Regular backups?

ph3onix · 12 Feb 2009 at 17:49

Alright guys,

I'm quite concerned about losing all the data off my computer if the hard drive goes. I've got all my uni work, plus photos, etc and would be gutted if i lost it all. So at the moment, every so many days I copy paste everything onto my iPod.

Just wondered if theres any more efficient method of regularly backing up data, onto an external harddrive? Its a laborious pain in the a*se task at the minute, making sure that I dont miss anything, or that I dont overwrite anything, etc.

caithomas44 · 12 Feb 2009 at 17:52

What OS are you running?

I am at uni too, the best softwrae i have found is actualy the built in Vista backup software, which takes a copy of everything and backs it up onto a £60 500gb WD Mybook

neon.uk · 12 Feb 2009 at 18:09

Yeah, you should back up anything important. I use Acronis True Image Backup onto and external hard drive which seems to work very well.

uber_cookie · 12 Feb 2009 at 18:13

just burn you data frequently onto cd/dvd, and as someone above sugested use Acronis or other software to make image of your windows partition.
you can get acronis personal edition for free. or you can try open source software called clonezilla

jbloggs · 12 Feb 2009 at 21:27

There are also many freeware utilities for this purpose (backing up to internal/external HDD), SynToy and SyncBack Freeware being two of them.....

Soc3chappd · 12 Feb 2009 at 21:32

There are loads of methods - the one i use is to add a 2nd hard drive internally rather than an external. This way the data transfers are faster.

haver a copy on c:/ my docs and then every week or so have one on D:/my docs and overwright all. Data transfer should be quick.

Ive begun to dislike external hard drives as ive had problems with 2 different Mybooks (WD) external hard drives. Personally i think internal satas are more stable, rather than externals.

If you want to avoid data crashing etc, then make sure you correctly shut down your system etc and not take short cuts like holding the power button for 10 secs :-)

- ive never had an internal hard drive fail on me yet.

You could also buy a dual layer DVD writer (most are these days) and back up onto 8.5gig dual layer discs.

Dont forget if you have another computer on the network you could share drives and have an additional back up system. Personally i wouldnt trust ipods as my main back up system.