PC back up strategy.

Just leave the HD permanently attached and switched on. I use a program called HandyBackup for work that does my work every hour (actually I have 2 backup drives that get a backup every hour, but staggered 30 minutes, one drive that goes into my briefcase and comes home every day), but obviously only copied items that have changed, not the whole lot every time.
You only need to copy your documents, but don't forget your browser bookmarks and address book files.
There are plenty of backup programs, but for me it was necessary to get one that just copied the individual files over instead of just creating a single huge backup file that could only be accessed by doing a full re-install. Sometimes you just need to dip into it and copy a file back.
I do get computer failures, but I've never lost more than 10 minutes work and a couple of emails. I've always backed up and it wasn't the result of once bitten.
I worked for an Architects practice once where they didn't back up for years. They didn't know that I did it for them on the quiet just in case, but when they had a major crash they had pissed me off big time, so I never told them.

I do exactly the opposite. I back up to the external HD and then put it in a safe. You need protection against theft as well as equipmwent failure.

Fraser

Surely you don't want all copies on the same premises? Fire?

Howard

If you’re using it to backup music and video, just copy the PC’s hard drive to the external drive every couple of weeks. Keeping it in a safe/hidden place is definitely good advice. Under the kitchen cabinets is my favourite hiding place. (for valuables).

Remember data is not backed up unless the backups exist in three separate places and when restored the data from at least two backups must be exactly the same.

Do you work for the Pentagon Roy? Does the future of the world rely on Howard's backups? WILL MANKIND DIE IF HOWARD LOSES HIS DATA?
Fuck...this is more serious than I thought!

Howard,

An even simpler/dumber question is WHAT do you want to backup?
How important that you do not lose any data at all?
Not to mention How much moola to throw at the backup strategy...

For my Dad, I got an external USB HDD, and he simply uses 'drag and drop' of his "My Documents" folder to the external HDD. This is certainly not comprehensive by any means, but it is easy for him to both understand and to do. In addition, he is more than happy to retrieve files from his backup. Saying this it did take a bit of persuasion and teaching to file all his documents under that folder...

For the OS, I simply run Ghost to save an entire image onto the HDD. This is only done occasionally, like 2-3 times a year.

My main problem was remembering what I had on the PC before my "expert" restored it. Also confirmation e-mails of things I had bought. Fortunately most suppliers will sent you replacement/copies of keys required. Music Collector even allowed me the latest update which was a pay one. Drag and drop seems to work for me as well, I was just wondering what others did out of interest.
Re: "Howards Data loss and the fall of Civilisation" it hapened Wednesday last week and the planet still seems to be spinning and as yet no visits from 5 or 6.

Howard

I would usually start by reading the instruction manual that came with the external drive, that way you will understand what exactly it is that you have purchased....

It depends on what sort of installation you run. If you're a typical home PC punter (as I am at the moment) I'd expect a regular backup to an external drive would be fine. However if you're a professional user (as I am at work) you should think of a fire safe(s) and use off-site storage. It all depends on how valuable your data is to you and a potential thief.

quote:

Originally posted by Roy T:
Remember data is not backed up unless the backups exist in three separate places and when restored the data from at least two backups must be exactly the same.

Here we have one daily set of tapes at the company and one weekly set at the bank (300 workstations). According to ISO that's enough. Two backups exactly the same at any time ? For this we'd need one person doing permanent trips between the company and the bank.

Thanks Macker the instructions say in pictures open box plug in power supply plug in USB lead viola working.
BTW it is exactly an external hard drive.

Looks like I'll have to invest in one of these beasts!

Nearly lost the PC following the nest move. It's been playing up, badly ever since, rebooting at will and even getting to the point where I couldn't even boot into safe mode to try and assort out the problem.

Yet last night, I came home and Mrs S was happily surfing on the web! Outlook had stopped working though and complaining that something was up. I tried a repair - no good. I tried a re-install, still no good so I un installed it completely, together with Word and Excel which were working fine and re-installed from scratch - still no good.

I finally managed to find a restore point from two days before the nest move and restored back to that et voila we got mail! (albeit from our soon to be defunct email addresses not the new one)

I wasn't too worried about losing data as all important files had been backed up onto DVDs and the most important ones had been transferred to my laptop BUT it was my music files in itunes that I was worried about. OK they're all on CD (I've only got one downloaded track in my collection) but I didn't fancy having to spend the time feeding my entire CD collection back into the PC.

quote:

Re: "Howards Data loss and the fall of Civilisation" it hapened Wednesday last week and the planet still seems to be spinning and as yet no visits from 5 or 6.

Was it the exact moment the bridge collapsed?

It is very important to back-up data as this news item explains - please ignore the intro advert about Flash Gordon - the news clip comes after it. click here

Hmm,

In terms of a backup strategy I would have suggested that you researched the external drive before you bought it. There are some excellent ones which cost a little more that basically back up all documents, profiles and installed software with little user configuration when your PC is idle. By far the best option for the IT illiterate.

At the other end of the scale and if cost is the issue then why not buy an internal drive (far cheaper than an off the shelf external in an enclosure); an enclosure (£20 or less) and use MS SyncToy, which is a free download and very easy to understand? Surprised no one else has mentioned it.

Mike

A lot depends what you want to do with a backup. My son has a laptop [Dell] which came with a lot of software pre-installed [we have all the disks but I know re-installing windows is a pain]. It has options of resetting to factory default but I don't consider this adequate.

My main worry is hard disk failure and for this I made an image backup using an external usb disk and the bootable system-rescue-cd systemrescuecd.org . We even managed to restore the disk from this .. so if the hard-drive fails it should be easy to just insert a new drive and restore everything. This system assumes familiarity with unix/linux. [All the sofrware is free]. It is fairly complicated.

A commercial solution was reviewed in the register a while back : BounceBack and it looks quite good but I have no idea of prices and no experience of it.

For backing up data I would suggest using just 'drag and drop' to an external hard drive and also copies to DVD.

James H.