Question for Kelly, Bruce or Doug.

[RickO'Shay]

Hi,
I have a query regarding the best course of action to take in selecting a
back up system for my computer.
I am not sure if I am right but I think that backing up Documents and
Settings on a regular basis would be the most complete and thus safe way to
go. However, this is way to big to back up to CD (2+ Gb).
Would I be best served with an external USB HD say 20Gb and then copy the
whole of my computer to this or is there a better way?

Regards,

RickO'Shay.

 

[GSV Three Minds in a Can]

Hi,
I have a query regarding the best course of action to take in selecting a
back up system for my computer.
I am not sure if I am right but I think that backing up Documents and
Settings on a regular basis would be the most complete and thus safe way to
go. However, this is way to big to back up to CD (2+ Gb).
Would I be best served with an external USB HD say 20Gb and then copy the
whole of my computer to this or is there a better way?

I'm none of the above, but the first question with a backup is 'what are
you backing up against the possibility of'. If it's just a disk crash,
then something like second copy 2000, copying to another hard disk in
the same machine, or across a LAN, works fine. If you want to recover
after a house fire, then that won't work worth a damn, because both
copies will probably go up in smoke at the same time.

You don't need to back up =all= of D&S anyway - that folder (by default)
includes temporary internet files (maybe many 100's of MB of them), temp
directory, etc. which are not worth the time/trouble of archiving. If
you do go with an external drive, Firewire has (IMO) a better track
record than USB2.