One of my pet non home building topics is computer data and it's safety. Safety falls into 2 categories as I see it. [1] Do you have duplicate (backup) copies of your files? [2] Can somebody steal your information?
This is to do with Category [1]
I don't have statistics handy, but I do believe that more people talk about how backing up your files is important than there are people who actually do something about it. I have used everything from floppies (way back), tape drives, removable hard disks, CD's, DVD's. As my collection of data grows it becomes more difficult. For several years I've used my most recent obsolete desktop computer as a place to copy the data files to. It would sit in a corner, either run all the time or get turned on/off along with the other computers in use. Since '82 I can recall experiencing 6 hard drive crashes or system failures traced to bad drives.
The computer in the corner began doing bad things last month. Something bad (heat related) in the motherboard was causing erratic performance and crashes. Instead of repairing it, or buying another new computer, I took another route. Yes, I passed up an opportunity to buy a new computer... don't know what came over me. :-\
I bought four Seagate external drives, 1 x 500 GB and 3 x 250 GB. USB plugin, separate power supply. They virtually set themselves up in minutes. They appear in Windows Explorer as extra drive letters. They can be shared on the network. They come with backup software that's simple to use. It's a little more limited than Second Copy (see below). But it's so simple anyone could get it going in no time.
Two 250 GB drives are strictly for storing duplicated data, photos, documents, etc. from our desktop and laptops. The 500 GB drives is for a complete system backup of the desktop. The third 250 drive will hold complete system backups for the laptops. Lots of redundancy.
Both the Second Copy and Seagate software look for files that have changed since the last backup and only copy them. SC gives you the option of saving replaced/changed files for a user specified number of backups.
Second Copy:
My favorite data backup software has been Second Copy 2000 (http://www.centered.com/), ever since I discovered it in '01. They now have a 2007 version, but there's little difference tat I can see. At $30 it's cheap and it works. It simply copies files from one place to another. There's no proprietary compression system. The files copied to the destination drive can be read one at a time just like they can on the computer you use. If the primary drive crashes I can pull the backup disk and install it and be working in no time. The software can be set to run at whatever interval you want. It is more versatile than the Seagate software in that it gives complete control of file selection. However, it will not backup files that are in use so it's no good for system backup. The backup software that's built into the recent Windows OS does a good system backup and it's already installed.
The 250 GB drives were less than $90 apiece at amazon.com. A great deal. The 500 GB $140.
And these drives are so small they can be hidden on a nearby shelf or under the desk. If someone was to break in and start hauling off computers and other electronics they'd likely overlook these.
I bought a 250 pre-last crash -- saved a lot but not all -
I need to get after it again before the next one comes. It's not a matter of if it will come --- it's when it will come.
You got that right.
These are so easy to set up there's no excuse for data loss.
I use external drives also Don. Pictures go on DVD too.
I use Ghost to make an image of the hard drive on my computer once a month. That goes on CD.
Ghost is nice and simple. Even with a catastrophic crashm just put in a new HD, boot to the ghost CD and restore. You have your old computer back.
I've wondered about Ghost... have to give it another thought. Thanks for the comments, Peter.
Ghost is what we use in our office for the workstations. Bare metal restore at its best.