DISQUS

Justin · 1 year ago

For backups I have 4 500GB Western Digital Caviers in a RAID 5 configuration. I use a Rocketraid 2320. It's all in a Powermac G5. I use Time Machine over my gigabit network.
I haven't been let down yet.

Het · 1 year ago

I use an external harddrive with Norton Ghost and Beyond compare.

My Windows installation resides on my C drive and all my data on the D drive (mapping My Documents to D also to keep things simple).

Re-installing Windows with my programs, frequently, became tedious so rather than go through the whole painful process I now use Norton Ghost to clone my C drive and store the image files on an external HDD. If Windows fails or starts misbehaving then I can get my machine back up and running within 30mins...I also make OS backups each time I have a significant number of new programs configured and working trouble free. This really takes the pain out of hunting round for installation disks, serial numbers etc...

For data I found that Norton Ghost took too long (as it copies all files). Instead I use Beyond Compare. Each week I do a compare of the files on my external HDD and those on my machine and just sync over new/deleted/changed files.

External HDDs have the usual drawbacks and won't stop those pesky llamas but kept in a differnt room it's pretty safe. If you're seriously paranoid about your data then there's always those fireproof safes....but that could end up expensive and a pain if you're making daily backups...

sudopeople · 1 year ago

I think Drobos are awesome, but they're really too expensive for what they do. Online backups are a great idea because you lose nothing if your house catches on fire or someone robs you, but in my opinion they cost too much as well.

Personally, I use my webhost as a backup for really important stuff that I would feel crushed if I lost, photos or my family, important documents, etc. I also use a cheap Ubuntu box for almost everything I have. I use rsync to automate everything. It's free if you've got extra parts, or for the price of a Drobo (or less!), you've got a second computer that you can do tons of stuff with.
The stuff that I don't keep backed up to my host I keep a list of with an automated bash script, so if I lose my music for instance, I've got a list of what to redownload.

Fazal Majid · 1 year ago

I am probably far more paranoid than you as I back up my data to 4 different drives or arrays, two of them are RAID and thus already redundant. My home server runs Solaris and ZFS, then I back up overnight over my DSL line to a machine at work, and from there to a DLink DNS-323 configured in RAID 1 with 2 1TB drives.

If your backup set is less than 1TB, the DNS-323 is an excellent choice - cheap, relatively fast, very compact, quiet and power-efficient. As a side benefit, since it has an iTunes-compatible DAAP server, I can listen to my backed up music collection at work using iTunes sharing.

Pete · 1 year ago

Perhaps Google Docs is an option ? I havent tried it yet, but it is free.
It incorporates collaborative online editing of documents. Not sure tho' how it works storing big files such as movies.

Vince · 1 year ago

I use ElephantDrive (one of the online solutions). So far, so good.

http://www.elephantdrive.com

Other I've heard are good are Mozy and Carbonite.

Davage · 1 year ago

I'm a super Mozy supporter. They have almost 400GB of My Docs backed-up online through my truely unlimited account (@ $5/month) which includes my entire CD collection after it was FLACed and high VBRed MP3ed.

That data used to live on a dedicated media drive until it failed. I was able to pull all that data down from Mozy. Did it take FOREVER? Sure, but I had the data back.

I'm quite interested in checking out the other solutions mentioned above because I would like a home RAID as the first line of defence for quicker restores, but would still let Mozy hold on to the data in case anything happens to my office/house.

Winkyboy · 1 year ago

I was using Carbonite... until my system crashed and they couldn't retrieve my files. They apologized and refunded my money, but it's a little disappointing to have a backup system FAIL you. Now, I'm going to switch to https://www.zoogmo.com/ - It's like CrashPlan, but free. You provide the location to back up to, local OR remote - which is exactly what I WANT now, having tried an online system that failed.

Saj · 1 year ago

Open a Gmail account. I know it's simple, but you get roughly 5gb of space per account. You can always open more accounts (I have around 8 or 9) that are, needless to say, free. Spam-free, virus-free, and straight up free. That's pretty cool to me, especially since, using an Asus EEE PC, I don't get much in the harddrive category.

Bill · 1 year ago

1TB WD MYBook with Memeo AutoSync. I have it stored inside of a fireproof safe in my saferoom inside my bomb shelter. :-)

Jason · 1 year ago

Get the best of both worlds. There is an online backup product called Rhinoback that gives you the safety and security of online backup and also keeps a copy of your data locally. Rhinoback has a feature called "local backup", where you configure a local backup destination, use either a second drive or a network drive or something, you could even use a RAID array or Drobo for your local copy. Rhinoback then makes a copy on your local device and offsite at the same time. This gives you the ability to quickly restore from your local backup storage and you are also protected from that forrest fire or rampaging llamas with the offsite backup. You can find Rhinoback here www.rhinoback.com.

Juergen · 1 year ago

I use a layered approach based on multiple machines, NAS boxes, USB disks etc... my main (desktop) machine backs up all changed files of the last day with VersionBackup to a USB drive. Also, I regularly sync my data folders with a NAS drive in the Basement, and two laptops, one of which in turn gets synced with a USB disk stored at my workplace (which, of course, is encrypted). Some stuff (Pictures, for example) is also synced to a WebDAV folder at a hosting company. To wipe out ALL my data would take quite a bit of desaster - the chances that I'd survive that to moan my losses are rather small ;-)