What's more professional when backing up data, despite only needing a few key folders?

I was wondering, is it all relative when backing up data in the method of doing it? Is data truly more redundant when it is archived as a standard image format? I know many commercial places simply archive and largely compress ghost copies of all the data in all the hard drives of all the computers the business owns. However, for personal small scale backup operations is it not just a waste to store the whole OS and it's unrelated constituents as a large image file? What do the majority of people here do for PC backup? Do they simply transfer their most important folders to an external drive (excluding dual HDD RAID configurations)?

 

I can't speak for the majority of members, but I back up to an external hard drive.

 

I also simply back up the files/documents to an external. In the case of a crash, I'd rather simply start a anew and reinstall everything.

You could store everything in a large image file, but then you'd have to re-do an image/archive for each new change which could be time consuming and not really worth it.

 

I image my HD's (everything) every two weeks. In addition I keep all my personal data, pictures, etc in one main folder and synchronize it between my desktop and laptop computer over the LAN usually daily.

I can bring my computer with a failed or corrupted HD or data back to life either on its current HD or a new one in 40 minutes. A couple of files may get lost depending on when I synchronized last but it won't take hours or days to reinstall all the programs, data, etc.

So, count me a fan of creating an image on an external HD (actually I keep duplicate copies on two externals).

 

Back up to local server on an automated schedule. Mostly just profile related folders (Desktop, favorites, my documents).

 

I just backup my important files (music, documents, video etc), if it all goes up, then i'll just do a fresh install, then backup all my files from there.

 

I do both an image and syncing important documents externally. The image, beyond the obvious purpose of restoring the OS, is useful to protect me against my own mistakes. I always fear that I overlooked something when creating the external backups. (For example, forgetting to export the documents/settings from specific programs.) I'm not very regular with creating the full system images, only prior to major changes such as reverting to an earlier image.

Pick whatever method suites your needs, but I like having a redundant backup in preparation of those "oh crap" moments.

 

what a lot of people say are backups are really file/directory synchronizations to whatever media and time frame makes them happy. very few people keep multiple generations of files/directories sitting around.

considering that, your solutions and implementations get a lot simpler and reliable. instead of using sophisticated (and potentially costly) programs that need a lot of configuration and monitoring work, you can look for simpler utilities that do reliable (read: integrity test and test again) synchronization to removable/external media.

 

If you have the knowledge and time/hardware you could indeed back up everything to a server in incrementals with a scheduled full backup every few weeks/months. You could even then back up the server to a more secure format(ex: tape) if you REALLY have large sensitive or invaluable data on your HDD.

But that's a lot of work and I doubt any one HDD's content can warrant such effort unless they have work related stuff on it.

 

what technically possible for people to do and what they are willing/able to do are wildly different things.

set things up so that they are simple, reliable, and hands-off and users will do their backups. make them complicated and users will not do their backups.

 

I have an image of my OS partition. And an external HD copy (actually two of them) of my data partition.

Gary

 

Agreed. I mean, some users can't even be arsed to make a double copy of their documents let alone a backup of anything lol

Like I said, the thing I said was only for information's sake, it's not very practical in a home environment.