BACKING-UP YOUR PC INFORMATION

[Soldier415]

I use Carbonite. Automatically backs up to the cloud any time a file is created or modified.

 

[rekees4300]

I use Carbonite. Automatically backs up to the cloud any time a file is created or modified.

I don't backup anything to the "cloud" 1). Rural 20GB monthly data cap couldn't handle it 2). Data is more susceptible to hackers.

I prefer to keep everything local and under MY control as much as possible. Backups are done to external hard drives.

 

[vvanders]

I don't backup anything to the "cloud" 1). Rural 20GB monthly data cap couldn't handle it 2). Data is more susceptible to hackers.

I prefer to keep everything local and under MY control as much as possible. Backups are done to external hard drives.

I totally understand #1 but I'd happily put $50 against #2 with any of the major providers mentioned here.

The chances of a zero-day exploit are much higher against consumer hardware/setup. Doesn't even have to be your main PC if you have wifi, as people are finding out with all these cheap IoT devices.

Unless you're regularly taking those hard-drives to a safe off-site backup all it takes is one fire or natural disaster to lose the data. Every cloud provider I know uses multiple availability zones to mitigate this exact issue.

If you're really worried about control just use strong encryption and store the private key somewhere safe.

 

[zzvyb6]

I backup to a 64GB microSD card. BUT, I NEVER leave the card in the slot in case some of those Dr. Evil Aholes try to scramble my files for a ransom. Its a LOT faster than loading DVDs and cheaper than buying an outboard drive. You can put a system recover package together on them, too.

 

[fordmantpw]

I totally understand #1 but I'd happily put $50 against #2 with any of the major providers mentioned here.

The chances of a zero-day exploit are much higher against consumer hardware/setup. Doesn't even have to be your main PC if you have wifi, as people are finding out with all these cheap IoT devices.

Unless you're regularly taking those hard-drives to a safe off-site backup all it takes is one fire or natural disaster to lose the data. Every cloud provider I know uses multiple availability zones to mitigate this exact issue.

If you're really worried about control just use strong encryption and store the private key somewhere safe.

Bingo!

 

[coffeeman]

Yep.

And for system config info, use Clonezilla. When I build or buy a new computer, it gets cloned even before the first boot up. That way, I can restore the hard drive exactly as it was before first boot. All partitions, including the OEM restore partition.

Then I install all of my programs, set everything up the way I want it, but without any of my data on it, and clone it that way.

It's sort of like setting a restore point, but MUCH better, and it's stored away from the drive that is being cloned, so it won't be lost if the drive dies.

You can put the cloned image on any kind of external storage; USB, DVD, whatever.

Lets say I had 2 identical computers. 1 is main computer and second is backup of all programs. If I clone hard drive to portable one, can I move portable hard dr to twin and make twin exactly same as main machine? Then, if drive goes in one, will clone reload to new drive and still have 2 computers and one clone unit?
Is this easy to do , if possible.

Cheers.....Coffeeman

 

[JamesHW]

Our ancient Thinkpad was showing signs of screen failure in addition to many cracks and certain keys not responding, so I simply purchased a replacement laptop of the exact same model off of eBay for $50 that arrived in near new condition. I swapped the hard drive from the old one to the "new" laptop and it was like nothing happened. Windows asked to be registered and did so by clicking ok.

 

[MossRoad]

Lets say I had 2 identical computers. 1 is main computer and second is backup of all programs. If I clone hard drive to portable one, can I move portable hard dr to twin and make twin exactly same as main machine? Then, if drive goes in one, will clone reload to new drive and still have 2 computers and one clone unit?
Is this easy to do , if possible.

Cheers.....Coffeeman

Look for a program called Clonezilla. You can make the portable disk bootable. Then you create backup images of your computers with it. If something goes south on your computer, you boot from the portable drive and restore from the image you made with Clonezilla.

 

[dmccarty]

I mentioned in a previous post about how I backup with a variety of plugable hard drives, USB thumb drives, USB hard drives and some DVDs.

For years I have looked at archival quality BD's but the price has been more than I was willing to pay. However, the price for the media has fallen and the drive to use the media is about $100 so the price has gotten to a point where I might buy. I was hoping to see the prices drop during the sales around Thanksgiving but there was no joy.

There are two major directories I need to backup. One is just document, PDF, spreadsheet files and the other is photographs. The one directory is pretty easy to backup since it is not that bad but the photographs take up over 250GB. :shocked: The problem with using the BD's is time to save vs using a couple of 128GB flash drives.

I suspect that over the holidays I will by the BD and drive and create the backups. In the future I would burn another BD for new files. The BD will be stored offsite.

Later,
Dan

 

[JamesHW]

I just use a $23 hard drive docking sled and have a couple of Western Digital 500 GB drives I alternate with system backups and straight up folder backups. Email is mostly online, but my main, original email account is periodically downloaded to our windows 7 laptop and has been exported to yearly pst files that get copied out to the external dives as archive. A rolling version of the current year gets updated monthly or more frequently based on activity. My priority has always been data backup over system. we use Evernote as a cross platform organizational program so pics and ideas get saved there. We've never put any banking or financial info on our devices and use the phone and snail mail for that stuff, although we have a number of accounts online linked to AMEX card for payments (we only use the debit locally at stores we trust).

 

[Oaktree]

Look for a program called Clonezilla. You can make the portable disk bootable. Then you create backup images of your computers with it. If something goes south on your computer, you boot from the portable drive and restore from the image you made with Clonezilla.

Clonezilla is good for what it is, and you can't beat the price!! My only quibble with it is that it maintains partition size...if you clone an (for example) 80gig drive to a 1TB one, you have all your data on an 80gig partition. Yeah, you can use a partitioning program to remedy that, but it's an extra step. I use Ghost myself.

I don't backup anything to the "cloud" 1). Rural 20GB monthly data cap couldn't handle it 2). Data is more susceptible to hackers.

I prefer to keep everything local and under MY control as much as possible. Backups are done to external hard drives.

Another concern would be is the cloud provider going to still be there when I need it? Tech companies go feet up all the time, though I suppose if you stuck with MS or Google you could be reasonably sure they'll be in business for the foreseeable future. Computer Joe's Backups R Us, maybe not.

On a regular basis I backup the data drive/folder to a NAS with auxiliary backup software, including the C:\USERS\xxx folders. And the NAS is backed up occasionally to a USB drive.

A NAS is a good thing to have, a RAIDed NAS even better. Maybe a little beyond what a non-tech savvy person would be able to set up though.

 

[MossRoad]

Clonezilla is good for what it is, and you can't beat the price!! My only quibble with it is that it maintains partition size...if you clone an (for example) 80gig drive to a 1TB one, you have all your data on an 80gig partition. Yeah, you can use a partitioning program to remedy that, but it's an extra step. I use Ghost myself.

Its been a while, however, I recall an option in the advanced settings where you can specify to either maintain the same partition(s) size(s) on the target disk or expand it to fill the target disk.

 

[dmccarty]

I just use a $23 hard drive docking sled and have a couple of Western Digital 500 GB drives I alternate with system backups and straight up folder backups...

I do the same. However, I bought a 1TB hard drive earlier in the year to replace my 750GB drive. Never had the time to swap the drives though. :thumbdown: I just ordered a external USB enclosure that will hold the 750GB drive when I swap out the drives over the holiday. Which got me thinking about buying plain hard drives in the future and just swapping them out using the USB enclosure.

When I was looking at the USB enclosures, I noticed how much SSD's have dropped in price. The laptop has a 500GB SSD but the larger SSDs had dropped in prices to a point that makes me think about upgrading.

Later,
Dan