[Closed] People who don't do 'puter backups

I wonder about this too. Although somehow, whilst backing up photos a while back, I actually managed to delete a load from both the computer and the backup drive. To this day I'm not sure how I managed it.

with dropbox being free and having an automated photo backup facility.... there really is no excuse

I just back all my stuff up to a site like megaupload where it's safe... oh 🙁

Dropbox (for important stuff only) and an external drive for everything for me.

with dropbox being free and having an automated photo backup facility.... there really is no excuse

It's only 2GB that's free (boosted up to a max of 18GB if you manage to make/fake enough referrals)

That's not really going to touch the 250GB of photos and videos I have sitting about.

Backup to NAS regularly, and don't delete pics from the camera until I've backed up to ANOTHER drive too. Not to mention the "best of" pics on flickr, and printed into an album.

Music and docs also backed up twice too.

People are stupid though.

My hdd failed and in an evil twist of fate my backup also went down (It was in the middle of revision for uni exams)
I now have everything backed up on my laptop, desktop then 2 other external devices and a flash drive just for good measure.

right royal PITA updating them all though.

That's not really going to touch the 250GB of photos and videos I have sitting about

you're not really a typical user are you 🙂 2GB free/18gb total is enough for most people I think.

People are stupid though.

Yeah. No off-site backup? 😉

Incidentally, I have no backups. I've had two hard drives fail and both times I worked the necessary magic to get all my files off them. 😀

you're not really a typical user are you 2GB free/18gb total is enough for most people I think.

You'd be surprised how quickly HD video and RAW photos adds up.

My memory cards are 8GB each.

[i]I've had two hard drives fail and both times I worked the necessary magic to get all my files off them.[/i]

You mean you've got away with it twice 😉

HD video and RAW photos adds up

you're not really a typical user are you

The point I'm trying to make is: even the typical joe-public user has access to low cost and hassle-free backup solutions these days. For others (who are shooting HD vids regularly etc) there are other solutions.... but we should know better anyway.

All my media sits on a 4tb RAID NAS, which is then subsequently backed-up to externals.... does it all automagically

No off-site backup?

Sort of. Second external drive is hidden away. Really ought to get a fire-safe to keep it in, just in case.

You mean you've got away with it twice

Yep! (I really should sort something out)

batfink: I don't think I'm [i]that[/i] atypical though. HD video is pretty common these days, even cameraphones take it, and I reckon quite a large number of folk using SLRs or bridge cameras will be shooting in RAW.

Well I've just been caught out, my backup drive has died with an unknown amount of photos on. I'm hoping I can find the original HDs I had with them on as have very few online. Yes I've been meaning to upload them and that's how I found out the external HD with the backups on is dead.

Yeah, I see you point Graham. Lots of my friends with Macs don't even use the timemachine facility.... and it doesn't get any easier than that. I guess people just don't think about it until it actually happens

Drac: what have you tried to fix it?

Get it out and into a USB cradle. See what Linux makes of it. Try SpinRite. Try freezing it. Try replacing the drive controller from an identical drive.

you're not really a typical user are you 2GB free/18gb total is enough for most people I think.

I'd have said I was a pretty light user - compact camera with no HD mode and only 8MP - and a quick check shows I have 3.7GB of photos and way more than 18GB of vids (non-HD footage from a helmet cam). Given typical HD sizes are now at least several hundred GB, what do you think people are filling them up with?

Yeah Graham that's another option too have heard of using Spinrite before and I can stick Linux on an old laptop unless there's some magic Macs do.

We bought an external drive and just copy over everything about every two months. External drives are so cheap these day it's be rude not to.

I've had enough computers stop working on me to know the mreits of backing up things.

Is there a simple, one click type backup program to use with widows? I've a 1tb drive, which I want to backup photos from laptop (which the iPad backs up to).
It's a faff simply selecting and copying new files across, as I hereto then on the laptop too. It's XP, and I recall a good one was on vista, but not XP...

Ta

DrP

Synctoy is useful, though requires some setting up
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=15155

I can stick Linux on an old laptop

Bootable USB stick is what I use.

Can't actually remember what's on it - but there is some Linux distro out there that is USB ready and has a whole bunch of drive recovery stuff on it.

Is there a simple, one click type backup program to use with widows?

Yeah - Windows.

Using google drive now, all pics on there, all important docs, staring to migrate the videos. Paid for extra space though

I put my removable backup drive in a safe place before I went on holiday. Now I've come to take my next backup I cant remember where I put it.
😳

Bootable USB stick is what I use.

Oh aye or that.

So much backup I won't mention as you may think I am a little OCD....

GrahamS - Member
Can't actually remember what's on it - but there is some Linux distro out there that is USB ready and has a whole bunch of drive recovery stuff on it.

[url= http://lubi.sourceforge.net/unetbootin.html ]Unetbootin[/url] is the probably the one mentioned above - you can load various Linux distros or recovery utilities.

HoratioHufnagel - Member
Synctoy is useful, though requires some setting up
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=15155
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+1 to this - more flexible than a straight backup as you can do two-way sync (e.g. keep a laptop and desktop up to date while editing stuff on both).

Unetbootin is the probably the one mentioned above

Yep sounds familiar, with SystemRecueCD I think.

http://www.sysresccd.org/SystemRescueCd_Homepage

All my photos are backed up to there different HDs, one of which lives in a fire safe.

EDIT Plus most of the good ones are on Flickr.

anyone using a raspberry pi as backup manager? I am thinking about getting one as an XBMC media centre and that + a NAS would be an obvious backup option.

Remember to back up to DVD as well in case of an EMP based incident/attack.

Not everyone is that clever on a pooter. ITunes always says back up purchases. I have absolutely no idea of what they are on about or how to do it.
Enlightenment please.

Is there a simple, one click type backup program to use with widows? I've a 1tb drive, which I want to backup photos from laptop (which the iPad backs up to).

Most of the better external HDDs come with some sort of software to backup. The Windows stuff is ok but since Win7 it tends to eat up HDD space by providing lots of copies of backups. The stuff that comes with the drive is sometimes simpler (I think the Synology one works with anyone's drives - try it http://ukdl.synology.com/download/ds/DR3/Data_Replicator_0149.zip)

The nicer external HDDs also let you back up to another USB drive you plug in. I would as often you delete stuff off your PC because you have a backup but that can die as well of course.

2tb external hard drive and SyncToy (actually pretty easy to set up - just choose your backup type carefully) and burn pics to DVD too... And all the best pics are on flickr (but it would be a pain to have to download 7500 pics from there) Is there a way to download your whole photostream in one go?

Three cheers for time machine - far too stupid to know what I'm doing so an idiot proof auto backup is a wonderful thing. No offsite though - may get around to that with this prompt...

Dropbox is only $49 /month for 500GB. Superb value in my opinion.

What can I say? I work in IT, used to be responsible for backups, but never backup my own stuff and never have done.
Never had a hard drive failure (do upgrade every year or so) and you haven't frightenened me into starting backups. My important stuff 30odd thousand music files is partly repeated on a couple of machines, but if i lost my music disk on my pc I'd lose a fair bit, although most of it is on my iPod.
S'only data innit.

1Tb external drive - clicky one button = backup done when I head off to bed once a month or so.
All good pics uploaded to Flickr, so that will remain pic backup resource as well. I was considering a Dropbox account, but would need to plug into somewhere with fibreoptic first time, not our rural broadband...

No backups=unrealistic trust in tech.
I like having 3 lines of defence
Time machine backups-immediate fallback
offsite weekly backup - just in case
online backblaze backup - extra assurance and a touch of immediacy

Does it work?
before xmas I dropped the 640GB drive that was almost full of my music and Aperture originals (formerly 'masters'). It worked OK afterwards for a day or two. Until I came to a few files that were obviously mangled. Unplugged the drive, got a fresh one and restored everything to its rightful order.

I have a NAS and several old hdd's full of copies of stuff, but these aren't really backup's are they? A backup should be to some sort of incorruptible media such as tape, or laterly dvd. I used to do regular DVD backups but lapsed for a while, and so am now in the position of needing to backup quite a lot more than is practicle to std DVD.
Haven't the cash off-hand for a blue ray recorder, but this is seemingly the way to go.

How much data can a blue ray store?

I use Time Machine for plug in and forget, but dropbox for stuff i want to be able to access at different locations. Every once in a while i clean dropbox up and move stuff to spideroak or google drive.

incorruptible media such as tape, or laterly dvd. I used to do regular DVD backups

DVDs generally last around 5 years before they start to deteriorate, less if you use cheap generic ones, so I'm not sure "incorruptible" is exactly accurate. 😕

I think thats being a tad ingenuous Graham, DVD like CD should last for up to 30-100 years if stored correctly. Though no, there's no guarantee, but are you suggesting a hdd in a NAS has a better life expectancy?
Or what would you suggest as an alternative for home use?

DesB:
Capacity
25 GB (single-layer)
50 GB (dual-layer)
100/128 GB (BDXL)

theflatboy - Member

anyone using a raspberry pi as backup manager? I am thinking about getting one as an XBMC media centre and that + a NAS would be an obvious backup option.

just to ask this again in case anyone has any light to shed?

Not sure that the Pi would bring anythign to the process?

My NAS came with Memeo backup which manages the whole process for all the devices on the network.

I find the safest way is to print everything off, that way I have a hard copy that's kept safe. 😛

wwaswas - Member

Not sure that the Pi would bring anythign to the process?

yeah i see what you mean, actually - being a bit dim there. so would have the NAS doing its NASy business but also connected to the pi to get stuff off it to play through the AV system.

don_simon's Simpsons movie collection;

[i]DVDs generally last around 5 years before they start to deteriorate[/i]

That's what they said when CDs & DVDs first came out. I think I've only ever seen 1 disk become unusable just due to age.
The first CD I bought was in 1990 (Teenage Fanclub "Everything Flows") and it's still fine 🙂

I think thats being a tad ingenuous Graham, DVD like CD should last for up to 30-100 years if stored correctly.

Quality of DVDs varies enormously - 5 years would be doing well if you are using no-name DVDs from the supermarket and you won't be seeing 100 years unless you are using expensive archive quality DVDs with stabilized dyes and special plastics.

The American Library of Congress has done some good work on this. [url= http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving/documents/media_durability.pdf ]Here is the simple guide to their recommendations (PDF).[/url]

In one study they artificially aged DVD products:

There were fifteen DVD products tested, including five DVD-R, five DVD+R, two DVD-RW and three DVD+RW types. There were ninety samples tested for each product. Fig. 6 shows the results for DVD media. Overall, seven of the products tested had estimated life expectancies in ambient conditions of more than 45 years. Four products had estimated life expectancies of 30-45 years in ambient storage conditions. Two products had a estimated life expectancy of 15-30 years and two products had estimated life expectancies of less than 15 years when stored in ambient conditions.

-- http://www.loc.gov/preservation/resources/rt/NIST_LC_OpticalDiscLongevity.pdf

The first CD I bought was in 1990 (Teenage Fanclub "Everything Flows") and it's still fine

BIG difference between a pressed CD and a writable CD that has reactive dyes in it.
(think printed book versus notebook in biro)

Or what would you suggest as an alternative for home use?

DVDs + Cloud backup. Make it someone else's problem.

😀

They still said bought CDs would deteriorate!

They still said bought CDs would deteriorate!

They got better at pressing CDs.

There have been advances in writable DVD/CDs too - but ultimately you have a dye that reacts to light and can break down over long periods of time. Archival DVDs use a more expensive stabilised dye to improve their lifetime, but you won't find them in five-packs at Poundland.

We bought an external drive and just copy over everything about every two months

You're OK with losing 2 months worth of work? Don't mean to pick on you, but ... ouch 🙁

A while ago I had 2 external backup HD fail more or less simultaneously. Sh1t happens. Now I have 2 Time Machines, 2 HDD with my photos duplicated (one of each off-site), documents on Dropbox, and online Backblaze backup. Paranoid? ... not really 🙂

[i]a dye that reacts to light [/i]

A-ha! So don't leave them out on the windowsill?

My photos are on 2 hard drives at home and a third at work. If it's not on at least 2 devices in 2 separate locations then it isn't backed up. The fire or theft that takes out your computer is can take out your back up as well.

DrJ - Member
You're OK with losing 2 months worth of work? Don't mean to pick on you, but ... ouch

I'd be really frustrated to lose even a day's work.

A-ha! So don't leave them out on the windowsill?

Definitely don't leave them in any kind of light. Storing them properly can triple their lifetimes*

But the dye starts to break down eventually anyway.

* (note: the ones in that LoC/NIST study were properly stored with only temperature and relative humidity varied and they used optimal recorders etc)