Backing Up Your Hard Drive

[DaBouncer 13]

Hiya,

 

Just wondered what peoples views are for backing up your system.

I mean should the worst happen and you get a virus which wipes your HDD what do you do?

 

What would be the best way to back up my PC?

How do you back up the registry? What is the registry and what's it for? Why back it up?

 

Do I have to back up ALL my programmes and My Documents etc or is there a simpler way to get all my info's back should the worst happen?

 

What do you guys do?

 

Cheers folks

[RPG 10]

If you really want to backup your stuff, Id suggest one of those "one touch" external drives.

 

Basically, you press the button on top and it creates an 'image' of your HDD, so basically it copies it byte for byte.

 

They arent too expensive, and are made by Maxtor

[alchresearch 214]

They are good, but quite expensive. If you want external storage it's much cheaper to buy your own hard drive and external USB2/ firewire case.

 

I have a second hard drive in my PC and use Norton Ghost or Powerquest DriveImage to backup my system. That's probably the cheapest and most reliable way to go.

[Cyclone 10]

although having an internal drive as backup means that if you house burns down your data goes with it.

 

Personally i only backup data, everything else i can reinstall.

 

I have 3 pc's and the my documents and mp3 folders are a clone on each pc. I periodically have to resync them since i obviously create new things on different pcs.

I also have a copy of all the mp3s and my docs on my ipod like device, which means i could keep the backup off site (i don't off course, so it'll burn down with the rest).

 

Maybe i'll get round to taking a dvd snapshot and storing it safely in the cellar at sometime.

 

An important point about full backup solutions is that they are only as good as the last time you tested them.

Are you sure that you can restore windows into a working order from that ghost disk if you have to start from scratch?

[chill 10]

I only backup data too. I have two machines at home. All the data is on the server, and the standard Windows backup tool is scheduled to backup the files onto the other machine every night.

 

In addition, every so often I backup all my data onto CD and take the discs into work. That way, if my house were to burn to the ground, I'd still have all my data.

[Jamie 10]

I have 2 hard drives (and one has 2 partitions).

 

I keep the OS and programs on one hard drive.

 

On the other hard drive I have my files and important data including my work.

 

If I lose the OS and programs, it's no biggy, I just re-install everything from CD, and the drive with my data on is intact.

 

I make regular backups to either CD-r or DVD-r of my essential data.

 

I think the best stratagy is to keep your OS / program files SEPERATE from your own user data.

 

I don't bother backing up the registry, no point.

[slh73 32]

Im the same as Jamie on that. I have my main, fast drive with my OS and any installed programs on it. Then I have a second, slower but much larger drive with all my imprtant data/mp3s/movies etc on it. Then, if and when the OS gets so buggered it requires a reinstall, I can format that drive without losing any of my other data.

[Martin_s 10]

With the cost of DVD writers down to £50 or thereabouts it's worth investing in one of those along with a copy of driveimage...

 

The way I've done things for myself and clients is to go this route.

 

(You need 2 partitions for this to work btw)

- Do a drive image of the existing system to the spare partition and then burn a copy of the drive image files created to DVD's..

 

- Completely wipe the system and repartition to 3 partitions.

C: system

D: files

E: backup/images

 

- Reinstall your system from scratch, get all the service packs, install all the programmes you want to use

 

- If you're feeling particularly clever and have a couple of hours, grab a utility called x-setup to move the location for files like email, address book, my documents, favourites, etc.. to your D: drive which will make it easier to back them up.

 

- Take a disk image of your brand spanking newly setup system and again burn it to DVD (put it somewhere safe that's not with your computer)

 

- Now transfer all your data from the old PC back to the relevant locations and start using it again...

 

 

 

It's a long convoluted process but if you actually do it this way you can do ghost images of all your data on the D: drive on a regular basis and backup to DVD or CD... and every 6 months when things have started erroring, you can restore your old system quickly and easily, install any new software you now need and/or security updates.. re-image the system drive and then carry on again with a fresh machine... WITHOUT having to do it all from scratch..

 

This is particularly useful if you're like me and you have work critical data...

 

 

 

 

 

Of course that's one hell of a convoluted process so if you want a seriously quick and easy approach, buy a CD writer and a bunch of CD's... get a copy of Second Copy (see tucows.com) and then setup that writer as a InCD or DirectCD writeable drive (so that the CD can be treated like a hard drive and just written straight to) and setup Second Copy to backup your important data on a regular basis... being sure to remove and store the CD you've got in the drive every week...

 

 

Needless to say, whatever you do, leaving the CD's, DVD or hard drive (if you go for the other options above) in the same room as your PC is a seriously bad idea.. fireproof safes, trusted friends houses, etc.. are best..

 

[Rich 12]

I just do a system restore.

 

Back to the last date before the occursed event happened, sure you lose a few bits but it's better than having to do a full reinstall of Windows etc.

[Cyclone 10]

i suppose you need to set some objectives.

Do you want backups to achieve retention of data in the event of system failure, or do you want to be able to restore the entire system+data to a replacement harddrive.

 

I'm in the former bracket. Everything else I can rebuild myself.

[Phanerothyme 12]

Here's a novel way to archive data safely for thousands of years, and not worry about obsolescence of the format: Norsam Rosetta

[alchresearch 214]

Originally posted by Martin_s

With the cost of DVD writers down to £50 or thereabouts it's worth investing in one of those along with a copy of driveimage...

 

The way I've done things for myself and clients is to go this route.

 

(You need 2 partitions for this to work btw)

- Do a drive image of the existing system to the spare partition and then burn a copy of the drive image files created to DVD's..

 

DriveImage has been discontinued. Norton bought them out.

 

Shame, as DriveImage made smaller image files.

 

But, Norton will burn straight to DVD, so no messing with partitions.