To loose everything...

[Matthew Bromley]

OK the title is a bit over dramatic, but backing up is crucial otherwise loosing everything, your whole life's work, is possible in a matter of milliseconds (take your pick: break in, fire, natural disaster, and so on).

I'm currently facing the daunting task of transporting both my laptop and my external hard drives in the same suitcase when I move to Australia. Currently my life's work doesn't really amount to much, but still the thought of loosing it all (to quote Inspector Todd from Beverly Hills Cop) "makes my d**k itch".

I'm currently backing up the contents of my computer HD using the online backup service from Mozy. The bulk of my stuff is on my ExHD though, and this cannot be backed up on Mozy.

So I'm turning to the Pros for advise. Am I just being paranoid? What do you folks do to prevent against loss of your computer and ExHD (which is a possibility as they are usually sat next to one another on the desk).

Apologies if this rather boring topic has been covered in other threads.

[chris-p]

I have everything on an internal 1TB HD and also backed up onto DVD. Optical media is stable, difficult to damage (certainly in transit) and easy to create...

[ap4a]

If your laptop is going in your checked in luggage (I think you should be able to take it as carry on along with another bag on most airlines though) then why not put the external HDD into your carry on (or vice versa). Then to add to Chris' suggestion, back up to DVDs and mail them in a couple of parcels to your new address.

[Matthew Bromley]

Yes I had considered backing up to DVD. Its a good option particularly if I had done it from the start each time I plugged in my memory card. However, my MacBook has no DVD writing drive and my pictures take up around 130Gb so it would be a labour intensive project to back up to DVD now.

Splitting the HDs during transit is a sensible option but its made more difficult by the fact I am stopping over in Malaysia for a while so I can't help but feel the only way for it to be truly safe is to back up to a distant site whether it be media that I leave in UK or to online servers.

How hard can it be to make a online back up program in this day and age, that does the whole lot?

[chris-p]

Originally Posted by Matthew Bromley

Yes I had considered backing up to DVD. Its a good option particularly if I had done it from the start each time I plugged in my memory card. However, my MacBook has no DVD writing drive and my pictures take up around 130Gb so it would be a labour intensive project to back up to DVD now.

If you can get access to a DVD drive, it's only 28 discs which is less than 3 hours work on a decent DVD burner.

Originally Posted by Matthew Bromley

How hard can it be to make a online back up program in this day and age, that does the whole lot?

Large scale storage still costs money. You're talking about petabytes of storage (not really a problem) and a fast enough, stable enough internet connection (not quite so easy).

Your other option is buy another external HD and duplicate everything. Then you've got another copy of everything, just in case.

[Matthew Bromley]

I will certainly have to look into a DVD drive, it does seem a pretty secure method. I look forward to the day when my computer automatically backs up to an external HD and a remote server with out me having to out the hours in. Thanks for the tips.

[Matthew Bromley]

one more question.

The DVD writers are far cheaper than I realised and I'm seriously considering buying one.

Those estimated times you gave me for DVD back up. Would they apply if I bought a 8x speed external USB DVD writer for my macbook. Do I literally just plug it in and burn it using Finder?

[chris-p]

Dunno how it works for Macs. Thats roughly how long it takes to burn a DVD on my burner at 16X

[Markulous]

Personally, I don't rely on CDs/DVDs as they're just not reliable enough - great for short term backup and for distributing copies of data/applications to clients but I wouldn't entrust them to anything critical (too many failures around)

External hard disk is definitely the 'safer' option - I keep my 2TBs of photos on a couple of externals as backups to my main system. These disks are only switched on when being used to backup and are stored flat so they don't fall over (externals are not as well protected as internals as they're not surrounded by a computer chassis so extra care is needed)

As an aside on hard disks, when I'm out and about without a laptop, I back up to an external hard disk using a USB Bridge to connect card reader to an external drive. Simple and very effective (and cheap @ £5.00!) - it's taken over from my X-Drive!

[cosmicma]

what about using bluray ?
25 gig a disk so less disks to manage

saying that i have no idea of the reliabilty of bluray but still might be worth looking into

depending on how much you value your work even SSD could be an option an expensive one but still an option

personally i have 2 external 1gig drives with backups on both ( mirrored ) and a 500gig external to back up raw files only which is mirrored on to one of the external 1 gigs
when these get full i'l just add another drive

for travel i would go for the portable laptop externals they tend to be a little more robust ( and smaller )