Back-up For Hard Drives: I am a new member having enjoyed many of the topics discussed. Being a new comer, you may have already address this subject before. But, having recently lost...

DMF

I am a new member having enjoyed many of the topics discussed. Being a new comer, you may have already address this subject before. But, having recently lost an external hard drive, I am looking for a system which provides convidence and is easy to use. DMF

tramsey Loc: Texas

I use Carbonite. It's storage in the clouds, not matter what happens your data will always be there. I've used for several years and was glad it was there a couple of times. The first time you use it will take a while (maybe a weekend) but after that it's automatic and you don't even realize it's backing up

rogerl Loc: UK (Harrogate, North Yorkshire)

I posted this last year. It's still working fine & it's a great comfort to know it's backing up all files in real time without our having to do anything:

"I've just bought a Seagate GoFlex 2TB Home Network Storage System (UK - £115 from Maplin & £100 from Currys where it's end of line); I love it & have bought daughter one. It plugs into router & backs up wirelessly on both PCs - constantly in real time (so, when I add a photo it's on the backup drive immediately). It's a long time since I've been so impressed with a piece of technology. (I also have a second hard drive for photos!)"

DMF

We have discussed carbonite with a number of photographers, is apprears to be very popular. The time you mentioned to back up your files is very short compared with others, many have reported several months. I am sure it depends on the amount of data being transfered but weeks are a lot more comfortable than months. DMF

DMF

Is this back-up system located in your home? Living in the middle of tornado country, is this much different than an external hard drive?

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

Welcome to UHH

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

DMF wrote:

I am a new member having enjoyed many of the topics discussed. Being a new comer, you may have already address this subject before. But, having recently lost an external hard drive, I am looking for a system which provides convidence and is easy to use. DMF

What level of confidence is satisfactory? At any given point in time, I have 4 different copies of all my data. I use external USB drives and a free product named SyncBackSE.

Any drive (mechanical device) can, and will, fail. Just a matter of when it happens. Therefore, the only sure-fire method of ensuring data isn't lost forever is a thing called redundancy. Do it many times with different devices. Using my backup strategy, it takes me about 20 minutes a week of my time. The backup takes longer, but once I start it, I'm off doing something else. It's easy and effective.

Photo Phledgling Loc: tiny island between Hudson and East rivers

I've used this (free) software for years, and it works very well. Set it up once and forget it. No need to spend time manually syncing your devices and drives. Simply set it to perform regularly scheduled syncs and you're done. Works with PC and Mac.

http://www.goodsync.com/

Wall-E Loc: Phoenix, AZ

The rule of thumb I learned from the State Archives for backups is:

At least 2 different media types,
In at least 2 different places.

So, depending on your level of paranoia, you can have external hard drives, networked drives, removable hard drives stored off-site, CD/DVD's, Cloud storage, flash memory cards/thumb drives, and on and on.....

Musket Loc: ArtBallin'

I use Amazon cold storage as back up for my 6TB NAS thats a back up for my 6TB desktop. I cant say anything bad or good about Carbonite or any other services.

Amazon cloud services costs pennies and only when you download your back up. Amazon AWS services is not for everyone.

Also the interface is pretty intimidating and you will need to read FAQ pages. http://aws.amazon.com/backup-storage/ for more info.

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

Wall-E wrote:

The rule of thumb I learned from the State Archives for backups is:

At least 2 different media types,
In at least 2 different places.

So, depending on your level of paranoia, you can have external hard drives, networked drives, removable hard drives stored off-site, CD/DVD's, Cloud storage, flash memory cards/thumb drives, and on and on.....

I'm not that paranoid--if I get to that place, I'll have "bigger fish to fry"....

When people discuss "hard drive back-up" on this forum, generally the implication is that it's about image file recovery. I would not ignore another type of back-up which is the rest of what's on your hard drive.

As a Mac-user, once a month I get a automated notification so I run time machine which back up my harddrive on a "G-Slim" storage device. It's really easy, doesn't take very long and stores each monthly update, so that one can "re-image" their machine should the need arise. My work place does this as well-- and I have needed to have this done. The key is scheduling and implementing a back-up process, regardless of what system you use.

I'm pretty stupid about technical stuff...so please don't flame me for owning a Mac or using the incorrect terminology.

;-)

Photo Phledgling Loc: tiny island between Hudson and East rivers

LoneRangeFinder wrote:

As a Mac-user, once a month I get a automated notification so I run time machine

Once a month? :shock:

I've got my Time Machine set to run backups several times a day. When the storage area set aside for these backups fills up it simply starts to overwrite the older entries beginning with the oldest one. Super simple. Are you sure once a month is enough? What would you lose if you lost 29 days worth of work? Assume it's not February :roll:

Musket Loc: ArtBallin'

I set a task in Windows and on my image server to throw at the very least my Photo folders into backup and cloud storage.

Its not hard at all to automate this process with some google use and a few hours of work.

DMF

As one of the earlier responders pointed out, not being highly technical, I am not sure what "Time Machine" is? Is this unique to Mac?

Photo Phledgling Loc: tiny island between Hudson and East rivers

DMF wrote:

As one of the earlier responders pointed out, not being highly technical, I am not sure what "Time Machine" is? Is this unique to Mac?

Yes, this is an integrated part of the operating system. I would think PC machines have a comparable built-in feature? Not really sure.