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General discussion

Backup

Feb 8, 2011 3:13AM PST

Hi

I notice in reading the forum that Rob Profitt explains that backing up to an external hard drive is not a guaranteed safe place and I understand the concerns. I am curious, since I am considering buying an external hard drive, what is it that Rob does himself to ensure that he has safe backup?

Thanks

Discussion is locked

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I won't speak for him but I don't think that's what is meant
Feb 8, 2011 4:43AM PST

An external drive just shouldn't be relied upon as the sole backup of the source material. If data is critical, it's best to have more than one copy and have that kept in more than one place. If you have a PC with an external drive as backup and your place is robbed or a meteor drops on your home, both copies are likely gone. You need a backup plan as well as backup devices.

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Stuff happens
Feb 8, 2011 11:34PM PST

If you've read the forum here, you may have noticed the repeated posts for help on ext. HDs. On that alone, you see the basis for many offering don't use the HD as your sole or permanent storage place for critical or one and only item you plan to keep. Also, it has been inferred or offered that maintain yet another storage source or copy of your precious data be stored else, usually in some disc media form, like CD/DVD/HD. While some may offer online storage someplace like Carbonite, etc., these are low on storage or are a paid for service and can get costly over time, but it all depends on your needs and wallet. I again, remind you that while ext. HDs are a wonderful storage means they do fail and will at some time. Of course, regardless of storage media, its always best to have at least 2 copies besides the immediate working copy on PC. Keep in mind what fails on an ext. HD is the ext. HD as a whole which means the actual i still working but the i/f or outside of the HD itself is at fault, but as a whole isn't working, thus the offered help to "try to retrieve" data by some means. good luc

tada -----Willy Happy

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Great answer!
Feb 9, 2011 3:01AM PST

Wonderful - thank you, you very clearly explained it all. So what I will do is keep my "stuff" on my compauter, plus back it up to an external hard drive, plus save it on to DVD's. Thanks so much.

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Don't forget offsite...
Feb 11, 2011 4:39PM PST

I think that I would have only one onsite backup (like external hard disk), and then an offsite backup. So if your house burns down or you're burgled, you still have your most important data backed up. Carbonite and Mozy both work well for this, and cost about $50/year (in the ballpark for external disk). Or even if you have 2 onsite backups, still do the offsite backup. The offsite backups to the internet are essentially passive on your part, other than keeping the list of what you need to backup up to date. The backup just happens, and you can test your internet backups any time you feel like it, too.

Personally, I use an external hard disk and internet backup. And feel that I've got a good chance of retaining my important data under most circumstances. Of course, if both my house and the internet burn down, then that's not the case *smile*.

-Roger

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you mean to say ...
Feb 11, 2011 5:36PM PST

... you don't regularly back up the internet?

Wink

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Don't forgot real low tech
Feb 12, 2011 7:01AM PST

Besides the externam hard drive.....put your photos on CD and if you really like them..don't forget to get them "real photos " printed. Also any on-line purchase...make believe you brought it a 'real" stores and print out your receipt.

If you really thing about it..digital>equates> to electronics and electronics has NEVER been permenant.

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Doing Back Ups
Feb 12, 2011 12:22AM PST

If you have ever had a hard drive failure without a back up, you can never have enough back ups. Right now I back up to two different hard drives. One, an e-SATA does an entire back up with Windows 7 Back up, and the other, an HP USB2 is a 1 gig HP back up drive that automatically backs up data every five minutes. I am much safer with this technique than only one hard drive back up. Programs are much easier to reinstall than it is to recreate the data that you have created. Some of the files on my computer date to 2001 and even though they are a little old, I want to keep them around. I also have some 8 and 16 gig flash drives that I keep my mp3 collection on besides having them on my main drive and my back ups. I would never want to lose them, since they took so long to create.

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backups
Feb 12, 2011 4:43AM PST

I have two external HD's. I dont use usb. just plug
then into the computer then pull one of them out after
running backup and copying. the outside one goes in
a fireproof safe thats in a fireproof gun safe.
should save me from all but the meteor LOL - but
then if it be that - I dont have a backup for ME ! LOL
so its of no consern.