World Backup Day today -- how are you saving your stuff?

[ctilsie242]

Today is World Backup Day. How are people ensuring their files are safe from the usual stuff, be it a bad drive, ransomware, or other gotchas?

I'm personally using CrashPlan, because it offers unlimited data storage. I used to use Mozy, but with about 200GB of stuff, they cost an arm and a leg.

What do other people use for backups? I like having a remote solution, as well as an external HDD with a program like Veeam, so I can restore quickly, and if ransomware or something nukes both the machine and the external drive, I can fetch stuff via remote.

[kmbelt]

QNAP TS-220 for me.
2x2TB drives in raid 1 for redundancy.

Backup all my important pictures and files. Oh and it is on the net so i can access anywhere. My own little cloud.

[AlGreg]

I use SyncToy, a free Microsoft program. My Documents, Pictures, Music and Videos folders are echoed to 2 external hard drives. I use task scheduler to run SyncToy every night. Evey night any changes to my folders are echoed to the folders on the hard drives. I have made the drive letters of the 2 drives Y and Z. By alternating the 2 drives every week I can maintain an off site backup that is only a week old and a backup that is current every night. I save the exe files for each program I install and the corresponding activation code in a folder for each program. These folders are kept in a folder called Downloaded Programs. I never backup the operating system. Windows 10 is always available on Microsoft's web site as a free download and is free to install on any computer that has had windows 10 installed in the past.

[vermilye]

I use multiple hard disks as well as Apple's Time Machine. I store many photographs, and sometimes have been asked for images that are 5- 6 years old, so Bill's idea of not being concerned about them just won't work for me. For example, National Geographic asked for a 5 year old photo of a Canada Goose. I would have hated to not have a copy, and would have been out of a fair amount of $...

I back up to a pair of hard disks, and when they are near full, transfer the data to a pair of larger drives, and put the old ones on a shelf (one of which is kept off site). I'm currently backing up to a pair of 4TB drives.

[derh20]

I keep all my data in one folder, in my case I call it "Data File". I make shortcuts for all the files I use regularly. Monthly, I simple Copy my Data File to an external disk. Of course if I had a failure, I would loose my OS. I also backup my Data File to the cloud.

[austinjenna]

windows home server is what i use. It backs up all of my PCs every night. All media is also stored on the server. The server gets backed up daily.

I do the same thing. Also pictures are autoloaded to amazon prime photos and once a yr I back them all up to a flash drive I keep at the in laws house.

[ctilsie242]

Tizi wrote:
windows home server is what i use. It backs up all of my PCs every night. All media is also stored on the server. The server gets backed up daily.

You are lucky... WHS got discontinued. The only thing close to it is Windows Server 2016 Essentials, and a server OS isn't cheap.

What I might do is, when I'm on the road, buy a cheapie NAS like a QNAP or Synology model, put in a bunch of SSDs (since hard disks don't like vibration), and have my machines back up to that.

[2oldman]

FrankShore wrote:
A 3GB hard drive, I don't use the "cloud" It's kinda silly how people have bought into this idea!!

I don't think it's silly at all. I have a Chromebook sans hard drive and need access to my cloud files. It might be silly for you, not for others.

[happycamper002]

It doesn't matter whether you are using internal or external hard drives or other peripherals.

They can get corrupted with malicious Trojans. When your backups suffer with these intrusions you will end up with "Blue Screens". . . especially when running Windows.

Your files can get infected anytime you open your files in your external hard drives when using any app associated with the files you have, since most of these apps will require to connect to the internet.

I do on-line trade on wall street and I always (mostly) on white paper to complete transactions.

Even a brand new hard drive or USB stick can come with built-in malware--thanks to Chinese hacks on-the-prowl.

[Bill_Satellite]

I really don't back anything up. What is it that you think you are going to lose? Got pictures, put them on a hard drive or thumb drive "so you can use them" or don't be concerned about them and let them go it things go tits up.
We all have a bunch of cr4p we don't need on our computers so if I do something stupid enough to lose it all I am completely OK with that. I don't keep anything I can't afford to lose on a computer and neither should you!

[FrankShore]

A 3GB hard drive, I don't use the "cloud" It's kinda silly how people have bought into this idea!!

[Tizi]

windows home server is what i use. It backs up all of my PCs every night. All media is also stored on the server. The server gets backed up daily.

[Horizon170]

Different thumb drives for different stuff. Backup as needed.

[K_Charles]

External hard drive

[ctilsie242]

Time Machine is OK, for the most part, but I've had issues with it, where sometimes existing backups will get corrupted, and Time Machine will post a dialog about that, then erase all backups and start backing up from scratch.

For desktops and stuff at my S&B place, I like using Veeam on the Windows side to a dedicated NAS and I have a dedicated Time Capsule for the Mac. However, having CrashPlan plus a custom encryption key ensures that if something happens to the NAS or Time Capsule, the data is still protected.

Cloud services can be debated, but with client-side encryption, even though they are not infalliable or 100% secure, it provides a "good enough" element as a place to restore from as a last resort.