What's the best way to back up data?

[KoleTang]

What is the best and most cost effective option? Sync Drive? Remote backup service? External hard drive? In home server?

 

[Iron124]

An inexpensive External HDD and Windows Backup is the least amount of hassle and cheapest option in my opinion.

 

[RookieOfTheYear]

I would agree with Iron. I personally prefer internal hard drives, but i have a desktop. I also have all my info on 2 different drives, in case one fails.

 

[mbreslin1954]

Yes, Windows Backup is great, at least in Windows 7 and Windows 8. You can use it to create either a backup of files and folders, or a complete image of your hard drive(s).

 

[KoleTang]

I would agree with Iron. I personally prefer internal hard drives, but i have a desktop. I also have all my info on 2 different drives, in case one fails.

I was considering this, but what if the reason of failure is a power surge or something? I'm thinking it would be safer to have the backup more separate from the original files.

 

[Iron124]

I would agree with Iron. I personally prefer internal hard drives, but i have a desktop. I also have all my info on 2 different drives, in case one fails.

I was considering this, but what if the reason of failure is a power surge or something? I'm thinking it would be safer to have the backup more separate from the original files.

Power Surge worries are pretty minimal assuming you have your computer and/or External HDD plugged into a surge protector.

 

[RookieOfTheYear]

I would agree with Iron. I personally prefer internal hard drives, but i have a desktop. I also have all my info on 2 different drives, in case one fails.

I was considering this, but what if the reason of failure is a power surge or something? I'm thinking it would be safer to have the backup more separate from the original files.

I do what Iron124 said above. I live in Florida and there are many lightning strikes here all the time. So I bought a nice Rosewill surge protector and plug everything into it. The only real worry with internal drives are if your computer actually starts on fire (ex. cheap power supply or a house fire). Other than that, I'm pretty well protected. Also by using the SSD as a boot drive there is a lot less wear and tear on my HDD's since they are for just storage.

 

[KoleTang]

Cool, thanks.

Do you recommend an internal drive with a sync program, or an external drive with windows backup?

How do I go about using Windows Backup?