What's Your (non-work) Computer Back-Up Strategy?

[Mako Koiwai]

I use Apple's automatic Time Machine software to back up my laptop plus three external HD's to a Terabyte HD. Should I also be backing up important files to DVD's?

[Will Kalman]

DVD's are a waste at 4.7-9GB.

Get another external drive, back up your stuff (or at least your "archive" stuff), and leave it at a separate location (friend or relative's house, or at work) in case you have a fire/flood/theft. You can refresh that back up as often as is convenient.

Or use one of the online backup services, depending on your data size, rate of data change, etc.

[Mako Koiwai]

On-line ... hmmm ... OK, but I'm going to be wondering about those companies going belly up/disappearing into the night ...

[Tito Sar]

I'm looking for a 1TB external hard drive. What do you guys recommend?

[Leonard Cachola]

I currently run a DDS-4 tape drive for weekly backups stored offsite along with a separate machine that does a hard drive backup for daily use. I'm going to replace the DDS-4 tape drive setup with an external drive setup next month. For the backups stored offsite, I have two sets of backups that I rotate monthly.

[Bob Beamesderfer]

I also use Time Machine to back up to an external drive, but at 125gb pretty soon it's not going to be enough.

[Kurt Rahn]

DVD's are a waste at 4.7-9GB.

Get another external drive, back up your stuff (or at least your "archive" stuff), and leave it at a separate location (friend or relative's house, or at work) in case you have a fire/flood/theft. You can refresh that back up as often as is convenient.

Or use one of the online backup services, depending on your data size, rate of data change, etc.

+1 for the external drive. You can get a big one for around $100 now. If you use Will's strategy of cycling onside/offsite, you could even get two external drives and swap them out every week or so, so you can still back stuff up while the other drive is safely offite. I use Retrospect. That's what we use at the office, and two of our home machines are used for business.

[Leonard Cachola]

I use Retrospect. That's what we use at the office, and two of our home machines are used for business.

Longtime Retrospect user here as well for a Windows network at home.

[Jamie Lessie]

I'm looking for a 1TB external hard drive. What do you guys recommend?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136321" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[John Coffey]

5 1/4" floppies. I backed everything up 15 years ago, just in case.

[Steve Ekstrand]

Benedictine Monks copy my data by hand and store it on scrolls in their library at Montserrat. Lately they've been making back up copies to bury in caves.

[Will Kalman]

Your best bet for *LONG* term backups is probably plastic punch cards. All the bits are represented in a human-readable way with no concerns about fading ink or magnetic fields, or corroding media (CD and DVD), or water damage. If someone in the far future needs to read the data, they can transcribe the bits or make a punch card reader.

OK, make that *metal* punch cards so the plastic wont age and get brittle or warp. A laser could probably make the holes small enough that a reasonable amount of data could be stored.

[Steve Ekstrand]

The monks have recently moved to acid free scrolls and environmentally friendly ink.