My main photo/video processing drive died Saturday night it held 470ish Gigs of photos plus other assorted video.

Western Digital 1Tbyte Caviar Black drive (the newest drive in my setup).

Luckily I maintain a 2x backup.
1. A network backup to another machine in another room.
2. DVD backup every 6 months stored off site.

So backup your data......

Amen

Thank God for book drives and the like

Don't forget to "back-up your back-up." Every few years or so.

http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/303864

Shelf life.
CDs and DVDs are not forever. Though we would like to think they are.

I'm using Carbonite. So far, it seems to be working very good. I need to have my computer guy check to make sure it's actually doing a full system backing including my CAD software and defaults. Everything else is working. For the price, having offsite backup is worth every penny. I have a external drive but I like the offsite concept.

I think I'm a long ways off yet to accepting an online backup solution, so for now, I make daily use of SyncBackSE to back up all of my most frequent working files at the end of each day, and I use GenieBackup-8 to do full backups of the entire computer at least monthly (but every six months would probably be plenty due to my daily backups).

Those of us who have been computer literate since the 80's aren't likely to have to be reminded of the importance of backups because we've been through the storm and learned our lessons early.

It's those who have been "lucky" enough to have not lost anything valuable in a file that have to be convinced how important it is.

As far as external drives go, they're probably fast enough, but I've gone to using SATA/3G drives as my backup medium, and I keep several 1T drives for rotation.
For about $20, you can add a 5.25" SATA dock to one of your open bays, buy internal SATA drives on sale for less than external drives, and be able to pop them in and out (hot-unpluggable) like a floppy as often as you like.
The great thing about that is that the now insertable/removeable drive runs right into a SATA/3G port on your MB so that it is fast as any of the other hard drives in your system (because that's exactly what it is).

Alot of people depend on this things way to much!
What are you gonna do if something serious happens and you can't use computers.
I don't get totally dependent on them, I know better!

Originally Posted by jumpinjo

Alot of people depend on this things way to much!
What are you gonna do if something serious happens and you can't use computers.
I don't get totally dependent on them, I know better!

If I can't use computers I'll be dead since I don't have enough canned food to last me till the summer growing season and that's true for 95% of my neighbors and the nation as a whole.

About 7 years ago, we had a lightning strike that took out my old computer and an external drive along with a TV and my pool timer. About 3 years ago, we had another one that took out just about everything around my pool and several timers in my workshop. At this point, for me, offsite backup is the only really safe option.

Set up one "off-grid" system with a wireless only network connection.

Originally Posted by wrightme

Set up one "off-grid" system with a wireless only network connection.

It still has to plug into the wall. In Florida, surge protectors are all but useless. Our first strike left us with an aluminum window frame setting our Florida room in fire. The surge goes through ground and fries everything.

Originally Posted by FL Knifemaker

It still has to plug into the wall. In Florida, surge protectors are all but useless. Our first strike left us with an aluminum window frame setting our Florida room in fire. The surge goes through ground and fries everything.

No, it doesn't. That is why I mentioned "off-grid." Go strictly solar and batteries. A single computer does not use much power. And if you go strictly DC with a good laptop, you do not have conversion losses.

Originally Posted by wrightme

No, it doesn't. That is why I mentioned "off-grid." Go strictly solar and batteries. A single computer does not use much power. And if you go strictly DC with a good laptop, you do not have conversion losses.

For 60 bucks a year, I'm going with Carbonite. I don't have time to fart around with solar and batteries and setting all that up and maintaining it myself.

Originally Posted by FL Knifemaker

For 60 bucks a year, I'm going with Carbonite. I don't have time to fart around with solar and batteries and setting all that up and maintaining it myself.

Ok peaked my interest.

Got a sec for a few questions?

1. How much data are you backing up?

2. How long does it take?

3. I looked up Carbonite www.carbonite.com.
What is your experience with them.

I have thought about off site backup but my concern is always about how long it takes. It is not uncommon for me to generate 10-20 Gigs of new data per day.


Thanks,

Dave

Originally Posted by The Other Dave

Ok peaked my interest.

Got a sec for a few questions?

1. How much data are you backing up?

2. How long does it take?

3. I looked up Carbonite www.carbonite.com.
What is your experience with them.

I have thought about off site backup but my concern is always about how long it takes. It is not uncommon for me to generate 10-20 Gigs of new data per day.


Thanks,

Dave

From what I can tell it just runs all the time, in the background. I don't have to do anything. After my computer guy gets here and checks things out, I'll be able to provide more answers as I'm a computer DUMMY

Originally Posted by FL Knifemaker

From what I can tell it just runs all the time, in the background. I don't have to do anything. After my computer guy gets here and checks things out, I'll be able to provide more answers as I'm a computer DUMMY

Hmmm I wonder if you can set it to backup on command.

My server is setup to not have access to the outside world....on purpose.