I have just consolidated all my digital cameras, memory cards and family videos on to my 500GB laptop. Now, what's the best system for an external back-up?
Just get an external usb drive and copy everything over to it. Store the drive in a different building if you're paranoid.
Seagate external drives work well and come with idiot-proof software (works for me 🙂 ) which only backs up the directories you specify and only copies new data after the initial backup.
Maplins often have 1TB version on sale price.
Acronis true image. Onto a usb external hard drive.
Here's the cheapy seagate drive - still on sale at maplins;
[url= http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=257315 ]cheap 1TB drive[/url]
I have three now, along with a couple of Verbatim drives and some older seagate models - wedding photographers are all paranoid 😯
How much data to backup?
With a bit of effort, I've got over 100GB of stuff uploaded to Mozy which is 4.95 USD per month for unlimited storage.
If you've got shonky broadband, rotate a couple of external USB drives and keep one away from home.
[url= http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=c26efa36-98e0-4ee9-a7c5-98d0592d8c52&displaylang=en ]SyncToy[/url] is free and does a good job of sync'ing changes.
Is the seagate drive just a plug in and it goes. hate to admit it but I saw this one touch thing on QVC where it was simply plugged in to the usb and it did it all automatically and on subsequent back-ups it knew what it already had. Looked very easy indeedy.
Get an external drive and use this:
[url= http://www.aboutmyip.com/AboutMyXApp/DeltaCopy.jsp ]http://www.aboutmyip.com/AboutMyXApp/DeltaCopy.jsp[/url]
Yes, the seagate drive is a USB plug'n'play affair. It comes with some very simple software - a few left clicks to install. When you want to backup, you just open the prog and it backs up any new files it finds. Does it quickly and won't stop your computer in its tracks.
Please don't buy some no-name drive from a shopping channel - it'll all end in tears.
The advantage with an external drive (as opposed to an online solution) is that it's very quick. If you go down the online backup road, be prepared to leave your computer on all night (IME).
PC Experts, what is the best system for backing up a laptop, safely and easily?
There isn't one.
Drop the 'safely' and the world is your oyster!
Storage media change, constantly.
I have a 'house' full of gear that can do wax cylinders, 78/33/45 rpm vynil/shellac, 1/4" tape upwards, compact cassette, 8 track, etc.
That is before I get into the digital domain!
Consolidation is what your loft is for! 😀
What about a 1Tb solution the will work on a mac (FireWire) and has a USB for full O/S back up of a PC?
I have an old laptop with a shagged gfx card. It's now a makeshift server and I just push everything to that using rsync and a cronjob 🙂