Hard Drive As Back-up?

[Jim G]

I posted another question some weeks ago about hard drives and got some sound advice. Here's another one: what do most of you suggest for daily and comprehensive backups? A separate partition? Iomega Zip? External HD? CD or DVD?

I'm thinking of installing a separate hard drive (40g?) for (mainly document file) back ups but I am hesitant to make it an internal hd because I had a system fried by lightning a few years ago. Do you think another/second internal HD is safe? Should I switch to an external HD? Can a CDR handle the strain of daily backups? Or should I just stay with my 100mb Zip?

Look forward to your thoughts. Thanks.

Jim G

[mrtristan]

I use a partition on my main hard drive for backing up semi-important files. (Music, pictures, etc.) I burn cd copies of software that I purchase online, as well as keep them on the partition. I also keep copies of my business files on the partition, as well as a zip disk or cd. The hard drive copy is for convenience. The disk copies are true back ups, in case the whole primary drive gets fried.

CD or DVD backups are the way to go, in my opinion. They're not as convenient as draging files to a separate drive, but you get a permanent copy of your important information. An external hd can still get fried if lightning hits again, but it's highly unlikely that the cds/dvds will be affected. Unless your whole house burns down.

I use a partition on the main drive, because I like to keep the secondary drive immaculate for capturing. Once I'm done encoding a list of projects and I'm sure I won't re-encode, I just delete everything on the drive.

[--juggernaut--]

I think it depends on how paranoid you are!

I would tend to stay away from hard drives for anything more than "short-term" storage, especially a hard drive that is in the same computer as the hard drive with the original data (as you've already noted). Hard drives are just too suceptible to failure in my experience.

Zip disks are WAY too expensive if you ask me, especially if you plan on keeping each back up you do and not writing over it.

So I guess that leaves us with the last option you mentioned - CD/DVD. You can get CDR's dirt cheap, especially if you wait for a special or rebate offer. CDRW's are inexpensive as well compared to Zip disks, if you plan on overwriting your data each back up. And if you're currently using 100MB zips, a CD should be MORE than enough storage for you. I'm not sure how the expected life of a CDR(W) compares to a Zip disk - I'd have to research that one.

Then there's DAT, but I'm guessing that would be overkill

Regardless of media, if you are REALLY paranoid about keeping your data safe, you might want to make multiple copies and take one of them off-site (away from the other copy) and store in a fire resistant container. This is, of course, extreme and not the most convenient. We do this where I work, as hundreds, sometimes thousands of hours are put into the CADD drawings we produce. Can't afford to lose those babies!

[gmatov]

juggernaut,

Can you say " Click of death"?

[freestyler]

No tape drive fans here, I presume?

[mickle]

I just put a removable hard drive caddy in for my D: drive and swap it over to a spare drive for doing backups. Then stick it safely away in a draw until needed.

Mickle

[--juggernaut--]

juggernaut,

Can you say " Click of death"?

gmatov,

The hard drive "click of death"? Man I hate that sound! Interestingly enough, the last hard drive I lost wasn't actually due to a failure of the drive itself, but the power supply. The psu fried itself and apparently took the hard drive with it, as the data on it was "unrecoverable." It probably damaged some other components as well, but the company ended up just getting me a new computer. Ironically, I was just getting ready to back up my hard drive since it had been several weeks from the last back up. Needless to say, I got a stern talking to by our office computer guy! He didn't quite buy my "I was just getting ready to back up" story either - but I was, I swear....

[gmatov]

Juggernaut,

No, that was in reference to your mention of backing up to "lasts forever" Zip disks.

They got the "click of death", so often, in fact, that the boss of the company said, in public print, they were so reliable he would replace any that got click-death even after warranty. Everybody with a post warranty drive (doorstop, before ) sent them in, after a hassle from the techs, mention Mr.X's name, sorry sir, we will replace it.

Bad disks were part of the fault, lost the "Z-track", the machine kept looking for it, snapping the head back and forth,eventually broke off the read head.

Worse was, you went to check the disk in a friend's drive, it killed his, too.

I do not call that reliable long term storage.

There are all kinds of advice on what is best here. Hard dirve is best, no, I read that you houldn't let a drive sit on the shelf, well, CD-Rs then, no, they've been known to deteriorate after a too short period of time, well, how about DVD-R, well, we simply do not know.

I don't think DAT is the answer for the home PC user, as most are not going to have the proper storage, besiddes which, I checked the prices a while back after another poster asked if it was feasible, and it's very expensive,as well as not enough storage for the huge drives we're using today.

I think I'm gonna write down all my important stuff, ot print it out.

Cheers,

George

[--juggernaut--]

gmatov,

Sorry about that - thought you were talking about hard drives! I may be misreading you again, but I didn't intend to say that Zip disks "last forever." It was probably when I said:

I'm not sure how the expected life of a CDR(W) compares to a Zip disk - I'd have to research that one.

that confused the matter. I was just bringing up the expected life of different media as a variable in the equation for determining the best way to back up data. Maybe saying "how Zip disks compare to CDR(W)" would have been more correct, as CDR(W)'s are better in my opinion. I too have had many problems with Zip disks, that's why I don't use them anymore! Never killed a drive, but I lost count of how many times the disk would get stuck in the drive, or the computer would lock up, etc. Very annoying!

I agree with you that all the forms of media that have been discussed have their faults and they will not last forever. But then we don't need them to last forever....just a long time :P

I think I'm gonna write down all my important stuff, ot print it out.

You may be on to something here...

[Jim G]

OK -- thanks, guys. The consensus seems to be for CD's. That's the direction in which I was heading, but I was a bit worried about the wear and tear on the machine. The Iomega just keeps cranking day-in and day-out, at least for backups of a limited amount of very important stuff.

I think I'll also take up mrtristan's suggestion of using another HD or at least a partitition as a temporary convenient backup until it all gets put on to CD.

By the way, I use LapLink for backups. So that makes the whole affair quite easy.

Thanks again.

[gmatov]

Juggernaut,

Aye, no one knows how long anything will last.

We know, anectdotally, that banks, the gov, the SEC, NASA, the like have tape archives, all kept in climate controlled rooms, temp, humidity, degausse the perimeter, etc, and I would bet they rewrite the files every so often checkssums, etc.

I know that I have 30+ year old 8 tracks in the basement that still play, fairly well, except that they seem to shrink and tighten up. Play with them a little, they're OK

CD-Rs that I burned a couple years ago no longer work.

Hard drives, 170 meg and up, 10 years old work when I plug 'em in. No "stiction".

Hell, I even have Syquest drives, 230 and 270 meg disks that work well. Fit in with a floppy. Slow, but steady transfer of data. Trouble is they got bought out by Iomega, killed off. If you can find a cartridge it's 60 bucks or more.

We'll be lucky if the present generation lasts long enough to transfer to the next gen media.

Cheers,

George