Decaflon

I used to use SuperDuper to create a clone of my drive. Unfortunately, I had some issues with the program and Spotlight, so I looked for an alternative.

I now use Chronsync and back up my home folder once a month. Weekly I pop in my flash drive and back up my school documents folder.

So far I haven't had to use any of my backups, but should that time come, I think I'll be fairly safe.

I'm strongly against taking a complete system image backup; what if I backup and restore the problem that made me need a restore in the first place? So I always know where the data is, separate from the OS, ready to move to another PC or a fresh OS installation. My backup system has evolved in a slightly strange way over time, influenced by the hardware I have available.

My data is in two categories:
1) Working Data in my Windows profile (My Documents, Desktop, some Music, Google Earth cache, etc.): I use SyncToy to synchronize it between two PCs (desktop and laptop). I also back it up to an external USB drive, a spare 80GB 2.5" drive in a portable case that travels with me.
2) Archive data, on a 200GB SATA drive in my desktop PC, separate from the OS disk. I back that up to another USB drive (250GB) in a master/slave fashion, using a "robocopy" script. Some of that data gets archived to DVD too.

I clearly like to live dangerously - I have no backup routine. I've got the 40GB HD on the PowerBook and that's it...

As this has caused me to have more than a few genuine nightmares recently, I am looking into getting an external hard drive. Most likely a Lacie Firewire one (though if PC World have a sale on again soon I might just give in and get something with a USB connection and be done with it). When I do get more storage, I imagine I will do manual drags of the important data (writing, photos) on regular basis.

Since I've sent in my MacBook Pro for repairs twice in the past few months, there's pretty much no way I could live without backing up; especially since the second time my hard drive was supposed to be replaced. But yeah, I use SuperDuper and just clone everything onto a backup portion of my 250GB external hard drive. I basically back everything up every few weeks, and before it goes in for repair.

I'll sit back and burn a CD of my "Work" folder, but that's about it. The rest of the stuff on my computer (apart from emails) can be reinstalled or redownloaded fairly easily.

Question: Is there an online file backup system (like Mozy or Carbonite) that will allow you to backup files on different OS's? I have a Mac and a Windows desktop PC, and I'd like one online file backup system for both. Is that possible or will I need to get one for the Mac and one for the PC?

I definitely don't do enough backups and by not doing enough what I actually mean is I don't backup ever.

After learning the 'hard way', I use bru workstation to backup an iMac, powerbook, linux/windows PC, and a linux server. I use a hot-swap 500GB disk for 2 weeks of 'live' full/differential backups and a ADIC FastStor 7 (DLT drive + auto-changer) which was a cheap ebay purchase. For long-term archives of larger projects, write 2 sets of tapes/DVDs and store one set in a closet and the other in the basement of the family cottage (400 km away).

Mary

Do you drive to the cottage weekly to store the backups or mail them? Also with the DLT do you see the media becoming more and more expensive as time goes on?

I do a couple different things. I'm on Linux so the first thing I do is use sbackup to keep a weekly backup of my home directory to an external hard drive. I also keep a backup of all my pictures on that drive as well (but it will be full soon). The extra paranoia in me SFTPs those backups to my computer at the office. The stuff that's truly archival gets burned to DVD and stored.

This note has made me realize how ridiculously common it is for me to start over because of crapped-out computers. I did try to change the error of my ways, once. I had this external hard drive that totally crapped out on me and took its data with it. It doesn't mean the problem is going to go away, though--so I say it's an investment (in time and money) I should learn to make.

"Do you drive to the cottage weekly to store the backups or mail them?"

In the spring/summer/fall, it seems that I'm at the cottage every other weekend anyways so I shuffle a 21 tape set then (the drive takes ~3 hrs each way and I drive a VW TDI). This past winter, I was lazy and rotated the tapes with ones I keep in my university office (shared & not that secure).

"Also with the DLT do you see the media becoming more and more expensive as time goes on?"

Given that disks are so cheap these days, it isn't at all cost-effective to use DLTs for everything and I tend to reserve them for things that matter. The tapes have a ridiculously long life (20-40 years) if stored correctly and are quite robust. I often purchase them second hand or get them from the university where I work when they are upgrading to larger media. I test each before use and randomly test the validity periodically. BRU is pretty good about verifying each tape and I haven't had any trouble yet.

My big 'learning experience' occurred during my first post-doc when I was collaborating on 3 different research papers. It turned out that only one disk on the shared server was being backed-up and when an 18GB data disk died, I lost months worth of work. Everyone pointed fingers at everyone else and, at the end of the day, I decided that backing-up my work was (1) my own responsibility and (2) in my own best interest. I use the above to backup all of my research/work as well.

Moving forward, I may augment this with a hot-swappable SATA II enclosure as disks are certainly cheaper/easier than tapes.

Mary

"Once Leopard is out, I'm going to start using the new Time Machine to keep my files backed up and safe."

I don't think that I'll be using Time Machine for anything critical until it's been around for a while and proven itself. BRU isn't particularly cheap but it has been around for a long, long time. If I was looking for backups across a network (on a more limited budget), I'd use bacula.

Mary

just started using AOL's xdrive..it's pretty decent for an online backup service

300GB external HD, and weekly manual backups of files (media, office, etc.)

I use SyncbackSE to backup my documents nightly over FTP (differential backup). I backup to my external hard drive when I think about it... which isn't often enough. The drive's on its last legs, so I don't really trust it. I'm shopping for a new one.

Since my FTP backups are to Dreamhost right now, I don't trust them too terribly much either, but at least if my house burned down I'd probably be ok.

I work in a bank, and get a free safe deposit box, which I have yet to sign up for... I need to DO that, and drop in a DVD of my pictures and anything else "precious" from time to time.

I store all my data types and files on seperate external hard drives/partitions. Meanwhile, I store all operation files on their own hard drive. Finally, I store as much data as possible on web-based systems (Google Docs, Flickr, etc.) Consequently, I have felt no need to setup any backup procedure. In the future, I may start backing up some files to my ftp. Still, data is the only thing that needs backup in my opinion. Since all my data is in web-based systems anyways, I have no worries.