How do you backup your PC?

[Dash man]

Carbonite (for everything) and Apple iCloud (for pictures and music). Occasional backup to an external hard drive but have had them fail too many times to trust them alone.


Enjoying life!

 

[FIREmenow]

After looking at all the cloud storage options, it looked to me like Micro-shaft had by far the best pricing if you are a PC user. 1TB for 6.99/mo was competitive with all the others, but it also comes with Office 365 (incl. full download option), too, with continuous upgrades. You can't beat that!

I was buying a new version of Office every 3-4 years anyway. For 9.99/mo, you can get that same thing for 5 different users - that's a total of 5TB! Annual payments are 15% less than that, too.

We've been using it for over a year with no issues whatsoever. Now we don't store ANYTHING (of concern) on our local machines - everything is in the cloud, all encrypted and password-protected, of course.

 

[Walt34]

I used to use Win 7's backup & restore and the backup program that came with a WD hard drive but found (after the desktop's HD died) that it does not back up all the software, a big disappointment. Now I use Acronis True Image once a week or more often if I've invested a lot of time on something or have a lot of new photos that I want to keep.

 

[Sunset]

......

Unfortunately, I have not found anything quite so elegant for Linux. Yes, you can clone the system, but I know of no way to boot from that clone directly, as it contains the same UUIDs as the main installed system. I'd have to remove the drive of the main system, or try to futz with re-assigning UUIDs on the clone, but that get complicated (at least for me). So I've just been backing up my data. I use rsync, using grsync as a guide to the settings - I find it actually easier to copy/paste the commands to a terminal from a text file that I've saved them to. It really doesn't take too long to re-install a system, and I recorded my mods/additions, and I have a second running system to use in the meantime. The actual effort of a reinstall, and the slim chance I would actually need to do it (never so far) is making me lazy about doing the cloneing. The system can be replaced with some effort, my data can't.

-ERD50

I built a wonderful NAS and had rsync scripts to run on our machines to back up all the important data.
Then the NAS quit.

So until I get to it, I simply tar up my documents directory and copy it, plus photo directory to 2 thumb drives.

This thread has reminded me I need to fix the NAS, and maybe it's time to clone my linux drive and then upgrade it to the newer version.

 

[Just_Steve]

Time Machine, backing up 4 household Macbooks, works great.

 

[zinger1457]

I used to use Win 7's backup & restore and the backup program that came with a WD hard drive but found (after the desktop's HD died) that it does not back up all the software, a big disappointment. Now I use Acronis True Image once a week or more often if I've invested a lot of time on something or have a lot of new photos that I want to keep.

Windows 7 backup and restore also has the ability to create a system image, similar to what Acronis does.

 

[NW-Bound]

...For those who use other systems to make images, do you boot from them to validate them? I always tell people - if you didn't test your back up, assume you do not have a back up! And if you you have to reinstall from the backup (wiping out the original) to test it, that sort of defeats the purpose!

Unfortunately, I have not found anything quite so elegant for Linux. Yes, you can clone the system, but I know of no way to boot from that clone directly, as it contains the same UUIDs as the main installed system. I'd have to remove the drive of the main system, or try to futz with re-assigning UUIDs on the clone, but that get complicated (at least for me). So I've just been backing up my data. I use rsync, using grsync as a guide to the settings - I find it actually easier to copy/paste the commands to a terminal from a text file that I've saved them to. It really doesn't take too long to re-install a system, and I recorded my mods/additions, and I have a second running system to use in the meantime. The actual effort of a reinstall, and the slim chance I would actually need to do it (never so far) is making me lazy about doing the cloneing. The system can be replaced with some effort, my data can't.

-ERD50

I built a wonderful NAS and had rsync scripts to run on our machines to back up all the important data.
Then the NAS quit.

So until I get to it, I simply tar up my documents directory and copy it, plus photo directory to 2 thumb drives.

This thread has reminded me I need to fix the NAS, and maybe it's time to clone my linux drive and then upgrade it to the newer version.

A while back, I experimented with FreeNAS, a Linux-based NAS, as a way to share files on my home network as well as a networked backup. I was not happy with it for some reasons, so discontinued the effort.

Besides a small 1-TB NAS that stays on 24/7 for file sharing and quick backup of some important files, I also have two dedicated PCs running Windows Home Server (WHS). These servers are for file archival, and also for backing up all other PCs. They are only turned on when needed.

Backing up to the servers is great. Every backup appears to the user as a full-system backup, but it is really incremental backup. I have once restored an entire hard drive of my laptop simply by booting from a CD, which then pulled the contents of the hard drive off the server through the home network. Good stuff!

It is also easy to go to the server, mount a particular backup, then peruse the files contained in that backup. This is not easily done with some of the backup software that I used in the past. Of the software that MS has done, this is one of my favorite. Too bad that they have discontinued it.

I have both the original WHS and the 2nd edition (WHS 2011), which are installed on 2 different older PCs with dual-core CPUs instead of the quad cores that I use with Win 7 and Win 10. Both WHS versions can store your files on internal mirrored drives for redundancy. This is what I do for all my personal files. Then, I have the full system backup, so have my files in triplicate.

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

I was trying to keep this simple for the OP, who doesn't have tons of knowledge in the area. For those suggesting clonezilla, I usually do this on new images as general practice and back them up to a FreeNas server. I also have Time Machine over wi-fi backups to a Time Machine server I built using a PogoPlug (and I also have one as a host on a VMWARE ESXI server). But none of this helps the OP. Using Crashplan (for free) to do a cloud based backup with an encryption key is just about as easy as it gets. That's why I suggested it.

I do like crashplans peer to peer capabilities. I have a bunch of PC's (family, friends) whose PC's back up to a cheap old refurb I bought (w/Windows 7 Pro) that I've attached a few multi-terabyte drives to. $80 + disks and I have a dedicated backup server for them. I set it up to allow the back ups during the night so it doesn't interfere with streaming (although that isn't usually a problem as I have Qos set up in terms of my network).

 

[dadu007]

Macrium (free) for backup image of C:\ drive (OS). Bootable USB thumbdrive created and tested.
Backblaze.com for backing up all other files, photos, etc.

 

[martyp]

When I had a PC I did periodic backups to an external hard disk

With my Mac I use the Timecapsule. I still have the external hard disk that I use occasionally.

I also have important documents and photos saved to flash drives with I keep in my safe deposit box at the bank.

I also have some photos and documents saved to Google drive in the cloud.

 

[Bamaman]

Since I retired, I keep nothing of any worth on my computer. And most of what I do is on a $150 Chromebook. About all I have saved is a bunch of recipes.

I don't do any backup.

 

[scrabbler1]

I do a full backup of my personal files every 3 months onto a thumb drive. But every month (sometimes more frequently), I back up any files I have changed since my last backup onto a thumb drive. I alternate between 2 thumb drives.

 

[misanman]

I use True Image on three PCs. Six days of incremental followed by a full. Backups go to a second disk or thumb drive. I use SmartSync to sync files to a NAS device. Sort of belt and suspenders approach.

Sent from my XT1575 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[MildlyEccentric]

I use a mix of Cobian backup and BackupPC which run automatically on specific directories, and clonezilla from time-to-time for complete system images.

 

[walkinwood]

I use Crashplan for online backup and to a USB 3.0 connected disk drive. Crashplan backup up your data - not the OS or program files.

I used to backup online only, but realized that recovering from a disk failure would take time and be costly - more than the cost of a good USB3 drive.

Crashplan's software is pretty unobtrusive. Install and configure and it just does its thing. You can also backup to another computer if you wish even if that computer is at a remote site. If you use their cloud (online) backup, the charges are reasonable, but not the least expensive out there.

I have had to recover a couple of documents in the past. It was easy to do and worked.

 

[target2019]

To supplement backup devices, purchased 1TB WD USB 3.0 drive from Staples ($59.99). I added a minor item to the purchase to get it over 59.99. Then added a $30 coupon code from a mailer that I received in the US Mail.

I have an external USB 2.0 adapter that I use with internal drives. However, it appears that the USB 3.0 external drives with 1TB are less than a single 3.5 internal drive now.

 

[pumpkineater]

I use open source software called "Duplicatti" to backup all my documents (all kept in 1 special directory). It pre-encrypts using AES and a long key that only I have, then uploads all the encrypted files to cloud services: Dropbox, box.com, Google drive, and Microsoft one drive.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[target2019]

I use open source software called "Duplicatti" to backup all my documents (all kept in 1 special directory). It pre-encrypts using AES and a long key that only I have, then uploads all the encrypted files to cloud services: Dropbox, box.com, Google drive, and Microsoft one drive.

Think I'll give it a try. I have a lot of unused google drive space.

Duplicati is a backup client that securely stores encrypted, incremental, compressed backups on cloud storage services and remote file servers. It works with Amazon S3, Windows Live SkyDrive, Google Drive (Google Docs), Rackspace Cloud Files or WebDAV, SSH, FTP (and many more). Duplicati is open source and free.

Duplicati

 

[Tortoise]

I do a system image backup to a thumb drive when computers are first set up. The thumb drives go into their own folder in a file cabinet. I then use an rsync script to back up user directories and files to an in-house backup server every day. (Rsync for Windows is obtained through minimal install of Cygwin.) The backup server runs rsnapshot/rsync to make incremental backups every night. I also backup pictures and important documents to box.com.