Features - QOTW: Do you create regular backups?

[Noxvayl]

To get around Windows crashes I store all files I would like to keep safe on a separate drive in my machine. The important bits of that information are added to my Dropbox folder and synced through Mesh to SkyDrive: documents, photos and applications. I keep my music copied over on my parents computers, just-in-case my external storage drive fails that has the more important media backed up and left in the cupboard.

I feel my information is safe; really important stuff is in the cloud, the stuff I can download again(games mostly) is on the D: drive along with media I'm not that bothered about loosing and my C: drive has Windows, apps and games installed that only takes an hour or two to reload.

[peterb]

Home server for important stuff (with RAID1) such as photos and importsnt documents which is backed up in turn to an Ultrium2 tape drive. Security stuff (keys and so on) is also backed up to an encrypted file and stored in the cloud.

[jim]

Spideroak deals with day-to-day documents, everything else is more dependent on how often I can actually be bothered to back it up. That's usually once every 6-12 months, but as bad as that sounds, I don't think it would affect me too much. Very little of the data changes on a routine basis so I'd lose very little, even if it went at the 5 month mark.

[harshw]

Used to do CCC - carbon copy cloner for the Macs and had a Netgear NAS for backing up from Windows and Mac OSX 10.6. I then built a WHS 2011 box for Windows and Mac backups using System Image and Time Machine.

However, after upgrading to Lion, TimeMachine no longer works across SMB/CIFS shares since Windows has not updated its AFP stack ( Lion relies on the newer protocols )

Tried to use the box for Windows Backups via create system image - doesn't work now on any of my Windows Installs. Either it tries to include non-system drives or then just fails even if started manually or I remove the non-system drives. There's a long winded explanation on how the problem is with the 100MB system partition and it needs to be larger. But c'mon ... after paying for OSes, we don't get working backup in the box ????

Oh well ... will go back to a Linux NAS box and try again, and will spend hours making the reserved partiton larger and cleaning the registry manually to make sure Windows wont include non-system drives for the backup ...

IMHO, Apple and MS ( especially MS ) need to get some folks to look seriously at making backup easier and reliable

[Boris]

Definitely.

I backup onto a NAS. That used to assuage my paranoia but now I wonder if I need a copy stored away from my house, or at least in a fire proof safe.

[watercooled]

Of course. Not backing up implies one of 2 things:
1) You genuinely wouldn't care if your HDD completely failed RIGHT NOW i.e. you have nothing remotely important or valuable stored.
2) You think you're safe 'for now'...

I have a fairly complex, redundant backup plan which boils down to, if my HDD/SDD loses everything, I'll lose at most the last day's changes; important stuff is backed up more frequently. I don't do RAID at any stage, it's not worth the extra power consumption in a home environment.

Sanity check to see if your backup plan is adequate - if your HDD failed irrecoverably* right now, but you immediately get a replacement containing your backed up files, would you be upset? If yes, you're not doing it right...

*Considering the cost of professional recovery, it might as well be irrecoverable anyway. But if you'd be willing to pay that much, there are plenty of stupid-simple online backup providers for far cheaper...

[GoNz0]

once a week i image my windows drive to the NAS and after that run my robocopy script to update changed files on the remaining documents and program disks, important stuff such as pictures also go to google drive and skydrive.

[Queelis]

Just back up documents/pictures/other things to a separate external HDD which then gets disconnected (only after it's spun down) and stored in a dark dry place (i.e. desk drawer). If the apartment caught on fire, things on my PC would be the least of my worries.

[Amunraaa]

I only backup important documents and pictures to online storage (dropbox)

[Saracen]

Question is, how many of you actually create backups, and of what kind? Do you only backup certain devices, do you trust the cloud as a backup destination, or do you run the risk of not creating any backups at all? Let us know in the comments below.

First .... should that be "questions are? Y'know, plural.

How many of you actually create backups,...

I do.

.... and of what kind?

It varies, machine to machine. Some are full image backups. Some are backed up to tape (yes, still) or optical disk. Some are RAID (5) machines with selective data backup over the network, and some (like this one) have a backup of the OS and apps, periodically updated, with data shared in common with other machines, stored on a server which in turn is "sync'd" with another machine.

And some rarely-changing data is "archived" on optical disc (mostly, DVD-RAM with some old MO) and updated periodically.

.... do you trust the cloud as a backup destination.

No.

Partly, it's about privacy and even commercial confidentiality. It's also about resilience. I want my data when I want it, and not to be at the beck and call of some company on the cloud, and to the ability of my ISP to keep a net connection when I want it. Besides, I need my data here, and don't have any need to access it while mobile, or abroad, or via 3G on a smartphone/iPad, etc.

The cloud is of zero interest to me, for several such reasons.

[Jedibeeftrix]

i use a trucrypt container file for all of my storage, and back it up to another computer via a USB drive at least once a month.

so three copies in all, with a periodic back offsite.

[kalniel]

Yes, and shockingly for the most part I make use of Windows 7 Pro's backup over network feature.. which works great for both files and system images.

[NitrousX]

i just back music/games/documents to either my external hdd or backup to dvd when i can

[Spank]

I have backed up on 2 1TB drives all pictures, music, videos, programs, favourites & documents. 1 is kept in my locker at work & 1 in another room in the house (might not escape a fire, but hidden so it won't get nicked).
These get backed up every month.

[J3FFW1SH]

Dropbox, Google Drive, Skydrive, RAID 5, and VPN to a share on one of the servers at work - the important stuff is backed several times and the other non essential data has redundancy in place so should be all good

[Jonj1611]

I use Genie backup to schedule several backups a week depending on how often the files to be backed up are actually updated. All goes to the external drive.