Already backing up to External HDD But...

[TenderSurrender]

Hey M-F

Some of you may have seen a few posts in the bar 'n' grill associated with this question but could do with some more opinions on it.

I currently back up my data to a mybook 250gb external HDD. This backup includes everything in the documents area. (Documents, Pictures, Music, Movies)
I have quite a lot of photography work on there (library is nearing 1000 at the moment) and Also have a lot of music projects on there for paid jobs as well as coursework in preperation for university.
With me going to university in september, I know my projects list will grow a lot more, and will begin to contain more and more stuff that I cant afford to loose.

Now backing it up to my external HDD is obviously a logical thing to do but I still dont feel very safe knowing that everything is backed up on just one device.
I could go onto optical (CD/DVD) but not only would that be a VERY long process, it could also proove to be quite costly.
Is a second HDD mirrored like the first one perhaps a good idea?

Any other suggestions? Am i over-reacting?

Cheers everyone

~~ TS ~~

 

[eric]

a "mirrored" second disk is probably the way to go. there's little possibility both disks will fail at once. you might still want to think about cd-r/dvd-r backups for the super critical or valuable backups just in case of something really weird - water damage, or making a bonehead mistake and losing one disk while the second is broken.

 

[TenderSurrender]

Thanks for the very quick reply eric

if i was going to mirror these drives, do you think it would be a good idea to setup a RAID array that automatically mirrored the drives? Or would it be easy just to have both connected and copy + paste the data across say once a week?

~~ TS ~~

 

[eric]

i would probably just do it manually. not sure if you can configure a raid on a macbook anyway - unless you picked up one of those multi-disk enclosures that does it for you. i'm guessing soemone else may be able to answer to that bit with more authority than me.

 

[goobimama]

Doesn't disk utility allow a RAID setup? Anyway, I always get confused with these RAID things. What I do right now is backup incrementally everyday to a HDD, and then every fifteen to twenty days I burn a DVD which I put in an envelope and keep in a storage box with a lock and only a small opening to slide the envelopes in. That way I don't damage the disks and only use them when I need them.

 

[TenderSurrender]

Hey

Yes i beleive disk utility allows you to setup RAID with any drives available to the system.

Anyway, I think i might go with what seems the most common suggestion which is backup daily (nightly) onto my external 250Gb HDD and then once a week, take the data and put it onto DVD.

Problem is though, my average backup is coming in at around 22GB (or 11Gb without iTunes collection which is a non essential backup to be fair)
With the average DVD holding 4.7GB, Its going to take a minimum of 3 DVDs a week just to keep a safe backup.

Now that is going to take a long time to do since i imagine burning 4.7gb of data onto a DVD is going to be quite a process for my macbook.

Is it the best way forward though? if so then Ill order some DVDs a.s.a.p

~~ TS ~~

 

[goobimama]

Thought of doing incremental backups? You know, only backup stuff that changes...

 

[TenderSurrender]

Hey

I would like to do incremental backups but dont wish to purchase software that automates this process for me.

I would of thought the built in automator software could of, but i've had a pervious thread about that and no one really came up with solid answers.

The reason i say automate the process btw is I dont really fancy going through each folder remembering if i updated anything or not just to acheive incremental backups

~~ TS ~~

 

[goobimama]

Just make a smart folder using a spotlight search (documents and edited last week)

 

[skybolt]

I have two external hard drives. One I keep at home and backup to it about once a week. The other I keep off-site (at work) and take it home to update about once a month. I figure the chances of my home and my work burning down at the same time are nil.

 

[Marion]

Incremental backups

Can anyone explain exactly how incremental backups work, or rather, how to use them? i know the principle (ie they just back up what has changed) but I have not yet been able to restore a backup and now my hard drive has run out of space. It is a 250GB Mybook which was set up by the people I bought it from to do a full back up followed by incremental backups. It makes regular backups ok but hasn't backed up for a while as it has run out of space. I don't know what I can delete safely and also can't see a list of files to enable me to restore particular files. Basically, I don't trust my backup system and don't know what I would have to do if my internal hard drive failed.
Can anyone advise?

 

[goobimama]

If you got Leopard, you could just as well set Time Machine to do the same... and in style!

 

[Marion]

Incremental backups

No, I haven't got Leopard and don't plan to ugrade for a bit. It is as much the principle of how these app work, eg Backup and the Mybook software WD