Backing-Up Everything

Little Ming · May 17, 2011

So I have a lot of stuff on my hard drive(s). About 550 GBs of music, movies, TV series, concerts and pictures. It took several weeks to rip all the DVDs and CDs and I really don't want to have to do it all over again if something happens to my hard drive. Is there any good way to back it all up besides another hard drive?

Most important are the pictures. About 25 GBs of over 7000 pictures of my friends, family and pets. These cannot be replaced and the size grows every year. I can't print out all the pictures for obvious economic and practical reasons. I already have the pictures backed up on two separate external hard drives. I am extremely paranoid so these pictures will not be going online.

So get another hard drive? Burn to DVD? Flash drive? Other suggestions?

bluntforcetrauma · May 17, 2011

DVD are fragile, but better than no backup at all. Flash or thumb drives are notorious for failure. If you backup on both formats, odds are better.

Deleted member 42 · May 17, 2011

Little Ming said:
So get another hard drive? Burn to DVD? Flash drive? Other suggestions?

1. Online storage at Google--you can buy extra and upload pictures to the Picasa service owned by Google.

2. Online storage at PhotoBucket or Flickr. A Flickr Pro account may be perfect for you (http://www.flickr.com/help/limits/)

alleycat · May 17, 2011

Since you already have the photos backed up to the external drives, you might consider something "off site".

You can get something like Flickr Pro for $25 a year. That would give you unlimited storage. You can set any or all photos to be private.

Edited to add: I was typing while Medievalist was posting. We both had the same idea.

maestrowork · May 17, 2011

An external drive. It's cheap (you can get a 1TB drive for about $230 or less), easy, and quick.

You'd need 120 DVDs just to back up your entire system. Or about 6 DVDs to back up your most important photos, etc. and DVDs are not safe. They can be scratched. They can warp, etc.

Online storage is a possibility, but 25GB is a LOT to back up over the Internet, plus most free sites only offer up to 2GB storage capacity.

shadowwalker · May 17, 2011

I use Mozy.

http://mozy.com/home/pricing

Maryn · May 17, 2011

I think you can get a 1T external hard drive for half the price maestro suggested. (Check the ads for Staples and Best Buy, where it seems they're often $110 - $120.) Like everything else, they can and do fail, but if you use it to back up your computer's entire contents when you choose to do so--now, and maybe once a month, or every 90 days, whatever--you should get many years of service from even the cheapies. They seem to fail when they're used for daily backup.

I have what's purportedly a high-speed connection, and it is not a quick process to store images, music, etc. online. If you've got a lot of media, it may take more time than you're willing to devote.

Maryn, who grows impatient

kuwisdelu · May 17, 2011

Pfft. 1TB is only about $100, and can be gotten for less than that, easy, guys.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136540

Deleted member 42 · May 17, 2011

Backups should be tertiary (three levels) and multiple.

You should have current-this-day, the last month, and an archive of previous months/years.

You should have local magnetic media backups, archived off site backups, and moveable media (DVD, CD, USB stick) backups.

Keep in mind that for long term storage multiple copies are safer; magenetic (hard drives) tend to last longer than DVD/CD. Avoid re-writeable DVDs/CDs.

Spread your data widely, if it's important and doesn't require security.

ejket · May 17, 2011

I don't think bulk online storage is very expensive, especially if you archive your data in a single lump as opposed to syncing it.

To guarantee privacy, just upload it as a Truecrypt volume.

As already suggested, the more unique backup methods the better.

jimbro · May 18, 2011

maestrowork said:
An external drive. It's cheap (you can get a 1TB drive for about $~~230~~ $100 or less), easy, and quick...

Also, keep the drive at your mom's house, in case your house burns down... :Shrug:

Backing-Up Everything

Little Ming

bluntforcetrauma

Esquire

Deleted member 42

alleycat

Still around

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray

shadowwalker

empty-nester!

Maryn

Baaa!

kuwisdelu

Revolutionize the World

Deleted member 42

ejket

Noobus Perpetuus

jimbro