I love making backups.

PHoNyMiKe · Post by **PHoNyMiKe** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 4:06 am

over the years I've had many a hard drives. 20gig, 60gig, 80gig, back and forth, mostly maxtors. they all eventually crashed, but I would copy my precious and valuable files from one to the next. 10 years later I dropped a big screw driver on this maxtor, and it blew up, with the entire contents of said data on it. I never took the time to burn to dvds and shit, no backups ever, silly me.

so I picked up this external hdd enclosure from compusa for $10 a while back, and just today threw an old 80gig WD hard drive. it has a little button on the front for easy "one button press backups." installed the software, it sucked ass, would only copy one directory to the drive. I found one of the millions of backup programs called "abc backup pro" and you tell it what directories to copy to the drive. open the software, and one click later it's copying away. it copies over new and changed files, no deletions. very easy, I love it.

I might get an external ethernet drive enclosure, for making backups of anything on the lan, that would kick even more ass.

I tried synctoy and it only does one directory at a time, and heard nero backup copies into its own proprietary format. anybody got some software that can just copy new files from any amount of folders to another drive with just a double click?

Starman Ghost · Post by **Starman Ghost** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 4:20 am

I'm too lazy to back shit up. It's not like I got super important files and stuff.

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 4:25 am

im with starman here... why put super important stuff within something not as secure as a filing cabinet or something?

hence i dont put super important stuff on my pc thus no need to backup.

edit: im aware of wording this wrongly xD

xamenus · Post by **xamenus** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 4:44 am

I'll occasionally backup important files onto my USB flash drive. I don't think it exceeds 10 MB (maybe even 5). It's mostly just schoolwork and passwords. There's nothing else on my hard drive really worth backing up, as I could easily re-download much of it anyway. I don't mind doing that.

Clements · Post by **Clements** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 4:58 am

I backup various non-critical files by copying them to my laptop over a wired network, as well as make occasional DVD backups, which I make manually with Nero. I also have my important coursework backed up on a USB Flash Drive. I have not tried any kind of automated app for this.

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 5:27 am

if you are not backing stuff up now, your tune will change once you lose something important.

xcopy is a very, very powerful and underated tool for back-ups.

whenever a file on windows/dos is created or written to, its archive bit gets set.

xcopy has the ability to unset that attribute for files it copies.

Firon · Post by **Firon** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 5:40 am

No, I don't, but I really should.

Joe Camacho · Post by **Joe Camacho** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 5:54 am

I back-up documents, works and essays. Things that would be a pain to rewrite or search again if I lose it.

Que · Post by **Que** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 7:14 am

Suprisingly, I keep 2 exact copies of my lossless music collection at all times. Hardship to lose 800+ lossless albums.

PHoNyMiKe · Post by **PHoNyMiKe** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 7:17 am

I had years of mp3s, website designs, photoshop shit, source code, and tons of 'personal' things that I can't get anywhere else lost.

so now I gots my mp3s, source code, documents whatever I make backed up. I was copying the files over to another computer over the lan, but it was with windows explorer, folder by folder. I really do like the idea of chosing say 10 folders and knowing they'll be backup up with a few clicks. c:\websites, c:\mp3\albums, c:\gbadev and so forth.

I'm doing it from now on. I didn't want to watse the time finding the files and setting them up in nero, and burning dvds and shit. now just three clicks and my shit's saved. plus software works so it'll only copy new shit, not every file every time. saves time and it's easy.

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 8:08 am

that being said, whats wrong with the backup software that comes with windows?

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 8:45 am

funkyass wrote:that being said, whats wrong with the backup software that comes with windows?

"wat?"

The term "I've never really noticed" is enough to explain the situation.

AntoineWG · Post by **AntoineWG** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 9:49 am

funkyass wrote:that being said, whats wrong with the backup software that comes with windows?

The last time I tried it, it sucked. It doesn't support most backup formats, including many tape drives (yes, people still use those), or CD's and DVD's. The compression is poor--zip files compress better.

I usually use a little freeware program called Cobian Backup, which will zip any files you so choose (complete backups, incremental, scheduled, etc), keep a specified number of backups (useful for business use) and even drop the backups onto an FTP server.

kieran_ · Post by **kieran_** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 1:17 pm

I have over 40 dvds of data backed up. Every new file that I download goes into a folder, and when it reaches 4.35 gigs, I back up to dvd. Then, I sort the files in another folder, and get rid of large files that I will not frequently use. I then make a directory list (dir /s >asdf.txt) and place it in another folder. Every data dvd that I have has one of these lists. I can then then do a document search in XP, (using the setting "search for a word inside the document) which allows me to quickly and easily find pretty much any file that I want, without looking through all of thee dvds(which I used to do in the past.)

SquareHead · Post by **SquareHead** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 1:35 pm

kilivipin wrote:I have over 40 dvds of data backed up.

Try over 120. But its mostly video content from popular internet sources.

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 4:06 pm

Doing graphics work I have gigs of irreplacable stuff that I back up to DVD whenever.

I usually spend the time to sift through all the junk though, to keep the filesizes down and everything clutter-free (somewhat). So, I wouldn't need backup software.

PHoNyMiKe · Post by **PHoNyMiKe** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 8:53 pm

for my purposes, I want the stuff mirrored. I was thinking a raid array but that's overkill. backing up the folders I use all the time to another hard drive (usb) with a few clicks is exactly what I've been wanting. I'll pry put a 320gig seagate drive in there for more dependability (five year warranty.)

this way any source code I update or whatever can be easilly backed up on a weekly basis, and not worry if it was important enough to burn a cd/dvd or sort through shit. couple clicks and it's done. and not backed up as in multiple cds of the same exact files, just the updated stuff. I should have done this a long time ago.

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 10:18 pm

RAID 1 is nice, you'd need to really have bad luck for two drives to die on you at once.

But it doesn't help if you accidentally delete stuff.

kevman · Post by **kevman** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 5:33 am

If you have two drives, why not? Just use a software RAID, if you want. Both Windows and Linux support it. You can also use small partitions, like a gig on each machine, if you only have a little data.

I personally do what Clements does, but my Desktop has two drives in it, so every now and again I copy some stuff to the other drive and the laptop, leaving the data on three drives.

RAID also doesn't protect you from fires or baseball bats being used on your computer, either. If its terribly important, offsite backups are key.

<_< · Post by **<_<** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 3:01 am

I don't back up often enough, but I keep copies of important files on both my desktop and laptop. When I get a new desktop HDD I might just fill the old one with compressed, encrypted copies of important files and store it in a bank vault, that way even if the house burns down the files are still around. Though keeping a backup in a bank vault up to date could be a pain... :-/ I guess a USB drive would be better for this so I could do it on-site from my laptop.

PHoNyMiKe · Post by **PHoNyMiKe** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 5:17 am

my dad gave me a 35 gig rev drive for backup purposes. it's like a tape drive, and is apparently expensive as hell. however I'm sure the software it uses is not as easy as one click and access to the files is not immediate.

I still say my old (free) 80 gig hard drive in a $10 usb enclosure is not only better than nothing, but it's kick ass. it's like an 80 gig flash drive (I can put my shit on any pc) and with the right software, backing up only takes less than a minute, and files can be recovered instantly. my whole computer can crash right now and all my stuff is backup up. I love it.

Silensho · Post by **Silensho** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 5:47 am

I try making back up as often as possible. Still, I've lost information due to some awful crashes and *ahem* miscalculated partitionings. I wish I were paranoid enough to make weekly backups, but then again I'm too lazy.

PHoNyMiKe · Post by **PHoNyMiKe** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 5:53 am

that's my point. I'm lazy, but I can click a button and wait for 1 minute. I would never search through files and deem what's precious enough to burn a cd, let alone wait for that cd to burn and label it and shit, fuck that. 1 click backups are done.

Firon · Post by **Firon** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 10:25 pm

The problem with backing up for me is that I've got too much stuff to backup. :/

alexz721 · Post by **alexz721** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 9:09 pm

Out of curiosity, how much space would say, 600 gigs of data take to backup?

ZSNES board

I love making backups.

Do you backup your shit?

I love making backups.