How do you backup?

[Wraith]

What hardware, software, and/or service do you use to backup your personal data?

I have to admit, I haven't been very good about backing up data, but recent threads (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=6313) have me thinking again about picking up an external drive. The Carbonite (http://www.carbonite.com/) online backup service mentioned in that thread also looks interesting.

[Libuke]

I keep my personal stuff on a combination of USB sticks and an external hard drive. Nothing fancy for me.

[LiquidRain]

I run a Linux virtual machine on my Windows box, it acts as an rsync server to my home server, which has a 1TB storage drive. I also encrypt external drives and use those for backups, keeping the HDD at work as an off-site backup. I also regularly synchronize files between my laptop and desktop.

[Karak]

I use Acronis for every other day backups of my main system drive and it works wonders.

[Worldcrafter]

I use Dropbox to move files between remote computers, and it makes a good poor man's backup for project files.

[total]

I run a Linux virtual machine on my Windows box, it acts as an rsync server to my home server, which has a 1TB storage drive. I also encrypt external drives and use those for backups, keeping the HDD at work as an off-site backup. I also regularly synchronize files between my laptop and desktop.

I have a huge music collection that I update monthly (well...I try to do it monthly) to an external drive via rsync. I then pull that drive and let it sit in my safe. Obviously music is vital for me. Otherwise my other documents get rsync'd to my home server also, it has a 500gb raid setup so it is pretty safe.

Honestly I've learned to be distrustful of MS products over the years so I don't keep anything vital on my MS boxes. If I do happen to work or download something to my Windows box I instantly transfer it over to my Linux box which does the rsyncing.

[total]

I use Acronis for every other day backups of my main system drive and it works wonders.

I have heard Acronis makes a fine product also.

[DiBiddilyBop]

I turn around and then walk forward.

Buh dum, tsh.

But seriously, I should take some notes as I haven't backed up my computer in ages.

[LiquidRain]

I have a huge music collection that I update monthly (well...I try to do it monthly) to an external drive via rsync. I then pull that drive and let it sit in my safe. Obviously music is vital for me. Otherwise my other documents get rsync'd to my home server also, it has a 500gb raid setup so it is pretty safe.

Honestly I've learned to be distrustful of MS products over the years so I don't keep anything vital on my MS boxes. If I do happen to work or download something to my Windows box I instantly transfer it over to my Linux box which does the rsyncing.
I'm not distrustful of MS products, I use PathSync (http://www.cockos.com/pathsync/) to sync files on Windows frequently. I just find that rsync is the best/fastest tool for the job. (and I prefer using Linux over Windows, period, I'd rather use it as a desktop if it wasn't for gaming. that' what the VM is for :) )

[Sandman]

I keep anything important on my external usb drive, only things that are on my actual PC are programs and settings.

[Voodoo]

I put together a AthlonXP system which runs OpenFiler (http://www.openfiler.com/) and has 1TB of RAID5 storage. I then use scheduled FTP dumps to that system. Nice thing about this setup is that it also allows me access to these files remote via FTP. :) So, for example, if I am away from home and I decide that I'd like to continue a saved game I have then I just login to the FTP, grab the save and off I go.

[total]

I'm not distrustful of MS products, I use PathSync (http://www.cockos.com/pathsync/) to sync files on Windows frequently. I just find that rsync is the best/fastest tool for the job. (and I prefer using Linux over Windows, period, I'd rather use it as a desktop if it wasn't for gaming. that' what the VM is for :) )

Exactly how I feel except the not trusting Windows thing. I've been burned about 17 times too many for that. I agree that if you had the same game library in Linux as you do in Windows there would be a lot more people very familiar with the workings of Linux. I prefer it on the desktop (Ubuntu 8.10 at least) but I am willing to admit that 7 has made some serious strides. A lot of my gripes about Windows are slowly disappearing.

[Dark Acre Jack]

A terabyte external and Mac OS X's Time Machine saves the system's state every 30 minutes.

Does Windows have something like this?

[total]

A terabyte external and Mac OS X's Time Machine saves the system's state every 30 minutes.

Does Windows have something like this?

I know there wasn't anything like that out of the box with XP and below. I can't really speak for the 7 beta or Vista.

[DangerousDaze]

I have an external terrabyte drive and use FileBack PC in both a scheduled and change-of-state backup mode.

[LiquidRain]

People could always start using ext3cow. (http://www.ext3cow.com/Welcome.html) ;)

I'm not aware of any Time Machine like functionalities for Windows.

[Stmfuller]

I use this: https://sync.live.com/welcome.aspx to sync between my two computers. that's my music, documents, videos, and pictures.
I also have all of my music and pictures on my ipod as well.
Lastly, we have a USB HDD that sits in our closet that stores out pictures.
It works perfectly and I've never had any trouble with it.
Will probably end up using it with another laptop should we purchase a second one.

[Ravenlock]

Mozy (https://mozy.com/). I used the free version (which gives you 2GB of space on their servers, a pretty good amount for critical documents and such) for about a year, and after it proved to be very fast, stable and not a resource hog, I ponied up the $5 / month for unlimited backup.

Haven't worried about it since. :)

[Heresyte]

I have 2 hard drives in RAID 1 that I use to store my personal files. Once a day my computer automatically copies all of my important system files to that drive as well. I also have a backup image of a fresh vista install for all the times when windows decides to corrupt itself, so that it doesn't take me 30 hours to reinstall it.

This protects against a drive failure.

To protect against the unlikely event of both hard drives dying at the same time and the much more likely event of my computer being stolen, I use a program called duplicity (http://duplicity.nongnu.org/) to automatically backup all my important personal files to my webhosting account once a day.

[LiquidRain]

Thanks for the heads up on Duplicity.

[Wraith]

I think I'm going to give Second Copy 7 (http://www.centered.com/index.html) backup software a shot. It's $30, downloadable, and has some pretty good reviews. The reviews of the latest Acronis Home software look a lot lower than previous versions.

I just got a Western Digital 1TB external drive last weekend, and the software that comes with it (Memeo?) says it's only a 30 day trial, so I may as well get something worthwhile.

I have a copy of Norton Ghost floating around somewhere, but I don't really want to ghost the entire drive on a weekly basis.

[jpublic]

I copy the important information:

Save games
Favorite folder
Important stuff from Mail
Important documents


To my second (independant) drive on a somewhat irregular basis. I then copy that drive to a external USB connected one. If my machine goes *piff*, I have to reinstall from scractch, which to be perfectly honest, I'm okay with.

But then, I also can copy all of it to a DVD I take with me when I travel. I have very little stuff on my PC I consider essential.

[Wraith]

Another backup service I found today, through one of the blogs I follow: JungleDisk (http://jungledisk.com/). It's a paid service, but doesn't have a per-client license fee (use on as many PCs as you want). Prices start at $2/mo + $0.15 per GB stored. (So $5/mo for 20GB, $2.75 for 5GB, etc.) Works with Windows, Mac, Linux.

[Mot Wakorb]

A terabyte external and Mac OS X's Time Machine saves the system's state every 30 minutes.

Does Windows have something like this?

If you had a Windows Server 2003 environment, yes. It's called Shadow Copy. If you have Vista, this feature is here as well - came out before Apple had Time Machine.