It's 2006 and Backups For Home User Still Tricky?

CranberryKing asks: "What is it about backups that always seems so difficult? I am trying to do a simple backup on my home XP system/s (about 30GB of files) that will write to my DVD burner. I don't want compression (most of it is MP3s, which don't compress well). I want a routine to simply write my selection to the DVD writer and spread it across however many discs are required (rather than me manually approximating and copying to each disc). I want the files on the disc readable from any system, so no proprietary backup wrapper or DAT files, please. My last attempt was using a free program that looked good called Simply Safe Backup, but it created two coasters before crashing with an unknown error. If I can just get a full backup to work smoothly, then I'll worry about scheduling, incremental, and encryption. This seems like a very common scenario for home & small offices. Is there an elegant, reliable & cheap (free) solution to this?"

Comments

Backups don't need to be tricky these days

[vwpau227]

Backups for the home or small business user do not need to be tricky, difficult, inconvenient or time consuming. But you do need to have the right equipment and software for the job.

I would say that the method that you chose, which is using a DVD-Writer drive, is not the best solution to your problem. I have found a product that does work well, and that is the Maxtor OneTouch External Hard Drive solution. I have one of the newer models, the Maxtor OneTouch II and with the bundled Dantz Restrospect software, it works great. You can schedule the hard drive backup at a certain time or (and this is where the OneTouch gets its name) you can hook up the external hard drive anytime and press the button on the front, and the software will take care of the rest of the backup procedure. It is quite easy and even users who have in the past been put off by other backup solutions (like backup tapes and recordable CDs) have embraced it. You can add other features like incremental backups easily as well through the software as well, and it stores the files in the Maxtor OneTouch drive in a regular file system, so it can be accessed even on machines without the Dantz Retrospect software loaded.

The issue I have found is that for most home or small business users, if the backup procedure is tedious or cumbersome, the user will not do the backups and data loss will occur. After using this device and recommending it to others, I have found it has gone a long way to solve this problem... it's truly a twenty-first century method of system backup.

The last Maxtor OneTouch II I bought was under $200 Canadian and had a 100GB capacity and includes all the software and cables that you need to get connected and working right away.

P.S. I do not work for Maxtor or Dantz, but I am a happy customer and I have sold this device to others in the past.

Re:Backups don't need to be tricky these days

[pair-a-noyd]

outpost.com has 300gb seagates (pata) for $79 flat, no rebates and free shipping. That's insanely cheap.
I saw someone had 160gb drives on sale for $29, no rebate.
Big drives are getting extremely cheap and I'm digging it..

Re:Backups don't need to be tricky these days

[PalmerEldritch42]

Since he said he is using Windows XP, I would just recommend using the free MS PowerToy called SyncToy. It can do incremental or complete backups, with quite a few very easy to use options, to a local hard drive or a network drive, and can be scheduled to work automatically using the built into Windows Task Scheduler. It is all free (with the exception of a possible hard drive to store the backup data).

I would not recommend the article writers idea of using a series of DVDs, since it is more time consuming, requires manual changing of DVDs, and the DVDs have a far shorter shelf life than hard drives. Hard drives are pretty cheap these days and it will quickly become cheaper than buying loads of DVD-Rs anyway.

OS X 10.5: Time Machine

[Yahweh Doesn't Exist]

http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/timemachine.ht ml

not for Windows, but arguably (will soon be) the greatest step forward for "home user" backups.

Depends on the OS

[maztuhblastah]

Mac OS X comes with Disk Utility. Using that, and Automator, you can set up a script to image your drive to a bootable drive image every night.

Problem solved.

use synctoy for windows xp

[porsche922]

I usually use synctoy powertoy for windows xp to do the backing up for me. It can run in a variety of modes and is usually good enough for most backups. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalph otography/prophoto/synctoy.mspx

On Win32? XCOPY

[MP3Chuck]

Get a second HDD. Internal or external. Add a "Scheduled Task" that will run "backup.bat" periodically. backup.bat needs one line for an xcopy:

xcopy C:\ D:\ /d /e /h /o

The first run will take a while, since it's copying everything. Subsequent runs will only copy what's been modified since the last backup. It really doesn't get much easier than that, if you ask me.