CRASH !!!

[Dave Watterson]

Find Mike a violin piece on http://www.efiddler.com/loops.htm !

I too am an Acronis fan - and I usually do incremental backups which I set going when I am about to go out for an hour or two so I don't know how long they take. Every couple of months I will connect a different stand-alone hard drive and do a complete backup overnight.

For those who have not investigated the field, Acronis is a system which effectively takes a snapshot of your working disc in every detail. Thus should your main disc drive die, you can simply fit a new one and restore everything - programs, data, emails etc exactly as it was. That is much easier and faster than making a fresh installation of Windows and re-installing all your programs one by one then copying data files from a backup store.

BUT does anyone go that extra step and make backups for storing off-site? If - God forbid - your house burned down, would you lose all the computer data? There are now companies which let you store backups remotely - sending files to and from over the net. Any sensible business has systems of backup discs which means some copies are always stored in a distant place. I know no private householders who do that.

Dave

[ned c]

Yes, I keep copies with a chum in a nearby town. When I am away I also take all my curent external hard drives and masters and leave with him. I live in a high fire risk area and we have had several fires within a couple miles of the house, the last one burnt 40,000 acres of junipers and pinions. It is natures way of clearing out the undergrowth.

ned c

[Derek Mathieson]

Mike the violins are singing loud and clear.

Yes the problem is the size of your hard drive, you could partition the 300gb into say 80gb main 'c' drive and the remainder as a video drive that would resolve the problem of time re the backing up routine

Derek M