What backup strategy do you use?

peroni · Apr 29, 2003, 09:27 PM

I was wondering what kind of backup strategy you guys use.
I did not make this a poll since I know you inevitably end up to leave out some of the options.

Personally I have just decided to scrap my 10GB tape drive and just use a 120GB removable drive stored in a different room. Then once a week or so make an incremental backup. Fast, big and pretty cheap.

How do you go about?

Necrosis · Apr 29, 2003, 09:32 PM

Same idea here. Secondary 160 Gig HD. for backup and misc. stuff.

digitalwanderer · Apr 29, 2003, 09:39 PM

I just keep about a 5Gb partition on 3 of my 'puters that I shadow me keeper stuff into.

Zardon · Apr 29, 2003, 09:59 PM

multiple hard drives and good ole CD.

Dom · Apr 29, 2003, 11:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Zardon
multiple hard drives and good ole CD.

CD's are so late 90's.

~~Asuka~~ · Apr 30, 2003, 01:36 AM

I use a Zip drive to back up the important stuff.

Apr 30, 2003, 02:09 AM

i copy files over to another hard drive...

EDIT: or partition

Vampyromaniac · Apr 30, 2003, 09:12 AM

Separate partition on 2nd HDD.
Ghost is my tool of choice

***Veridian3*** · Apr 30, 2003, 10:21 AM

until last month i used a 2nd HD. Now i use DVD+R and its great. (or maybe i just like playing with my new toy???)

Stu

peroni · Apr 30, 2003, 12:50 PM

Guess it's all dependent on how much data you need to back up.
I have about 100GB of files that I consider very important.
I thought about buying a DVD-RW but it would still be a lot of manual work to burn about 25 DVD's.
Not to mention that 120GB drives are soooo cheap these days...

peroni · Apr 30, 2003, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by generalstupid
i copy files over to another hard drive...

EDIT: or partition

Wow, copying them to another partition is not the safest choice, if the drive dies you lose both copies...
Better copy them to another drive IMHO

shuki · Apr 30, 2003, 05:16 PM

Oh wow!! I had just been burning CD's for my images. Not too bad as they're NEVER over 2Gb's or so but now I just created an image hdd to hdd and whoa! what a difference

from 111Mb transfer rate from CD to 1040 Mb hdd to hdd

tragic · Apr 30, 2003, 05:22 PM

Ditto: exactly the same as Vampyromaniac..

Really happy with Ghost.

Rayder · Apr 30, 2003, 06:27 PM

I just have storage drives with all my setup files, MP3's, utilities, patches and other various goodies on them. I don't have anything vitally important on my PC, just a bunch of games and utilities mostly. Everything on it was installed with CD's that I have or from the storage drives. We have 3 PC's that have just about everything mirrored as far as storage drives, so I don't really worry about "backup" much. No tape drives, no backup partitiions, if the PC flakes out or catches a virus <--never happened yet), I just reformat. All of our PC's have RAID capability for mass storage (don't bother with that RAID array baloney) and plenty of harddrives to go around.

If I need to reformat one of the systems, the most "backup" I do is to create a folder on one of the storage drives and copy over the "My Documents" and "Favorites" folder for reinsertion after the format. Emulators like MAME, Sega Genesis, SNES, and Visual Pinball are also just copyable folders with minimal installs to get them back up and running. The rest is just installing programs from installation CD's and I make most of them NoCD once installed. Anything done with utility type programs such as Paint Shop Pro or Soudforge (for example) are immediately saved on a storage drive, not on C:.

That's my method anyway....

~~Sourcer_2002~~ · Apr 30, 2003, 07:21 PM

well i need to find away to backup mine cuz i normaly reinstall windows about every two months as i just have im prolly gonna use ghost and burn the install with all the apps that i want installed.

sinjin · Apr 30, 2003, 08:33 PM

whats this term 'backup' you speak of?

Runner3001 · Apr 30, 2003, 11:20 PM

Backup? whats a backup hehe. I make my windows partition 10gb, everything important is kept off of it, I even have a format ritual that involves 7 phases(reboots), which is easily modifiable should I take a liking to some new application. This gets my system up and running in no time, I guess you can't really call it a backup strategy, its more like a "oh damn windows got hosed again" *format C:\* strategy.

mjh8227 · Apr 30, 2003, 11:22 PM

I keep all my important stuff on a separate partition and then burn to cd every so often

PangingJr · May 1, 2003, 12:00 AM

nero InCD for daily small backup, and if any big changed to OSs system.. a big backup needed, i use ghost/trueImage6 to make an image of every part. inculding the OSs/system to a removable hdds.

Apr 29, 2003, 09:27 PM	#1
peroni DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 591 Rep Power: 0	What backup strategy do you use? I was wondering what kind of backup strategy you guys use. I did not make this a poll since I know you inevitably end up to leave out some of the options. Personally I have just decided to scrap my 10GB tape drive and just use a 120GB removable drive stored in a different room. Then once a week or so make an incremental backup. Fast, big and pretty cheap. How do you go about? __________________ Gaming Rig 3DMark2k1 PCMark2k2 The Server 3Dmark2k1 PCMark2k2 Notebook 3Dmark2k1 PCMark2k2

Apr 29, 2003, 09:39 PM	#3
digitalwanderer Colour Commentator Join Date: May 2002 Location: Highland, IN USA Posts: 5,619 Rep Power: 0	Too hard! I just keep about a 5Gb partition on 3 of my 'puters that I shadow me keeper stuff into. __________________ WTF is up with the sigs?

Apr 30, 2003, 09:12 AM	#8
Vampyromaniac confutatis maledictis Join Date: May 2002 Location: somewhere dark Posts: 5,974 Rep Power: 77 System Specs	Separate partition on 2nd HDD. Ghost is my tool of choice __________________ *Digitalis 3.3* Athlon 64 3000 // ASUS K8V SE Deluxe // 1024MB PC3200 (2-2-2-10 1T) ATI All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro // 20" Dell 2005FPW (DVI) M-Audio Revo 7.1 + Philips Acoustic Edge // Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 320/16 Western Digital WD3200KS + 120/8 Seagate 7200.7 NEC ND-3550A 16x DVD±RW + Lite-On 52x24x CD-RW Antec Sonata case // 480W Antec TruePower personal bests \|\| Aq'3: 46796 \| 3D'01: 20461 \| 3D'03: 6336 \| 3D'05: 2677 \| PC'04: 4605 \| PC'02: 7691,9092,1250

Apr 30, 2003, 08:33 PM	#16
sinjin the last samurai Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 1,086 Rep Power: 0	whats this term 'backup' you speak of? __________________

Apr 29, 2003, 09:32 PM	#2
Necrosis HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Ohio Posts: 8,838 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	Same idea here. Secondary 160 Gig HD. for backup and misc. stuff.

Apr 29, 2003, 09:59 PM	#4
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 179	multiple hard drives and good ole CD.

Apr 30, 2003, 01:36 AM	#6
~~Asuka~~ BANNED Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Germany Posts: 579 Rep Power: 0	I use a Zip drive to back up the important stuff.

Apr 30, 2003, 02:09 AM	#7
generalstupid Guest Posts: n/a	i copy files over to another hard drive... EDIT: or partition

Apr 30, 2003, 10:21 AM	#9
*Veridian3* Administrator Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Cloaked Posts: 5,027 Rep Power: 181	until last month i used a 2nd HD. Now i use DVD+R and its great. (or maybe i just like playing with my new toy???) Stu

Apr 30, 2003, 12:50 PM	Thread Starter #10
peroni DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 591 Rep Power: 0	Guess it's all dependent on how much data you need to back up. I have about 100GB of files that I consider very important. I thought about buying a DVD-RW but it would still be a lot of manual work to burn about 25 DVD's. Not to mention that 120GB drives are soooo cheap these days...

Apr 30, 2003, 05:16 PM	#12
shuki DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: in the hidden place Posts: 1,975 Rep Power: 0	Oh wow!! I had just been burning CD's for my images. Not too bad as they're NEVER over 2Gb's or so but now I just created an image hdd to hdd and whoa! what a difference from 111Mb transfer rate from CD to 1040 Mb hdd to hdd

Apr 30, 2003, 05:22 PM	#13
tragic Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: The Northern Hemi Posts: 0 Rep Power: 0	Ditto: exactly the same as Vampyromaniac.. Really happy with Ghost.

Apr 30, 2003, 06:27 PM	#14
Rayder Mostly lurking lately.... Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 2,161 Rep Power: 73	I just have storage drives with all my setup files, MP3's, utilities, patches and other various goodies on them. I don't have anything vitally important on my PC, just a bunch of games and utilities mostly. Everything on it was installed with CD's that I have or from the storage drives. We have 3 PC's that have just about everything mirrored as far as storage drives, so I don't really worry about "backup" much. No tape drives, no backup partitiions, if the PC flakes out or catches a virus <--never happened yet), I just reformat. All of our PC's have RAID capability for mass storage (don't bother with that RAID array baloney) and plenty of harddrives to go around. If I need to reformat one of the systems, the most "backup" I do is to create a folder on one of the storage drives and copy over the "My Documents" and "Favorites" folder for reinsertion after the format. Emulators like MAME, Sega Genesis, SNES, and Visual Pinball are also just copyable folders with minimal installs to get them back up and running. The rest is just installing programs from installation CD's and I make most of them NoCD once installed. Anything done with utility type programs such as Paint Shop Pro or Soudforge (for example) are immediately saved on a storage drive, not on C:. That's my method anyway....

Apr 30, 2003, 07:21 PM	#15
~~Sourcer_2002~~ BANNED Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Indiana , USA Posts: 2,677 Rep Power: 0	well i need to find away to backup mine cuz i normaly reinstall windows about every two months as i just have im prolly gonna use ghost and burn the install with all the apps that i want installed.

Apr 30, 2003, 11:20 PM	#17
Runner3001 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 41 Rep Power: 0	Backup? whats a backup hehe. I make my windows partition 10gb, everything important is kept off of it, I even have a format ritual that involves 7 phases(reboots), which is easily modifiable should I take a liking to some new application. This gets my system up and running in no time, I guess you can't really call it a backup strategy, its more like a "oh damn windows got hosed again" format C:\ strategy.

Apr 30, 2003, 11:22 PM	#18
mjh8227 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 56 Rep Power: 0	I keep all my important stuff on a separate partition and then burn to cd every so often

May 1, 2003, 12:00 AM	#19
PangingJr Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 5,989 Rep Power: 71	nero InCD for daily small backup, and if any big changed to OSs system.. a big backup needed, i use ghost/trueImage6 to make an image of every part. inculding the OSs/system to a removable hdds.