Easiest to use Backup Software

I actually wrote a much longer reply about how I backup my computer in its entirety, but decided it didn't really address your question. If you would like to see it, let me know. As for backing up your data, you might consider using DVDs or CDs and keeping every backup you make. That way, if one backup fails, you can use another one, maybe slightly older, and you won't have lost everything. I find a great utility for backups is winrar. If you're not familiar with it, it's a lot like winzip. You can use it to create profiles that have certain compression characteristics and have a list of files and folders to add to the zip/rar file. Since you don't want to back up everything, and you know exactly what you do want to backup, I think it would be very easy to create a profile in winrar with the list of all your mp3s and photos, and use that to make rar/zip archives of everything. Format your ext. hard drive either using windows or one of the utilities that came with it, and just drag and drop the archives you make onto it, or, like I suggested above, burn them to DVD. With winrar you can also make a batch file to do this automatically and it can also add the date of creation to the name of the archive automatically.

I have been using backup software for years and I especially like imaging applications. I would NOT suggest Norton products yest this includes NAV and partition magic. My favorite backup program is TrueImage by Acronis (they also have other great disk utility products, the company is very simular to powerquest until Norton purchased them and messed things up), the only thing I don't like is the price tag and upgrades that come out every year. This gets expensive when you have several machines you are backing up. I currently have 8 and they are costing me some case to just back up. I would also look at Image for Windows by TeraByte Unlimited. I think I am going to switch to them because of cost. I have several purchased copies of TrueImage if you would be interested in buying one I would sell it for $39.00 if you pay shipping.

Thanks

I use a desktop-class laptop, HP zd7000 series with a 80GB internal HD. I have my complete business files located funneled thru a single folder on the desktop. I have a 120GB eternal HD that I back-up with a pretty simple utility I found on Download.com.com, called Clone. It really is an elegant program that makes back-ups a snap.

Now, I have to agree with comments from other posters here that expose the risks of BU hard-drive failures. I had a Acom(?) HD that STB, for no good reason, on me about 6 months ago. But since my laptop has the complete datafile set, I just went out and bought a new Western Digital HD and reloaded my business files back onto the new external HD.

I suppose I should eventually consider backstopping with another back-up for my 30 Gigs of data and keep it off-site (I work out of my house), but I think I might spring for a 2nd external HD instead...a DVD drive and media would cost about as much as a new external HD and it really seems to be less convenient.

In the old days, I had a simple batch file that pkzipped all my data files into an on-disk file suitable for archiving. Then I realized that was like saving your flammables in the fireplace, so I backed it off to tape once we could afford one. Too cumbersome, and too many failures (you don't discover this until you try to restore!). I went both the dual hard drive route (no good on power supply disasters) and the floppy disk (!) route (very time consuming and media consumptive, even back then). Through it all, I considered the issues of optimization and convenience. I decided that, once I had installed a network, the right way to do it was to back up every machine on every other machine - but only the data, not the applications. That was still time consuming with 10Mb ethernet (more so with our first Arcnet network), but came into its own once I switched to 100Mb. It's what I use now. The rationale has proved a comfortable balance. I simply copy, from each computer, the contents of the My Documents folder to a dedicated, self-descriptive subfolder (Sandy's docs, Jamie's docs) located outside that computer's My Documents (e.g., to C:\Backups) folder. When I install applications, I change the default locations for their data to a subfolder in My Documents. I manually copy the AOL Organize folder to keep the e-mail files for each person to their My Documents folder before kicking things off. This process:

1. Minimizes the amount of data to be copied over the network and speeds the backup process.
2. Keeps multiple copies of backups for each machine on the network on other machines and readily available.
3. Allows me to make off-site removable media copies from the machine with the biggest removable storage device.

I used to compress the backups using PKZIP before copying to further condense the data transferred, but this lowers reliability (1 bit error could make the entire backup irretrievable, rather than just the file involved), so I stopped when media got cheap.

Cost? The footprint on each hard drive of the My Documents folders. At $.30 to $.50/Gigabyte, the cost is non-recurring (see reuse below) and trivial. Anyone filling up their hard drives lately? In the original backup batch file that I wrote long ago, I used XCopy with the switch that only copied changed files, and then inverted the archive bit so that file wouldn't be copied again unless subsequently changed (Xcopy /m /s /v). Don't know how to do this anymore in XP, but it would be nice. Not much of an issue, because I run the backups overnight, with all computers running at once - they cooperate just fine on the network - so it really doesn't matter how long it takes.

By alternating the subfolders each backup cycle, you have two or more (your choice) backup versions on line at once, and just delete the contents of the oldest backup folder when you come full circle, thereby reusing the footprint.

I do make the occasional DVD copy (bought 50 media at Staples this week on sale for $7.94 plus tax - <$.16 each), and will move to double layer when media prices drop. I do this so that I can carry a copy in a laptop bag in case I need to refer to a file when away from home.

This may not work well for people with large media collections, but I only have about 9GB of MP3's, a few JPEGs of family photos, and no MPEGs. Of course, drives are getting bigger, Gigabit ethernet getting cheaper, and Blu-Ray is coming. Check your space requirements (in Explorer, right click My Documents and click properties); you might be surprised at how little (data, that is) you really have to back up. If you do the math, 4 or 5 GB of data moves across a 100 Mb link through a switch at about 2 to 3 megabytes a second (drive, processor, etc. dependent) so you can easily run two or three machine backups simultaneously in about 20 to 30 minutes, unattended. Overnight, it's no sweat. Even an 802.11G link will work reasonably well. Only occasionally do you get a snafu, and then you just restart that copy and have a cup of coffee.

You may take issue with the idea that I'm only backing up data and not applications and OS. I am happy with that idea, because by the time a backup is needed because of hard drive failure, it is long overdue that the OS be reinstalled to get the Registry back to manageable size so Windows startup completes before closing time, and kill off those nasty bits of viral/adware/spyware/trojan crud that choke the machine anyway. I do this periodically just to bring the machine back to original speed and responsiveness; I look on it as the digital equivalent of an oil change.

I realize this is not a universal panacea, but for some, it's handy. Your mileage may vary.

From your original request I see that have been quite a few suggestions to back up your system, but the question I see you asking is a good way to back up your data to the external drive.
While there have been quite a few good suggestions I did not see anyone mention the application that I use. It is called Second Copy 2000 by Centered Systems and cost about $30. You can check it out at http://www.centered.com. It has won the annual People's Choice Shareware Awards several years in a row.
I have tried several different applications to back up my data, but so far I found this one to work the best for my needs. There a several notable features that it has that makes it my recommendation. First is, that it is intended to back up data and you can select the data set and type of back up to do (mirror, incremental, etc.). Second, you can schedule the backups or manually run them. Third, you set up the information you want to back up using profiles, so if you want to back up your Word documents to one folder, your Photos to another location, and your MP3 files to another, you can. And another neat feature it has is that you can have it compress the data to a standard zip file and I find this particularly useful for backing up IE's favourites, since they are not particularly easy to copy as files.
I end up setting up a scheduled back up to one of my internal drive partitions, then manually back up to the external drive, since it is not always going to be connected to the system or on. And since it backs the your data up as the original files, they can be accessed using any other system you connect the drive to. I also tend to "permanently" back up sets of data from the external drive to DVD-R disks on a regular basis.
Anyway hope this helps and you can download an evaluation copy from their web site.

Hi!

I can recommend Power Backup program http://www.power-backup.com. That is very easy-to-use.