data backup to external hard drive

[Guest]

I'm looking for a backup facility for my data files - any suggestions?

 

[John John]

You can use Ntbackup, it ships with Windows XP.

John

 

[Swifty]

I'm looking for a backup facility for my data files - any suggestions?

I find Synctoy -
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/prophoto/synctoy.mspx
to be all but perfect for my needs. It may be too simple for many, but
then so am I.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I'm looking for a backup facility for my data files - any suggestions?

Although this may be more information than you're looking for, here's
my standard post on backup:

First of all, almost everyone should be backing up regularly. It is
always possible that a hard drive crash, user error, nearby lightning
strike, virus attack, even theft of the computer, can cause the loss
of everything on your drive. As has often been said, it's not a matter
of whether you will have such a problem, but when.

Essentially you should back up what you can't afford to lose--what you
can't readily recreate. What that is depends on how you use your
computer and what you use it for.

It takes time and effort to backup, but it also takes time and effort
to recreate lost data. If you back up daily, you should never have to
recreate more than one day's worth of last data. If weekly, there's
potentially a lot more to recreate. You should assess how much pain
and trouble you would have if you lost x days of data, and then choose
a backup frequency that doesn't involve more pain and trouble than
that you would have if you had to recreate what was lost.

Some things (photographs, for instance) can never be recreated, and
more frequent backup may be wanted for them.

At one extreme is the professional user who would likely go out of
business if his data was lost. He probably needs to back up at least
daily. At the other extreme is the kid who doesn't use his computer
except to play games. He probably needs no backup at all, since worst
case he can easily reinstall his games.

Most of us fall somewhere between those extremes, but nobody can tell
you where you fall; you need to determine that for yourself.

Should you back up Windows? Should you back up your applications? Most
people will tell you no, since you can always reinstall these easily
from the original media. But I don't think the answer is so clear-cut.
Many people have substantial time and effort invested in customizing
Windows and configuring their apps to work the way they want to.
Putting all of that back the way it was can be a difficult,
time-consuming effort. Whether you should backup up Windows and apps
depends, once again, on you.

How to backup? What software to use? There are many choices, including
the Windows-supplied backup program. Which choice is best for you
depends at least in part on the answers to some of the questions
above.

Finally what backup media should you choose, and how should it be
stored? There are many choices, including CDs, tape, zip drives, and
second hard drives.

I don't recommend backup to a second non-removable hard drive because
it leaves you susceptible to simultaneous loss of the original and
backup to many of the most common dangers: severe power glitches,
nearby lightning strikes, virus attacks, even theft of the computer.

In my view, secure backup needs to be on removable media, and not kept
in the computer. For really secure backup (needed, for example, if the
life of your business depends on your data) you should have multiple
generations of backup, and at least one of those generations should be
stored off-site.

My computer isn't used for business, but my personal backup scheme
uses two identical removable hard drives,I alternate between the two,
and use Acronis True Image to make a complete copy of the primary
drive.

I also use a pair of 1GB thumb drives for making more frequent backups
of my most critical data (like financial information). For that I just
drag and drop.

 

[Poprivet]

That would make for an excellent article for publication. Unless you
already have, you should submit it to a few mags and see if they'd be
interested in using it.
Stick a copyright on it, and you could even offer it up for any web sites
to use. You'd want the copyright so it couldn't be used partially or out of
context; only duplicates in-full allowed; that at least protects you against
misuse.

Cheers,

Pop`

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

That would make for an excellent article for publication. Unless you
already have, you should submit it to a few mags and see if they'd be
interested in using it.

Thanks for the kind words, Pop.

I think it's on the short side for publication, and I'm not sure I
want to take the time and trouble to flesh it out. Nor do I want to go
to the trouble of making submissions, and so on. But thanks for the
suggestion.

Stick a copyright on it, and you could even offer it up for any web sites
to use. You'd want the copyright so it couldn't be used partially or out of
context; only duplicates in-full allowed; that at least protects you against
misuse.

I'm no lawyer, but my understanding of the copyright laws is that it's
already copyrighted simply by virtue of my having published it on
Usenet. No copyright notice is required.

I had an interesting Usenet experience a number of years ago in a
newsgroup in which I was a very active participant: alt.windows98.
Reading one of the messages posted there, I came across a message from
someone who supplied a URL for a web site (a webzine) giving advice on
setting the size of the swap file. Besides providing the URL for the
webzine, he quoted the article.

When I saw the quote posted, I thought it was excellent advice. I
should have thought so, because I wrote every word of the advice
cited. It was the text of a message that I had posted many times to
both alt.windows95 and alt.windows98.

Needless to say, I was not happy to see my words ascribed to another.
I went to the web site in question, and saw my words used there. I
wrote a strong message of complaint to the supposed "author" of the
article, and another to the webmaster at the site. Also, since I had
given permission to someone else to use my words on this subject on
his web site, he also wrote a similarly strong message of complaint to
the publisher at the site.

They checked out both our claims (Dejanews--Googlegroups forerunner--
had a clear record of the many times I had posted this advice), and
eventually admitted their mistake. The "author" said he was deceived
by someone who told him he had written this and gave him permission to
use it. Whether or not that was true, I can't say.

The result was that instead of paying the "author" for his article,
they sent me a the check they would have paid him, which I shared with
the person to whom I had given permission to use the text.