Too much data...

I'm thinking a USB DVD burner. Ideas? I'm not up on this stuff.

thanks,

-spence

How much are you looking to back up?

How frequent?

How important?

Are you going to be disciplined enough to manually do it?

DVD is probably most reasonably priced bet but more often than not you have to do it. A tape drive is more expensive but often comes with backup software that you can schedule weekly backups.

There are tons of options.... So tell more on what you want to do...

External usb hard drives for home, DVD is nice, but most people forget to backup consistantly. You can set it up to be automatic with an external hard drive. Plus, most people will be using multiple dvd's and that can be a pain to keep track of as well as time consuming. You can still back up with dvd just to have an extra copy in case of a real big disaster.

I'm looking to do monthly backups of digital photos and work data.

I will probably also be using it to back up raw digial music files once my stepson starts recording and I teach him how to master his tracks.

I don't need a fully automated solution.

I'd like it to be external and portable.

Cost is a factor for the device only. I can expense the media.

The 8 gig size of the DVD is attractive. I could probably fit all my business data on a single disk.

-spence

I have an external drive (usb 2.0). I also make a habit of storing all my important stuff on the Desktop. Then I use a freeware program called "Syncback" which allows anyone to create a profile. In essence I designate two areas, one on main PC and one on backup drive device to be exactly the same. If one changes, Syncback automatically does the copy in the background. Pretty cool and mindless after you set it up once. I also create a DVD backup for pictures and financial documents.

I also use the external usb drive. I uploaded about 4 thousand photos to it and it still has plenty of memory. Unplug it when not in use and it is small and portable.

I thought of an external drive, but what about failure?

-spence

As long as you can proactively do the backups get the DVD drive. Make 2 copies when you backup - one for home and one to keep at work. God forbid you have a fire or something at home but then your worksite copy offeres you better disaster recovery.

I use an external 250 gig usb drive and dvd drive for backups. I use nero backitup. Not the greatest but came with my dvd drive. THere are other shareware/freeware backup programs out there. Windows backup aint all that bad either for free and probably already installed on your system.
One note in writable dvd's and cd's. They are extremely fragile. I learned a long time ago you can't carry them around in your work bag and expect them to last as long as a factory disc. The scratch real easy and the top surface has a tendency to easily scratch off. I have tried all the brands. Some are a little better than others, but they all will scratch up after a while. So for really important data, burn it and then store it off site if possible in a case or one of those cd envelopes. I have cdrs over 10 years old that were stored in cases and still 100% good.

Maxtor makes a 1 touch drive that you can find onsale for I think under 100. I haven't tried one, but you probably tell it what to back
up and press the button. may be worth looking at.

If cost were no object you could get a nice AIT 3 external tape library. The one I have at work backs up ~700 mb per minute. Backs up everything every day all by itself, change tapes every 6-9 months.

Good luck
Eric

I bought the 99 dollar Memorex Double Layer Drive at Office Depot. Media is expensive, but I don't really care about that...

I backed up my entire drive on 3 8.5 GB disks. Not bad considering the options.

I should be able to just use one disk a month to update this...

All in all a pretty cost effective option.

Thanks - spence

Spence..
welcome to my world..
data back-up is double, with external USB2 300GB hard drives and DVD copies as well..
I've used retrospect and other software but I usually just update manually.

we use retrospect at work... not a bad little tool.

who needs backups anyways :)





love when people say that to me.

Spence consider the backup drive as well. There are backup programs out there. I have been using freeware called GoodSync - should be available on download dot com - you can schedule it as well I believe with Windows scheduled tasks. Have also used SyncToy a free utility from Microsoft. Drive Image Pro is another software application that allows you to make a copy of your disk - by creating a drive image that you can save to DVD or external hardrive. You can use it to restore a file, folder, or whole drive.

I have a 2.5" 2.0 enclosure by Vantec - cost is about $13 from NewEgg - it is great. I put a 40GB spare notebook hardrive in it. You can get 60 - 80 GB laptop hardrives for $80. Plus, this fits in your shirt pocket. You can get a external enclosure that uses regular 3.5" drives - probably get a 250GB drive for under $90 if you look around.

Reason why I mention the additional backup is so you can do what John suggested. If you have a copy of your data that is great, but an added measure of protection is to have another copy off-site. Now that a lot of us have our digital pictures on are hard drives and no paper copies - we are susceptible to losing them if we have a hardrive failure. Backup solutions are cheap compared to losing something you cannot get back again.