Phuket Thailand

MrDK · #1 17-05-2007, 05:08

I was reading another thread that revolved around lost data (phone numbers) and the issue of computer data and crashed hard disks were touched on.

So I was wondering how often you back up your computer. Not the data that you may have stored on the companies server, but your home PC or portable (company or personal) computer.

I store all my data on my company portable computer and I do a complete backup weekly. Every second week I do it to an external drive that I keep at work and every other week to one I keep at home.

How often do you back up your computer?

Thai Kwan Do · #2 17-05-2007, 05:31

I never make a backup!

For the more really important stuff, i either write down on paper , or get a printout , works perfectly!

mind you, i don't use my PC for work , just as "entertainment"

nacha · #3 17-05-2007, 05:36

a long time ago i also made (nearly) every week a backup of my data... (only of the server)
this stopped about a year ago

don`t really know why!
i just forget to start the backup process or something or i just don`t care about my data!

maybe i should make a fresh backup now

LivinLOS · #4 17-05-2007, 09:51

I used to be really religious about backups, but was very unorganized about being selective..

Now I dont have important data so have a different way of tackling it.. I have my audio on a external drive, and every time I download new audio I burn new CD's.. My CD collection is my backup should the drive fail.

My email system is set up to bounce my email from my own server into gmail for archival.. If I lose it and dont have an outlook backup I can simply find anything in gmail.

Occasional small files I use or may need, scans, text docs, usual my docs type stuff.. I email to my gmail if its something I should keep.

My phone, havent backed up my contacts lately.. Good point.. Will backup to outlook file and send to gmail in next day.. Thats a really important one I have been slack on.

Photos.. Had a near disaster with a HD crash last year.. At first I thought nothing important was gone and a month or two later I realized my photos were on there.. ALL my old snaps of Wifey who has passed !! I was really cut up about it, pissed off beyond words, after finally accepting this disaster, I found they were also on a secondary partition on a laptop (just before formatting it too !!) really over the moon to get them back. Now photos go on DVDR's and good photos go up to my flickr account in full rez.

So just incremental systems for what I need... Mostly I nuke and pave the machine every few months anyway.. That shaprens you into not keeping things on one machine only.

MrDK · #5 17-05-2007, 09:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by LivinLOS

Photos.. Had a near disaster with a HD crash last year.. At first I thought nothing important was gone and a month or two later I realized my photos were on there.. ALL my old snaps of Wifey who has passed !! I was really cut up about it, pissed off beyond words, after finally accepting this disaster, I found they were also on a secondary partition on a laptop (just before formatting it too !!) really over the moon to get them back. Now photos go on DVDR's and good photos go up to my flickr account in full rez.

Many casual PC users think they have none or little data that need backup. Pictures just cannot be replaced. Glad to hear you somewhere had a "backup".

LivinLOS · #6 17-05-2007, 10:02

I didnt have 100% of them.. New pics around Thailand with spinner were lost, one I really liked (but someone I know has a CD with it on in UK) but it was the thought of losing so many of the past wife.. Really brought me down for a few days.

Nautilus · #7 17-05-2007, 10:05

Does using RAID consider as backup?

MrDK · #8 17-05-2007, 10:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nautilus

Does using RAID consider as backup?

I assume you are referring to mirror drives. Technically it does, however, when many forget is events like fire. If you have a complete backup in a drive installed in the same computer as the main data and the place burns down... then what?
If the main drive simply shits the bed the raid system will seamlessly serve the data from another drive, so that is more about time lost than data lost.

Nautilus · #9 17-05-2007, 10:28

Yeah i am running RAID on my pc...i think RAID 1.

t0rn · #10 17-05-2007, 11:13

Weekly backup for me - use Norton Ghost to take an image backed up to an external drive, wouldn't survive a fire but it's better than nothing. Photos are also written to DVD.

dawsey · #11 18-05-2007, 04:05

I'm a little like Livin LOS with back ups. I always burn photos onto CD/DVD and check they are there before formatting the memory card. Same with music, that goes on to DVDs.As far as the PC goes, I make a point of backing up Drive C around every month. Not often enough maybe, in case the HD goes west.

ub2yoo · #12 18-05-2007, 04:40

Guys, you are all way off.

Someone said he has RAID as a backup ??? Mirror ? What RAID, what level ? It's not a backup solution, it's more towards redundancy. A backup is a complete different story.

The only guy here who is up to date with technology is Dawsey who is using Norton 360 - he's got 2GB of on-line storage where he can backup his valuable doc's & pictures far away from his home computer. If his PC burns down as Mr.DK says, it's all available within seconds at any place, any where;-))

Way to go Dawsey

ub2yoo · #13 18-05-2007, 04:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nautilus

Yeah i am running RAID on my pc...i think RAID 1.

You're running multiple disks at home in a RAID and you don't know for sure what you are doing really ?

MrDK · #14 18-05-2007, 04:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by dawsey

I'm a little like Livin LOS with back ups. I always burn photos onto CD/DVD and check they are there before formatting the memory card. Same with music, that goes on to DVDs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ub2yoo

Guys, you are all way off.
The only guy here who is up to date with technology is Dawsey who is using Norton 360 - he's got 2GB of on-line storage where he can backup his valuable doc's & pictures far away from his home computer. If his PC burns down as Mr.DK says, it's all available within seconds at any place, any where;

I seem to be reading something different ...

I do agree with on-line storage being the best. It is just recently that hosting companies have offered large volumes at a low price. In the past my hosting service was offering just 3GB and I have approximately 100GB in "My Documents". It just changed to 350GB for $6.95 per month. I will soon change to on-line backup.

ub2yoo · #15 18-05-2007, 05:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrDK

I seem to be reading something different ...

Dawsey has the stuff in-house, but un-installed it. He will at a later stage come back to it and realize what he holds in his hands ;-))

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrDK

I do agree with on-line storage being the best. It is just recently that hosting companies have offered large volumes at a low price. In the past my hosting service was offering just 3GB and I have approximately 100GB in "My Documents". It just changed to 350GB for $6.95 per month. I will soon change to on-line backup.

On-line storage becomes really cheap these days and it is the way going forward for home users !

MrDK · #16 18-05-2007, 05:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by ub2yoo

He will at a later stage come back to it and realize what he holds in his hands.

You truly realize what you hold (or don't) when all your data is gone. A few weeks ago I lost all my data as the hard crashed. I had back it up the night before. I were able to restore all but a couple of hours of work.

ub2yoo · #17 18-05-2007, 05:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrDK

You truly realize what you hold (or don't) when all your data is gone. A few weeks ago I lost all my data as the hard crashed. I had back it up the night before. I were able to restore all but a couple of hours of work.

You lucky guy ;-)

I must say, I always try to archive everything, old emails from previous jobs, documents etc. The truth is, I never used it again. If it's gone, who cares. As long as I keep an up to date CV available, all is okay;-)

At the very end, what really matters to me as a home user are the pictures. There's no way to get them back. It's the big drawback of digital photography. I also once have been very happy discovering an old music partition on one of my hdd's, but those I could get back from the net somewhere.

Anyway, back to the topic. For really productive stuff, take a look how your company would handle this. User data get's backed up on-line, at any given state you could get a new laptop and recover data within hours and continue working. That's how it should work for you guys at home as well. To burn data on DVD's from time to time in addition would be a no-brainer.

MrDK · #18 18-05-2007, 05:44

On the topic of archiving (productive or not). I clean up my computer once or twice a year and all files that I delete are moved to a removable media. I have boxed of that.

A couple of years ago I was remembering a letter I sent to my dad just before he died in 1987. Went through the old floppy disks and found it. It certainly wouldn't have been the end of the world if it was gone, but a nice walk down memory lane when I found it.

Nautilus · #19 18-05-2007, 06:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by ub2yoo

You're running multiple disks at home in a RAID and you don't know for sure what you are doing really ?

Running RAID 1+0

To me it's kinda backup.

mars · #20 23-05-2007, 03:05

I dont do a lot on this laptop just internet and photo's mainly.

I always burn my pics onto CD before I wipe my memory card.

When I was using my last PC i had a few picures on it wished I had copied but lost the lot, But then I never had a CD burner on it anyway just floppy disc and they dont hold a lot.

yamabthere · #21 23-05-2007, 03:22

I know I should back up more but like most I'm too lazy, got caught out on this once before though so now the really important stuff like pictures music and so on gets copied to CD.

IRISH JONNY · #22 23-05-2007, 03:37

I Never Back Mine Up..............only A Pile Of Useless Shite On It......5555.............ij