Just got a new all in one computer with Windows 7. I want to either automatically back up files or perhaps just back up important files on an external source. Can anyone give me some advice as to what would be the best way to do that? I’ve thought about an external hard drive permanently plugged in but is this overkill for what I want. Would a USB store and go be better? Any advice much appreciated.
Regards Steve.
mushroomman:
Just got a new all in one computer with Windows 7. I want to either automatically back up files or perhaps just back up important files on an external source. Can anyone give me some advice as to what would be the best way to do that? I’ve thought about an external hard drive permanently plugged in but is this overkill for what I want. Would a USB store and go be better? Any advice much appreciated.Regards Steve.
I reckon if they are documents you want to keep, then Acrobat.com will fit the bill and store them in a remote computer as PDF, You can use Google Documents if you have nothing to hide 
I use an external USB drive and Acronis Home Image for backups.
Yes it may seem OTT for a home system,but I’ve been caught out before. 
I use a second internal drive for backups.
When it comes to backups neither an internal or external spare drive is ott in my opinion, It’s not good to see the number of people I’ve seen posting on various forums asking how they can recover important files that wasn’t backed up when the hard drive failed 
Also with the size of hard drives these days you can always use the unused portion of a spare drive for storage.
Just found this, haven’t had time to check it out yet but it does look interesting.
Idlebackup
And here’s a video on Idlebackup.
I email important stuff (by way of back-up) to myself, using my Gmail account.
tachograph:
I use a second internal drive for backups.When it comes to backups neither an internal or external spare drive is ott in my opinion, It’s not good to see the number of people I’ve seen posting on various forums asking how they can recover important files that wasn’t backed up when the hard drive failed
Also with the size of hard drives these days you can always use the unused portion of a spare drive for storage.
If your hard drive fails, so will your backup if its on the same drive, even if its in a different partition!
I use a USB stick for backing up my personal data. These are quite cheap and I have a 4Gb one that fits on my keyring, and I can back up all ‘My Documents’ onto it easily.
Most importantly, ensure that your backup is kept ‘off site’ from your
computer, so that if your computer was stolen, you still have your important data.
Smart Mart:
tachograph:
I use a second internal drive for backups.When it comes to backups neither an internal or external spare drive is ott in my opinion, It’s not good to see the number of people I’ve seen posting on various forums asking how they can recover important files that wasn’t backed up when the hard drive failed
Also with the size of hard drives these days you can always use the unused portion of a spare drive for storage.
If your hard drive fails, so will your backup if its on the same drive, even if its in a different partition!
I meant I use a second drive for backups and use a portion of the second drive for storage of none important stuff.
Drive C has Windows/programs and documents ec’t and Drive D has backups of files on Drive C that I don’t want to lose plus some other stuff that can easily be replaced so I’m not bothered about it being backed-up.
tachograph:
Smart Mart:
tachograph:
I use a second internal drive for backups.When it comes to backups neither an internal or external spare drive is ott in my opinion, It’s not good to see the number of people I’ve seen posting on various forums asking how they can recover important files that wasn’t backed up when the hard drive failed
Also with the size of hard drives these days you can always use the unused portion of a spare drive for storage.
If your hard drive fails, so will your backup if its on the same drive, even if its in a different partition!
I meant I use a second drive for backups and use a portion of the second drive for storage of none important stuff.
Drive C has Windows/programs and documents ec’t and Drive D has backups of files on Drive C that I don’t want to lose plus some other stuff that can easily be replaced so I’m not bothered about it being backed-up.
Ah right, I see. Still if you get the computer nicked, you would still lose everything if you don’t have any external backup.
Smart Mart:
Still if you get the computer nicked, you would still lose everything if you don’t have any external backup.
I base my ‘back-up policy’ on "If the house burned down and we lost everything . . . . . . " hence the reason I send to my web-based email account.
A friend of mine in Germany lost all of their ‘important’ things in a house fire which wasn’t even their fault. Next door had a BBQ and when it was finished they put the BBQ under their gazebo before going to bed . . . . only it wasn’t quite out properly. Set fire to the roof of the gazebo which, with a little wind assistance, set fire to my mates house (he lived in a semi-detached at the time). They now have a ‘grab bag’ by their bedroom door containing passports, bank details, cheque books, insurance company/policy details, CD back-ups of family photo’s & passwords etc.
Anyway, back on topic . . . . off-site storage/back-up seems to be the safer option.
Thanks guys for all your replies, they are very much appreciated 
. Thanks also for explaining it in laymans terms as I think that I understood the pro’s and cons of each message.
In the end we have decided to buy a U.S.B. store and go as they are not very expensive and we now feel that this might be the best option for us.
Many thanks, regards Steve .