Data backup methods

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Metaltastic

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Feb 20, 2005
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Right, so I downloaded a couple of Windows Updates yesterday, and after restarting my computer I found it had rebooted to what seemed like the original state when I took it out of the box; with barely any icons on the desktop, the default background, and my quick-launch back to like two things. Needless to say I was fucking terrified, cuz I had some crucial things on the desktop, but a quick search revealed they were still there, but I had lost all of my bookmarks in Firefox and with every other program when I opened it it was as if I was starting it for the very first time.

So I did a system restore and all is well, but still, this freaked the fuck out of me, so I've decided I wanna start trying to back up all my shit. I'm not really sure how to exactly; DVD's seem like a really shitty method since they take forever to burn, the stuff will be obsolete in like a week (especially if I burn my audio projects folders) and storing them is annoying. Any other suggestions?
 
What specifically are you looking to save?

I would probably save your bookmarks folder, project folders, necessary applications to an external hard drive and it worked perfectly.

-Joe
 
Yeah, I've been doing that, but the thing is a lot of what I wanna save is already on my external hard drive, but I fear it too may kick the bucket! (I've just generally become paranoid of everything :D Though it is 4 years old now, and has seen constant use)
 
I'll elaborate also, 1 x 1TB drive for example, what, $70 atm. Cost of dataloss = priceless. With synchtoy you select folder pairs. So in my case, I have actually my whole C, D, E and F drives backing up in their entirety to my external (however, you can simply pick folders).

The beauty of the tool, is that you can select backup types. Im not sure how clued up you are on full backups vs incremental/diffrential etc. But with this for example, if you set it incrementally or "echoing" it will look at the backup from the last time you did it and only add folders or files that have changed since last time, so after your first backup it will be extremely quick for you. You push one button and the job is done in a few seconds.

(apologies if thats teaching you to suck eggs). So ye, thats my 2p. Now stop disscussing fat chicks and get synchtoy :lol:
 
Metaltastic said:
Yeah, I've been doing that, but the thing is a lot of what I wanna save is already on my external hard drive, but I fear it too may kick the bucket! (I've just generally become paranoid of everything :D Though it is 4 years old now, and has seen constant use)
Click to expand...

If you've got anything that vital on the disk and it does take a shit, you can pay for data recovery.
Never had to do it myself though, so i don't know how likely you are to get anything back
 
If I were you, I would just exhaust all of my options. Backup to dual layer dvds (if your drive can burn dual layer), use externals, online storage, whatever it takes to make you sleep better at night. :-)

-Joe
 
kev said:
I'll elaborate also, 1 x 1TB drive for example, what, $70 atm. Cost of dataloss = priceless. With synchtoy you select folder pairs. So in my case, I have actually my whole C, D, E and F drives backing up in their entirety to my external (however, you can simply pick folders).

The beauty of the tool, is that you can select backup types. Im not sure how clued up you are on full backups vs incremental/diffrential etc. But with this for example, if you set it incrementally or "echoing" it will look at the backup from the last time you did it and only add folders or files that have changed since last time, so after your first backup it will be extremely quick for you. You push one button and the job is done in a few seconds.

(apologies if thats teaching you to suck eggs). So ye, thats my 2p. Now stop disscussing fat chicks and get synchtoy :lol:
Click to expand...

Thanks Kev! Though you're correct in assuming I know absolutely dick about this, so if you could elaborate any further I'd be much obliged!
 
Honestly I'm surprised that nobody has suggested the solid state drives that have a 170 year life that are available now. Yes, "small" capacity by today's standards (60GB is still alot...) but the reliability is insane. Considering you can't live as long as the drive is rated for, I'd say it's a good investment.
 
Get a GOOD external drive(Never heard of a Seagate Barracuda failing.), and only plug it in once a month or so to do backups.
And when you plug it in, remember to not put the drive down too hard, because even the slightest shocks are "stored" in a HD, so if you pull it in and out of a box and not being careful enough will eventually cause the drive to fail.
 
006 said:
Honestly I'm surprised that nobody has suggested the solid state drives that have a 170 year life that are available now. Yes, "small" capacity by today's standards (60GB is still alot...) but the reliability is insane. Considering you can't live as long as the drive is rated for, I'd say it's a good investment.
Click to expand...

Yeah, thats a good tip too.
And you can actually get a 250gb SSD, but i guess they are expensive as f*ck.
 
Haha, Blackest you know how many times a day I think that? Nobody wants to say it because of that, but it needs to be said... :lol:

Seriously, even a 60GB SS drive would be good as a backup drive. You really have 60-fucking-GB of shit you want to back up every time?
 
Yeah SSDs are going to fucking rock as soon as they drop in price. I'm so getting one sometime this year, if they drop in price that is. They are kind of expensive right now, and I don't think getting a 64gb SSD would solve anything really... you're going to want more pretty quickly :) A 250 gb SSD costs about 700$ or something now, quite a lot. OCZ has manufactured a 1 TB SSD mounted on a PCI-E card, which costs like 4000$ haha.
 
006 said:
Seriously, even a 60GB SS drive would be good as a backup drive. You really have 60-fucking-GB of shit you want to back up every time?
Click to expand...

I'm still gonna wait until they have bigger capacity drives for a bit cheaper...which will be a while. It's not a matter of how often, but yeah...a matter of how stable I want all my mountain of shit to still be accessable.
 
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