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

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the backup-data-density-still-lags-behind dept.

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?"

12 of 715 comments (clear)

  1. Backups don't need to be tricky these days by vwpau227 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    --
    These are the good old days you'll be telling your children about. Make them worthwhile.
    1. Re:Backups don't need to be tricky these days by pair-a-noyd · · Score: 5, Informative

      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..

    2. Re:Backups don't need to be tricky these days by Dredd13 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      On the Mac side, the same hardware with a program called "SuperDuper" is even better. It'll create an exact -- BOOTABLE -- image of your hard drive. So, if it all goes to shit on the main drive, you can hold down the option key at boot time and choose to boot off your backup. Then, simply "re-backup" the backup onto the "main" drive, and you've restored your data.

      I've already used it a couple times when I was testing out Leopard. Same disclaimers as you: don't work for any of the companies involved, just a really big fan of a customer.

    3. Re:Backups don't need to be tricky these days by vwpau227 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      RAID-5 works but it only solves part of the problem, namely the failure of a single hard drive. However, what happens if the data on the drive gets wiped out by a virus or a malicious user? The RAID array will not solve this problem. Or if you have multiple hard drive failures. The RAID array will not protect against that either.

      We had a customer who decided that RAID was the way to go to protect his data and that he did not need another backup device, or regular backups at all. He was quite upset when his son deleted his entire windows user profile and all the files associated with it -- including his accounting data and documents folders for his home based business-- when he needed more space to store music and picture files on his system. The RAID array did nothing to save the data that was deleted from his system. Since then he has been very happy with the Maxtor OneTouch External Hard Drive we sold him to back up his data (and the shiny new notebook computer for his small business, so that his son could have his old desktop all to himself and stay out of his system),

      --
      These are the good old days you'll be telling your children about. Make them worthwhile.
    4. Re:Backups don't need to be tricky these days by nolife · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I know RAID seems to be the in thing because of the functionality built in to SATA controllers but RAID is NOT a backup solution by any means. It is for speed, availability, and hard drive redundancy. Depending on the mode your choose, typically not all three at the same time.

      I guess you could play with words and suggest that redundancy means backup but slipping with the mouse and deleting the directory "d:\my important stuff" in that RAID setup makes those similar words suddenly mean two completely different things. A live and normally accessed file system is not a good choice for a backup by any means. I used a bad mouse click for an example but I'm sure you can think of many more hazards.

      --
      Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
    5. Re:Backups don't need to be tricky these days by PalmerEldritch42 · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

      --
      Ceci n'est pas une sig.

      :wq!

  2. OS X 10.5: Time Machine by Yahweh+Doesn't+Exist · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  3. Depends on the OS by maztuhblastah · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    --
    The real litigious bastards...
  4. In a way you've answered the OP question... by skids · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Backups are "so complicated" not because there is any challenging thing about copying data from point A to point B, or journaling diffs, or whatnot.

    Backups are complicated because no two person's backup needs are the same. Those backup systems that provide few options and just say "this is the way it is going to happen" do not satisfy enough people's needs to become very popular. Those that offer too many options are near impossible for the average joe to make heads or tails of.

    If you tried to make a list of all the different basic backup philosphies people use in different situations, and on top of that, all the thousands of different tweaks and options and nuances piled on top of each of those, it gets quite daunting. The winner applications will be the ones that learn how to confine their scope just enough to capture a large market share, but still manage to be configurable enough to satisfy the power users in that segment, and finally and most importantly manage to supply sensible defaults and follow the "principle of least surprise." I think Bacula is among them, but that there will be another 3 or 4 for different "customer bases."

    --
    Someone had to do it.
  5. use synctoy for windows xp by porsche922 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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

  6. On Win32? XCOPY by MP3Chuck · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    --
    Who doesn't like free music?
  7. Re:Backup to DVD? That is SO 2003! by Mistah+Blue · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's all about restoring. There is no point in backing something up if you can't restore it.