I have a home based business and don't have a good plan for backups. Right now I just occasionally go thru my computer and copy stuff onto CDs. I want to get Retrospect to do automatic backups but I don't think it will work to use CDs for daily backups. What should I get? A tape drive or another hard drive or what?
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Best backup method
- Thread starter Lessa
- Start date
20 years ago I learned the hard way to regularly backup files. Lost many many hours trying to reconstruct my programs and files.
What I did was this (ya gotta remember this was in the days of 5-1/4" disks) and I still use a similar system today with Zip disks, CDs, & DVDs:
I took 4 disks numbering them from 1 thru 4. Every day I would back up to the next highest disk from the day before (Disk #1 is considered higher than Disk #4). Then I would store the previous day's disk offsite. The disk already offsite would then be returned to where the computer was. Once I had backups on every disk I would have the backups for the previous 4 days in case anything ever went wrong. One would always be offsite in case of fire, or whatever.
For example Disk #3 would be today's backup ONsite, Disk #2 would be yesterday's backup OFFsite, Disk #1 would be the backup from 2 days back ONsite, & Disk #4 would be the backup from 3 days back ONsite.
No matter what happened your worst case scenario would be having to reconstruct only 3 days back. One time I had disk drive problems, and in 5 minutes trashed 3 of my 4 backups. Was glad I had the 4th or I might still be trying to reconstruct my data.
As to what kind of media you use, that totally depends on a number of factors. Like, size required to store your data, whether you already have the software/hardware to use the media, how much money you are willing to spend vs the time you are willing to spend, what kind of environment the media must withstand (temp, humidity, magnetic fields, etc), how permanent the storage must be, etc.
My personal favorite is 100mb Zip Disks. In 13 years of using them everyday, I have NEVER had one fail. Their main drawbacks are the small storage size by todays standards and strong magnetic fields will corrupt the data on them.
Even though I am forced to use them, 3-1/2" disks are the worst things ever invented. I have lost data on them at least once a month during the last 20 or so years. Once corrupted they can never be reformatted & used again, so I just throw them away. Don't even think of using them for critical backups.
CDs are a pretty good way to go as they are not affected by magnetic fields of any kind like most other forms of storage. But, they must be stored where there are not drastic changes of temperature or they will have what is known as 'disk rot.' These disks are made of layers of different materials with different coefficients of expansion. Drastic changes of temperatures cause these different layers to expand and contract at different rates, eventually causing these layers to separate thereby destroying your data.
Hard drives have the problem of not easily being able to keep copies of your data offsite. Their biggest plus is cost per MB of storage is very low. And they are available in sizes so large you would never run out of space for a small business use.
There are many many other ways to backup your files. It is just a matter of what works for you. And in the end only you can decide what level of security you need, how much money you are willing to spend, how much time you are willing to invest, etc.
The most important thing is that you get some kind of a system in place as soon as possible, before the unthinkable happens. Once you have that accomplished, then you will have a better idea of what you want to do and what works for you and what doesn't. Then you can tweak and upgrade your backup system without having to worry about losing what you already have.
Hope this helps some,l
mmerlinn
"Political correctness is the BADGE of a COWARD!"
What I did was this (ya gotta remember this was in the days of 5-1/4" disks) and I still use a similar system today with Zip disks, CDs, & DVDs:
I took 4 disks numbering them from 1 thru 4. Every day I would back up to the next highest disk from the day before (Disk #1 is considered higher than Disk #4). Then I would store the previous day's disk offsite. The disk already offsite would then be returned to where the computer was. Once I had backups on every disk I would have the backups for the previous 4 days in case anything ever went wrong. One would always be offsite in case of fire, or whatever.
For example Disk #3 would be today's backup ONsite, Disk #2 would be yesterday's backup OFFsite, Disk #1 would be the backup from 2 days back ONsite, & Disk #4 would be the backup from 3 days back ONsite.
No matter what happened your worst case scenario would be having to reconstruct only 3 days back. One time I had disk drive problems, and in 5 minutes trashed 3 of my 4 backups. Was glad I had the 4th or I might still be trying to reconstruct my data.
As to what kind of media you use, that totally depends on a number of factors. Like, size required to store your data, whether you already have the software/hardware to use the media, how much money you are willing to spend vs the time you are willing to spend, what kind of environment the media must withstand (temp, humidity, magnetic fields, etc), how permanent the storage must be, etc.
My personal favorite is 100mb Zip Disks. In 13 years of using them everyday, I have NEVER had one fail. Their main drawbacks are the small storage size by todays standards and strong magnetic fields will corrupt the data on them.
Even though I am forced to use them, 3-1/2" disks are the worst things ever invented. I have lost data on them at least once a month during the last 20 or so years. Once corrupted they can never be reformatted & used again, so I just throw them away. Don't even think of using them for critical backups.
CDs are a pretty good way to go as they are not affected by magnetic fields of any kind like most other forms of storage. But, they must be stored where there are not drastic changes of temperature or they will have what is known as 'disk rot.' These disks are made of layers of different materials with different coefficients of expansion. Drastic changes of temperatures cause these different layers to expand and contract at different rates, eventually causing these layers to separate thereby destroying your data.
Hard drives have the problem of not easily being able to keep copies of your data offsite. Their biggest plus is cost per MB of storage is very low. And they are available in sizes so large you would never run out of space for a small business use.
There are many many other ways to backup your files. It is just a matter of what works for you. And in the end only you can decide what level of security you need, how much money you are willing to spend, how much time you are willing to invest, etc.
The most important thing is that you get some kind of a system in place as soon as possible, before the unthinkable happens. Once you have that accomplished, then you will have a better idea of what you want to do and what works for you and what doesn't. Then you can tweak and upgrade your backup system without having to worry about losing what you already have.
Hope this helps some,l
mmerlinn
"Political correctness is the BADGE of a COWARD!"
- Thread starter
- #3
thanks for all the info. I'm thinking of going with an external hard drive. I'd like everything to be in one place and set up automatically so I don't have to think about it. I hate going thru CDs trying to figure out which one I backed up some old file on.
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