So what is the go for the best back-up solutions these days. As my data is growing backing up to DVD is now not really an option. Too many disks and too labour intensive. I want a set and forget.

Are those Maxtor 'One Touch' external drives the go? 500gig unit is about $160. Sounds like it comes with its own software etc.

Or is a better option having another internal HD and using that solely for backing up the other drives (40gig for Windows & 250gig for crap). I have Nero Express 6 whick looks to have back-up options. Can you make the back-up HD invisible (ie: not show up for saving s*** to) so it is only used for back-up?

I'm only really interested in backing up the data and not windows. If the s*** hits the fan I want to be able to reinstall windows and then restore the back-up of all my data.

So what do you use and what do you recommend?

Thanks

I had an internal "storage" drive for backups and large files but eventually it just turned into another place to put crap if I ran out of room on the other drives so then it got full and well there goes the backup space :p

I have a seagate external drive and the software on it came with a virus in it (yay china) so if you get one whatever brand I suggest formatting that son of a bitch nuking it from orbit and download the software from the manufacturers website. I haven't touched the backup portion of my drives software but it has a schedule thing you can set it to back up at certain times and pick whatever you want it to back up.

What about a NAS device? whack a few TB of storage in it. At least with one of these you can access your backups from any PC in the house on the network if you have more than one.

I had an internal "storage" drive for backups and large files but eventually it just turned into another place to put crap if I ran out of room on the other drives so then it got full and well there goes the backup space :p

Hence my question about making it so the HD doesn't show up in 'My Computer' or 'Save' dialogue boxes.

I have no idea what NAS is but at the moment it is just the one computer, may add another one next year when a few house renovations take place and the kids get older.


last edited by mission at 22:49:22 16/Apr/08

For backups and such I bought an external SATA/USB enclosure, coupled with a large SATA drive. Basically allows me to use my drive via SATA at maximum drive speed (60-80MB/s) on my desktop, which is ideal for large files that take ages to copy, plus it's hot-swappable (click Eject in Windows like a USB stick). If you don't have an eSATA port in the back of your PC, it comes with an internal-to-external bracket.

The secondary USB connection is useful for systems that don't have an available SATA port (e.g. laptop) or those that don't have SATA drivers installed. Maximum speed over USB is 30MB/s, good for the occasional or small-to-medium size transfers.

So you get the best of both worlds. Also if you value your data I wouldn't go for cheap no-brand enclosures. After trying a couple of them, I strongly recommend the Antec MX-I, which unlike 95% of the enclosures out there, actually has a fan-based cooling system to stop your hard-drive from overheating. Normal enclosures are usually air-tight or have a few holes in the side that do nothing useful.

last edited by parabol at 22:39:59 16/Apr/08

oh I somehow totally missed that question about hiding it, if you're using windows xp then yes it's possible. Install the tweakui powertoy navigate to "my computer -> drives" and untick the drive letter. Either that or you could just delete the drive letter in device manager but then I'm not sure how your backup application would handle things unless you plan to re-enable it every time you want to back something up. Don't quote me on this but I *think* you can mount drives inside folders so you could always just mount that drive inside a "backup" folder on say, C: drive.

edit: I'm not saying it's not possible in vista, it probably is I just don't know how to do it other than completely removing the drive letter in disk management.

last edited by whoop at 22:43:54 16/Apr/08

welcome to the age of NAS

even the everage user now has ~half a terrabyte in their home PC.


that's waaaaay to much to backup to the average memory stick or dvd stack.


basically, the industry caught up, and you're f***ed if you're a typical consumer who has yet to learn to back up critical data.


get a NAS, use it, or pay the labour to have your machine fixed.

that said, a 4 terrabyte NAS unit can cost less than $1K.


welcome to the information age

Thanks for the suggestions.

The NAS looks like a bit of overkill at this stage for what I need it for and the budget.

Parabol's suggestion looks to be a winner.

When you connect the drive either by SATA or USB I'm assuming that it just shows up as a normal drive say G:? I just want to make sure that Nero will be able to see and access it as a drive so I can schedule the back-ups.

Thanks

that said, a 4 terrabyte NAS unit can cost less than $1K.

really?!?! which one? or do you mean not including HDDs?

I've got the Thecus N2100 with a single 500Gb drive in it. All my media goes onto it, and streams directly to my XBMC/XB360 via a UPNP media module. Also back up important data onto it.

At work I've got a 12Tb SAN which takes snapshots of it's volumes hourly ( kept for 2 days ), daily ( kept for 1 week ) and weekly ( kepped for 8 weeks ). I also have a 60 tape robotic library that does a standard Grandfather-father-son scheme backup over it.

At work I've got a 12Tb SAN which takes snapshots of it's volumes hourly

Where do you send those snapshots? Or by "volumes" do you mean other things that aren't on the SAN?

the snapshots stay on the SAN. it only saves the delta, so the cost (disk space required) of the snapshots is negligable. To access a snapshot I just tell the SAN to mount it as a volume on a random connected ( FC or iSCSI ) server and then do a quick re-scan in the windows 'storage management' and voila I can grab what I need from it, then retire it again. All at nearly zero cost.

The SAN ( Compellent ) does everything at the block level, even RAID, so it has a vast array of awesome tricks. It even moves most commonly used data to the faster disks, so you can get 15k performance across the whole SAN with only a small percentage of your disks actually being 15k.

last edited by stinky at 09:26:24 17/Apr/08

I use Amazon S3 to backup critical stuff (emails, finance info, documents, pictures) but being online storage it's not practical to backup the critical "special movie" folders and so on.

we use san replication to backup our sans to other sans in another city.

at home I backup my photos and documents to another pc, at least once a month and after everytime I empty the camera. I am prepared to lose my linux isos there isn't enough value in that data to justify the additional disk cost, despite the collection time/effort.

aldi has a 1TB usb/firewire drive for <$300 at the moment.

that said, a 4 terrabyte NAS unit can cost less than $1K.

Well assuming you aren't suggesting the craziness that is Raid 0.

The HDDs alone for 4 terrabyte are
9 * 500gb ($119 * 9 = 1071 )
5 * 1tb ($256 * 5 = 1280 )
~7 * 750gb ($179 * 7 = 1253 )

then add say 600-1200 for a NAS box (and thats underestimating the cost of that)

I also have a 60 tape robotic library that does a standard Grandfather-father-son scheme backup over it.

We only have a 45 tape robot, but 2 drives, offsite (well its in a different building 200meters away). These things make life so much safer and low stress.

I'm seriously considering buying an Apple Time Capsule and a copy of Leopard.
Though I already have a WD MyBook 500GB.

then add say 600-1200 for a NAS box (and thats underestimating the cost of that)

Yeh obes' figures look way more accurate based on my looking around. If I could get 4TB for < $1k I'd be a happy f***ing man

The best backup solution is to go to WOW sight and sound and purchase the Western Digital hard drive for $99 which has like f***ing 350 GIG on it and comes with a decent USB caddy. Then you copy and paste your s*** in there, and rar it up on maximum, and make sure Windows is set to compress all the data on the hard drive.

Any other solutions involve you paying a lot of money and being cheated by salesman.

im thinkin for me just build up a craphole pc, get two 750gig drives and raid-0 'em. map drive, robocopy every night, hey presto, no effort, extremely secure backup short of fire etc.

do you mean raid1?

The best backup solution is to go to WOW sight and sound and purchase the Western Digital hard drive for $99 which has like f***ing 350 GIG on it and comes with a decent USB caddy. Then you copy and paste your s*** in there, and rar it up on maximum, and make sure Windows is set to compress all the data on the hard drive.

The latest catelogue shows the $99 WD to be 120gig?

Although I only live a few blocks away from WOW, I hate that joint. They make out in their catelogues how cheap they are yet they are nearly always more expensive than anywhere else.

In the catelogue they have a Seagate 500gig External for "A Hit at This Price" - $189. I was at Office Works today and their everyday price is $179...

Sure sometimes they have decent deals but overall, they suck for price.

my 300GB WD USB hard drive was $120 from WOW a couple months back, that's definite. I spotted a dirty WOW catalogue on the ground near the Gabba yesterday with the apparent $99 deal on 350 GB version of the same thing.

Maxtor 'One Touch' external drives the go? 500gig unit is about $160

That sounds even cheaper though! It wasn't long ago I accepted that 1 GB costs $1 for magnetic drives, so this is all rather exciting.

Holy f***, can't belive none of you guys said the following can be done without any 3rd party applications for windows.. but using windows itself.

lets explain a few things

I have 900gb partion with goodies in it, I don't want it be shown in my computer window with any drive letters, how do I access it still?

Step one,

Right click on My computer, go to manage, go to disk management, wait for it to load.
http://tkfiles.storage.live.com/y1pNEVejOl3vT_N430QjO71cA3mVrlSN8mT2oIjiMlw0BRiYVXi4k8pTL5GTcQivh3MrOcXjClZaIUtrPMdPoNprA

Step two
Right click on your partion you want to hide
http://tkfiles.storage.live.com/y1pNEVejOl3vT_VIs7f4NtnXIi6wC3AYGnKeSLViEkl_Y00Q_dsMd77perOS-lcuXZ0opx7VTQ1fJ3OK54zk-oFWg

Step three
Remove the drive letter and create or add it to a existing folder.
http://tkfiles.storage.live.com/y1pNEVejOl3vT_DYcFP9M7xf84udRkYZDiT6boGFMee87m7jPme3BZGC8k23Ys5ex8N0XFQvuFd06C5YrNPuCunMA

Step Four
end result
http://tkfiles.storage.live.com/y1pNEVejOl3vT_IcPPGpE5b87Gkq5SX8xd5BVZVBCsjt8_WhDt3cBTPoggUZQF0l-OuaexrMRwA8lJj3AeSRcJTyw

Holy f***, can't belive none of you guys said the following can be done without any 3rd party applications for windows.

I did mention it but your instructions are more clear on how to do it.

p.s. tweak UI can hide drive letters in explorer but you can still access the drive if you type it into a command prompt or the run box thus wouldn't be readily accessible to put crap on but a backup proggy might still see it and it's made by microsoft. I always install tweak UI after a format so it's just something I always have installed and don't really think of it as a 3rd party app more like a control panel applet that Microsoft just forgot to include and should be included with windows.

Step Five

Check how to post images on QGL.

I'll check what you mean once the images work.

Cheers

do you mean raid1?

yeah. my bad.