back-up systems

[MOTHERLODEDAVE]

Hi All...I'm in the throes of trying to find the "perfect" way to backup my files. Obviously, burning a CD each time will work, but I am more intrigued by the use of an external hard drive, such as a Maxtor one-touch, in which I can just hit it and walk away each night. Does anyone have any other thoughts on the best way to handle this problem?
Dave

[David J. Potter]

MLD,

I have a home LAN; I use Handy Back Up, with it I set it to back up to another PC on my LAN every day and I use it to back up to DVD's (DVD spanning) once a month (my documents is over 64Gb now). An external HD would be even better (more portable in an emergency). It is capable of auto operation to back up to FTP as well though I don't use that feature.

DJP

[Ben Palmer]

I have a Maxtor External that crashed on me twice...It is a year old, so they may be better now...I do use it for quick one touch backups through out the day (when going to lunch, after big projects or when meeting with a client). It came w/ Retrospect software which works good and is pretty common.

For my nightly backups, I have been using Iomega's new Rev Drive . It is fast, large and removable. The removable is important for surge purposes. I know someone that had network and external backup, but it was plugged into the same system and a lighting strike fried it all (one in a million perhaps). You can even store them in a fireproof file cabinet or safe. I have a cartridge for each day of the week, and automate it overnight. I also use the cartriges for images of my computers (backup restore). CDs and DVDs don't have enough storage space for me and take more time (due to required human intervention).

Off site online backup sites like Xdrive work well but can be costly depending on how much storage space you need....(I hate products that charge monthly or on going fees...but I guess that is how most things are going.) And of course you will need high speed internet.

I'm sure others will have some great suggestions as well.

HTH

[WendyWelton]

We backup to CD and DVD using Winbackup. It works, and provides a trail - in case we ever need to go back a few versions.

I also bought one of those little gizmos that plugs into the USB port and thinks it's a little hard drive. I can throw whatever I did this morning on it and put it in my pocket. Unless I'm actually on fire myself, I have my work!

You know that enormous quantity of digital images Chief is so good at producing? And that we all collect documenting projects? Adobe Album 2.0 is very cool. It will keep track of all your pictures, including having only one version of an image, but showing it to you in more than one category. Best of all, it has a feature where you can burn images to a CD or DVD, delete them from your hard drive, but it keeps a thumbnail and record of where you put it. I'm lovin' it.

Anybody know if you can put CD's and DVD's in the freezer? Poor man's fire safe?

Wendy

[lbuttery]

I take my disks to work and keep them in my desk.

I also take my current plans and send an email to my yahoo email address as they have bumped the space to 500 MB and you can have multiple Yahoo accounts.

Google will soon allow 1 GB email accounts

[MOTHERLODEDAVE]

Wendy....."Gizmo's and freezers", on your part, tell me you are a very interesting and inventive person! My compliments

I think I'm getting the drift. Thanks for all the ideas. If there's more, that's great.!

Dave