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Community Newsletter: Q&A: 10/13/06 Getting serious about backing up your data
- 10/12/06 5:27 PM
backup requires multipronged approach
by vorlonken - 10/13/06 8:54 AM In reply to: 10/13/06 Getting serious about backing up your data by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
No one product will do it for you. I use Syncback (free version) to automatically run scheduled backups of my important data every day, and some of it twice. It is nice in that I configured the jobs to delete files from the bacukp location when they vanish from the source. This may or may not be a good idea depending on your taste or circumstances. These backups are to a separate internal hard drive. This does not protect me from fire or other disaster, however. I am considering a removable hard drive (as opposed to an external hard drive).
I duplicated most of the syncback jobs so they perform the same backup operation to my DVD-RAM drive. DVD-RAM is superior in usability to CD-R and DVD-r/+r. I can store these in my fireproof box or offsite (but naturally I have been too lazy to do that). LG makes excellent, inexpensive, high quality drives that support dvd-ram. The disks are a little spendy but are rewritable and the read/write performance is excellent. DVD-RAM just looks like another disk drive and requires no special contortions to use. I keep two generations so I can recover an older version if necessary.
I manually use the built-in XP backup program once per week to do a complete backup of almost all of my data, including all system files, system state, programs and data files. If I have a major failure the last thing I want to do is spend a lot of time reinstalling stuff. It would take me DAYS! Again, I backup to that same second internal hard drive which is very large and has lots of space.
My next chore is to use Norton Ghost, which I've had for over a year, to make image backups for even faster restores. Again, my second internal hard drive has plenty of space available. 250 GB and higher drives are so cheap these days that everybody should have one. Try TigerDirect.com; they often run rebates that reduce the cost of a huge drive to between $50 and $100.
External hard drive
by Database1 - 10/13/06 8:59 AM In reply to: 10/13/06 Getting serious about backing up your data by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I keep all of my "data" files in three directories on my hard drive. I use an external "buslink" 80 gb, USB, hard drive for backup. Every few days, I drag and drop the three data directories over to the buslink, using windows explorer. It is very easy and uncomplicated. I do not back up program files, as if the program becomes corrupted, I can always re-load the program using the original installation CD ROM.
Dittos to External Hard Drive for Backup
by zepper - 10/13/06 9:58 AM In reply to: External hard drive by Database1The most important thing to remember about backing up is that it must be done! Anything that slows down or encumbers the process in any way greatly increases the probability that it won't get done. So an External HDD (Hard Disk Drive) is the way to go.
Pros:
1- Cheapest storage per MegaByte by far.
2- Fastest storage by far.
3- Couldn't be easier to use - just plug it in to your USB or Firewire port and go.
Cons:
1- Fragile if dropped - create a foam (spongy foam, not styrofoam - material from a cheap memory foam pillow is the best!) lined storage box for it to protect it when not in use.
2- Can lose all your data if mechanically damaged. Just as expensive to recover data from the backup as from the original hard drive if both happen to crap out at the same time - thankfully that is unlikely!
3- You will occasionally need to run a thorough disk check/scandisk and defragment the external HDD just as you do with you main HDD(s) to make sure it's in good shape.
An option for even further insurance is to use two external HDDs and rotate them for backups - yes Virginia, they ARE that inexpensive now.
Now all you have to do is choose a drive and connection method. USB is ubiquitous so if you want to back up multiple PCs that is probably the way to go. But even though USB 2 specs at 480 Mb/sec, it is operationally slower than FW (Firewire) which specs at 400 Mb/sec. So if you have only one or two machines to back up, get a couple of FW cards for them and use a FW external drive (or get a combo external drive that can work with both USB and FW). FW-800 (800 Mb/sec Firewire) is so uncommon that it can safely be ignored).
. Just coming out is eSATA (external SATA) which allows almost as easy an external connection as the others and operates almost as if your HDD was connected to one of your internal SATA channels. Vantec has recently come out with an eSATA card for a standard PCI slot (has two ports: an internal SATA port and an eSATA port (supports SATA-150 drives, so if you buy a SATA 2 drive, you'll have to jumper it for SATA-150), which means that you can have eSATA even on older machines - works with Win 98SE and later. The only fly in this ointment is that you have to have an eSATA external prepacked drive or an eSATA enclosure (fairly rare right now) for the drive of your choice as I don't think you can just plug a SATA drive directly into the eSATA port. Anyhoo, I think this will be the wave of the future for external HDDs (some computer cases are even coming with built-in eSATA ports - just like USB and FW). So if you were considering getting FW for the extra performance, you now need to weigh it against eSATA. If I was creating my external backup solution from scratch, I'd definitely go eSATA.
Backup Software
by zepper - 10/13/06 10:18 AM In reply to: Dittos to External Hard Drive for Backup by zepperThe backup software you choose is also important. You want what's called a FBF (file-by-file) backup (e.g. NovaBack or Retrospect) for the most security. If your backup HDD solution is large enough (or if you have several) you can do both a FBF and an Image (e.g. norton's Ghost or Acronis's True Image) backup. All of these are capable of recovery from total HDD failure, while the Backup program that comes with Win CAN NOT!
. The FBF programs are more secure because if something happens to your backup drive (like a few data bits go bad) you only lose the file(s) with the bad bits, whereas with an image backup, you can loose EVERYTHING past the bad spot or even the ENTIRE IMAGE file OH NO!
. Just a little more food for thought...
.bh.
EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE
by Sugie - 10/13/06 9:13 AM In reply to: 10/13/06 Getting serious about backing up your data by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Instead of fooling around with CDs, I recently purchased a 160GB external hard drive from Seagate. What a blessing!! I back up entire system once a month and data files individually as I use them. Piece of cake and removes any worry about hard drive crashes.
External USB backup & Norton Ghost
by mbcfdude - 10/13/06 9:32 AM In reply to: 10/13/06 Getting serious about backing up your data by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Sadly it does take one bad experience before you get serious about backups. I had a hard drive crash while being in a RAID - but my hard drives were stripped when they should have been mirrored. Stripped will take two or more hard drives and combine their data together and storage space to make one big drive (never do this). Mirrored copies one hard drive contents to another so if one goes bad, you have other drives with the exact same content. My stripped lesson cost me $1,500 alone for data recovery and it's taken me a year to get back to 'normal' with additonal costs like PC repair and ultimately buying a newer PC and up-to-date software programs. In total probably closer to $3,000-4,000 when it all could have been avoided for under $500.
When I was ready to set up my new system and use my old data that was recovered I did two things. I bought a Seagate Pushbutton Backup 500gig ($350) which is an external hard drive that came with firewire (faster then usb) and usb connections. I also bought an external hard drive enclosure ($40) with a usb connection. The external hard drive enclosure allowed me to put in my recovered hard drive into the case and see it as a new drive attached to my computer.
The Seagate drive came with some backup software that I honestly did not even try - so I don't have any comment on it. I have had experience with other backup software like Retrospect (the free edition one that comes with other backup drives) and wasn't pleased. My experience was one where the limited software copied files it could access but not all system files, hidden files or other necessary files for the operating system. When I tried to restore my files onto a new hard drive, I ended up still having to install my operating system and all my programs all over again which took about a week of my time (I have lots of programs).
I work as a developer and sometimes corporate trainer for Adobe products. In the classroom, we've always relied on Ghost Enterprise to image the machines in the classroom and get them setup with all the OS, drivers, programs and detailed settings necessary for the class. A single guy can ready 10 or more computers in under an hour. Why not have this ability at home?
I decided to buy Symantec Norton Ghost ($60 - less in other retailers) for home and have the same 'peace' of mind. I set Ghost up to run nightly and on Sundays it makes a 'baseline' backup which contains all my files to my external Seagate. During the week it makes incremental backups only copying the files that have changed. On a new Sunday, all files are wiped clean for the new baseline backup. All the files are chunked into 4 gig pieces that are also compressed in size so you can easily copy to DVDs if desired.
What about a virus? In my scenario a virus will be copied to the backups (if I don't catch it at night) but I have to rely on the protections I've already established. The big thing to remember is that a virus can be removed hopefully not leaving too much residule junk behind or damage. When a hard drive physically fails, your only option is to send it out for data recovery if you really need or want that data and the process is more costly then restoring backup data or locating and working with a knowledgable IT person that can help you rid your machine of a virus.
I'm confident that if I'm home and need to run out the door for a real emergency I can just grab my external drive and fully restore my computer with an hour of so of time and not a weeks worth. Now that I'm left with my external hard drive enclosure and have copied all my old data off of it, I can use it to backup my backup.
I've not done this personally, but it's conceivable that if I fear a fire wiping out everything while I'm gone I can copy my Ghost files off my Seagate drive over to my external drive - then simply unplug and take the drive enclosure and put in a safe place somewhere offsite. What might be best is to get two hard drive enclosures (reasonably priced and so are hard drives) so you can swap your offsite hard drive out once a month (for example).
It's one thing to have a backup of your photos and things you really can't live without but since I work on my own computer so much it's comforting to know I can have everything restored as if nothing ever bad happened to it.
There is no gurantee of an easy restore process. If something should happen and the computer you backed up is gone you should try to get a very similar machine if possible so you only have to update hardware drivers.
best of luck in your decision..
- Rob
Norton GHOST - backup options
by bobbloch - 10/17/06 2:31 AM In reply to: External USB backup & Norton Ghost by mbcfdudeHi Rob: i also use GHOST but am confused by the option to "ignore bad sectors" (during copy). If the option is NOT selected the backup fails so why is it optional ??? Symnantec tech support claims that the backup created when the option is selected is not corrupted but there is no way to test the restore function without destroying the contents of the C: drive. STRANGE STUFF !
Also another option is to "disable smart sector copy". Symantec tech support has not yet explained what this means. Any ideas ?
Thanx.
GHOST
by bholc - 10/17/06 10:45 AM In reply to: Norton GHOST - backup options by bobblochIs it necessary to use anything like GHOST?
I've seen a backup by moving the file straight
over to the disc.
But I wish someone would tell me how.
Norton Ghost/Norton Save & Restore
by albartos - 10/18/06 8:13 AM In reply to: External USB backup & Norton Ghost by mbcfdudeI WAS using ghost but Symantec suggested Norton Save and Restore as it allows selective as well as full and incremental backups. (If only I'd used the selective part!) Before I took the time to select the data files to back up, another Norton product, Norton GOBACK, ate my system, corrupted the Master Boot Record and effectively made my Hard disks useless. "Restoring" was and continues to be, a nightmare since I had not faithfully backed up my data and only had a full back up. The full backup from "Save and Restore" also had the corrupted MBR.It was also HUGE
Symantec e-mail support was slow (Weeks) and in the end not effective. I've dumped all my Symantec applications and now use Microsoft One Care Live, a WDC External HD - Daily AND back all this up to a DVD/RW once per week. No More Norton, No More Symantec and hopefully no more lost files.
About Backing up
by Traude Karia - 10/13/06 9:34 AM In reply to: 10/13/06 Getting serious about backing up your data by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi. Very good explanations. Now take pitty on a 75 year old and became specific if possible. Would love to learn more. Need to back up my writing, studies. Thank you Traude
<<traude@tbaytel.net>>
Help me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
by hughc9 - 10/13/06 9:45 AM In reply to: 10/13/06 Getting serious about backing up your data by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have windows xp/sp2. THIS IS ALL I KNOW!! This computer, from which I am typing now,was given to my parents from a friend, whom we havent heard from in a looooong time, and therefore she cant' help (we don't know how to contact her) and we have already been ripped off from the computer repaiman in town.Now more and more, particularly when I look through older files, I will get error messages saying that windows does not recognize the file, installing new programs is a nightmare, and now the computer will randomly have these "spams". What i mean is whatever Window I yhave open will freeze, numerous others will pop up, The start menu will go up and down like a bouncy ball, and my mouse will be flying around the screen like a squirrell on crack. needless to say, that through all this I have no control whatsoever. Then all of a sudden, It will just stop. THIS HAPPENS SEVERAL TIMES A DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a trial version of a registry cleaner/ fixer, but all it does is tell me how many problems my pc has. it's in the thousands. Also web pages load slower than molasses, games and such load fast, but the getting to a site takes forever. So why am I writing in this thread? because it didn't do this a year ago, oreven a year ago! how do I find out if the lady who gave us this thing made a backup of the computer when it wasn't messed up?
Help me tip :)
by warpcorecomputers - 10/13/06 1:46 PM In reply to: Help me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! by hughc9what i would sugest is get the free program spybot search and destroy.
it is from safernetworking.org
it will find and get rid of most spy ware and other malicious programs.
then i would go to trendmicro.com and do a free housecall or download the free trial of internet security software.
to be sure you dont have any trojans or virus on your drive.
next thing to do is restart your computer in safe mode
press F8 at startup.
delete all files in all temp folders.
restart in normal mode.
see how the computer feels now.
if it feels better then defrag the computer.
best program to use for that is O&O defrag pro
you can find a trial version at o&o software
just google the name 
choose the full defrag access option.
after this try what your computer does.
if it still has problems you might need to re install windows XP with the second repair option.
you will need to re install some programs after that but will restore all sytems files.
after that be sure to back up your data.
Acronis would be a great choice for that.
Hope this would help you out
Greets Warpcore
system going crazy
by jrpolgar - 2/5/07 9:01 AM In reply to: Help me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! by hughc9Don't know if anyone ever replied to this or not. I just read it today.
You are probably on cable modem, always on. I'll bet you don't have a firewall setup. Someone has found your computer address through the cable modem. They are taking control of your computer with VNC if it's on your system or remote desktop. They run your pc as if they are sitting in front of it. You are watching as if a ghost is running your system. They can work your workspace as their own.
Suggest you call the "geek squad" to come out and setup your internet connections to enable your firewall for protection and also turn off VNC and remote desktop.
Another Solution - Network Attached Storage
by nrhinela - 10/13/06 9:54 AM In reply to: 10/13/06 Getting serious about backing up your data by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I recently did some extensive research on backup options for my wife's small retail store.
What I finally arrived at is a technology called 'network attached storage', which is basically a box with multiple drives that you plug into your network. The box eventually appears as a drive letter on any machine in the network.
Things that I like about it:
- it's got space for 4 disk drives, using RAID for redundancy.
- it will email me if anything goes wrong (disk failure, high temperature, etc)
- it has software to backup it's own data via USB or even ftp
- it can be programmed to actually backup external sources (any mount on the network, or even any ftp site)
- it handles streaming, including ITUNES
- I can plug it into a UPS on its own
Things I don't like about it
- it's expensive...cost about $1000 for a unit with 2 250gb drives, which is RAIDED so that it actually yields only about 250gb. There is space for 4 drives.
When I was doing the research the two brands which stuck out were: Buffalo Terrastation, and the Infrant box that I ultimately chose. The Buffalo unit was cheaper, but Infrant seemed like the better choice, due to a bunch of details that I can go into if anyone cares. Check out CNET.com reviews and search on 'NAS' for more information on thses.
When i have the cash I'd like to buy one of these for my house...in the scheme of things it seems like a good investment for the money.
This will solve the problem in total!
by firedogs - 10/13/06 9:58 AM In reply to: 10/13/06 Getting serious about backing up your data by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Good Day,
Go here and take a look at this product.
http://www.redpawz.com/
The Firedogs
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