Let's talk 'backup' - honestly!

[IntelConvert]

What do you backup (OS, programs, data, etc.)?
How often do you backup (attended or unattended)?
What do you use (B/U device and B/U software) and why?

 

[madmike]

At home: Very little. MP3s, scanned photos, a few docs, MS Money data, Quake configs... I back them up whenever I feel like it, but not often. It's mostly for fun anyway. (Except the MS Money data - that gets backed up to floppy every time I use the app.)

At work: All data files. (Of course all my important stuff is on the servers, and they get backed up nightly.)

It's really not worth backing up the OS or applications, as these will have to be re-installed if the system crashes anyway. Besides, I install my OS and apps at home at least a couple times a year on my main PC.

Media: Home backups are on CD-R or sometimes to another HDD or PC via the LAN. Just depends on the situation. For keepers it's CD-R, but I don't do video or too many graphics so the 700MB per disk limit isn't hard to live with.
At work we use 20/40GB DAT or 30/60GB DLT on the servers. We also burn archive data to CD-R for offsite storage.

 

[Guest]

yeah I'll go with that.. basically files I don't want to lose that can't simply be replaced

***check the jumpers 1st then check em again***

 

[camieabz]

Anything I want to keep, that I don't have a hard copy of. (My Docs, Registry, passwords etc.)

<b><font color=blue>Change the</font color=blue><font color=red> sig of</font color=red><font color=green> the week!</font color=green> :tongue: </b>

 

[pvsurfer]

A lot of what I do results in new text/data/image files, and while I could always reload all the MS stuff after a crisis, I don't want to lose my settings, preferences, favorites, etc. - so I backup everything!

I typically will kickoff a backup once a week (right before hitting the sack).

I use Norton Ghost 2001 to make a disk-image to a removable hard-drive which I then remove and put in a secure place until the next time I want to backup.

This works very well for me and gives me peace of mind.

 

[IntelConvert]

Norton Ghost does seem to be one of the more popular tools used for backing up. I seriously considered it a few months ago, but since I wasn't sure whether or not it supported drives on a Promise UltraATA100 card, I decided on a more traditional backup pkg. After a lot of looking, I came across a 5-Star shareware product on ZDNet called GRBackPro. It is truly a great piece of backup software that I would recommend to anyone. It supports just about every medium (CD-R, Tape, Disk) as well as every interface you can imagine and provides great backup management/scheduling tools.

 

[upec]

I backup mp3s I downloaded from Internet to CD. I usually download mp3s into download folder. When the folder reach above 600 mb I burn it to cd and move the data to mp3 folder.

I always ftp my work related data to the company server. It not only provide fast and easy backup I also have access to the data both at home and in company.

I use to backup programs and drivers I download from Internt to CD when I still using dial up connection. It saves download time. After I get a cable modem I rather redownload them each time I reinstall my computer so I will have the newest update.

I never backup my OS. I upgrade my computer queit freqently. I perfer clean installtion than reload from an image with old hardware driver.