These days most people have loads of data to manage. It's not just spreadsheets and text documents, but photos, audio, video, etc.

I've got an IcyBox external drive http://www.crowdstorm.com/RaidSonic_IcyBox_IB_350_External_Drive+32.html, which is fine for capacity, but it won't help me if my house catches fire. For really critical data, I back up off-site. A gmail account is fine for this. But for the big stuff?

What do you do?

I used to keep second copy of office backups at home, and second copy of home stuff in the office.

backup - what's that then?

I have a scheduled job that makes a full backup to an external drive every night. Once a week I take the external drive to the bank and swap it with the one in my safe deposit box.

Wow - that's impressive techhelp! Pure dedication.

I actually use my gmail account as a way to backup a lot of my files, especially the ones that I'm currently working on. Multimedia and other stuff goes on the Icy Box, though. Whenever I remember to backup, that is.

I keep all my documents on my laptop, external hard drive and also on box.net... you can get a free 1 GB account with few restrictions. There is a 4.99/month 5 GB package as well. Its a web 2.0 site and also allows for a drag and drop Java powered upload.

Shoreflyer, can it be integrated into my system anyhow? I'd love to mount it somewhere to make my backups automated. It's easy with gmail but gmail wasn't designed as file storage so why should we abuse it if there's an easy alternative.

Hi, I think I read somewhere that it will be added in future and will be part of the 4.99/month package...

That's cool. This would make the $5/mo package worth considering as I really don't need more than 1 GB. :)
Thanks!

techhelpweekly: Are you a robot?

Yes, i am a robot.

For my digital photos, I back up to external hard drive as soon as I've sorted/catalogued the stuff. Then once there's enough to burn a DVD, they get put on that too. Backup your backups! LOL

Other stuff, I tend to backup my slaptop about once a month (but keep regularly updated files on my 1Gb USB stick which goes everywhere with me (well, almost everywhere. I don't need it in the bath...)

I've often read that home-burnt CDs and DVDs have an average shelf-life of 5 years.

You're right Shopical. That's why you should always make two copies of a disk if you use DVD for backups and replace them with new every two years to be somehow safe.

Shopical: Yes, I bank with robotic precision! Actually I have to go there every week anyway to make deposits, so carrying the hard drive just becomes part of the routine.

Hi everyone,

For online backup, DropSend has a range of packages from 250Mb free up to 250Gb for $99/month.

Hey, I've got a couple more ideas for you guys:

Elephantdrive - http://www.elephantdrive.com
It's big, secure, and free- for now

Another thing I've been testing for about a week now might be handy for Windows users:

* Get a cheap hosting plan like the one at Bluehost.com
* Use Novell Netdrive to map a local drive to your Bluehost ftp site
* Use Goodsync to backup your important data to your Netdrive

These programs are free, and you can get 30GB for less than $10/mo at the bigger hosting companies. Plus, the backups happen automatically in the background as you make changes to files, so you don't have to leave your computer on all night every night.

I've been running with this for about a week now, and it's solid. Biggest problem I have with it is ftp security. Be sure to use a host that supports WebDAV, so your transfers will be encrypted.

i didn't back up and had a hard drive failure. lesson learnt the hard way. back up NOW if you don't already.

techhelpweekly: The ony problem with (cheap) hosting companies is that you can not be sure if your data are really backed up.
You can put your important files there and have a feeling you made it safe. But is it really safe?

When choosing any backup services, no matter if it's Gmail, hosting provider, etc. you always should pay attention to their policy about backing your data. Don't be supprise is they do not quarantee safety for your data!

That's why I would backup my really important data myself, with more than one copy :)

rafal.gradziel wrote: That's why I would backup my really important data myself, with more than one copy

When you back it up yourself, how do you do it?

Go to www.leppert.com and check out their "document management solutions", for off site storage via the internet. No need to worry about burning the house down and losing all you data!

rafal: That's a good point about cheap hosting companies, some of them don't make regular backups and test them. For that reason I would only recommend using them to store backups of your important information, definitely not primary storage. And be sure to test them periodically just like any other backup scheme.

I actually have 4 copies of my most important data:

1 - On the PCs themselves (Live)
2 - External backup drive (1 Day old)
3 - External drive in bank vault (About 1 week old)
4 - Online at cheap hosting company (3 minutes old)

The online copy with goodsync is great because it is backed up almost immediately, you can access it anywhere, anytime, and you get geographic separation just in case hurricane or tornado comes along and destroys the entire area.

In my case I'm not too concerned about my hosting company making backups, any more than I would expect my bank to make a backup copy while the drive is stored in their vault. I've got copies everywhere. LOL

techhelpweekly, you should consider sending another copy to the moon in case of earth-wide disaster. ;-)

haha I know, it seems a bit much doesn't it. You can probably tell I've lost a lot of valuable data over the years to faulty/missing backups. The thing is, now that it is all setup, it's mostly automated. The only manual step is carrying the external drive to the bank once a week.

In my experience, the two most important things in your backup strategy are automation and testing. Manual copies usually start off with good intentions, then drop off into oblivion. If you don't test your backups at least monthly, you may be in for a big surprise when your hard drive crashes and your backup is corrupt or only contains half the content you thought it did.

Imagine if you will, that your priceless family memories, photos, e-mail, web sites, or all your work for the last 10 years, contacts, bookkeeping, just evaporated in a snap. That feeling in the pit of your stomach will motivate you to take you backups seriously.

Have you tested your backup lately? Hmmmmm?