How do you backup your computer?

[karch]

I realize I posted this question last week and got ZERO responses. I'll rephrase it, and if no one answers, I'll let it die...

How do you backup your computer. Tape Drive, floppies, CDR CDRW External Drives, or just pray to the hard drive gods that your drive will never fail.

I use an Onstream 15Gig Firewire tape drive to backup my desktop, web server and laptop every night at 1am over the network using Dantz Retrospect.

[WWB]

My backup is a bit odd, I use an my old 4gb HDD, formatted as NTFS, and un-useable to anything but one special account that I don't ever use save to back things up. So I periodically login as the backup user, copy the data to the drive, then logout. It is protected from physical failure (separate disk) and viruses (can't get into it since it is rare for the account to be logged in and I update my scanner and do a sweep before I do my backup).

The only weakness in this plan is that physical destruction of the location is, well, going to get both disks. Some key stuff is backed up onto CDs and stored off-site though.

WWB

[Pvt. Ryan]

I have a small amount of critical data at work, so I back it up with a ZIP Disk. It's easy to copy and paste the appropriate folders.

[brooktrout]

I have four desktops and one laptop at home to back up. When I first set up a computer with current drivers, browser, virus protection (latest definitions) etc., I image the C partition using Ghost. This image always fits on one CD-R with high compression. I also make the CD bootable with the Ghost exe for restoring to a clean setup (which I do occasionaly). After I install all of the applications to the D partition, I image the C and D partitions over to a 80gb Maxtor across a network connection. These images usually span across a couple of files since they are pretty large but I just leave them on the 80gb drive for restoring if needed. I then just back up data files on a regular basis to another 80gb Max that is in a removable drive chassis in another machine on the network.

I capture a lot of one/two hour documentaries from the history channel which I eventually convert to VCD format and burn onto CDR's but I also capture/store them on the Maxtor and another 80gb WD drive so I end up using a lot of that storage space, at least temporarily.

Basically I use CDR's and HD's for backup since an 80gb can be had for $125.00. I gave up on tapes years ago, at least the tape drives targetted for home use. The DAT tape drives that I have used at work are much faster and reliable but they cost quite a bit.

[karch]

Originally posted by brooktrout:

...Basically I use CDR's and HD's for backup since an 80gb can be had for $125.00. I gave up on tapes years ago, at least the tape drives targetted for home use. The DAT tape drives that I have used at work are much faster and reliable but they cost quite a bit.

Interesting. We switched from tape to 120 Gig external drives for our office. They are much faster than tape and are cheaper than most tape drives until you get to around 500 Gig or so. I got my drive on ebay for $150 and a pack of 4 tapes for $90. I'm kicking myself for not using external HDs. I could then use them the way you do in a pinch.

Scott Karch

[LtCol.05]

I also use Norton Ghost to backup my main PC to my backup PC over my home network... I have a 40 and 30 Gig HD on my main PC and just backup a stable version of both to the partitioned 40 Gig HD on main PC. If I ever fill that up I'll just go pick up another 40 Can now revert to a stable system with all my most used programs if something goes haywire!! I also keep important data files on a ZIP drive (financial and the like)