Computer system copies backups castastrophes

[mecch]

I'd like to survey the group on how people keep their systems and files safe:

How many:

Keep a regular back up in the home?  How often? Every day?

(I do, with mac Time Machine.  But its been a few years I don't do a bootable clone of the system, and think I will again...)

Keep a regular back up offsite - cloud or office?

(I do a time machine back up sometimes at work but its not every week I remember to do this)

_______

Photo, music, video - on external hard disks.

How many:

Keep a complete back up, offsite, of all meaningful files?

(I do but only lug the disks home very 6 months maybe, to catch anything new that isn't yet copied offsite).

_____________
Disasters

How many:

Have had catastrophic loss of systems, and or meaningful files.

(I haven't not in last 10 years, at least)

Have had computer equipment stolen - from house, or while travelling?
Have lost it in fire/flood, etc.?

(So far, no, lucky....)

[Jeff G]

Im a disaster waiting to happen, never backed up a computer in my life . I do try and not go to sketchy places though . 

[mecch]

Well dear, you didn't buy apple care either.
I'm shaking my finger at you but maybe the best is to at least encourage you to get a crappy old external disk and start running Time Machine. Its free and simple.  Its completely automatic if you are connected through apple wifi....  Time Capsule is a wifi router with an internal disk, but a bit pricey.  If you are on any old router at home, you can still connect an old usb drive and run Time Machine once a week or so. That way, a loss of your gorgeous Air will be catastrophic but not hideously horribly catastrophic....

[zach]

used to, now all my important stuff is sent to the cloud

[mecch]

How much do you have in the cloud? How much do you pay for that?

[Joe K]

To fully protect any computer you have three areas that must be covered.  1: the operating system, 2: applications and 3: personal data.  A full system backup will include all three areas and it should be done on a USB drive and if necessary you will also need a boot CD to initially boot the machine, after failure, to reload the system backup.

Backing up data to the cloud is fine, however, it will not help you restore a machine at home, because you will not have access to the cloud.

Backup software today is virtually mindless.  Set it once, let it run regularly and forget it.  Hard disk drive prices are extremely low, so grab a drive that is at least EQUAL to the internal drive your computer has installed.

Creating a "rescue" disk is fairly painless and automated, so take the time to make one and keep it safe.

The main reason to have a fully functioning system backup, is that if you have to "re-install" your operating system, applications and personal data, it will take you days.

A full system backup can have your machine up and running within hours of any crash.

Joe

[Joe K]

Concerning backups, there are mainly two types:  Full and Incremental.

Your first backup should be a full backup, which includes everything on your machine.  Once you have a "full" backup, you can run an incremental backup, which only backs up, whatever has CHANGED since the full backup.

This is where "cloud" storage is handy.  Your full backup should be on a USB disk drive as well as your incremental backups.  You should also duplicate your personal data to the cloud, as this safeguards the data, that would be very hard to replace, by having it present in two places.  One local, your USB drive and the second, off-site, in the cloud.

Again, backup software is easy to use, so take the time to set it up and run it regularly.  Trust me on this, I've been doing puters for a very long time.  If you don't want the heartache of losing all your personal data, start doing backups.

In the event of hard drive failure, there is always a chance to "recover" data, but it is an expensive process and not always successful.

The time and money spent, in establishing a reliable backup system is relatively small. 

The protection it provides... is priceless.

Joe

[pittman]

On premis, I have a backup to a separate disk.  I use Drobo, which is a "smart" storage device that offers multi-disk redundancy within the storage device , while avoiding the complexity of managing a RAID which is the more traditional multi-disk storage option.  It even emails me/alerts me if one of the drives in the unit fails so that I can replace it before my data is lost.

For offsite recover in case of nature disaster or the like, I use Dropbox and iCloud for my key data.

I  should do better on that front, as there are many off-site cloud storage services that are economical and would allow me to do a full backup.

I suppose we could all just ask the NSA for a copy of our files if we really need them and lose our home computer.

[mecch]

what are these affordable cloud backup services for, say, 100 GB

[pittman]

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/maintenance/tp/online_backup_services.htm

One of the most popular ones is Carbonite.  You may need to look at support, and see if you can live with email support or calling the US.

You may want to try the free trials to see what you find easier. that should include a test recovery of a file, not just the backup part.

[tednlou2]

The most infuriating piece of software is ITunes.  I've lost my library twice.  I have no idea why or how.  I had to do a lot of research to learn how to transfer the music from my IPod back to the library.  They make it so difficult, since their licensing only allowed for one-way transfer.  I tried to transfer all the songs back to the computer in one click.  But, I had to manually click each and every song.  I think Apple could make ITunes more user friendly. 

I finally figured out how to add my library to another iPod we bought, but not all the songs got transferred, with messages that files couldn't be found.  And, while it transferred most songs to the new iPod, it didn't transfer my playlists.  I am sure those more computer literate would know how to do it.  But, you shouldn't have to be very computer savvy to get your library on another iPod.  It seems you have to go in and transfer exact files, which many wouldn't even know what those files were for. 

One last thing-- You cannot use your IPad for your library.  At least, thats the info I have found.  You cannot buy songs and hook your iPod to your IPad and transfer the songs.  You must use a windows or MAC computer.  I think the IPad should be able to do it.  Many don't need or want a regular computer.  Even with the main library being on a PC, I think your IPad should recognize your IPod and be able to add songs to it and then update the main library later.

[mecch]

iTunes was a nightmare for  good ten years. Thats why I resisted getting any portable device for music from apple.  Including an iPhone.
Now I have an iPhone for 2 years.  It took trial and error to get iTunes on multiple machines sorted out. 
The good news is that very fast internet and wifi has corrected the limits of iTunes, somewhat.
An iPhone wants only 1 library.
You want more than one library.
I have a "daily life" library that deals with my podcasts and all my work stuff - i use multimedia in the classroom, so all that is in one library.
I keep that on my laptop that goes to work with me.
Then I have a basic library on each machine. This just gets filled with crap, and temporarily.
Then I have a "fun" library. That has my music and is also designate he library that talks to portables. That is connected to my router/wifi, so its not really a network that helps offsite, but I can connect from any mac computer and bring it up.

Also, avoid buying media on iTunes Store.. Buy your media elsewhere and upload it yourself to iTunes media manager.  Solves a lot of headaches.

You can load media directly to peripherals but its going to be hard to manage. I tried for awhile loading music directly into iTunes on the phone, and it was byzantine and brittle.  Everything would sometimes go missing.  So, unfortunately, all media needs o be managed through 1 dedicated iTunes library, and its best if that library is not used for anything else.  If you keep that library on an external disk, you can call it up on any computer.

I don't know about forgoing a computer and living with just peripherals, but perhaps the next iteration of iPad might allow that.  IPod is a dinosaur I doubt Apple will do much to accommodate IPod users....

The companies want you buying many machines and every 2 years.... Its gnarly. 
Don't let them also control your media purchases.  They are not benevolent public libraries, for instance.