Backups of hard drive

esperanza

I've been relying on a friend of mine to take care of these practical computer issues but now have to stand on my own two feet and ask some
computer buffs the following stupid question:

What is the best way to make backups of my hard drive? I have been copying files onto a CD-R or a CD-RW, but apart from storing my files on a USB stick, what other methods are there?

I'd be grateful if you could reply to me not using too much technical jargon. Thanks!

pdogs

Backup methodology is very diverse. Basically one can back up (a) individual files, (b) groups of files in an archive file, (c) whole partitions as image files and whole hard drives as image files or as RAID-1 mirrors. Such processes can be one-offs or done as incremental backups. They can be done manually but often, with the right software, the processes can be automated or semi-automated.

What is good for one person aint necessarily appropriate for another one. One thing to stress is to always backup any important data on removable media.

The backbone of my own backing-up revolves around partitioning the HDD into multiple partitions and then keeping the system and data files on separate partitions and having yet another partition for on-line backup files.

One can then make images of whole partitions at intervals that suits one's own backup strategy and burn them to CD/DVD as well as keeping a recent copy on the backup partition.

BootIt-NG from http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html is fully functional trialware that can do all the partitioning and imaging necessary as well as being a top-rate boot manager.

There is a good freeware edition of Syncback from http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/ if you want to archive files/folders into backup files.

Hard to avoid all technical jargon but post back to get any points elaborated on.

TempestSabre

I have an external USB HD. Came with a backup app. Once I connect the USB drives it syncs certain folders. Every so often I backup really important stuff to CD or DVD.