Backup, Backup, Backup

UT Scott

Well yesterday I did a very bad and stupid thing. While getting ready for class I happened to knock over the freshly brewed cup of coffee on my desk. Now losing a cup of coffee would be bad enough, but that sweet coffee goodness also landed right on the keyboard of my (fairly new) laptop. In just an instant I lost two things that I love oh so much, my computer filled with all my most important stuff (pictures, class notes, essays that were due the next day) and my coffee :cry.

As it turns out I will be able to save all the data on my hard drive (thank God for computer geeks) but my computer will be a total loss. This brings up my question, what do you guys use to backup your hard drive? I have a DVD burner and every once in a while I'll burn a disk of my pictures onto that, but I really don't like having all those disks arround. Another option would be to get an external hard drive, but I know very little about them. Does anyone have any recomendations for a good HD in the 60-120 gb range that doesn't cost a whole lot (replacing my laptop is going to kill my bank account :cry)?

Thank you everyone for reading my long winded account of how I learned that my computer doesn't enjoy coffee as much as I do!

ChrisJ

UT Scott wrote:

Well yesterday I did a very bad and stupid thing. While getting ready for class I happened to knock over the freshly brewed cup of coffee on my desk. Now losing a cup of coffee would be bad enough, but that sweet coffee goodness also landed right on the keyboard of my (fairly new) laptop. In just an instant I lost two things that I love oh so much, my computer filled with all my most important stuff (pictures, class notes, essays that were due the next day) and my coffee :cry.

As it turns out I will be able to save all the data on my hard drive (thank God for computer geeks) but my computer will be a total loss. This brings up my question, what do you guys use to backup your hard drive? I have a DVD burner and every once in a while I'll burn a disk of my pictures onto that, but I really don't like having all those disks arround. Another option would be to get an external hard drive, but I know very little about them. Does anyone have any recomendations for a good HD in the 60-120 gb range that doesn't cost a whole lot (replacing my laptop is going to kill my bank account :cry)?

Thank you everyone for reading my long winded account of how I learned that my computer doesn't enjoy coffee as much as I do!

That's really terrible! But accidents do happen...

It's always a good idea to have at least *3* copies of any important data "just-in-case", at least two of them should be separated physically by a significant distance.

Personally, I upload my images to SmugMug (physical separation), and back them up to another computer. I also burn DVDs once a year and put them in a fire safe/safe deposit box.

External hard drives are a cheap and easy way to get a good backup. Most of them come with backup programs which simplify the process. Here's one at Best Buy for $80.

Glad your data was safe this time!!!

David Taylor

What do I do?...I back-up to an external MyBook HD, burn CD and DVD (only on quality disks) and load everything to SM.

You might want to consider a larger HD, plus they are only getting cheaper. A 60gb or 120 will fill really quickly, unless of course you cull ruthlessly

Art Scott

David Taylor wrote:

What do I do?...I back-up to an external MyBook HD, burn CD and DVD (only on quality disks) and load everything to SM.

You might want to consider a larger HD, plus they are only getting cheaper. A 60gb or 120 will fill really quickly, unless of course you cull ruthlessly

...

What do you call quality disks?

the reason I am asking is I have a couple different brands(Teac, Memorex the most expensive I could get of both) that were purchased at computer stores (not Wally world or best buy) and they were supposed to be fantastic....how ever they are now corrupted (stored in the paper storage envelopes and stacked....never used unless i needed to re-do a photo from the raw file up.....now I would only trust my raw files to Mitsui (MAM-A from Boulder) Gold DVD or CD's.....don't believe the 300yr life span...but I do know their CD's can take a beating and still play. A touch pricy but how do you put a price on your Art Work Originals

claudermilk

Ouch!

I use Acronis True Image to removable hard drives.

Funny that you post this, I was thinking I need to run a new backup & last night one of the data drives made that terrible "I'm dying" noise. Got two new drives & trays coming from Newegg & I'm going to try the freeze-the-drive method first. Worst case is I have to regnerate a bunch of revised batch-generated metadata on the backed up images. So the moral is, even when you get all the software & hardware, be dilligent in running frequent backups.

thirdlife

UT Scott wrote:

Well yesterday I did a very bad and stupid thing. While getting ready for class I happened to knock over the freshly brewed cup of coffee on my desk. Now losing a cup of coffee would be bad enough, but that sweet coffee goodness also landed right on the keyboard of my (fairly new) laptop. In just an instant I lost two things that I love oh so much, my computer filled with all my most important stuff (pictures, class notes, essays that were due the next day) and my coffee :cry.

As it turns out I will be able to save all the data on my hard drive (thank God for computer geeks) but my computer will be a total loss. This brings up my question, what do you guys use to backup your hard drive? I have a DVD burner and every once in a while I'll burn a disk of my pictures onto that, but I really don't like having all those disks arround. Another option would be to get an external hard drive, but I know very little about them. Does anyone have any recomendations for a good HD in the 60-120 gb range that doesn't cost a whole lot (replacing my laptop is going to kill my bank account :cry)?

Thank you everyone for reading my long winded account of how I learned that my computer doesn't enjoy coffee as much as I do!

I just upload them all to smugmug.

David Taylor

Art...

Art Scott wrote:

...

What do you call quality disks?

the reason I am asking is I have a couple different brands(Teac, Memorex the most expensive I could get of both) that were purchased at computer stores (not Wally world or best buy) and they were supposed to be fantastic....how ever they are now corrupted (stored in the paper storage envelopes and stacked....never used unless i needed to re-do a photo from the raw file up.....now I would only trust my raw files to Mitsui (MAM-A from Boulder) Gold DVD or CD's.....don't believe the 300yr life span...but I do know their CD's can take a beating and still play. A touch pricy but how do you put a price on your Art Work Originals

My philosophy is simple....I don't use the generic "no name' brand disks. Nor do I directly equate price and longevity. I don't expect them to last forever, just long enough for the next revolution in media storage to come along (it seems to be ~ every 5 years). I've used a variety of brands and frankly do not think there is a significant difference between them.

So far (I'm touching the wood on my desk at this point ) I have not had a single disk failure.

UT Scott

Oh man, I just went to pick up my laptop from CompUSA (the guys who copied my hard drive) and brought it back to my room, stuck the battery in (with a cup of water ready incase it went up in flames) and the thing booted up fine! Everything works perfectly and no data was lost :ivar

I've deffinitly learned a lesson this week, keep anything liquid away from your computer!!! Also, I now have a backup of all my files on DVDs (was a very expensive way to backup though, not recomended)

Thank you everyone for giving me ideas about how to backup my files. I think I'm going to go with a 250 gb external hard drive. Does anyone know if you can backup multiple computers with the included software? Like can it be installed on multiple machines?

Again, thank you very much everyone! And remember not to pour coffee on your laptops!