Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Does anyone have any information regarding online data storage?  Every morning when I start my computer up, I hear these scary............noises coming from my hard drive and then I think of all the time spent on researching and its stored in my little  yellow files on my hard drive. I did purchase a Maxtor external hard drive but I read an articles saying that may not be enough. Also someone mentioned here that these hard drives also fail. I am interested in knowing if anyone has used software to take an image of their hard drive.  Appreciate any help on this topic,
Thanks so much and have a great Memorial Day weekend.  Its getting really busy down here this weekend at the jersey shore....lots and lots of tourists on the garden state parkway.....guess I`m staying home this weekend !
Thanks so much for your help!

jo



-------------------------

Jo
NJ

In terms of online storage there are few things to consider;

You have to make sure that the service that you choose is storing your data very securely. Second, that their a reputable company. Third, their up time is very good so that you can access your files anytime.
Here are two that I have used before;
www.xdrive.com
www.streamload.com

However, you might want to stick with a piece of software that does the back-up for you.

Software that does the back-up for you is something that I would recommend as it  only focuses on your data, which is more important than your settings and configuration environment (in my opinion).
Here are a few that I like and they`re free.
Google these:
Cobian Back-up (my personal choice)
Karen`s Replicator

If you prefer to take an image of your system, I would recommend
www.drivesnapshot.de  (available in English, my personal choice)
www.acronis.com
   


-------------------------

Skype Me!!! @ tomaszpw
Rate Me.

watergal,
Yes, all drives will fail and you never know when. My
suggestions… or what I do… There could be a better way… I`m
not all that “tech savvy. I had a horrible situation (everyone will
eventually). I had 80 Gigs of info on a drive that just decided to
die. No notification or tell tail signs of trouble. Since then, I
backup, backup, backup. Actually, I do it in three areas.

First, I have two 80 Gig drives and one external Maxtor drive. I
also use some software. Here`s my process.

Once a week I run Retrospect software. The software can be
technical, but usage on a simpler level is possible. Basically,
once a week I run the software. It creates a backup of my
startup drive and my laptop (connected by Ethernet). Then,
once a month, I will backup the backup files to the External
Maxtor drive.

It is important to utilize an external drive. If you computer
crashes, all devices connected (including mounted external or
internal drives) are at risk of failure. That`s why once a month I
backup the Retrospect files to an external drive.

In a nutshell, Retrospect creates a compressed directory of
your drive. Someone else can likely explain it better, but all in
all, the software can run without human intervention. So long as
your computer is on, at the time of a backup schedule.

So I backup without using external (other companies) services.
But I do backup the startup “working” drive to the extra drive.
Then (once a month) the extra drive to external drive. To limit
the potential of data loss, I do not use the second internal drive
or the external Maxtor drive for anything but backup.
I hope this was insightful.

-------------------------

Vincent Wilcox (a.k.a. KRAKR)
Drummer
My band: Letters Make Words

Thank you so much Tomasz and Vincent  !!
You both gave me a lot of valuable information here. I just love this
forum   Now at least I have a clue of what I should do real soon.
I don`t feel so scared anymore. My CD burner that came with my
computer doesnt take my discs. I called up Dell and they wanted to
charge me since they said it is a software problem. I called up M.S.
and they told me to call Dell cause they are responsible ause there
is a problem with it. But at least I know more that I did this morning
and for that I am grateful... 

watergal


-------------------------

Jo
NJ

I`ve got one more suggestion: RAID (level 1 or 5). Very technical but if your data is important and the amount of time it takes to restore that data is also important this is your solution. I personally use it in addition to an external drive and I occassionaly backup "offsite".

Brief explanation (not for the week of heart):

Link Here