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Please tell me your methods of file structure and storage..

I currently dont back up as much as I should and I only have a external and whats on my hard drive I may sometimes copy a set of work to DVD
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjH9cEoEup8)

But my question is how is a good way to back up so its not a hassle and everything is covered ...

Also I have a file structure that takes me ages to get to a certain file .. maybe i should use my run command more ?

any ideas.?

winner gets a smiley face liek this one ---> good luck

This subject has always interested me simply because there doesn’t seem to be a good way to do it. Most people use a combination of different methods like burning DVD's and backing up to an external hard drive or using an online service. The most reliable method is backing up to tape, but that only makes since if you have a large amount of data to backup and you can afford the drive and tapes. Personally I backup to an external hard drive, and I only use that drive for about 2 years and then I go and buy a new one. My theory is that by doing this I'm minimizing my changes of the drive failing, but you never know. DVD used to be the way to go until it came out that they aren’t good for long term storage because the die in them starts to break down after about 5 years.

I have 2 internal hard drives and they are mirrored. If one fails, the second one will save me!

I use the free version of Syncback (http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/syncback-hub.html bottom right)

It backups daily all the data to another hard drive (checks if a file has changed or has been deleted and does what you set); when it's full I buy another one. It's nearly as cheap as a buying DVDs and much safer.

Bubbaloo wrote:I have 2 internal hard drives and they are mirrored. If one fails, the second one will save me!

Having a mirrored raid is a good idea, but remember, if your pc gets zapped or you get a virus or other type of data corruption then both drives will be lost regardless. A raided drive is only protecting you agains a 'drive' failure and that's it.

One good resource is carbonite (unlimited storage online backup) for about 5$ a month. I use this.

I also have a 4 drive raid array (1+0) for data storage - then a nightly backup to an external drive - and a duplicate of that drive that is stored offsite (at a friends house) in case of fire or theft.

I consider that to be 'just enough' protection. seriously though... I do!

Damn, you're paranoid...
We also have an office-wide offsite nightly backup.

Such sophisticated methods you guys use what i do is to rar and 7zip compress all my crap and then dump it over on dvd's and then i keep them safe. It's relatively cheap and works fine most of the time.

/ Max

Paranoia driven by the thought of having to redo work! I had a scare a long time ago where I almost lost 2 weeks of 15 hour days (had been so busy I forgot to run any backup's). So after that I made sure it wouldn't happen again. I would have freaked if I'd had to redo all that work!!!

and what about the new feature of Leopard : Time Machine

Maximus3D wrote:Such sophisticated methods you guys use what i do is to rar and 7zip compress all my crap and then dump it over on dvd's and then i keep them safe. It's relatively cheap and works fine most of the time.

/ Max

I used to burn dvd's but it's too much hassle for me - my current system is pretty automated. I'm really bad at labelling and organizing discs!

b-kandor wrote:

Maximus3D wrote:Such sophisticated methods you guys use what i do is to rar and 7zip compress all my crap and then dump it over on dvd's and then i keep them safe. It's relatively cheap and works fine most of the time.

/ Max

I used to burn dvd's but it's too much hassle for me - my current system is pretty automated. I'm really bad at labelling and organizing discs!

Exactly!

b-kandor wrote:

Bubbaloo wrote:I have 2 internal hard drives and they are mirrored. If one fails, the second one will save me!

Having a mirrored raid is a good idea, but remember, if your pc gets zapped or you get a virus or other type of data corruption then both drives will be lost regardless. A raided drive is only protecting you agains a 'drive' failure and that's it.

One good resource is carbonite (unlimited storage online backup) for about 5$ a month. I use this.

I also have a 4 drive raid array (1+0) for data storage - then a nightly backup to an external drive - and a duplicate of that drive that is stored offsite (at a friends house) in case of fire or theft.

I consider that to be 'just enough' protection. seriously though... I do!

I think this set up looks good .. i might just double it just for safety !



i need to look at my options...
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1. periodical (daily) synchronous backup to external HDD
1.1. This immediately gets backed up again on another HDD in an additive mode

This results in a 1:1 daily backup on HDD1 and a cumulative backup of every file/folder version that ever existed on HDD2

Additionally I create a monthly image of my System Disks just because the system is so specialised it takes weeks to setup from zero.

Every 6 months or so i'll go and burn the Data to DVDs.

...yes i HATE losing Data

In about June this year I lost my main hard drive and about 6 weeks of work as I had been too busy to back up . I can not stress enough how important backing up is, I'm still paying for it.

I'm a slacker when it comes to backing up, sporadic clear-outs [onto DvD] in quiet periods............that's about it.

However, all work is done/held on secondary drives, I rarely use the primary drives on any of my PCs....................whenever I've had a BSOD problem, the sercondary drive [with the work] is easy to recover, 15mins downtime,

Seems to work...............touch wood.