How do you guys maintain backups?

[civint]

Question as in the title, really:
how do you keep backups?
Do you use an external hard drive and manually copy files, do you use an application like time machine/time machine clones, do you use windows' own backup solution? Do you keep many copies or backups, or just one?

Tell and discuss why you use!

I manually copy files onto a 500GB external hard drive, but also use dropbox, a smalle hard drive, usb thumb drives etc to store my backups (infrequent dumps on external, documents saved to dropbox and a usb thumb drive frequently/when I need them off-site).

Generally I try to follow the 'rule of three' for backups:

• Keep your files in three locations
• Backup your files following three different schedules
• Utilize three types of media
  
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since years of using linux has taught me the value of backups (I still dont do large scale backups often, which is a bad habit, really).

I also use windows live sync to keep files synched between my desktop and my laptop (a sort of backup, I suppose).

Does anyone use a good backup app?

 

[Tews]

I do all my backups with Acronis True Image daily to an external hard drive.. I have an initial install image, and a current image.. Thats it..

 

[whs]

I take a daily image with free Macrium. That saved my bacon already a few times. I have scheduled it to automatically start at Boot-up and use an external disk for it. From time to time I cleanup the image file and retain only a few in a "monthly" backup file. But I always keep the one I took right after initial installation - kind of in lieu of the factory recovery partition.

 

[smarteyeball]

Tell and discuss why you use!

Sir, sir! Do we get extra marks for this?

 

[pparks1]

#1) I keep all of my important files on a dedicated file server in the back room of my house
#2) I keep a second hard drive in the server which is synchronized very 6 hours with a robocopy script
#3) I keep 2 external drivers (1 off site), where I run robocopy and mirror up the data on my server to the external drive. These are synced about once per week.

#4) On my workstation, I do a "system image" using Acronis about once per month. Image my C drive to my D drive. I have nothing of real value on my workstation so I don't need much in terms of backup for that.

 

[Aphelion]

I make weekly image backups using Macrium, very fast & does a nice job compressing the image to almost 1/2 it's original size. The image is kept on a separate drive used for storage.

Also will make an image before any major install.

Ap

 

[A Guy]

I make weekly backups with 3 different methods. I make 2 images with Acronis True Image. Then I make 1 backup with Paragon Drive Backup 9.5 Professional. Then I make 1 backup with Windows native backup. All to a 2nd internal HDD. I'm counting on Acronis to save me if needed, but I have backup backups

A Guy

 

[lior]

I use an external hard drive (USB) which is also encrypted. I don't really care much for the installation itself but the actual files are what's important. I have the original installation CD so the system is not a problem to replace. The files you can't replace.

 

[Shadowjk]

Question as in the title, really:
how do you keep backups?
Do you use an external hard drive and manually copy files, do you use an application like time machine/time machine clones, do you use windows' own backup solution? Do you keep many copies or backups, or just one?

Tell and discuss why you use!

I manually copy files onto a 500GB external hard drive, but also use dropbox, a smalle hard drive, usb thumb drives etc to store my backups (infrequent dumps on external, documents saved to dropbox and a usb thumb drive frequently/when I need them off-site).

Generally I try to follow the 'rule of three' for backups:

• Keep your files in three locations
• Backup your files following three different schedules
• Utilize three types of media
  
  ​

• ​

since years of using linux has taught me the value of backups (I still dont do large scale backups often, which is a bad habit, really).

I also use windows live sync to keep files synched between my desktop and my laptop (a sort of backup, I suppose).

Does anyone use a good backup app?

I Have a WD Mybookworld network Drive and I backup Manually and I use WD anywhere Backup

 

[gregrocker]

Every few months I drag the User files from each our seven home computers over the network onto an external where I replace the previous set,

then about every six months I plug the external to each computer and save a Win7 Backup Image, rename it slightly to place in the specific computer's folder alongside User folders and a baseline image taken after setup.

I consider this the stripped-down manual method as I don't like backup programs that use computer resources and take up more space than is needed.

 

[Shadowjk]

You could do it that way but an Advantage with a Network Drive and WD Backup is that it is constantly backing up files as long as you are connected

 

[DirtRider]

Well I now use Win7 backup and do it once a week to an external 2TB drive. Seeing the world won't stop if I lose all my data I think this is ok for me

 

[Little Darwin]

Carbonite.

I used to use an external hard drive, but it started to be really slow on some actions occassionally, which to me indicated an impending failure. I signed up for Carbonite instead of buying a new external drive.

 

[whs]

Carbonite.

I used to use an external hard drive, but it started to be really slow on some actions occassionally, which to me indicated an impending failure. I signed up for Carbonite instead of buying a new external drive.

I think external disks are essential for a proper operation of a PC. One can never have enough of them. I have dedicated two 640GB drives and two 250GB drives plus one internal 250GB drive just for backup and imaging. That way I am safe.

 

[CarlTR6]

Carbonite.

I used to use an external hard drive, but it started to be really slow on some actions occassionally, which to me indicated an impending failure. I signed up for Carbonite instead of buying a new external drive.

I think external disks are essential for a proper operation of a PC. One can never have enough of them. I have dedicated two 640GB drives and two 250GB drives plus one internal 250GB drive just for backup and imaging. That way I am safe.

+1 I concur with whs.

 

[noobvious]

Acronis True Image. Periodic full backups of the C: partition(OS & programs) onto my external 1TB drive, (I think I have 8 of them on there right now) plus an Acronis backup of the D: (data) partition, and I also have all my music files copied and pasted there separately too, in case I need access to them and my computer is down.

 

[derekimo]

I create weekly images with Macrium, and transfer my data frequently to my external HD.

 

[i3one21]

Windows Home Server (WHS)

There is nothing better than Windows Home Server (WHS).

It stores all my files in duplicate over several drives. It takes daily backups of all my computers. If I get a virus, sound messes up, computer feels slow, I pop in the recovery disk and in about 20 mins the computer is EXACTLY the way is was on what ever day I choose to reverse it too.

Run out of space on the server, just add a new drive and it incorporates it into the size "pool".

I love it. I don't have spend time burning and coping.