I had been shopping for a new computer, but it hasn't arrived.

Anyway, the computer totally died, and in fact there was some weird short and the power cable more or less melted. By some amazoing stroke of lukc, I was able to extract the hard drives and turn them into temporary external hard drives with one of those Sata to USB things. And it looks like almost all the data is there. But I have one serious problem. A fair bit of stuff is in the My Music and My Pictures folders. But when looking at the Users folder, this is all completely obscured from view. I know it's there, based on the size of the Users folder, but I haven't figured any way (so far) to change permissions so that I can access and copy this stuff. Probably an expert can retrieve this, but if anyone has some tips or suggestions for a workaround, that would be great. Unfortunately it is even too big just to burn to a DVD (about 7 Gig) but maybe in the process of burning a DVD, I can separate out the files. There has to be some way, right?

Thanks for any thoughts and suggestions.

Edited December 3, 2010 by ejp626

[Big Wheel]

Well, this is a very sad tale, but perhaps someone can help. I knew my computer was going bad, and it actually got to the point where it would often crash in the middle of burning backup CDs and DVDs. Sometimes, though not always, it would crash while trying to transfer large files across a USB port. So of course I had been shopping for a new computer, but it hasn't arrived.

Anyway, the computer totally died, and in fact there was some weird short and the power cable more or less melted. By some amazoing stroke of lukc, I was able to extract the hard drives and turn them into temporary external hard drives with one of those Sata to USB things. And it looks like almost all the data is there. But I have one serious problem. A fair bit of stuff is in the My Music and My Pictures folders. But when looking at the Users folder, this is all completely obscured from view. I know it's there, based on the size of the Users folder, but I haven't figured any way (so far) to change permissions so that I can access and copy this stuff. Probably an expert can retrieve this, but if anyone has some tips or suggestions for a workaround, that would be great. Unfortunately it is even too big just to burn to a DVD (about 7 Gig) but maybe in the process of burning a DVD, I can separate out the files. There has to be some way, right?

Thanks for any thoughts and suggestions.

What version of Windows are you running? I would imagine a Google search should easily turn up how to get administrative/superuser access when viewing these folders in Windows.

[ejp626]

What version of Windows are you running? I would imagine a Google search should easily turn up how to get administrative/superuser access when viewing these folders in Windows.

This may well be part of the problem. I was running Windows 7. I don't have anything comparable at the moment. My laptop is XP. It is sufficient to burn all the other non-protected files, and that will keep me busy for a while.

What worries me is that even if I get a new computer loaded with Windows 7, it will see this hard drive as a "foreign object" and there will be no native way to tell it that I am the official user.

I'm suspecting that I probably will need to go see an expert before all is said and done, though I do hope there is some way to crack it, even if I can't do it myself.

Edited December 3, 2010 by ejp626

[Big Wheel]

Have you tried something like this? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

I don't have enough experience with the guts of Windows to say for sure whether this will work in XP when the folders were originally created in Windows 7, but seems like it could be promising.

[ejp626]

Have you tried something like this? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

I don't have enough experience with the guts of Windows to say for sure whether this will work in XP when the folders were originally created in Windows 7, but seems like it could be promising.

I'll look into this. Thanks. I have found a workaround, but it will be unbelievably tedious. I went to SafeMode and was able to remove nearly all the Read-only attributes from the Users folder. Then in dos window I am able to go to Users/Owner (even though it doesn't appear in the directory) and then I can copy over to some other unprotected location. (I can do this now even with SafeMode off.) But my dos is rusty, and I am going to want to copy large batches of files or whole folders ideally. Still, the files do appear to be there and uncorrupted for the most part. So I am thankful for that. It could have been much, much worse.

Edited December 3, 2010 by ejp626