Backing Up - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

Celtic · 08-20-2009, 11:16 AM

We all know how important it is to back up your files and data ~ some of us more than others

It is predicted that a HDD has a life span of 3 years.
What is the life span of an external drive? I would *assume* roughly the same as a HDD.
How much does an external drive?
I've posted a few threads with mega gig storage devices for under $100....this new find is awesome:
Get a 1-terabyte external drive for $69.99

....but it is still an external drive subject to lifespan limitations.

Does anyone use an online back-up service?
Recently, I saw an ad for Carbonite.
Seems promising:

Carbonite Online Backup Three Year Subscription $129.95
Carbonite Online Backup Two-Year Subscription $99.95
Carbonite Online Backup One-Year Subscription $54.95

...and perhaps w/o the concern of drive failure.

Opinions?

wireless · 08-20-2009, 11:26 AM

I bought a 1.5 TB hard drive not too long ago (possibly from your link. Thanks) after about a month or so it failed, Seagate sent me a refurbished one which was damaged out of the box. Now I have a external hard drive as well as Carbonite. Rush Limbaugh has some sort of coupon code for them.

Celtic · 08-20-2009, 11:50 AM

My HDD failures seem to be limited to WD and Maxtor
I have a Seagate Free Agent.....but at this point I am getting concerned...the drive is about 3 years old

In my mind the question is:
$60 for the external linked above, figuring a 3 year life span ~ $20/yr
or
$130 for Carbonite 3 yr ~ $43/yr

Either way, I am looking for another backup source.

**Leo G** · 08-20-2009, 11:54 AM

As far as I can see, if you have very important items to back up do it to a jump drive. They are getting bigger now. No where near the terabyte range but since they have no moving parts they seem to be quite reliable. I've seen them at 16GB and you can label them and chuck them in a drawer. Not as conveinient, no. But it should last almost forever.

Celtic · 08-20-2009, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leo G

As far as I can see, if you have very important items to back up do it to a jusm drive. They are getting bigger now. No where near the terabyte range but since they have no moving parts they seem to be quite reliable. I've seen them at 16GB and you can label them and chuck them in a drawer. Not as conveinient, no. But it should last almost forever.

What is a "jusm drive"?....typo for thumb drive?

I have had thumb drive failure at an even HIGHER rate than HDD failure.

SelfContract · 08-20-2009, 12:06 PM

1. The newer techonology, the higer rate of sooner failure (due to smaller semiconductor integration/munufacturing, complex chips, miniature heats, faster clocks, tech learning curves, interference noises, manufacturer's try PUSHING ahead of production schedule to be ahead of other manufacturers, etc.)

2. The higher capacity drive fails sooner than lower capacitiy drive.. so just wait for "high-drive" technology matures & improves further later (with MORE intense competitions & BETTER user reviews/experiences, etc.) down the road.. like 1.5TB, 2TB, 3TB, etc.. then the 500GB, 1TB drives, etc... will be living longer than the new 2TB, 3TB, etc.

Every time new technology/gadgets comes out (i.e., Ipod, Iphone, etc.), consumer desires always dictates the BEGINNING asking/sale drive of that item.

**Leo G** · 08-20-2009, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Celtic

What is a "jusm drive"?....typo for thumb drive?

I have had thumb drive failure at an even HIGHER rate than HDD failure.

I hav enever had one fail. I keep three in my pocket for various storage reasons and I have one fall apart, but it still works. Just a little tape and it is whole again.

Yes, sorry, JUMP drive. (USB portable mini drive)

Celtic · 08-20-2009, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leo G

I hav enever had one fail. I keep three in my pocket for various storage reasons and I have one fall apart, but it still works. Just a little tape and it is whole again.

Yes, sorry, JUMP drive. (USB portable mini drive)

I sent one through the wash the other day

....giving it plenty of time to dry-out before plugging it into on the computers over here.

I sent my iPod through both the washer and dryer

....it came right back to life after drying out

SquirrelNmoose · 08-20-2009, 02:06 PM

Quote:

I've seen them at 16GB and you can label them and chuck them in a drawer. Not as conveinient, no. But it should last almost forever.

Flash (jump) drives will fail sooner than standard drives. This varies depending on the technology used to write to the device and how you use it.
They have a limited number of writes that an individual sector can take.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive - See disadvantages section

If you are not backing up offsite, you are still vulnerable to physical damage; power surge, theft, fire etc.

I mentioned a couple of solutions for offsite backup here.
http://www.contractortalk.com/f17/ca...66/#post623358

Celtic · 08-20-2009, 09:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SquirrelNmoose

I mentioned a couple of solutions for offsite backup here.
http://www.contractortalk.com/f17/ca...66/#post623358

Ed's #1 has a lower price than I listed for carbonite

gideond · 08-21-2009, 06:02 AM

If you want a physical backup, tape drives are still one of the most reliable ways to go. We use a fairly new model at work now. Change the tape daily and Veritas Backup Exec takes care of nightly backups. No failures in three years. You can also purchase new tapes for it when the old ones eventually wear out. External HDDs tend to have a better lifespan than internal simply because they aren't powered up all the time. Of course they have to be well ventilated as well to keep heat from hurting them. They can still fail though. I don't trust anything to flash media. I've seen it fail far too many times. I also don't particularly care for services like Carbonite. From what I've seen, initial backup takes forever (your upload is slower than your download speed). Restoring from services like Carbonite is the real pain though. If it doesn't outright fail it still takes an insane amount of time. Carbonite and similar services are better for file backups than they are for full system imaging needs.

Mitch M · 08-21-2009, 01:19 PM

I have two external drives. I use one on a scheduled backup with Vista. I use a have a software that I used for the other one but no more. At the very least I will go in my documents and manually copy it over to the external drive. I also will back up my QB to the flash drive and place it in the safe.

I also have another flash drive that I will put some of my documents on it and take it with me. However, anything that you take with you outside of your office needs to have a password on it.

Mitch M · 08-21-2009, 01:23 PM

Just for curiousity what do you do with the backups? Do you carry it off site or do you place it in a safe? Or do you just leave it there like I do?

My external drive is about 4 years old. No problems with it. Both of mine are Maxtors. I also have small limited size external drive that I take with me for use on my laptop. Very happy with them.

Sarah9910 · 08-30-2009, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mitch M

Just for curiousity what do you do with the backups? Do you carry it off site or do you place it in a safe? Or do you just leave it there like I do?

My external drive is about 4 years old. No problems with it. Both of mine are Maxtors. I also have small limited size external drive that I take with me for use on my laptop. Very happy with them.

I recommend to all my clients to use a remote backup company. It's so easy and cheap compared to the consequences of "remembering to do backup", 'loosing your backup', 'verifying that your backup is any good' and 'peace of mind'. There is a link to one (remote data backup) on my website (on the links page), but any of them are good. Will probably only cost you $200.00 per year and be well worth it. It happens automatically at night.

ChainsawCharlie · 08-30-2009, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wireless

...Carbonite. Rush Limbaugh has some sort of coupon code for them.

Itried typing in pompous windbag, but it kept telling me it was an invalid code.

Have you tried carbonite? I don't know if I trust the online stuff. What if something happens to the company or they get hacked?

I back up everything to two external HDDs. Just in case one fails.

Kgmz · 08-30-2009, 04:11 PM

What I do for backups. It's a little more work but I end up with several copies of everything in different locations.

I have removable drive bays in all computers and also have a external hard drive that I don't use that much. The removable drive is the working file drive for a few computers as I have 3 locations I work out of, and take the drive with me when I go to another location. All info on the drive is backed up to the internal drive before I leave. Also each location has at least 3 computers that I use so everything is backed up to each other.

tinner666 · 09-02-2009, 06:12 AM

I bought, several years ago, a full ATX RAID puter. Twin drive, mirror image. One goes, just replace it. Data is duplicated in minutes. Should also add an external too.

Inner10 · 09-02-2009, 07:01 AM

Nas drive, and if your really worried get a raid.

72chevy4x4 · 09-05-2009, 12:27 AM

ditto on the RAID drive setup and get an external backup drive. Different types of RAID- RAID 1 is disk mirroring: little slower performance but reduncancy is nice :-) A good backup schedule-once or twice per week

BCConstruction · 09-05-2009, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 72chevy4x4

ditto on the RAID drive setup and get an external backup drive. Different types of RAID- RAID 1 is disk mirroring: little slower performance but reduncancy is nice :-) A good backup schedule-once or twice per week

Yep a back up schedule is the key. The price of drives these days is so cheap that you may as well run in raid 1. I have lost so much data before that its a must for me now. I also run an external as well as the raid. Belts and braces.

A wireless NAS would ne nice.