best back up for laptop

which should i use cd/dvd-r, usb, or geeksquad online data backup?

 

I use DVD-R's to backup older files and pictures.
I use USB memory sticks for everyday file transfer, mainly for University work.

I also keep a back-up of everything on an External HardDrive.


I've never tried online backup before and I don't think I ever will as uploading 4.7GB worth of pictures equivalent of a DVD is not ideal with a upload speed of 32kbps... and also the factor of the information being able to be read by others.

 

cd/dvds are very wasteful if you need more than a few of them, and swapping them during backup is really a pain. Your best bet for the home is an external disk drive. They are very cheap and usually store more than your laptop drive, so you can make a full backup.

 

I prefer external HD and free utility
http://netcpp.com/BackupUtil.htm

As for online backup, I would send the data in encrypted form (TrueCrypt would do the job), unless you completely don't care about someone else seeing them.

The plus of online backup if that they are located not in your house and if something bad happens in your place data are still OK.

Yet, YMMV, but I trust myself most for storing my own data.

 

well the only thing that scares me about the usb or cd/dvd-r is that something can easly happen to them. If the usb gets wet or stepped on or the cd gets steped on or scratched. According to the geeksquad web page you can get a 25 GB space for 50 dollars a year and they say its compariable to the govenrment encrytpion codes. The webpage is http://www.geeksquad.com/tools/databackup.aspx im leaning towards this but do yall think its really secure or not?

 

and u believe that they can be more reliable than what u do with external drive or dvd or whatever? Reading the news everyday that data got lost and hacked into, I personally stay with what i can get. And if i m so paranoid, then i will make double, triple, quadruble copies

cheers ...

 

There are many options because many people have different needs.

The other thing with CDs/DVDs is that they god bad in as little as 5 years, so you need to make sure you recopy them every so often. With a hard drive you will probably be more aware of that.

 

can someone tell how reliable external HDs are over time? How often should they be backed up? I've got over 1 Tb of live music that I never want to lose.... some of it is on discs that are around 5 or 6 years old and I need the most reliable storage possible.

 

I use Seagate DiskWizard (SDW free but need one Seagate HD) to back up my entire HD on one external HD (the 60GB Seagate that came with this machine) and Karen's Replicator to back up My Documents (on D drive) to a 120GB WD Passport.

PS I also used SDW to clone my old HD to new.

 

Geez, it would take 5-6 years to listen to it all. Whatever your solution, it's not going to be cheap, but a couple external HD's would probably best.

PS Love your Avatar. Listening to Frank now...

 

That's the exact way I feel too. I usually make at least 2 copies be safe.

 

I'm using SyncBack SE to back up to two external harddrives, and - as those won't do me much good if the house burns down or burglars run off with everything - JungleDisk (a frontend for the Amazon S3 online storage service) for offsite backup of my most important files.

 

I use Carbonite and Amazon's S3 service for backup. Carbonite is ~$50/yr for unlimited storage. It runs on Windows based PCs and automatically streams any updated file to Carbonite for backup. The data is encrypted. Amazon's service is something like $0.15 per gb per month. It works with any OS, and also allows you to share content via a URL. I use this for photos and video.

I prefer online, hosted backup solutions to anything local. In case of fire, theft or some other disaster, my data will still be safe. And @ $50 for unlimited storage through Carbonite, it cost effective.

http://www.carbonite.com/

http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=16427261

 

barring any situation where my storage is stolen or physically destroyed, how long will external hds hold onto data? is there a life expectancy with the discs in these things ( like cds, dvds etc ), or are they good for a lifetime? If the drive mechanically fails is there a way to retrieve the data from the disc?

 

With burned DVDs or CDs, you might get 5 years out of them, but you need to make sure to buy quality discs. Cheap discs degrade faster.

There is NO permanent solution. Physical hard drives may have trouble spinning up if you leave them in storage for too long, like over a year, without spinning them up. The magnetic media will degrade over time, but for that you probably have 5 years or so.

The assumption with storing on a hard drive is that you will upgrade your disk every few years, and the rate that storage space is increasing, chances are it will be 2x bigger than the one you have now, so you can move all of your backups onto it. You will have to juggle your data every few years.

Also with this method, one should have TWO copies of everything, one that's "live" and the other in backup. If you want to archive to keep for a long time, you should have two offline copies of it. For a home user, it's really not that expensive to do use this method.