Confession: Backup
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I do not have any backup scheme in place on my home computer. I repent. Now what ? Every backup scheme I've tried before has always been marked by -- Complexity -- Annoyance -- Hideously Inadequate restore procedures -- Space Invaders (I was around before CD-RWs existed) -- Time Bandits (So many rules you had to sit there and run it yourself) I used some freeware backup apps, and the authors of these should receive the highest acclaim. Indeed, they should be able to find paid work within a month if not an hour, should they need it. Still, what will really work, and what will really catch on, is something where... -- Plug in a USB cable -- Pop up the app -- Click once -- Go to work -- Come home, spare disk goes in the closet So how much will such a thing cost ? Who's making this kind of stuff these days ?
Acronis true image or be banished to outer darkness and gnashing of teeth.
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I do not have any backup scheme in place on my home computer. I repent. Now what ? Every backup scheme I've tried before has always been marked by -- Complexity -- Annoyance -- Hideously Inadequate restore procedures -- Space Invaders (I was around before CD-RWs existed) -- Time Bandits (So many rules you had to sit there and run it yourself) I used some freeware backup apps, and the authors of these should receive the highest acclaim. Indeed, they should be able to find paid work within a month if not an hour, should they need it. Still, what will really work, and what will really catch on, is something where... -- Plug in a USB cable -- Pop up the app -- Click once -- Go to work -- Come home, spare disk goes in the closet So how much will such a thing cost ? Who's making this kind of stuff these days ?
My backup strategy: 1. Put all project files, pictures, and music in a directory that is backed up by Dropbox or Skydrive. 2. Accept that if my computer melts it will take me a few hours to reload the software on a new machine and pull my useful files back from the cloud. 3. Have a drink.
Play my game Gravity: IOS[^], Android[^], Windows Phone 7[^]
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robocopy
Robocopy and a batch job run by windows scheduler. Works great! I have a few USB and eSATA connected 2TB drives with complete copies of everything on my main drives. Simple, easy and a doddle to restore broken or missing files.
- Life in the fast lane is only fun if you live in a country with no speed limits. - Of all the things I have lost, it is my mind that I miss the most. - I vaguely remember having a good memory...
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I do not have any backup scheme in place on my home computer. I repent. Now what ? Every backup scheme I've tried before has always been marked by -- Complexity -- Annoyance -- Hideously Inadequate restore procedures -- Space Invaders (I was around before CD-RWs existed) -- Time Bandits (So many rules you had to sit there and run it yourself) I used some freeware backup apps, and the authors of these should receive the highest acclaim. Indeed, they should be able to find paid work within a month if not an hour, should they need it. Still, what will really work, and what will really catch on, is something where... -- Plug in a USB cable -- Pop up the app -- Click once -- Go to work -- Come home, spare disk goes in the closet So how much will such a thing cost ? Who's making this kind of stuff these days ?
I don't about anyone else here on Code Project, but I'm getting tired of sub-standard optical media not working across different CD/DVD burners. I can't always keep files hanging around on external USB HD, so anything that's unlikely to change gets shoved onto a DVD/CD. But.. 1. they've proved to be not so reliable as they're claimed to be. 2. a change of dvd hardware you discover the discs throw up CRC errors etc. by the time you discover the problems, it's so long ago you can't remember when or where you bought them. To date, I've lost far more files from bad DVD/CD than any other form of backup.
Q. Hey man! have you sorted out the finite soup machine? A. Why yes, it's celery or tomato.
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My backup strategy: 1. Put all project files, pictures, and music in a directory that is backed up by Dropbox or Skydrive. 2. Accept that if my computer melts it will take me a few hours to reload the software on a new machine and pull my useful files back from the cloud. 3. Have a drink.
Play my game Gravity: IOS[^], Android[^], Windows Phone 7[^]
That's not a bad approach. I have not tried Dropbox, but my Pictures folder alone currently takes up 50 GB, so it is not an option for me to back all that up to Skydrive. I know I can purchase extra storage, but I think I would rather go with something else. Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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I do not have any backup scheme in place on my home computer. I repent. Now what ? Every backup scheme I've tried before has always been marked by -- Complexity -- Annoyance -- Hideously Inadequate restore procedures -- Space Invaders (I was around before CD-RWs existed) -- Time Bandits (So many rules you had to sit there and run it yourself) I used some freeware backup apps, and the authors of these should receive the highest acclaim. Indeed, they should be able to find paid work within a month if not an hour, should they need it. Still, what will really work, and what will really catch on, is something where... -- Plug in a USB cable -- Pop up the app -- Click once -- Go to work -- Come home, spare disk goes in the closet So how much will such a thing cost ? Who's making this kind of stuff these days ?
Sounds like a good idea for a personal project. There are many free online 'cloud' solutions with probably more than enough space for personal stuff...assuming bandwidth is not a problem and you actually trust someone else to 'look after' your stuff. Otherwise buy an external USB HD and use that vendor's backup suite. I have the luxury of having a home/office server and use synchronized mapped drives for the important stuff. If the HD craps out on the server, my files are available on one of two systems that share those files. It's worked great for me. :)
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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I do not have any backup scheme in place on my home computer. I repent. Now what ? Every backup scheme I've tried before has always been marked by -- Complexity -- Annoyance -- Hideously Inadequate restore procedures -- Space Invaders (I was around before CD-RWs existed) -- Time Bandits (So many rules you had to sit there and run it yourself) I used some freeware backup apps, and the authors of these should receive the highest acclaim. Indeed, they should be able to find paid work within a month if not an hour, should they need it. Still, what will really work, and what will really catch on, is something where... -- Plug in a USB cable -- Pop up the app -- Click once -- Go to work -- Come home, spare disk goes in the closet So how much will such a thing cost ? Who's making this kind of stuff these days ?
I use Acronis. It has saved me on a number of occasions - it allows incremental images. I image each drive separately and every month(or so...)I perform a full image on the OS drive and incremental images on the other drives. It's worth the price - what's the cost of losing your pictures, work and music? The only thing you can be sure of regarding hard drives is that they will fail at some point; it's not a case of if, it's a case of when.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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I do not have any backup scheme in place on my home computer. I repent. Now what ? Every backup scheme I've tried before has always been marked by -- Complexity -- Annoyance -- Hideously Inadequate restore procedures -- Space Invaders (I was around before CD-RWs existed) -- Time Bandits (So many rules you had to sit there and run it yourself) I used some freeware backup apps, and the authors of these should receive the highest acclaim. Indeed, they should be able to find paid work within a month if not an hour, should they need it. Still, what will really work, and what will really catch on, is something where... -- Plug in a USB cable -- Pop up the app -- Click once -- Go to work -- Come home, spare disk goes in the closet So how much will such a thing cost ? Who's making this kind of stuff these days ?
I have one word for you - DropBox 1) Copy 2) Paste 3) Done
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
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That's not a bad approach. I have not tried Dropbox, but my Pictures folder alone currently takes up 50 GB, so it is not an option for me to back all that up to Skydrive. I know I can purchase extra storage, but I think I would rather go with something else. Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
Yeah, Skydrive is about $50 a year for a 100GB. Nice bonus there is you can browse all your photos online if you're away from the home machine. You can even email access to the photos to other people for sharing. I like the cloud storage best because it is off site. If the computer gets hit by a bus or the house burns down I don't lose any of my content files. Hopefully the odds of either of those happening is pretty low.
Play my game Gravity: IOS[^], Android[^], Windows Phone 7[^]
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I have one word for you - DropBox 1) Copy 2) Paste 3) Done
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
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I do not have any backup scheme in place on my home computer. I repent. Now what ? Every backup scheme I've tried before has always been marked by -- Complexity -- Annoyance -- Hideously Inadequate restore procedures -- Space Invaders (I was around before CD-RWs existed) -- Time Bandits (So many rules you had to sit there and run it yourself) I used some freeware backup apps, and the authors of these should receive the highest acclaim. Indeed, they should be able to find paid work within a month if not an hour, should they need it. Still, what will really work, and what will really catch on, is something where... -- Plug in a USB cable -- Pop up the app -- Click once -- Go to work -- Come home, spare disk goes in the closet So how much will such a thing cost ? Who's making this kind of stuff these days ?
Hard disk space is relatively cheap, so I buy big-ass drives and use a combination of: 1. Dropbox for working files, except media (movies and music). You can often put your home folder inside your Dropbox using simlinks. 2. System-native backup. 3. Third-party drive imaging or equivalent. The scheduled robocopy runs are a good starting point. You can also use SyncToy. The problem I found with these is that, if they fail or the scheduled task gets borked (it does happen), you don't get any notification. So it pays to check occasionally and make sure the syncs are actually running. On my Mac I use Dropbox, Time Machine, SuperDuper! (to a separate drive) and Crashplan for offsite backup (New Year's sale: $2.88 for a year-long family plan. Woot!). On my Windows 7 box I use Dropbox, Windows Backup and Terabyte Image for Windows (again, to a separate drive). I could Crashplan this, too, but this box no longer contains any irreplaceable files. I am not a fan of proprietary backup formats because they have corrupted in the past and screwed me over. Therefore, to the extent possible I have these set up to create mountable disk images or 1:1 file syncs. Not foolproof, but once set up it's hands off. Once upon a time you could use Foldershare/Live Sync to remote, real-time file dup to another computer over the net. Sadly, no more...
Director of Content Development, The Code Project
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I do not have any backup scheme in place on my home computer. I repent. Now what ? Every backup scheme I've tried before has always been marked by -- Complexity -- Annoyance -- Hideously Inadequate restore procedures -- Space Invaders (I was around before CD-RWs existed) -- Time Bandits (So many rules you had to sit there and run it yourself) I used some freeware backup apps, and the authors of these should receive the highest acclaim. Indeed, they should be able to find paid work within a month if not an hour, should they need it. Still, what will really work, and what will really catch on, is something where... -- Plug in a USB cable -- Pop up the app -- Click once -- Go to work -- Come home, spare disk goes in the closet So how much will such a thing cost ? Who's making this kind of stuff these days ?
Pretty much all of the sizeable external drives seem to come with their own 'one-click backup' software. As others have said, you could always just write a BAT file & run that. If you set up the external drive properly you can probably get it to run the BAT automatically when you plug in the USB so you could miss out steps 2 and 3. I'd recommend doing this last thing before bed & taking the drive with you to work, though. In the closet isn't much help if the house burns down, gets flooded, falls into another dimension.
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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Have a look at the BounceBack products from CMS[^] [edit] if clickty doesn't work try www.cmsproducts.com [/edit] I think the concept is probably exactly what you're looking for: just plug in a USB drive and it does the backup. In the spirit of full disclosure: I used one of their products years ago and found an obscure show stopper bug (in my specific circumstances) and their support was an email shrug of the shoulders. I expect they are well over that by now.
Phil
The opinions expressed in this post are not necessarily those of the author, especially if you find them impolite, inaccurate or inflammatory.
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Buy a USB hard drive: $100. Write .BAT file to run robocopy: 6 minutes. Add scheduled task to run .BAT file once a day: 30 seconds. You've spent $100 or less and six and a half minutes for peace of mind. Cheap.
Software Zen:
delete this;Great answers, great insight, thank you one and all. The two absences among the answers were the command line options of... - Xcopy (Does that still exist ?) - XxCopy[^] (Free, most of the time, at home.) From my 30 minute investigation of all these options, Robocopy appears to have replaced Xcopy and is quite possibly Microsoft's response to the existence of XxCopy[^] With all that in mind, the current winner for the moment is Gary Wheeler[^] along with the others in that camp. (Not that I'm closing my mind to the other ideas, they clearly have merit.) Okay, So here's what I'm thinking. Purchase: Two USB External Hard Drives Write: a bat file that invokes Robocopy Write: a second bat file, similarly, but does Robocopy to the other USB drive Name Them: OddBack.Bat and EvenBack.Bat On odd numbered days, click on OddBack, then on even numbered days, click on EvenBack.
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I do not have any backup scheme in place on my home computer. I repent. Now what ? Every backup scheme I've tried before has always been marked by -- Complexity -- Annoyance -- Hideously Inadequate restore procedures -- Space Invaders (I was around before CD-RWs existed) -- Time Bandits (So many rules you had to sit there and run it yourself) I used some freeware backup apps, and the authors of these should receive the highest acclaim. Indeed, they should be able to find paid work within a month if not an hour, should they need it. Still, what will really work, and what will really catch on, is something where... -- Plug in a USB cable -- Pop up the app -- Click once -- Go to work -- Come home, spare disk goes in the closet So how much will such a thing cost ? Who's making this kind of stuff these days ?
Also remember that if you do keep backups on hard drives or any removable media - store them off site. If you leave your backups next to your computer at home and you get burgled or if a fire sweeps through your house you will lose everything. So leave them with a friend, take them into work or leave them in the back of your car.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Ok, see edited post above. Apple broke the clickety, although it still works for me in some browsers. :confused:
Phil
The opinions expressed in this post are not necessarily those of the author, especially if you find them impolite, inaccurate or inflammatory.
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I do not have any backup scheme in place on my home computer. I repent. Now what ? Every backup scheme I've tried before has always been marked by -- Complexity -- Annoyance -- Hideously Inadequate restore procedures -- Space Invaders (I was around before CD-RWs existed) -- Time Bandits (So many rules you had to sit there and run it yourself) I used some freeware backup apps, and the authors of these should receive the highest acclaim. Indeed, they should be able to find paid work within a month if not an hour, should they need it. Still, what will really work, and what will really catch on, is something where... -- Plug in a USB cable -- Pop up the app -- Click once -- Go to work -- Come home, spare disk goes in the closet So how much will such a thing cost ? Who's making this kind of stuff these days ?
Personnaly I use Nero BackItUp product, I paid for this app but I haven't been dissapointed. It is able to backup a whole system onto an external hard drive or even a NAS and to shutdown your computer and your NAS (if it supports ethernet power off request of course) without having your OS started. Install it on a bootable flash drive and that's it. IMO worth every pennies.
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I do not have any backup scheme in place on my home computer. I repent. Now what ? Every backup scheme I've tried before has always been marked by -- Complexity -- Annoyance -- Hideously Inadequate restore procedures -- Space Invaders (I was around before CD-RWs existed) -- Time Bandits (So many rules you had to sit there and run it yourself) I used some freeware backup apps, and the authors of these should receive the highest acclaim. Indeed, they should be able to find paid work within a month if not an hour, should they need it. Still, what will really work, and what will really catch on, is something where... -- Plug in a USB cable -- Pop up the app -- Click once -- Go to work -- Come home, spare disk goes in the closet So how much will such a thing cost ? Who's making this kind of stuff these days ?
C-P-User-3 wrote:
Still, what will really work, and what will really catch on, is something where...
-- Plug in a USB cable
-- Pop up the app
-- Click once
-- Go to work
-- Come home, spare disk goes in the closetI was always forgetting to the backup, or something would get in the way. Now I use Carbonite (www.carbonite.com), Set it up to run at time convenient to you, no plugging in, no looking after disks, totally online. $60/ year per PC - no storage limits. It does need broadband but only backups changed files so you always have a complete set of files. No forgetting to backup, it's just done. :-D.
Best Regards Graham Wade
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Great answers, great insight, thank you one and all. The two absences among the answers were the command line options of... - Xcopy (Does that still exist ?) - XxCopy[^] (Free, most of the time, at home.) From my 30 minute investigation of all these options, Robocopy appears to have replaced Xcopy and is quite possibly Microsoft's response to the existence of XxCopy[^] With all that in mind, the current winner for the moment is Gary Wheeler[^] along with the others in that camp. (Not that I'm closing my mind to the other ideas, they clearly have merit.) Okay, So here's what I'm thinking. Purchase: Two USB External Hard Drives Write: a bat file that invokes Robocopy Write: a second bat file, similarly, but does Robocopy to the other USB drive Name Them: OddBack.Bat and EvenBack.Bat On odd numbered days, click on OddBack, then on even numbered days, click on EvenBack.
The only thing I have against xcopy / robocopy is the resetting of file creation date. Plus xcopy has been known to exhaust memory if used from a recovery environment. (very long filenames - Windows Vista and up.) I'd rather use Winrar and split into manageable parts, with the recovery record flag. More likely to recover corrupted files off DVD.
Q. Hey man! have you sorted out the finite soup machine? A. Why yes, it's celery or tomato.
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Yeah, Skydrive is about $50 a year for a 100GB. Nice bonus there is you can browse all your photos online if you're away from the home machine. You can even email access to the photos to other people for sharing. I like the cloud storage best because it is off site. If the computer gets hit by a bus or the house burns down I don't lose any of my content files. Hopefully the odds of either of those happening is pretty low.
Play my game Gravity: IOS[^], Android[^], Windows Phone 7[^]
I was reading the entire post, just exactly this tip! I use google drive + dropbox to backup my git repositories! Simple and great!