Back up equipment

AMac · 4 Mar 2012

Hi everyone,

I was not too sure where to post this question, so I hope I am in the correct place.

I am looking to find something to back up my images and keep away from home.

I have used large USB sticks or a portable hard drive, both of which get full up when I try to do a 2nd back up.

In an ideal world once I have completed one back up, following back ups would recognise the original files and only update or change altered files. That way it might not take so long and it would not keep copy jpegs again when not needed.

Well I hope that makes sense and is not a daft question lol.

Thanks for any help,
Alex

MisterE · 5 Mar 2012

Most cost effective method is a relatively cheap netbook, with a decent size hard drive for one copy, and one of those small usb-powered external hard drives for a backup copy.

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On revisiting this, I'm not sure what you mean by "away from home". Just out and about with your camera, or, say, staying with somebody, and have access to a pc?

vizzair · 5 Mar 2012

Microsoft do a free backup called "synctoy" if you can still get it, you can configure it to only backup new files.
I use a 1Tb drive and backup once a week

maninsuitcase · 5 Mar 2012

My offsite comprises of a 120GB from an old laptop inside a £5 USB case from ebay. I use rsync on my mac to do a delta copy (only copies stuff that's changed and speeds up the transfer after the 1st time). This is done once a month using a calendar reminder to get me to bring the drive home from work. I do this more often if I have taken anything of any significance to reduce exposure to loss.

Very cheap way to do it, but I can see me running out out of room soon as I back up more than just my photos. Only down side is rsync is a terminal application that requires some savvy, but you can get graphical front ends.

My primary back up is an external 512GB drive (cost about £50 2-3 years ago) on my desk which is a time machine backup, which backs up once an hour if it's plugged in. The offsite is for if the house floods/burns etc.

Synctoy should do all the above on windows if you set it up right, but I haven't used it so can't be sure.

admirable · 5 Mar 2012

As mentioned ..............synctoy!

Craikeybaby · 5 Mar 2012

Your options are a second hard disk and rotate them, or something like CCCloner (Mac) which only backs up changed files.

AMac · 10 Mar 2012

Thanks guys,

Sorry I have been away working.

By away form home, I meant a means of backing up once a month and keeping the hard drive or what ever at work, just in case the worst ever happen at home.

I think I will have a look at the sync toy.
Thanks for you advice.

modchild · 10 Mar 2012

I've just got a 1Tb Western Digital USB3 hard drive for another back up device. It comes with the "My Passport" software to recognise new files only, works with up to 3 computers and is password protected as well. Going to use it solely for my photos and have just uploaded about 100Gb so plenty of room left still.

hunnymonster · 11 Mar 2012

I keep a 2TB backup drive at my mum's house - when I remember to go and see her

I take the 2TB backup drive I have in my house and swap them over.

Because I've been stung more than once in the past by systematic drive failures (Seagate: revolutionary drive lubricant that turned to glue after the warranty ran out, IBM: Deathstar range, etc) both drives are from different manufacturers.

gblades · 11 Mar 2012

I have a netgear readynas at home mainly because I have a lot of hd films stored on it for the media player but it runs raid 5 so can cope with a single disk failure.
You still need an actual backup though to protect yourself in the case of accidental deletions, theft etc... And having a couple of backup drives which you swap over so there is always an offsite backup is best. I use the software called Allway Sync which is very good and syncronises the backup by copying only the files which have changed.