Backing up your computer

[Bruinator]

For those of us who back up your computer, what method do you use to store your files to, IE.. cloud, external HDD or flash drive? Also, how often do you back it up?

 

THX

[Tantawi]

My Windows workstation:

Critical data: Backup to my home NAS, then from there it does one-way syncs to OneDrive (Nightly)
OS, VMs, and games drives: Backup to NAS (Nightly)

 

For household Mac laptops: Time Machine backups to NAS

I use Acronis true image 2021 to manage the backups and disk imaging to the NAS from my workstation.

[Skyfrog]

I have a Samsung Story Station that I installed a 4TB WD Red drive in for regular backups and less important stuff. I like that it has a power switch so I can just turn it on when needed and keep it turned off most of the time. For important irreplaceable things like my old family photos I keep them on various formats. The hard drive for easy access, some M-Discs for permanent archiving and an encrypted archive online, although I will never trust the "cloud" alone. It's just a nice fallback in case my house gets hit by a meteor or something. I used to also back everything up to LTO tapes and I still have them but they're also kind of a hassle, but they hold a huge amount of data and last a really long time which is nice.

 

I do backups manually though and only whenever I feel like it which is definitely not often enough. 😄

[+bomberh Subscriber²]

I use Macrium Reflect once a month to do a manual backup my C drive to a WD Elements, 6TB External HDD. I keep 6 months worth of backups and after I have completed the monthly backup, I delete the oldest backup file.

 

This software has helped me out no end. I had a major issue with an update which absolutely messed up everything. Plugged in the external HDD, booted the PC into the software and used the latest backup to bring back the C drive. Took about 10 minutes to do, brilliant bit of kit.

[+Warwagon MVC]

I have all my really important files backed up on 3 disconnected USB Flash Drives and 3 WD Red Hard drives.

 

One of the 3 flash drives is in a safety deposit box and 1 of the WD red drives is in a safety deposit box. They get rotated frequently. 1 of the hard drives is inside a file server and gets backed up to nightly. It also does an online backup nightly as well.

 

QuickBooks Gets backed up nightly to a usb flash drive and to a file server which then gets backed up that same night to another hard drive. It also does an encrypted backup online. Then once a week it gets backed up to the 2 disconnected usb flash drives.

 

Then once a month it gets backed up to one of the 2 WD red drives.

 

I also have a 3 photo drives were I keep photos I take. It gets backed up to another photo drive, and a 3rd drive is located in my safety deposit box. Most of the photos I take, at least with my phone are also backed up to google photos.

[Bruinator]

I have an older win 7 desktop which I want to use to back up both my desktop and laptop on. The OS on both machines is win 10 pro. What would be the easiest way to to set this up via software, home group or any other method plz? IF it is by home group or any other method will I need to share any Drives i want to back up on my win 7 machine?  If I use acronis, do i need to share drives from both desktop and my laptop and win 7 in order to have access on all machines?

 

Also, does it matter which OS I host the backup from?

 

Thx

Edited May 3, 2021 by Bruinator

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

I rotate between external drives as well as use a cloud-provider for a small set of files.

 

Although it's a decade old, now, this paper I wrote is still pretty useful:  Backup Basics.  Just ignore any mentions of capacities and prices, as those have changed.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

[ThaCrip]

I tend to be of the mindset that for any data that you would be upset if you lost it is to have a bare minimum of two copies, like on HDD1 and HDD2. failing to do this as a bare minimum is just asking for trouble.

 

but with that said... I usually have one hard drive backup externally (I basically use internal HDD's connected to a USB3 docking station for my external HDD backup) so it's only connected occasionally which should further minimize the risk of data loss.

 

I still do some DVD burning for a limited amount of higher importance data (family pics/videos) but ill admit I am definitely behind in this regard even though I still am pretty good at the bare minimum standard I mentioned above. I just do it manually within the file browser with copy/paste.

 

p.s. but for general OS backup... I typically image it occasionally (maybe once a month or two) with Clonezilla.

[+E.Worm Jimmy Subscriber¹]

I lost 10 year worth of photos - by buying only 1 backup HDD.

 

Now I back it up to 2 WD red drives and I hope that is enough - most important stuff is also on a 500gb flash ssd (not sure really - I think it is SSD - cost an arm and a leg back when I got it and it is extremely fast)

[+Warwagon MVC]

On 04/05/2021 at 09:16, E.Worm Jimmy said:

I lost 10 year worth of photos - by buying only 1 backup HDD.

 

Now I back it up to 2 WD red drives and I hope that is enough - most important stuff is also on a 500gb flash ssd (not sure really - I think it is SSD - cost an arm and a leg back when I got it and it is extremely fast)

So how did you loose them? Did you back them up to the backup drive then delete the original or did the source and the backup both die at the same time?

[kelcyra4ever]

 Acronis True Image & Macrium Reflect once a month, manual backup on 2 external HDD + very important files on 2 USB Flash Drives every week