Backup solution

[JohnnyJazz]

It's always a bit of a shock when your PC stubbornly refuses to start and you realize you've lost three month worth of work. Fortunately regular backups can prevent an annoying technical problem turning into a tragedy.

Most people do it the old way, every now and then you hook an external disk and save your current work. Personally as I travel a lot I tend to duplicate my files on both my laptop and my home computer. Unfortunately as I'm not very organized it happens quite often that the particular file I'm looking for is still on the other computer.

I'm interested to know what are your solution for both stand alone PC and PC on a network. Please keep in mind most of us are not IT professional so simple solution easy to implement would be very much appreciated.

Edited August 23, 2015 by JohnnyJazz

[robblok]

You could make sure your standard safe location is something like google drive or dropbox. Then it just gets uploaded to the internet and downloaded on your other computer

[SoiBiker]

Time Machine. One of the many reasons I use a Mac.

[JohnnyJazz]

You could make sure your standard safe location is something like google drive or dropbox. Then it just gets uploaded to the internet and downloaded on your other computer

You do that "manually", save your work on the cloud and download it when needed ? I actually would prefer something done automatically (i'm not the most organized person) with a system that check that the files on both computers are updated when they are modified. And only when they are mofidied because when you do things manually you often end up with multiple version of the same files and never sure which one are the latest ones ...

Edited August 23, 2015 by JohnnyJazz

[JohnnyJazz]

Time Machine. One of the many reasons I use a Mac.

Interesting problem. My laptop is a powerbook but my home PC is ... a PC

[robblok]

You could make sure your standard safe location is something like google drive or dropbox. Then it just gets uploaded to the internet and downloaded on your other computer

You do that "manually", save your work on the cloud and download it when needed ? I actually would prefer something done automatically (i'm not the most organized person) with a system that check that the files on both computers are updated when they are modified. And only when they are mofidied because when you do things manually you often end up with multiple version of the same files and never sure which one are the latest ones ...

you just set the default safe location to dropbox.. so its automatically.. and dropbox makes sure it comes to all your computers.

[KhunBENQ]

I have a PC and a laptop.

Both have a second partition (assigned as drive D:).

All relevant data is stored on this drive only (and not on the Windows default locations).

The computers are connected with a LAN cable.

I regularly do a full synchronization of those drives.

I do it semi automatically using a tool, inspecting the differences, clean up and then copy with the tool.

Just changed to an open source tool named FreeFileSync.

http://www.freefilesync.org/

LAN cable: I could do the sync via WiFi also, but prefer the much faster Gigabit Ethernet.

Edited August 23, 2015 by KhunBENQ

[robblok]

I have a PC and a laptop.

Both have a second partition (assigned as drive D:).

All relevant data is stored on this drive only (and not on the Windows default locations).

The computers are connected with a LAN cable.

I regularly do a full synchronization of those drives.

I do it semi automatically using a tool, inspecting the differences, clean up and then copy with the tool.

Just changed to an open source tool named FreeFileSync.

http://www.freefilesync.org/

LAN cable: I could do the sync via WiFi also, but prefer the much faster Gigabit Ethernet.

Yes always smart to put the files on an other drive or partition as the windows drive. Its actually standard for me. That combined with stuff like google drive, dropbox and others. Its easy to make sure your stuff is safe.

[johng]

I use a program called Syncback

Setup a scheduled task to automatically run the backup whenever you want.

http://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/freeware-hub.html

[slipperylobster]

Take a vacation fror windows and microsoft and get a live linux distro....such as Tahr Puppy. Install in on a usb thumb drive and you never have to change your shorts again. You can boot off the thumb drive. Puppy loads into ram...and never touches your hard drive. You can access all your files on the hard drive...even when windows lets you down. And remember...windows...will...always...let....you....down...and down and down.

Windows can be your primary....for you folks who cannot wean off your bill gates milk bottle......but let linux make you more independant.

Edited August 23, 2015 by slipperylobster

[KhunBENQ]

Please keep in mind most of us are not IT professional so simple solution easy to implement would be very much appreciated.

Above post hits the nail (or not quite ).

Edited August 23, 2015 by KhunBENQ

[KittenKong]

Backing-up is only part of the problem. You also need to be careful that your latest backup isnt over-writing previous ones. Why? Because if your files are corrupted and they overwrite your only backup then you have lost both.

So I favour a solution like Cobian backup which can be set to make multiple incremental back-ups in separate directories. I use this with a local external hard drive and it will also work with ftp servers and can be configured to work with virtual cloud folders such as those created by Onedrive or Dropbox. Multiple backups in different locations are also possible.

At the same time I like to use an automatic cloud-based solution (these are myriad and available in both pay and free versions: Idrive, Mozy Free etc and, less usefully, Dropbox, Onedrive etc), always bearing in mind that the automatic backup in the cloud may be a backup of a corrupt file, and hence quite useless. The likes of Carbonite do store multiple previous versions of files, but they are not cheap.

The built-in Windows backup will keep various older copies of files in a similar way to Time Machine on Mac, but the Windows interface is not as easy to use as Time Machine is.

[slipperylobster]

anyways.....I am not sure it is only files that the op wants to backup.

That is simply done by so many programs, that I cannot begin to name them.

DropBox was mentioned...and that is where the stuff I cannot lose goes.

If you cannot install linux (it is not really that hard..nor high tech) then you are stuck with windows. You need only a formatted usb flash thumb drive...and Lili USB creator (for windows). Download Tahr Puppy (google it) and just follow the simple instructions on the usb creator. Set your bios to boot off the usb (Hit F1 or F2 repeatedly ...each computer different....while turning computer on, and you enter bios settings. Just use the arrow keys to jump down to booting options/priority. Select USB first. Don't worry, if you pull out the usb flash drive you can still load windows. Puppy runs off flash...you are done. Has everything you need already. Not high tech at all...no programming skills or special hoop jumping. It is fast as hell. Good, useful thing to learn...and you will be set free.

Macrium Reflect is free for windows, and you can backup you whole partition..with operating system. Trouble is, if your computer won't boot..you still are stuck..unless you reinstall/repair windows..(blah). Your backups must be on a separate partition on the hard drive.

Plenty other boot up rescue disks...such as hirams...etc.

Edited August 23, 2015 by slipperylobster

[CharlieH]

I just use Google drive, and Dropbox, auto copies/syncs wherever you access it etc and its free. Works for me.

Once a month I back-up to external hard-drive for "keep-safe" of important stuff.

[Roman51]

Few solutions:

1. Raid on PC, but if you use laptop often, like u said before, it won't be solution for you. But maybe for somebody else who read this topic.

2. Cloud drive. If you've got almost everytime internet connection. Good choice will be use free or paid cloud disk, like: dropbox, box, sync or others. In this case you will always have updated and protected files. So if you're PC or laptop would crash. You can still log on your cloud account and can download all data using any other PC or laptop.

3. Typical and old fashioned copy / pasate technique

[innerspace]

Raid is not backup. Raid is not backup. Repeat 10 times!

Raid is redundancy, nothing more.

For a budget dropbox, onedrive or google drive works well.

With a slight one off investment a NAS (synology is great) works better.

Can easily set the nas to backup to your chosen cloud and makes files easily accessible across multiple devices.

Failing that get crashplan, think good for home users but I havent forgiven them for announcing mid process that they dont accept business customers from Thailand.

[ETatBKK]

Raid is not backup. Raid is not backup. Repeat 10 times!
Raid is redundancy, nothing more.​

+1 +1

I am on a Windows desktop and on a Windows notebook. I work directly on this local data ( original, 1st instance ), in specific folders in drive D.

I use SecondCopy ( old app ) that synch this local data into a local RAID 1 NAS; the 2nd instance.

some data need to be shared extensively or available on-the-go, I move it into OneDrive; an adhoc 3rd instance.

I don't have any backup. the vulnerability is - both 1st instance and 2 instance data are on same location, while the 3rd instance not cover all.

cross my fingers . . .