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General discussion

CRASH! Laptop DEAD!

Feb 23, 2006 11:08PM PST

I decide I'm going to make a back up of mu disk. I set the date for Friday (today. Yesterday, I break the darn thing and have to reset it back to factory.

Its such a pain.

And it happens everytime I decide to do full backups. I set a date and break before that date.

One really should just build up a disk image.

I don't worry about my data so often as it gets backed up to a portable hard disk that lives in a fire proof data safe and is also copied accross the network to a server in SF.

Whatare your back up strategies guys?

Discussion is locked

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I don't really have or need one ..
Feb 23, 2006 11:39PM PST

I never keep anything on my computer that I can't afford to lose. I use IMAP to access my email, so it's not stored on my computer. The stuff I can't afford to lose are stored on our network servers, which are backed up nightly.

The family home computer is pretty much the same was as well. We don't really keep anything on it that can't be replaced should the computer just go belly-up.

-Terry

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I have multiple
Feb 24, 2006 12:22AM PST

After a couple of disk crash scares, and hurricane scares, I now am very serious about data protection, and have many layers.

1) Ultra critical financial data (i.e. Quicken file) backed up daily on independent removable media, one copy alwyas with me (encrypted on flash drive)

2) Documents are mirrored on two desktops (when they both working, one currently waiting for RAM replacment from factory)

3) Files also mirrored on each machine on secondary HDD

4) Both machines are imaged onto removable USB HDD weekly. Also (since the disc is big enough) personal files are copied onto uncompressed directories.

5) I have unused disk space and bandwidth on my WPP. So I upload (via secure FTP) the other important files (tax, personal data, etc) to a directory on the server. This is kept in a secure data center, backed up, etc.

Yes, I am paranoid. The only other thing that I should do is to get a second USB HDD and keep it offsite, such that if there was a fire or flood at home I could more easily restore.

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Combo method
Feb 24, 2006 5:26AM PST

I try to keep data online where possible and makes sense. I back up financial to a secure thumb drive, and I back up everything non-sensitive to my iPod.

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Ipods
Feb 24, 2006 6:15AM PST

Yes, iPods are perfect for this. I usually always recommend to my friends to spend a little more and go with the larger size iPod so you can use it as data storage and not crowd your song capacity too much.

-Kevin S.

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Or other mp3 players
Feb 24, 2006 1:42PM PST

I use my 20 gig iRiver to store 5 gigs worth of photos, plus any other sensitive data.

-Morley

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hmm
Feb 24, 2006 8:28PM PST

Not to sure about all this backing up onto ipods/mp3 players. I used to use my iRiver 40GB for that kind of thing but I was always scared that one would drop it/lose it/have it stolen. The music was replicable, but the data, not.

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I conquer
Feb 24, 2006 10:22PM PST

I agree... Last time I put stuff on my iPod bad things happened. I didn't really have anything important on it, but I had put 30 GB out of 40 GB in video on it (even though it is not a video iPod). Anyways, I tried to use the device a few months later (it had been working fine for a while), and all the sudden I got a terrible screen that just said ''www.apple.com/support/ipod'' of course, none of their ideas worked, and when I plugged the iPod into my computer, the iPod software informed me that the iPod wasn't readable, and would have to be formatted. So, I lost everything, showing you that mp3 players are not the way to go for storage.

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Non-critical backups
Feb 25, 2006 3:09PM PST

I do agree that you shouldn't use your music player for critical items. It can get stolen and I guess it's somewhat mor elikely to crash because it's used so much more.