Backing up pics onto external H/D

[Neil]

I just picked up an external HD (Seagate FreeAgent 500GB) and was wondering what strategies are recommended for ongoing backups. Obviously my first backup will be a biggie but then what? I don't want to backup the same GB's over and over again.

Any hints?

 

[w7xman]

Hmm...the name slips my mind...but there is software that inventories your drives and only backs up new data. I'll find it for you if noone else jumps in, which I'm sure they will...

 

[WinterWarlock]

Neil -


You can go to Microsoft's site and download a little program called SyncToy ...it's easy to use. It automatically backs up my entire hard drive every night.

Scott

 

[bikehikeskifish]

I'd be surprised if the drive doesn't include the software. I have Maxtor network drive and I can set up explorer shell extensions which say which directory(ies) are backed up and which are not (they show with a different icon in the explorer). Then every evening during story time with the kids my computer is backed up.

If you didn't get backup software, Googling for the same will find you plenty of options.

Tim

 

[WinterWarlock]

Your Maxtor software must be newer than mine - I bought one of those Maxxtor One Touch systems - every time I pressed the button the computer blue-screened! Threw the damn thing away a long time ago.

 

[Neil]

Neil -


You can go to Microsoft's site and download a little program called SyncToy ...it's easy to use. It automatically backs up my entire hard drive every night.

Scott

Incrementally?

 

[WinterWarlock]

Incrementally?

Yes - there are several choices - incrementally, complete sync, full backup. It's really easy, and its free. the only thing I have to remember is to close Outlook when I leave at night so the pst will be backed up too.

 

[DougPaul]

A warning or two about disk-to-disk backups. If the copy on the primary disk gets damaged, it can damage the copy on the backup when you perform the backups.

Similarly, if the incremental backup software is set to erase files, then anything erased from the primary disk will be erased from the backup. (My incremental disk-to-disk backup software can be told to erase or not.)

Mine can also be set to do a dummy run so I can see which files will be backed up or erased before I actually do anything.

(FWIW, my utility is rsync for the Unix environment. While you may not be able to use this software, the issues are the same.)

Doug

 

[Peakbagr]

Neil,

I back up my 'Mountains' folder to a jump drive. Also have the external 500Gb drive back up my entire 'My Docs' folder every week.
Computer weenie family network engineer set it up to copy the System State every night in case the OS crashes, and then backs up the My Docs in its entirety every Tuesday. Its set to copy only the changes made to the My Docs in the previous week and takes just a few minutes even when I've been busy.
When I swap computers, I'll be also backing up the critical parts of My Doc on DVDs every now and then and those will be stored off site. A power surge, lightning strike or other household catastrophe will wipe out your EHD so offsite backup for the stuff you'd REALLY hate to lose is the way to go.
All of my biz clients back up their extensive servers every evening. Either an employee takes home the back up eqach day, or they are backed up over the internet which might be one of the best solutions anyway.

 

[DougPaul]

they are backed up over the internet which might be one of the best solutions anyway.

This brings up privacy issues if any of the data is sensitive. (Same with backups taken off site.) If such is an issue, the data should be encrypted.

Doug

 

[yvon]

I use this free software, Alway Sync, since march and it works very well. It compare a drive or a directory from one drive to an other, and find new files. I backup every week since I install it.
Very easy to use.

http://allwaysync.com/

 

[bikehikeskifish]

A warning or two about disk-to-disk backups. If the copy on the primary disk gets damaged, it can damage the copy on the backup when you perform the backups.

This applies to any backup or copy at all. Including thgins lkie sthi pots.

Your Maxtor software must be newer than mine - I bought one of those Maxxtor One Touch systems - every time I pressed the button the computer blue-screened! Threw the damn thing away a long time ago.

I have no problems with the Maxtor one-touch, BUT I do use it as a NAS device only. It also keeps (configurable - up to) 5 copies of the file which helps guard against the above primary copy failure, and provides some level of "versioned" backup.

Tim

 

[Rob S]

Just a personal preference, but I like SyncBack. Easy to use and it works perfectly, and offers many configuration options.

 

[DougPaul]

A warning or two about disk-to-disk backups. If the copy on the primary disk gets damaged, it can damage the copy on the backup when you perform the backups.

This applies to any backup or copy at all.

No it doesn't. Only to backups that overwrite the old backups.

Professional backups periodically save epoch (complete) backups and only overwrite incrementals after a significant delay. Unfortunately, professional quality backups are generally too expensive for home users.


Back when I was a student, another student lost several years of work when his save to alternate-tapes scheme resulted in all copies being destroyed due to a hardware problem.

Doug

 

[bikehikeskifish]

No it doesn't. Only to backups that overwrite the old backups.

Professional backups periodically save epoch (complete) backups and only overwrite incrementals after a significant delay. Unfortunately, professional quality backups are generally too expensive for home users.

Back when I was a student, another student lost several years of work when his save to alternate-tapes scheme resulted in all copies being destroyed due to a hardware problem.

Doug

You did not say that new backups overwrote old ones, you said If the copy on the primary disk gets damaged, it can damage the copy on the backup. My point is/was that once corrupted, copies are corrupted (sometimes further degrading in the process) and that it doesn't matter what the backup target media is (disk, tape, CD, DVD.) Any new work that happens since the last full + incremental on a corrupted file is going to be lost even during the backup process.

Neil isn't going to have a professional backup solution - only a consumer one. My solution allows up to five revisions of a file.

Since the problem in question is archiving of photographs, and they rarely change after initial processing, incrementals are not likely to capture them.

And, no offense as I am a Linux fan too, but proposing rsync is completely lost on and unavailable to 98.6% of the audience here.

Tim

 

[Tom Rankin]

Call me a geek, but I use XCOPY and I *THINK* I can do just about everything that has already been discussed, it just takes a little tweaking!

 

[bikehikeskifish]

Call me a geek, but I use XCOPY and I *THINK* I can do just about everything that has already been discussed, it just takes a little tweaking!

Geek.

Tim
p.s. I think we've had this conversation before

 

[Neil]

Great stuff.

Now I know I can use simple and free software to backup my pics fully and then incrementally onto my new EHD. This frees me from the simple looking software that comes pre-loaded onto the device's drive.

At 5 meg a pic I think I have room for 100 000 pictures.

 

[MichaelJ]

Time Machine, and an Aperture Vault for the RAW files.

If you've got a Mac.

 

[nartreb]

I have to point out that for photo backups, an external hard drive is not much of a solution. It protects you from hard drive crashes on the main drive, but that's it. In the event of fire, flood, etc, your external drive is sitting next to the the main drive and will likely suffer the same fate. If you want your photos for many years, you need *off-site* backup.

I learned this the hard way when my apartment was broken into. I'd left the Zip drive connected to my laptop, with that month's backup disk in the Zip drive. All of it went into one of my pillowcases and out the door.

PS I don't bother with software; I just routinely copy photos to backup when I download them from my camera.