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Originally Posted by Fruity Pebbles
What you've stated is very true, people do need to perform backups.
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Anyone who doesn't back up their data regularly - which might be a timeframe from daily to quarterly depending on circumstances - is a disaster waiting to happen. Those people will learn, the easy way or the hard way, but they'll learn. That seems to be the gist of the article, but sometimes we all need a good scare to spur action.
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Originally Posted by Fruity Pebbles
I just don't think CDs/DVDs are the best bet for a back up. I believe that no matter how hard you try there is never going to be a 100% guarantee that your data is going to be safe.
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Originally Posted by Ryan Dognaux
The argument of a hard drive being more fragile than a CD or DVD... well I'm not so sure about that.
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CDs/DVDs are a good choice for backups, but they carry risks, such as heat sensitivity and poor long-term (10+ years) data retention. No storage system is 100% perfect, but using a variety of media can mitigate the risks inherent in a single type. A Hard disk, properly cared for and not constantly powered, can retain data for over 100 years, much like a stamped DVD or CD.
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Originally Posted by Adam Shapiro
There is no simple way to backup a program itself onto optical storage
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Actually, you can use Norton Ghost to do this. Admittedly, it backs up the entire hard drive, not a particular program, but do it only once and the program itself can then be restored after a catastrophe.
Personally, I use three different backup routines: I have a network drive (actually an old pentium with a few hard drives) that I backup to frequently (as often as daily), but only some document-type files go there, eventually to be removed to a DVD. On a weekly basis, I create an incremental backup to DVD, and on a monthly basis (more or less) I create a complete backup to a 120 GB USB external drive (cost under $100), which is connected (and powered) only for the backup process - 99.9% of the time, it's sitting unpowered in a safe place.
Naturally, I don't have anything
soooo important that I need to keep offsite backups, but if I did, a set of DVDs left at Mom's house, at work, in the safe deposit box, (or maybe in the school locker?) or even in the trunk of the car, would help protect against perils such as fire.
Even if Windows Backup isn't there, the DVD drive probably has a backup routine, or
just buy one, there are many at a reasonable cost. For free, just Copy the files to a CD or DVD - better than nothing.
The backups are just that - backups. You shouldn't have to access them, ever (do test them once in a while though), so keep the data on the Hard Disk.
At risk of repetition:
Backups good, data loss bad.
Don