What's an easy (and cheap) way to back up my PC & data?

[NorthByNorthwest]

I'm not that IT savvy but aware there's a few free solutions out there. What's best?

Could I just buy a memory stick and download my stuff onto that?

[hennagaijin]

I have a portable hard drive..
Not much bigger than a cigarette packet but can take 500GB...

Just plug it in to your computer and copy your heart out!

Think I paid about 5,000 yen for it.. maybe...

It is the bee's knees.

[BackDoor_Man]

like hennajin said above! Thing to do is to get yourself an external Hard Disk and download a cloner application (they are available for both windows and Mac) and just clone everything that is in your Hard Disk to the external. It will make an exact duplicate of your computer"s Hard Disk in case anything ever goes wrong then all you have to do is use the clone as your boot-up disc. If you get a big external you can partition it into halves and use one partition for the clone copy and use the other to store things like movies and TV shows.

[mr.sumo.snr]

Acronis TrueImage is excellent - I've lived by it for six years.

3.5" external hard disk - forget the 2.5" variety. I prefer Buffalo models. They're not cheap at the moment - well not 5000 yen. Prices are still high due to the Thailand floods. No idea when they'll come down again, all those involved seem to be dragging their heels.

--

[ericson]

You can pick up cheap nas device and store stuff on there using network access. My personal favorite is a crappy old bunch of hardware that I don't need that sort of resemble a computer from the late 90's load linux and setup a backup server. Works wonders while running filesharing and an internal http testing server.

Most important thing about a backup is to make sure that it actually works for the day you need it. So make sure you test a copy now and again.

[BackDoor_Man]

I'm not that IT savvy but aware there's a few free solutions out there. What's best?

Could I just buy a memory stick and download my stuff onto that?

What is it about this post that can not be understood? The Op states that he is not that IT savvy, so why suggest:

" You can pick up cheap nas device and store stuff on there using network access. My personal favorite is a crappy old bunch of hardware that I don't need that sort of resemble a computer from the late 90's load linux and setup a backup server. Works wonders while running filesharing and an internal http testing server."

Which just confuses the point pf what the OP really wants, "an easy (and cheap) way to back up his PC & data?"

[hennagaijin]

What is it about this post that can not be understood? The Op states that he is not that IT savvy, so why suggest:

" You can pick up cheap nas device and store stuff on there using network access. My personal favorite is a crappy old bunch of hardware that I don't need that sort of resemble a computer from the late 90's load linux and setup a backup server. Works wonders while running filesharing and an internal http testing server."

Which just confuses the point pf what the OP really wants, "an easy (and cheap) way to back up his PC & data?"

Being not IT savvy myself, I agree.

Nothing more frustrating than asking for a simple solution to a problem and getting a response that requires a computer science degree to understand..
might as well be in Latin, for all it means to me..

Unfortunately, "simple" and "user friendly" do not appear to be high priorities in the IT world YET..
it appears the nerds want to safeguard their jobs...

[ericson]

Points taken and understood, however, if there is an old machine lying around just download freenas. It does all the installing stuff and everthing for you. There is step by step guide with pictures that you can use as well. If you guys think that is still too technical, I would suggest something like http://www.xpcgear.com/xp25u250.html, or just get a 2 terrabyte buffalo drive from best denki and use backup software that comes with windows as it will also create a schedule for you.

[ttokyo]

What's an easy (and cheap) way to back up my PC & data? I'm not that IT savvy but aware there's a few free solutions out there. What's best?

Could I just buy a memory stick and download my stuff onto that?

Windows can do this for you :

http://www.ehow.com/how_5943623_make...ore-point.html

But as the backup of the full machine will get rather large, I'd rather back the data files such as photos, emails manually. An USB stick is fine if it's large enough.

[evilone]

The majority of backup solutions are not effective simply because they rely on active user involvement to invoke the backup.

The only effective ones are totally automated because people are inherently lazy.

[ericson]

The majority of backup solutions are not effective simply because they rely on active user involvement to invoke the backup.

The only effective ones are totally automated because people are inherently lazy.

Agree with your statement of being lazy. And trust me, you will get lazy about backups at some point or another. But even if you make your backups, testing that you can actually recover from them properly is also an important test. Just saying I have a backup isn't enough.

[evilone]

Agree with your statement of being lazy. And trust me, you will get lazy about backups at some point or another. But even if you make your backups, testing that you can actually recover from them properly is also an important test. Just saying I have a backup isn't enough.

Testing is a lot more necessary if you want to bare-metal restore (a whole machine OS and all onto a blank drive) but is always a good idea. I've been meaning to do a bare-metal-restore drill (X machine just "failed", here's an identical machine with blank disks, recover it, clock starts now) at work when we have a relatively quiet week.

Something as simple as the mini-os used for restore not having drivers for your backup media can introduce hours if not days of delay.

[psprof]

I use SpiderOak to back up my stuff. It also does sync (not well) between computers. It may be a little on the expensive side for you depending on your budget. However, there are advantages.
1) they back up their backups, so you will not lose stuff
2) Everything is encrypted before you send your backup. They have a zero-knowledge policy, so that they cannot access your data. They have no password and no way to decrypt the information on their side.
This also has a downside. If you forget your password, you are screwed. It also is a little slower and takes more computing power because it has to encrypt everything before sending it.

However, I really think it is the best solution out there to feel ultra safe with your data. Note that I also backup to a hard drive at home automatically using Time Machine on my mac.

Dropbox will also work well, but is even more expensive than SpiderOak, but for a small amount of space it is free. There are other alternatives out there that do not do sync and are pure backup systems. You might explore them because they will be cheaper.

[ericson]

Testing is a lot more necessary if you want to bare-metal restore (a whole machine OS and all onto a blank drive) but is always a good idea. I've been meaning to do a bare-metal-restore drill (X machine just "failed", here's an identical machine with blank disks, recover it, clock starts now) at work when we have a relatively quiet week.

Something as simple as the mini-os used for restore not having drivers for your backup media can introduce hours if not days of delay.

My preffered method is just using a config file to reinstall all the packages required and then to recopy all config scripts followed by the actual data being replaced in original folders. When I was using windows, I remember that with 2000 there was a sdk you could get from microsoft to roll your own automated install discs as well. Not sure if this is still supported.