Backup your data!

Tech, TV, Mobile, Internet and Geek Corner
21
Just today the word 'burglary' popped into my head after I'd finished doing something on the laptop. I thought then that I really MUST get the external hard drive out.......and I'm working the night shift tonight so hope everything is safe and I'm not having a premonition!!

22
Kinda shame if you're limited to sticking with Apple products just to get your stuff done now... :\

23
I bought one of those, there are very stable and reliable:

Lacie external hard drives

(change language by clicking on the very bottom right of the page)

24
So are you telling me I need to install a backup for my backup system? This could go on and on and on and on...

fduvall

25
I stand corrected, however I am not going to leave that to chance myself.

No, it seems if you have a one-to-one with timecapsule or multiple backups at different times then it should not be a problem.

I have used timemachine to single disks on a one-2-one basis and not had a problem with that so far in a couple of years.

I was just adding a sense of caution based on my own experience that you need to be careful. Mind you the worse sin of all is no backup at all.

I did a project last year to centralise all my notes, code, etc onto one server rather than having various iterations on different Apple iMac's or macbooks so I bought a Mac Mini Server for this purpose. The information and knowledge I have there is worth a lot to me, so if for some reason it was to die, then I want more than one backup of the data, that is all. Cost to replace my work = 24 months, cost to setup secondry method = 1 days pay. Not a hard choice for me.

26
Time machine is great.

A couple of posters have mentioned online services, any recommendations?

Is it possible to get online backup as large as 50 or 100gb? Are they reputable/affordable?

27
Depending on how fast your upload link is, it could take a while to do massive on-line backups...

Besides, even with all the assurances in the world, I don't think I'd be backing up some of my more personal bits and pieces of info to an online site which is managed by someone else. Well, you can always encrypt your data, but you takes your chances.

I personally find it adequate to put a few hundred CHF on 2 or 3 external disks and rotate those as my backups, keep one disk at your parents place or a bank vault as appropriate (if you trust those).

28
Initially sure, but then it's just incremental

I do worry about this, hence the request for reputable firms, I don't want to go uploading to some dodgy company with a .ru domain.

I don't see myself being organised enough to accomplish this.

29
Try www.xsafe.ch . I signed-up last week.

30
Indeed But will it work this way if you want to backup... say a 2 gig PST file of our Outlook emails?

Any change in a massive DataBase style file may (if the backup software doesn't allow bit-level change backups) result in the entire file being transferred back to the online backup site...

Then again, I do not know what data you're backing up... I for example have only a few hundred megs of documents, and these are the files I'd be backing up. If you're looking for 50 or 100gigs of online storage, you may have some more pressing needs than mine.

I hear you buddy, I hear you. But in ANY case, use PGP or some other software to fully (and using a strong encryption key) encrypt your data. Unfortunately, it sounds like you may need to do such encryption on a regular basis unless you setup something automated (which is fully possible with some of the better programs out there), which brings me to...

...which is sort of the same issue above, i.e. if you need to manually encrypt your data before uploading to an online storage, you might as well use your own disks. Otherwise, you may run the risk of uploading non-encrypted data to your on-line storage.

But whatever works best for you, and whatever makes you feel that your data is secure

31
Carbonite is "unlimited" for storage, although if you read the t&c's they can limit your account size if they wish.

I've backed up 50gb with them, no problem, took about 3 weeks to complete. Performed a few test restores too and it's dead simple.

I don't have any ultra-sensitive documents, it's mainly photos and music that I've backed up. You could always encrypt the data before backing it up I guess?

32
A simple rule of hard disks: they have 2 states, working and not working. They tend to switch from the first to the second very quickly.

33
I was seriously going to recommend QNAP NAS - but it has crashed on me TWICE within a span of 1 week, sending me into cardiac arrest, seeing that all my music, videos and photos were on there.

34
Yes, I'm switching to SSDs and hope that they will be more reliable...

35
Which model was this and did you update with the latest firmware and use disks that are on their official list of supported devices?

I don't have one, but have been considering it after a few friends of mine have enjoyed theirs for several years now... *shrug*

Always good to hear alternative reviews.

36
Aren't Carbonite the firm that "lost" 7,500 customers backup data last year?

http://www.boston.com/business/techn...are_suppliers/

Aside - You can never have too many backups, but 3 copies of your data should be enough for most. Original -> local backup -> offsite backup (online or Harddisk in cellar ) .

This is the also principle we use where we work, working with many PetraB of customer disk based data and backups (well apart from the copy in the cellar bit ).

Pat

37
Good question, I'll be pointing the tech whizz in the family (my dog) to this thread.

38
I am a PC user and I have an application from Techsoft that mirrors (shadows) selected files from one partition to another. You can select real time or scheduled mirroring. I do backup, but am happy knowing I have more than one copy of important data.

39
i wouldn't recommend external HDD for backup. they are capacious, but i've found them to be very unreliable. they use hard disks and are normally enclosed with insufficient airflow/cooling.

40
Sort-of what I do now, but hope to take it one step further. Main location for data is a NAS (running RAID-5) which is backed-up to portable drive which is kept in the office.

Have on order a second NAS as I need more space. Old NAS will be moved off-site (not sure where yet) and will do incremental backups.

Will also make backups of data to a portable drive.