PCTech Forums

by **teststrips** » Tue Jul 15, 2003 3:55 am

Just wondering what everyone uses to back up their files. After loosing a bunch of good stuff awhile back, I actually made a bit of a plan to back my stuff up. Here it is:

1.) GHOST I do a full backup about every 3 months of my boot drive/programs drive with Symantec/Norton Ghost. If I do a MAJOR upgrade like a new service pack or upgrade of a program I use every day, I'll back up right before the upgrade.

2.) SmartSync Pro - This program synchronizes whatever directory you want as often as you want.. it works over networks, and is very customizable. I back up my Downloaded Programs - Downloaded Games - and VCD directories nightly... since the program Synchronizes - it only copies if something has changed. I Backup things like my FAVORITES, EMAIL, and MY DOCS hourly. Since the program works over my network I have everything on all 3 of my PC's, and if a hard drive would fail I'd still have 2 other copies.

3.) Nero - CD burner app... I have all of my files that are NOT replaceable backed up on CD's and stored at my mother's house. If my apartment complex would burn down, and all 3 of my pc's trashed, I'd still have all my digital photos and what-not... my wife would FREAK if we lost those!

Day to day backups are a breeze with SmartSync.. I don't have to do ANYTHING to keep that going. I mark on my calendar every 3 months to do my full/CD backups.

Let me know what you think, and post your strategy

by **Restek** » Tue Jul 15, 2003 10:53 am

I'm actually kind of bad with backups - the main thing I backup are my photo's which I backup to CD once a week or so. There's actually not much else that I've got that couldn't be replaced if I needed to (although it would be a pain!!). At work I also backup to the network manually at the end of each day, but I only generate a couple of files a day so it's not much hassle.

That smartsync pro sounds nice tho - might take a look (whether I actually get round to using it is a different matter of course!!)

by **gotcha** » Mon Jul 21, 2003 5:44 pm

Does anyone have Quest Drive Image 7.
I would like to know if it is OK?
Bye. gotcha

by **ducecoop** » Mon Jul 21, 2003 11:01 pm

Don't believe version has been released to the scene yet.

ducecoop

by **ducecoop** » Mon Jul 21, 2003 11:15 pm

1. I don't keep anything on my c drive. Everything I create is on my D drive (a second physical drive) that way if the OS goes bad all my work is saved.

2. I have a program that backs-up Outlook express everynight. ( again to my D drive.

3. I have Quickbooks do a scheduled back-up every night ( to my D Drive).

3. I have a little program called Smart Back-up that I use to back-up important program files. .sm = all my sites in cuteFTP, .ftp.inf = all my sites in Edit plus...........) and stuff like that. It does a back-up nightly.

4. I then use Smart Back-up to back all of my D drive to a Third Physical drive Nightly. This is an Incremental back-up so it does not take too long.

5. About once a week or so I then burn this to DVD and store in my car.

I have to have my car stolen and house burn down all at the same time before I lose everything. So incase that happens I am thinking of using Smart Back-up to do incremental back-up to an FTP site nightly.

hope this helps,

ducecoop

by **Gecko** » Tue Jul 22, 2003 5:02 am

I keep my OS and installed programs on C drive, all other data and files are stored on D drive, these are different physical drives I use the same setup on all four of our computers.
Once I have the OS and programs setup just the way I like them, I use Drive Image to image the C drive to CDs, these I keep in our fire safe.
I use Drive Image to backup all my D and E drives on all the computers to two different network drives that are just for backups. These are scheduled tasks that happen every week. Once a month I burn these backups to CDs. Last month it took 12 CDs so I really do need to get a DVD writer soon.
I too use Smart Sync Pro to synchronize my work files every 30 minutes to my removable disk optical drive, I burn a copy of all the synchronized files every night if I have worked that day and I put that CD and the removable disk in the fire safe also.
We copy every picture that we take to CDs and we keep them in the fire safe as well.
So even if my house burns down I still have all my backups in my fire proof, waterproof safe.

by **teststrips** » Tue Jul 22, 2003 1:14 pm

as long as your safe is big enough to keep the disks from melting, you should be in good shape.

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