Backup

[gyoung]

I've been thinking about the most economical way for me to do regular backups of the data on my computer.

I would like for something to do either nightly or weekly backups of the files that I put in particular folder (my documents, which I have moved to a special directory on a second disk).

My system has a 30GB 7200 IBM primary drive that holds all my programs files and the OS. I have a second 30GB disk that has a folder called My Documents where I have Windows XP point to put all my stuff.

What I would really like is just an incremental backup that would be automated. I only have about 1GB of files. I have a Iomega Ditto drive that a neighbor gave me but it doesn't work with Windows XP. I also have a SCSI surestore HP drive but I don't have a SCSI card.

What would be the cheapest solution? Should I just get a cheap hard drive? If I do that what software will do this regularly? Does XP have built in backup software that will do this for me?

[Steve R Jones]

Start->Programs->Accessories->System tools->Backup

[Hickman]

If you look around on the Iomega website, you might be able to find a driver for xp or if you search google for it using the model number. However, the media will probably cost more that it is worth.

I wouldn't add a second hard drive because I lost a lot of data back in February from using a hard drive as a backup when it crashed. If you want to buy something to back your files up to, I suggest a cd burner. You can have a lot of fun making your own cd's. The media is cheap, too. I bought a cdrw for $40 at newegg recently.

[gyoung]

I've got a CD-burner, the problem is I want something that will automatically do this. A cd-burner you have to swap discs and be involved.

What crashed? The 2nd hard drive or the one you were backing up? That seems almost contradictory, you HD crashed so you couldn't use your backup?

Here's a link at Iomega: http://www.iomega.com/support/documents/3062.html

That's a no-go on the ditto and XP.

[Peter M]

Get a Tekram 315U SCSI card (about $20) and use that HP thing. You can append backups during the week, and do a full backup once per week. Or whatever schedule you like.
XP Home has a rudimentary backup application hidden on the installation disks, btw. Search for NTBACKUP.

[VHockey86]

A tape backup is always a solution... you can get ones upwards of 40 gigs fairly cheap, and they normally come with software that can periodically backup for u

[gyoung]

Here's the tape drive that I have:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport...883&taskId=120

These are the tapes I can use right?

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.as...=30432&loc=101

If you had more than 8GB of data, would it span multiple tapes?

One last thing. Is that a good price for the tapes?

[Peter M]

All correct. Remember that DAT tapes don't live very long, because the fast spinning head drum wears them off pretty quickly.
Consequently, the tapes just look a lot cheaper than alternative technologies like Travan or ADR - but you'll have to retire the tape media a lot more frequently, evening out the price delta.