Backups

[[Admin] PHugger]

Joey - that's a great point. I love DIY solutions. Simple often works best.

What do the commercial or at least amateur backup applications offer that a simple batch file doesn't?

Compression (I get around 2:1 minimum)
Open Files Access
Verification
Incremental Backups (modified files only)
Ease of use
Security (encryption)

Many of these features are creeping into the freeware apps. Start with the simplest thing that works - even manually dragging files to a CD burner. As you need or desire other features write them yourself or look for an application that can do it for you.

Your formatting tale of woe is another great reason to have a spare external disk available (can you ever have enough?). An hour or so of copying as a safeguard before formatting would make you a hero. Her response is so typical - people just don't realize the value of their data.

Geek rule #27 - Never believe someone when they say they have nothing valuable on their PC.



PCH

[brenthomer]

The devil designed our church backup system and I hate it. It also is slowly starting to fail to meet my needs. Our network is 1/2 pc and 1/2 mac. All the macs except one are laptops. do you have any tips or stratagise for macs/pc networks and what to do about laptops that are getting moved all the time to different locations?

Our backup system stinks right now because while the instructions say you can recover a single file we havn't been able to make it happen. It is only good for massive failure ...ie complete rebuilds. I am thinking about about using os X's timeline ffeature next year, but I won't count on it, until I see it working...

[[Admin] PHugger]

This isn't Mac specific, but it still applies to most any Lappy.
Get an external disk or something on the network. Leave it on your desk and get in the habit of running your backups during lunch or at home when you sleep. It really depends on what your needs are. There are some new web based storage solutions. Some are free and not really to be trusted. I know that Geniesoft has a solution like this for like $5/mon. When you connect to the web it runs a backup to their servers. This would work well for a lightweight backup - email, settings, and documents. If your needs are in the gigabyte range - go with a disk. It really depends on how you are using the laptops. Even if you only did it once in a while it would still be of value. If they have DVD burners you could also go that route. I think it's easier for a desktop - you can leave it on all the time and backup during off times. You have to do the same with your laptops - use the idle time. How do you do updates? Start with a monthly backup. If you can make it painless enough, do it more often.



PCH

[voyager529]

Originally Posted by PHugger

Joey - that's a great point. I love DIY solutions. Simple often works best.

most def. if you wanna try it that way, there's a tutorial here that may help if you've never written a batch file. I will warn you to do a forced backup to make sure it works!

Originally Posted by PHugger

Your formatting tale of woe is another great reason to have a spare external disk available (can you ever have enough?). An hour or so of copying as a safeguard before formatting would make you a hero. Her response is so typical - people just don't realize the value of their data.

granted...but getting it onto an external drive can sometimes be a challenge, depending on the circumstances. Knoppix is a good rabbit to have in your hat for such a task. Another great thing to have handy is an Ultimate Boot CD for Windows. it requires a manual build, but all the instructions are there, and it's possible to do in under an hour. Both are operating systems that run completely off a CD/DVD, so no matter what your hard drive status is, you can usually access your data. If there's physical damage to the hard drive, then you're really up the creek without a backup...

Originally Posted by PHugger

Geek rule #27 - Never believe someone when they say they have nothing valuable on their PC.

Oh I know, but the thing is when you ask, if they say there's no data to rescue (especially more than once), they don't have a leg to stand on when I don't rescue the data. Plus, pirated music isn't exactly something I'd go out of my way to back up...

What are the other 26 geek rules?


Joey

[Chris Ross]

I don't know if it's been mentioned, but I've just started using Cobian Backup at work and really like it so far. Free and seems to do everything except open files (it might, i dunno).

[stevegoad]

Well, Pete, you could have just said "don't forget to back up your files..." but I guess giving the step by step is good too.

OK... THat was a joke. I really appreciate all the hard work you put into this. Thanks,

Steve

[[Admin] PHugger]

I recently installed a NAS drive on my home network. I am using this to back up a couple of my PCs across the network. I had just installed MS OneCare on some of the machines (3 machines for $19) and wanted to try out the built-in backup provisions. The backup application in OneCare can not backup to Network drives - DOH! The NAS box came with some free backup software from HP which I started to use. On my main workstation I've been using Genie Backup Manger Pro with the FAM add-on (open files). I love GBM, it does everything I want, but I wasn't sure I wanted to purchase it for any of the other machines (free is good right Phil?). When I started using the free HP backup software there were a couple of things that I disliked immediately:

No Incremental or Differential Backups - only full
No Automatic Purging - keeps saving until the disk fills up
*VERY* Slow - 12hrs for backup, 10hrs for verify

To wrap up this tale of woe. I checked the pricing for GBM Home and found that they were having a sale. Today (November 15, 2006) is the last day that you can get Genie Backup Manager Home with free File Access Manager for $49.95. GBM make backups very easy - this is key if you want to continue with your Backup Jones for any amount of time.

Just thought I'd pass that along in case anyone needed a little nudge.



PCH

[dovprst]

What do you think of my method? I don't worry about backing up applications since I can re-install those. I just copy my My Documents to another computer, plus any other folders that I might need in the event something goes wrong. I'm not as experienced as you are though.

[[Admin] PHugger]

Your idea about application reinstall is good. It's actually often faster to do it that way. In the case of a total disk failure, that is what I'd do.

You are backing up:

My Documents
Program Data (images, data files, music/videos, etc)

This is a good start. Some of the things that I've learned the hard way to backup:

Emails
Addresses/Contacts
Windows Registry
Browser Bookmarks/Cookies
Usernames & Passwords
Program Settings
Drivers
Downloaded Programs & Updates (you can re-download, but it's slow)

At a minimum I would add your address book and email data files (I'm still sore from where I kicked myself 5 years ago). Basically think about what you would miss if you lost your disk - protect that. I would start to maintain a 'PC build check list' that contains all of the apps & drivers you need to reinstall along with passwords and keys (in the case of a Dell restore you can also list all of the things you want to de-install). This is a life saver and a constant reference for me. Backup programs just automate this - making it easier and more likely to do. Some of you folks have PCs that come with the OS pre-installed and either a restore CD (good) or with the OS install files stored on a separate small partition (bad). Figure out how to get the OS restore files onto a CD. This will save you loads of time and probably some money too.



PCH

[JHVideoGuy]

I've heard it said if you only have 1 backup it's not a backup, it's a copy. I also don't keep all my copies in 1 place. Likely hood of 2 drives dying at the same time is low unless fire or water damage is a factor. I'm mac based so I use ChronoSync. I like it because I have it set to syncronizes my files everytime I plug in an exteranl hard drive. One of those is a portable drive so i always have my active media files with me.

As far as personal info goes I've found my cell phone and iPod to be a great ways to back that info up.

-dave

[[Admin] PHugger]

Ipod backups - great idea! I recently started using Anapod for my iPod loading/synching. It has an Outlook (others too I think) copy feature that backups up all of your addresses, schedules, notes, etc. Keep in mind that the probability of losing or breaking my iPod is several orders of magnitude times higher than it would be for the disk in my PC....... (c8

I remember a Dilbert cartoon from many moons ago.

Dilbert is bragging to Dogbert about how great all of his gadgets are (Laptop, PDA, Cell Phone, and I'll add iPod). He gleefully describes how they free him to work anywhere he wishes. Dogbert looks at him and asks -
In a restaurant?
No.
A Library?
No.
Church?
No.
Then Dogbert summarizes - So you basically just carry them around and worry that they will break or be stolen?
Dilbert replies with his arms wrapped protectively around them - Stop, stop, you're scaring them!

PCH

we use retrospect to backup to our file server at home

if it is extremely critical we back em up to dvd, after it hits the file server

if the computer(s) crash i have 2 slipstreamed dvd's, for each, with what i need, about an hour to recover from dead