Best way to back up my data?

  • Thread starter Thread starter varois83
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varois83

Hi

I just experienced my second HD crash in 18 months. I didn't lose much
since I back up to CD-R's, but it is time consuming to back up this
way. My problem still a lot of stuff has to be reinstalled,
downloaded, it is time consuming (Antivirus updates, anti spyware
software,XP service packs and so on).
What is the best option (Money does matter too) to back my stuff up in
a way that if I experienced a crash I can be up and running within a
couple of hours?
I see a lot of external drives in compusa, best buy flyers, is that
the way to go?
Do they allow you to restore everything on a new drive quickly and
painlessly?
I am getting big time into web design and need my stuff backed up
seriously.

Thanks a lot

Patrick
 
varois83 said:
I just experienced my second HD crash in 18 months.
Click to expand...

What does Everest say about the drive temperature ?
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181
I didn't lose much since I back up to CD-R's,
but it is time consuming to back up this way.
Click to expand...

Yeah, way past its useby date now.
My problem still a lot of stuff has to be reinstalled,
downloaded, it is time consuming (Antivirus updates,
anti spyware software,XP service packs and so on).
Click to expand...
What is the best option (Money does matter too) to
back my stuff up in a way that if I experienced a crash
I can be up and running within a couple of hours?
Click to expand...

Image that drive to another drive, ideally on another PC
on the lan, or an external hard drive if you cant do that.
Or another internal drive if you must.
I see a lot of external drives in compusa,
best buy flyers, is that the way to go?
Click to expand...

The main downside with external drives is that the failure rate
is quite high, because most of them dont have good cooling.
I personally prefer to use a decent external eSATA housing
with a drive I put in that myself. That way you get the full
3-5 year warranty on the drive and can monitor the drive temp
using Everest etc. The external drives only have 1 year warrantys.
Do they allow you to restore everything
on a new drive quickly and painlessly?
Click to expand...

Yes, if you use a decent imaging app like True Image.
I am getting big time into web design
and need my stuff backed up seriously.
Click to expand...

You could hobble along on CDRs for that alone, but the
hard drive approach is much better for a full restore in hours.
 
varois83 said:
I see a lot of external drives in compusa, best buy flyers, is that
the way to go?
Click to expand...

Those ext HDs are not so good because the case is made of plastic, which
traps heat. Moreover, they are way overpriced.

Get a hard drive and a quality external usb 2.0 enclosure (check out
newegg). Put the HD in the enclosure. I personally like Vantec enclosures
made of aluminium. Don't buy a Compusa external enclosure. It is advertised
as being made of aluminium but actually only some parts are made of
aluminium. The case is plastic. I foolishly bought one and put a 320GB
Seagate HD in it. Within 30 seconds, the case became too hot to touch. I got
a Vantec enclosure instead and it never gets even warm after an intensive
use.
 
Those ext HDs are not so good because the case is made of plastic, which
traps heat. Moreover, they are way overpriced.
Click to expand...
Get a hard drive and a quality external usb 2.0 enclosure (check out
newegg). Put the HD in the enclosure.
Click to expand...

Make very sure, it is a HDD with low energy consumption. At the moment
only Samsung and some Seagates (lower capacity) qualify.

Arno
 
FKS said:
Those ext HDs are not so good because the case is made of plastic,
which traps heat. Moreover, they are way overpriced.

Get a hard drive and a quality external usb 2.0 enclosure (check out
newegg). Put the HD in the enclosure. I personally like Vantec
enclosures made of aluminium. Don't buy a Compusa external enclosure.
It is advertised as being made of aluminium but actually only some
parts are made of aluminium. The case is plastic. I foolishly bought
one and put a 320GB Seagate HD in it. Within 30 seconds, the case
became too hot to touch. I got a Vantec enclosure instead and it never
gets even warm after an intensive use.
Click to expand...
I totally agree with the Vantec case choice. I have one with a built in
USB hub and it houses my Maxtor MaxLine III drive. Stays cool to the
touch and has for over a year.

JohnS
 
Arno Wagner said:
Make very sure, it is a HDD with low energy consumption. At the moment
only Samsung and some Seagates (lower capacity) qualify.

Arno
Click to expand...

Absolutely. All my HDDs are Seagates. They are also ultra quiet.
 
Hi

I just experienced my second HD crash in 18 months. I didn't lose much
since I back up to CD-R's, but it is time consuming to back up this
way. My problem still a lot of stuff has to be reinstalled,
downloaded, it is time consuming (Antivirus updates, anti spyware
software,XP service packs and so on).
What is the best option (Money does matter too) to back my stuff up in
a way that if I experienced a crash I can be up and running within a
couple of hours?
I see a lot of external drives in compusa, best buy flyers, is that
the way to go?
Do they allow you to restore everything on a new drive quickly and
painlessly?
I am getting big time into web design and need my stuff backed up
seriously.
Click to expand...

It is advisable to have two partitions, one for the system that you can
image, and one for the data with a backup strategy of full backup + daily
incremental backup. It would be less expensive with CD-RW, or better hard
disk. The principle is to have at least two copies physically separated
(not on the same disk, even in different partitions.)

Another possibility is to use a RAID.
 
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