Backing up 1TB of data?

Hello, i am trying to back up 1TB of data. I am a noob so excuse my ignorance on the matter. Will i need another TB to back up my existing TB? Or will the files compress or make an image of some sort. I know nothing about how it works so if you guys at NBR would be so kind and break it down for me it would be much appreciated! Also what (freeware) program is best for backing up data?

 

You should be able to compress the data somewhat, but exactly how much depends on what type of files your backing up.

 

I will be backing up mostly Movies/Videos.

 

How are you using your existing terabyte driver? As an internal desktop hard drive, if so, as a primary or secondary drive? Hardware RAID is a very popular option, but software solutions can do the same. If you are using it as an external drive, then that is another setup.

 

I am using a WD 1TB External Harddrive. I have no idea what RAID is.

 

So you have a [laptop] attached to a 1TB external drive and want to backup that external up.

You will need to purchase another drive and connect it, then setup a software backup. I do not believe the standard USB or USB/ESata WD External drives have firewire ports, thus they cannot be daisy-chained (connecting multiple drives: a to b to computer). Unless you invest in another costly 1TB (~$110) drive and 2 bay enclosure ($50-150), purchasing another external seems to be your only other on site solution that will incur the smallest cost. There are paid backup services such as mozy.com that are useful, but require a monthly payment.

 

I do plan on buying another 1TB external hard drive. My main question is will backing up 1TB of data require exactly 1TB of free space?

 

To safely backup, yes. You will need to look at each backup program differently as they will have different average compression ratios for media files. Th easiest and quickest will be to not compress the media and have some kind of update file backup going. I believe Lifehacker has run a couple articles about popular freeware backup programs.

 

Video is almost always compressed already, so you won't be able to compress it further. So generally, 1TB of video will need 1TB of free space to back up.

 

RAID is not an excuse for not making backups of your files. I've seen far too many RAID arrays fail because multiple drives died at once. RAID also doesn't protect you from accidental deletions or corruption above the controller level (which would cause corrupted data to be written to multiple drives).

@lians60,

You're going to need a 1TB drive to backup 1TB of video data (which, as has already been mentioned, will probably not compress any further). Either get a OneTouch drive that comes with its own software for simple backups or look at Microsoft's SyncToy software.

 

To the poster.
Doing a backup is simply just making copys of your files that you wanna save onto another HDD, CD-R, DVD-R or anything that can hold DATA.

I don't see the need of backing up movies that youcan get a hold on easily later on, back up your IMPORTANT data instead!

Why are you making a backup, for fun?

 

don't forget to get a backup for your backup.

 

The reason why is because i literally have 1tb of movies. I recently dropped my previous 1TB and lost 500 GiGs of Movies. Luckily my school has a T3 line which allows me to download at 10 MBs per Second. However i will be graduating soon and will not have access to the T3 line so it would take me forever to download 1TB.

Thanks everyone for the replys! I will just buy another 1TB HD. Are the Fantom 1TB (The ones for 119,99 @ Newegg.com) decent? I know they arent going to be spectacular but at least Decent.

 

Its a never ending cycles

 

I'm jealous. My school has a firewall that shapes P2P traffic, but they have a 5MB/sec connection . Just don't get arrested, because you can be fined for $500 million.