What is the best solution to back up my 80GB hard drive?

[mitts2010]

I use my laptop as my main computer (I need the portability at times, although it's mainly stationed at my desk). I have critical files on it. I just scanned in ALL my old photos (from as far back as the 1930's. I have all my current photos from my digital camera. I just spent some cash to get these old reel to reel tapes of my grandparents put on DVD, which I ripped to my computer. I have all my videos, music, etc. too. I need the best backup solution possible to make sure these last forever. I have about 80gb of stuff.

So far I have thought of...

-Backing everything up to an external hard drive
-Making DVDs every few months and storing them offsite

I also am not sure if I should pay $4.95 a month for unlimited storage with Mozly and back everything up there as well.

Also is there a better solution then DVDs for offsite backup? It would take about 17 DVDs and I would want to burn a new copy every month since DVDs don't last forever and I am really paranoid.

Any suggestions?, it just bugs me right now that I don't have a real backup plan.

 

[Rudster8161]

buy an external enclosure and put 2 80GB HDD's in there, you can put them into RAID so one HDD backs up the other, that way if your backup every corrupts you will be able to recover it. this is the safest way to do it, but probably the most expensive. web servers can crash, fairly easy to loose a DVD (they can last 100+ years however) and external drives can crash.

 

[Half Evil]

Best solution is to have everything saved to hard copy DVD, as well as an external hard drive and put in a fireproof box somewhere in the house.

 

[alvino]

Some sites also offer online backups so you can upload your files to their servers for a fee. It's also a great way to know you have something saved if your DVDs or external HDD dies or whatnot.

 

[mitts2010]

Some sites also offer online backups so you can upload your files to their servers for a fee. It's also a great way to know you have something saved if your DVDs or external HDD dies or whatnot.

I was thinking about online backup services like Mozy...but I don't know if I should pay $4.95 a month if I don't have to. And it would take forever to upload that much stuff, I would have to do half one month and the other half the next because I only have a monthly data transfer limit of 60GB with my ISP. So I should have everything back up to an external hard drive, then every how often should I burn a new set of DVDs and store them at the bank? I'm just worried about DVDs not lasting very long...if I burn a complete new set every year, and just incremental every month or two weeks I should be fine right?

 

[cavemangrinder]

Get a external hdd enclosure. Its highly unlikely that BOTH your laptop and external back up hdd will crash at the same time. If your laptop craps out, you have all your stuff backed up externally.

 

[Bahawolf1]

I was thinking about online backup services like Mozy...but I don't know if I should pay $4.95 a month if I don't have to. And it would take forever to upload that much stuff, I would have to do half one month and the other half the next because I only have a monthly data transfer limit of 60GB with my ISP. So I should have everything back up to an external hard drive, then every how often should I burn a new set of DVDs and store them at the bank? I'm just worried about DVDs not lasting very long...if I burn a complete new set every year, and just incremental every month or two weeks I should be fine right?

Just do the enclosure because you won't have to worry about as much..
Including your connection crapping out during a long upload.

 

[mitts2010]

Should I rotate a set of DVDRW disks to back up to? If so, how often...because I really need offsite backup.

 

[FlightSimBoy]

I like the idea of buying an external enclosure with to 80GB drives in RAID1, that way you have two backups. When you are not using that setup, put the drives and enclosure in a fire-proof locking safe. If you are willing to put all of your data on to about 10 or 11 disks, then dual layered DVD's are also a good solution. It would take about 20 to 22 single layer DVD's to do the same thing, however.

The option that is the most expensive, but yet the safest is all the ideas suggested. The enclosure with 2 hard drives in RAID 1 AND about 11 dual-layered DVDs. All stored in a fireproof locking safe when not in use.

At the very least, the DVD idea works. That is just about the cheapest solution, next to online storage, yet is more reliable. If you get those little jewel cases for them and keep the set in a safe, then they will also last you a long time too.

 

[mitts2010]

OK...I'm going to buy an external hard drive. I have a Western Digital 160GB hard drive I bought December 2005 I forgot about...I put it in a desktop I have which I don't use. I probably have only read/wrote something to it a few times a month. Is it to old to use? Then I can just buy the case. It's an "EIDE" drive...is that the same as ATA?

Then I think I'm going to burn a complete set of DVDs, then make an incremental backup every month. Then every year I'll re-burn everything because I don't trust DVDs lasting too long and then I can keep up with technology.