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[Big Green Anus]

Hi Gaf,

I'm currently using a 1TB Western Digital Harddrive on my computer, which is working good so far. I previously had a 250GB HDD, which I cloned using the Acronis True Image software that came with it onto a 640gGB and then onto my current 1TB, which works with no issue from the cloning.

I have about 250-300GB of data that I want to back up and within that amount, about 100-150GB that I consider to be very important. All of my HDD works, but the last time I created any clone/backups was about 4 years ago(maybe longer than that) and I'm paranoid that something might happened to my current HDD.

My question is what's the best method of backing up your data? Is creating clone Images of you Hardrive the best method? Is there a way to compress backups/clone images? For example, if I have 300GB of data from my HDD, is it possible for a backup/cloning software to create an image of that backup/cloning less than 100GB?

I heard some mentioned on GAF about Amazon Cloud for $60 a year, but I'm worried about the security of cloud.

Thanks!

 

[The Real Abed]

Online backup with CrashPlan for $5 a month unlimited complete with time-machine style backups that can go all the way back to when you first backed up if you want. (There are other services. This is the one I use.)

Or a second hard drive and a cloning utility. (I use Carbon Copy Cloner on OS X but there's many other programs to do it.)

Or both.

I recommend both. A local backup will be fast to recover from and an online backup will be a miracle if your house burns down or you happen to lose both drives the same day.

 

[AstroNut325]

Is Crash Plan safe? Well they be around in 5 years?

Any of the major players such as MS or Google offer online backup?

 

[eddie4]

Buy external drive. Backup data with 7zip to password protect, move to external drive. Put external drive in fireproof safe. Update backups every week/month.

Online method. Backup files to password protected zip files. Upload.

/2cents

 

[NoblesseOblige]

Don't keep it on a machine with Windows 7/8/8.1.

 

[Big Green Anus]

Online backup with CrashPlan for $5 a month unlimited complete with time-machine style backups that can go all the way back to when you first backed up if you want. (There are other services. This is the one I use.)

Or a second hard drive and a cloning utility. (I use Carbon Copy Cloner on OS X but there's many other programs to do it.)

Or both.

I recommend both. A local backup will be fast to recover from and an online backup will be a miracle if your house burns down or you happen to lose both drives the same day.

What's the difference between cloning utilities and backup utilities?

 

[Mugsy]

Buy external drive. Backup data with 7zip to password protect, move to external drive. Put external drive in fireproof safe. Update backups every week/month.

Online method. Backup files to password protected zip files. Upload.

/2cents

Which external drive is best these days? I do not really keep up with which manufacturers are the most reliable.

 

[zephervack]

For the stuff that truly does matter, I use a local backup to a USB Drive (Use Synkron to Sync the hard drives once a day or more often if you change files a lot) and also Crashplan for cloud.

For stuff that its nice to have a backup of but is not critical, just Crashplan.

Has worked out pretty well.

The only downside with Crashplan is that their connection is very slow, but it makes up for it in price.

 

[Marty Chinn]

What's the difference between cloning utilities and backup utilities?

If I'm not mistaken, a cloning utility makes a snapshot/image of your data where as a backup utility does things on a file by file basis.

The only downside with Crashplan is that their connection is very slow, but it makes up for it in price.

This is usually a non issue though unless you're creating large size data faster than it can transfer. Since it's in the background, you don't really notice it.

 

[Big Green Anus]

If I'm not mistaken, a cloning utility makes a snapshot/image of your data where as a backup utility does things on a file by file basis.


I prefer the cloning utility then since the snapshot/image is usually much smaller than backing up every file of mines.

 

[zephervack]

If I'm not mistaken, a cloning utility makes a snapshot/image of your data where as a backup utility does things on a file by file basis.



This is usually a non issue though unless you're creating large size data faster than it can transfer. Since it's in the background, you don't really notice it.

True, I only really noticed it at the beginning when I had to transfer 6TB to their service, took almost 4 months running day and night, but once you are synced, its a non issue going forward.

 

[AndyD]

Is Crash Plan safe? Well they be around in 5 years?

Any of the major players such as MS or Google offer online backup?

You can always use a local tool like Acronis to create a backup image and throw that into Google Drive. But to get a TB of storage you can spend the same money on Crashplan.

Or if it's just files (docs/pictures) that are important, an option is to use Google Drive to sync them to the cloud. It's not the same as a disc backup, but it saves the "important" stuff.

I have an older TB drive I load up with disc images and keep in a safe. And sync docs/images to Google Drive as a cloud solution.

 

[Marty Chinn]

I prefer the cloning utility then since the snapshot/image is usually much smaller than backing up every file of mines.

I don't think that will mean it's smaller. It just allows you to restore to a specific state. A backup utility might have version control on your files though which you wouldn't have in a cloning utility. There are pros and cons to both.

True, I only really noticed it at the beginning when I had to transfer 6TB to their service, took almost 4 months running day and night, but once you are synced, its a non issue going forward.

Ya, the initial dump is painful. Crashplan has me by the balls because of that initial dump barrier.

 

[electroflame]

I went through a bunch of backup/imaging programs when I was looking for a replacement for my old, unsupported Norton Ghost. It was a pretty terrible experience, due to the large number of programs and large number of programs that don't live up to their promises.

Macrium Reflect is by far the best one I used (and it's the only one that has actually let me restore my computer fully from a backup image). I highly, highly recommend it. It's the only one I stuck with, and the only one that's A.) saved my bacon multiple times and B.) the only one I actually feel is worth any amount of money. If you're worried about file size, it can do incremental images where it only images changes since the last backup. It also has pretty decent compression (not 300GB to 100GB, but still pretty good).

Acronis is mentioned a lot, but I thought it was pretty terrible. Slow backups, ugly interface, poor compression and, worst of all, completely unreliable for restoring a whole machine. I got it to restore a full image once -- every other time I had to manually pull files out of a backup.

Basically, I'd just backup to an external using Reflect. If you want a cloud backup, you can always upload a copy to the cloud or something, but the most important thing is to have more than one backup location, and at least one location not connected to your computer (i.e. backup to it and unplug it).

 

[Netherscourge]

External USB 3.0 Flash drive.

 

[The Lamonster]

Buy external drive. Backup data with 7zip to password protect, move to external drive. Put external drive in fireproof safe. Update backups every week/month.

Online method. Backup files to password protected zip files. Upload.

/2cents

I second this. You can even simplify it to backing up onto an external hard drive that you disconnect afterwards.

 

[Firemind]

Buy external drive. Backup data with 7zip to password protect, move to external drive. Put external drive in fireproof safe. Update backups every week/month.

Online method. Backup files to password protected zip files. Upload.

/2cents

What if you lose all your memory tho?

 

[Apt101]

I use Windows Backup (the previously deprecated one, Start > Run > sdclt) to create an image every week-or-so to an external drive, and I created a system CD. Whenever I need to restore or install a larger harddrive, I just drop the image on the new disk in about an hour and a half and then I'm instantly back up and running. Best of all it's free and I can schedule it to run on hours I'm not home.

If you just want to backup files it will do that as well, you can specify what data you want backed up.

Edit: I store files I want protection for in one of the Google Drive folders I sync.

 

[mackattk]

I went through a bunch of backup/imaging programs when I was looking for a replacement for my old, unsupported Norton Ghost. It was a pretty terrible experience, due to the large number of programs and large number of programs that don't live up to their promises.

Macrium Reflect is by far the best one I used (and it's the only one that has actually let me restore my computer fully from a backup image). I highly, highly recommend it. It's the only one I stuck with, and the only one that's A.) saved my bacon multiple times and B.) the only one I actually feel is worth any amount of money. If you're worried about file size, it can do incremental images where it only images changes since the last backup. It also has pretty decent compression (not 300GB to 100GB, but still pretty good).

Acronis is mentioned a lot, but I thought it was pretty terrible. Slow backups, ugly interface, poor compression and, worst of all, completely unreliable for restoring a whole machine. I got it to restore a full image once -- every other time I had to manually pull files out of a backup.

Basically, I'd just backup to an external using Reflect. If you want a cloud backup, you can always upload a copy to the cloud or something, but the most important thing is to have more than one backup location, and at least one location not connected to your computer (i.e. backup to it and unplug it).

I second this. Macrium reflect has worked great for me for the past few years. I would recommend using this, you can also password protect your backups if you want to as well.

If you do this and something like crashplan, especially for your more important stuff, you should be set.

 

[CadetMahoney]

I use Acronis software it's both a cloning utility as well as a backup utility.

It clones a partition or drive and also has the option to make subsequent clones of the same partitions/drive in the future by comparing the previous backup to current drive and only updates changed files to make the files smaller.

Personally I like large clones after doing some housekeeping organizing and deleting files. Then doing another clone some months later.

 

[brotherbean]

How is Google Drive for online backups? We got 1TB of storage with our Fiber subscription so I've been thinking about syncing some of my data to that to supplement my local usb backup drives.

 

[Yudoken]

Let's be real the best way to do it is getting a decent external drive.

 

[mackattk]

Let's be real the best way to do it is getting a decent external drive.

For really important stuff, you need more than just an external hard drive. Hard drives can be subject to things like bit rot, mechanical failures, etc. Without have at least parity.redundancy, a single external hard drive just isn't sufficient.

 

[mrklaw]

I don't even bother with imaging my drive anymore. Either the image is really old - in which case I might as well just start with a fresh windows install; or its really recent - in which case its full of bloaty bits of software I don't really need and a fresh windows install is probably good for me.

I do have more than one computer though, so if I have a fatal error on one, I can continue on the other while reinstalling. If I didn't have access to another computer, I'd at least keep one bootable image so I can continue without interruption.

I mainly just backup my important data - documents and photos mostly (also ripped music and DVD/Bluray but they're only on a NAS with limited fault tolerance - but I can always re-rip if necessary).

For my documents I use dropbox and I sync with my wife's account too. That way any changes are pretty instantly duplicated on three computers plus the cloud. My photos I use onedrive for because I have more space there. So I have those backed up online, plus on my main computer, and then I also back them up to my NAS regularly.

The important parts for me is that it is mostly fire and forget. Onedrive and Dropbox automatically handle changes so I don't need to remember to plug in a USB drive and do a backup (I'll inevitably forget). I also have a scheduled backup for photos to my NAS which again doesn't involve me remembering anything.

 

[Weevilone]

I have both local and cloud CrashPlan archives. I've already had to use them, at which point I found that my local archive drive had issues.. Fortunately I was able to recover from the cloud.