Your Backup Software Choice

[dbhost]

So what are the pro's and cons of backing up to a cd/dvd? I have heard that they only last so long and you start to lose data.

That and CDs are limited to 700MB of data, Dual Layer DVDs are somewhere near 9GB, which won't even come close to backing up my home movies from last month...

[JimD]

I don't think anything is completely foolproof but a CD or DVD seems significantly more secure to me than a hard drive. Any two things seem more secure than any one.

I compress my files with second copy because I am backing up several gigabytes - a couple whole data sets in one case and a whole bunch of powerpoints in the other - and I do not want to waste space on the server. The backup file is just a zip file. I haven't tried restoring anything yet, haven't needed to, but I've never had a problem with zip files. I have looked at them and they seem normal (I checked to see that the contents are what they are supposed to be).

With second copy, you have a choices to make but things are very simple. You just point out what files you want it to copy, whether you want them compressed or not, how often you want to make the copies, and where you want the copies put. I have it copy my WORD files and Excel files daily into one large zip file on a server that's backed up daily and I have all my PowerPoint files backed up into another zip file on the same server once a week. My logic is in how much I am willing to loose. Second copy works in the background but affects my laptop some while it is working. I does incremental backups so they don't take very long unless there is a lot of new files.

I tried second copy for a couple weeks before buying it. You get a daily reminder you haven't bought it yet but otherwise it functions normally when you are test driving.

Jim

[leehljp]

Time Machine! Add Time Capsule to that. Auto backup daily in the background.

First backup is total, after that, changed or added files only, but the succeeding backups does not overwrite the preceding file, so that you can go back to the original or anything in between, Just go back to the date that you want and see what the notes were on that day and it is there.

Accessible in an instant; WPA2 personal or enterprise protected - what ever that is.

I have about 80 gig of data total on my laptop and LOML has about 40 gig of data on hers.

[sparkeyjames]

The Linux dd and rsync commands are my software solution. With hard drives so cheap I just buy another larger drive and then clone the whole drive with the dd command. But doesn't that take up lots of time as apposed to an incremental backup? answer, Well ya gotta sleep sometime. Usually every Sunday morning from 2am till whenever it's done. With the Windows stuff this is easy because my Windows system rarely changes unless I add a new game or do my taxes.

With my main Linux system were I do most of my work/surfing. I do a weekly dump to a hard drive, plus I rsync over my network to my laptop as well. This means that no matter what system Tower/Laptop I'm on it's user directories are an exact clone or at least near enough as to not make much of a difference. As such rsync is an incremental backup solution. Also my linux user account directories are on a different hard drive from the system stuff. So if the system drive takes a dump I install a new drive. Install a new system (about a half hour) and remount the user directories and I'm up and running again 45 minutes tops. If the user hard drive dies I install the backup drive and then rsync any files lost back over from the laptop. Ta Da.

Yes I did lose a few drives without a backup. Pissed me off. Won't happen again.

One of these days I'm going to have to get my 24gig scsi tape drive operational as of now it just sits in the case sucking up electricity. The only problem with a tape drive is the time it takes to verify all the files.

[MilDoc]

If SecondCopy, minus compression, simply copies files, why not just do a Windows "copy" using a macro? That's what I've done for years.

[Alex Franke]

I'm using Carbonite.com - secure, brain dead simple, behind-the-scenes, online backup. There's a pretty detailed thread on online backup services here: http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=39352

[LarryG]

If SecondCopy, minus compression, simply copies files, why not just do a Windows "copy" using a macro?

Second Copy gives you quite a few additional options that are pretty powerful.

For example, the above is what SC calls a "Simple Copy." At work we mostly use what it calls an "Exact Copy" in which all new and modified files on the source are copied to the destination, AND any obsolete files (ones which have been deleted or renamed on the source) are deleted on the destination. If we didn't do this, we'd have to do a lot of manual housecleaning on the destination drive because in the course of developing a project we tend to develop a lot of files for design studies and alternate schemes that eventually get deleted.

For my personal stuff, I mostly use the "Synchronize" option in which the copying is done both ways, as when keeping two computers in synch. I do this with my computers at work and at home, with a 16GB thumb drive as the middleman. No matter when I last modify a file, SC automatically makes sure I have the latest version on all three.

That's just scratching the surface but you get the idea. It's probably possible to do most or all of what it does via batch files or scripts, but SC makes it dead easy to put it all together.

[radhak]

When I was looking, I compared SecondCopy and Acronis TrueImage. The reason I went with ATI was that SC is built for data backup; it does not handle windows system and registry files.

ATI does it all - including complete disk clone, alongwith all the other regular stuff, and I needed that.

That's just an FYI, in case it matters for you.