What do you use to backup your files, photos and music? If you don't backup your files, what are your reasons?

Question

Computer users store irreplaceable files like financial documents, family photos and digital music on their systems. However, 46% of U.S. adults never backup their personal information. If a hard drive crash or natural disaster results in data loss, these files can never be recovered. What prevents computer users from backing up their data when it can save them a great deal of trouble in the future?

Answer 1

I back them up frequently on CD. I also keep a second copy on a laptop or on the computers in the office. With enough current copies your data can usually be restored. Any family photos are also on other family members' computers in other locations.

I used to use tapes but found that the tape drives became obsolete. That left me with lots of backup tapes that were worthless no matter how much effort I had put into them. Even the little floppies I used on a project basis were not as useful whrn computers stopped being shipped with floppy drives.

In addition to the CD backups I also copy them from my main (boot) drive to a second hard drive. I once had a hard drive failure on my boot drive that was not recoverable even by data recovery experts. Most of my data by then was on the other hard drive so all I needed to do was reinstall the programs onto my boot drive.

Failure to backup is a rookie error that is done by people who believe their drives will last forever. Anyone who has lost data at home or at work knows better.

Answer 2

I store all my backups on a 160 gb external drive. From time to time I delete some of them keeping the important ones that I know are good after making a major change to my main drive. This paid off recently as something screwed up my media player and it was like that for a while before I used it and noticed the problem. I had to go back to a backup I made in January to solve the problem. If I didn't have a selection of backups I would be in real trouble here. After that all I had to do was update my virus protection stuff. I hope I inspired some of you to follow my example. If I downloaded the songs from a website, I just remember the sites that I used or would just google the songs again if I lost them. Because I have all of my songs on iTunes, I keep all my mp3 files in a folder on the computer. So if my iTunes crashes (can that happen?), I just retrieve those files by going into the folder. I guess some people don't backup their files because they are too lazy or they don't feel the need to do so because the files aren't important. Also, they may have lost the original files once they put them on the computer.

Answer 3

As someone who has been through several hard disk failures, this is a topic I that greatly interests me.

First, where possible I try to manage my files so that backup/restore is simplified. What I mean by this is that I separate data from applications if possible. Some applications tend to default saving files into either the users home directory or even worse, into the application directory. While the users home directory is preferable to the application directory, often the home directory also picks up a bunch of useless clutter like temporary files and log files. While these may be valuable if I had to do any research to application problems or snooping on where my kids are surfing the web, I don't need to back them up.

Second, I use a combination of extra hard disk and removable media. I have three internal hard disk where I replicate critical data (photos, music, email, documents, etc...). I don't have an automated process at this time but these contents aren't changing all that frequently that I need to automate it yet. My wife and kids have all been taught to save anything critical in multiple locations to prevent a single point of failure.

Third, I leave a copy of important data at a relatives house. This protects against disasters that would wipe out my entire house. This is an area where I probably need to improve my schedule as distance between my residence and the nearest relative prohibits frequent visits. I might not be able to recover the last couple months of data but at least I wouldn't lose all data.

In the future, I'd really like to automate the process a bit with a cheap tape library where I can run daily incremental backups and rotate a set of backups to an external site. I haven't identified a good application for home use as most of the applications I use at work tend to cost more than I can realistically afford for home.

Answer 4

The software is located on the Operating System install disc and doesn't get installed by default. I have the backup run 4 times per week at about midnight and it backs up my important folders to a shared drive on two other computers. These other computers do exactly the same thing. This way all my important info is stored in three places. It won't help if there is a natural disaster, as all three computers are in the same room, but it has already saved me twice due to hard drive failures.I also use that to backup my music, pictures, and video. I usually back up those files every other week or so. I've actually had my primary HD crash and getting my data back was really easy since I had it backed up already. Most people don't think about backing up files until it's too late. It's a little extra work, but it's worth it.

Answer 5

i hve my photos and music on a separate hard drive on the computer ..the drives are partitoned such as the c drive has the windows and other important basic programs the other drives such as the e and the d drives store music movies and photo files etc.... this is because imost viruse strike the drive u acccess the internet from or use when online my data is even protected when a virus strikes also i have a progm called the Symantec GHOST

Answer 6

I use a batch file that I wrote myself that runs at start-up and copies all my documents, emails and files that have changed since the last backup to a second hard drive on my PC. This means the PC is a bit slow for the first 3 minutes when starting up, but it's worth the peace of mind as losing two hard drives at the same time is unlikely. If I want to be sure my files are backed up, then I need only to restart my machine, it's as simple as that, something most users do on a daily basis anyway.
As well as this I also have a separate PC on my network that does nothing but backup files from all the PCs in my house once a day. It does each PC at a different time of day. This means that I can be sure that if disaster strikes I can restore a recent copy of all my files.
I think most people don't back-up because it is often a manual process for most users who don't want to spend the time. If I didn't automate my backup I wouldn't do it either.
Another thing I have done to ensure the safety of my documents is move the My Documents folder to a seperate logical drive from the OS, so if my machine is unbootable or corrupted I have no fears about formatting and re-installing the OS because my Boot drive doesn't contain any documents, only the OS, which is replacable.

Answer 7

I don't think it is so much to do with laziness as probably lack of knowledge or experience. Some people may not know what do for backup or even know that it is necessary. I am an avid photographer and went through a serious scare when my Windows computer blue-screened and I thought I had lost over four years worth of photos that had only been partially backed up. Luckily I was able to restore the system but I now have an automatic backup to another external hard drive and sometimes put important photos on dvd. Disk space is so cheap today that it doesn't make sense if you have important documents or files to not back them up at least once a week.

Answer 8

With hardware failure and data loss, it's not a matter of IF', it's a matter of WHEN you it will occur.

I usually just use CD-R's for backing up stuff. They are cheap - and have a pretty good lifespan. DVD-R's work well too if you have large storage needs, though they cost a bit more. I sometimes use CD-RW's for backing up data that is constantly being updated. It can sometimes take a few minutes, but it sure beats standing there holding a dead hard drive.

At work we have a tape backup drive. External hard drives work well too.

A failed hard drive (or even one with data that was accidentally overwritten) can usually be recovered - though sometimes it requires taking it to someone who can disassemble it, and either fix it, or figure out how to get the data directly off the platters. The cost can be exorbitant though - and so that is usually only an option if you lose irreplaceable data that will cost more to recreate than to have someone do the data recovery process.

The other time this process is used is when someone is storing something illegal (like kiddie porn) on a hard drive, and attempts to either destroy the drive, or format.

They can actually pull up data that has been written to the drive, erased, and then the same part of the drive has been overwritten.

Answer 9

am head of the Information Technology department where I work. I have known for many years that ANY hard drive can fail. Some makes more than others, but that's another story. Many times I have been tasked to recover data from a failed drive. Sometimes I get lucky and can save it all, sometimes it's a total loss. I am totally dependent on my laptop for all daily business and personal information storage including Word files, photos and music. Even having a well-known so-called reliable brand name computer doesn't prevent its malfunction, which seems to happen miraculously the day after the warranty expires!
System Restore feature on Windows XP is also useful and I regularly create restore points. However for safety I found that a large exteranl hard drive is the best. My laptop has 80 GB, which was double my previous laptop - even though at the time of purcahe it seems the larger hard drive capacity will last forever - it soon fills up. So now I have a 160GB external hard drive on which I save a back up of all files as well as using it for long term stroage.
However I expect this also will fil up too soon.

Answer 10

This paid off recently as something screwed up my media player and it was like that for a while before I used it and noticed the problem. I had to go back to a backup I made in January to solve the problem. If I didn't have a selection of backups I would be in real trouble here. After that all I had to do was update my virus protection stuff. I hope I inspired some of you to follow my example. If I downloaded the songs from a website, I just remember the sites that I used or would just google the songs again if I lost them. Because I have all of my songs on iTunes, I keep all my mp3 files in a folder on the computer. So if my iTunes crashes (can that happen?), I just retrieve those files by going into the folder.

Answer 11

Interesting question. I do backup certain files, not all, only the important ones. Most of the time you are prevented to back up because of the time to get an external media to do the backup. You know, in the corporations backup is made on daily basis.
Perhaps, the best media I Know is to have two scsi drives in a mirror arrangement. That means you have two hard drives in a single computer backing up all the information on a real time basis, the odds that both drives crashes at the same time are remote, however, most people would not use this technology as it is a "little bit expensive" compared with only buying one hard drive.(nothing compared to the possible savings of backing up information)
I am waiting for the google guys to issue the new Google-Drive. It could be the better way to back up your information even safer than in your equipment.