Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2011 > January > 04 > Entry
Project 2011 Tech-Awesome YOU! (Pt. 2: backups)
Yesterday, we got your Project 2011 Tech-Awesome YOU! started by resolving to get all those holiday photos and videos off your cameras and memory cards and into your computer.
But what happens if your computer should spontaneously exploded or diabolically broke through your encryption and deleted itself? Hey, don’t be skeptical; that stuff used to happen all the time on “24.”
The amount of data we use and try to store grows exponentially as we take higher-res photos, shoot full-HD video and download mountains of music, video and video gaming files. These files take up lots of storage space on your hard drives, memory cards and digital devices (If you’re downloading gigantic document dumps on behalf of WikiLeaks, you know what I’m talking about.). But they’re also vulnerable to deletion, drive crashes, theft, fire, flood and plenty of other calamities.
Once you’ve got your data consolidated to a computer (or two computers, say), it’s time to buy a large-capacity external hard drive if you don’t have one already. A 1-terabyte external drive (roughly 1,024 gigabytes) can be had for at little as about $75, and that’s more space than you probably need.
Windows 7 has its own Backup and Restore utility and Apple computers include Time Machine, both of which can backup your entire computer. (You might choose, instead, to just backup important data files instead of your whole machine to save space.)
Personally, on the Windows PC side I use a free program called GFI Backup Home Edition that has so far served me well. It’s very easy to configure, to decide what you want to backup and where it should go, and to set up scheduled backups.
On my Macbook, which doesn’t store as many personal data files as my PC, I use Time Machine, but I also hear good things about a Mac program called SuperDuper!
Both of my computer backups are stored on a single Drobo device, which offers “redundant” storage. It holds up to four hard drives (right now we have it set up with three 1-terabyte drives) and if one of those hard drives goes bad, the data is still intact and recoverable.
If a single external drive isn’t enough to meet your needs, there’s a whole category of devices similar to the Drobo called “NAS devices” (or “Network Attached Storage”). Some of them can hold multiple hard drives and can connect to a home network to make the data from your backups accessible from anywhere on the network.
Over the holidays, I added a PogoPlug to my home backup arsenal. While some NAS devices can readily connect to a network, my Drobo can’t, so the PogoPlug puts all my stored data on a home network where I can access it from my phone or any web-connected computer.
Something like a PogoPlug or a NAS device might be overkill if you just want to backup your family photos and important documents. The most important thing is to get an external drive, get those regular backups scheduled if you aren’t doing it already.
One more thing to think about: that external hard drive sitting a foot from your computer isn’t going to do you much good if your home is burglarized or if there’s a fire. Even if you’re doing an external drive backup, you should consider either having a second hard drive backup and storing it elsewhere (say a friend’s house or a safety deposit box) or looking at online backups.
If your backup needs are minimal, there are lots of online backup services including Carbonite, Mozy and Jungle Disk that’ll store your stuff in the cloud.
The disadvantage to these services is that if you have lots of data to backup like I do, it’s likely your home Internet upload speeds will make it a very lengthy slog before all of your files are stored. For services like this, it’s best to decide what files need backing up the most instead of trying to backup your entire computer’s files, applications and operating system.
And lastly, think about other data that should be backed up beyond what’s on your computer. If you have a device like an iPhone, make sure to sync it regularly to back it up whether you want to transfer music and apps to it or not.
Services like BackupMyTweets or Spanning Backup can archive all your Tweets or Google accounts, something to think about if you’re paranoid about personal data you own that’s already online. The web is full of tools to snag your personal data from all kinds of online social media, photo and e-mail services.
You know how they say you should always have an escape plan in case of a zombie apocalypse? Plan to have some kind, any kind, of backup plan for your most important data in 2011.
Got advice for others about backups, external hard drives and online data storage? Post them in the comments.
Tomorrow: Digital de-cluttering.
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