1. I have a monthly bandwidth, and can't afford to re-install the computer every year or so. Are there external backup drives that can backup like, vaguely described as the "core" system files? (mostly windows, and possibly some application updates like macromedia flash)
2. For important data, how many backup copies does one need? By important I mean personally valuable, not national security important. I currently have just one, (i.e. one copy other than the one in the active computer) The problem is that hard drives cost money, and I don't know what the chance of both the backup and PC's drive dying at the same time is, I assume people online are too paranoid? I currently use two external HDDs, one for data (including games patches, Steam archives etc...) and the other for media (music, videos) Making another backup would cost nearly 150 dollars, because the western digital drives are expensive.

the only suggestion I can give you is to get off of the monthly bandwidth limit/usage charge. if you can, if not :shrug:

external hard drive is probably the best bet.

EDIT: it doesn't really matter how many copies you store on one back up device, as if for some misfortunate reason both your computer and your external hard drive die it won't matter how many copies were on the ex-hard-D.

but obviously, regularly update your back up, every time you log on and off your computer is the best.

I meant buying more hard drives, not multiple copies on each drive.

There is a writer's forum where a guy has 9 copies of his "works", including web backups. Must be protecting some nobel prize material stuff there.

At least two.

one stored out of the house in case of fire.

ah, in that case, as many as your information's value is reprensented to you.

I would say two. kept separate from each other.

I only backup important things (its only about 10GB of critical files). Several friends and I have agreed to run our own FTP servers from around the country. I keep the files encrypted in multiple Truecrypt volumes on their servers. Its free and it works.

Two in the sense of two external backups in addition to the actively used copy in the computer?

1. Clone your system monthly. That way you have an up-to-date image of Windows and your installed software to restore. That way you won't have to download all the updates when you need to reinstall Windows on your PC. Best practice dictates keeping at least the last two images, but I like to keep the default image + the two most recent.

2. Best practice states having at least two full redundancies is best (Your PC + 2 backups on 2 separate devices). For remote backups in your case your best option is to take one of your hard drive to a friend's house or keep it at work, at the end of every week or month, you swap them. That way if something happens to the backup in-house you have a backup (albeit slightly dated, due to the week/month swapping interval) off-site to restore the data from.


Why on earth would you use FTP? Yeah, you're encrypting your files, but FTP is not a secure protocol and is very inviting to botnets and rogue storage. FTPS, or, better yet, SFTP should be used whenever it is available on the Internet. http://blog.jdpfu.com/2011/07/10/why-you-need-to-stop-using-ftp.

Cloning your system would work. Or as an alternative Microsofth has tools that let you slipstream updates into the install files on the disc(Search for Slipstreaming in google), and there are even some automated tools like vLite(Vista only) that allow you to add in things like Flash, Shockwave, etc so you can build a core install DVD instead of having to re-install windows and then download them again.

If you slipstream the updates and software into the install disc it'll save you a ton of bandwidth and time.

Hope that helps.

Yeah, that's something I've been meaning to do for years. My computer has more redundancy than you can shake a stick at, but if there's a close enough lightning strike, it's all toast. I really need to get around to buying a fireproof safe at the least.

I remember seeing some really cool ones that have USB pass-through so you can back up to the drive in there without ever removing it.

Not sure if I'd like that. It seems to defeat the purpose of a safe if it's contents can be modified from the outside.

Data redundancy doesn't protect against thievery, it protects against disaster (in the case of the safe I saw: water and fire damage). Though if you worry of theft, then encrypt it :shrug:

I don't want to do that because it copies everything onto the image. That includes possible viruses (in software and downloads) and faulty registry keys. So I would be backing up undesirable things.
I just want the backbone backed up. that means windows updates and necessary components like java and flash updates. I already have steam games backed up because they are easy to do, but I don't know how to extract the OS stuff only. I don't need stuff like Temporary Internet files backed up.

That sounds nice, I'll look into it. Exactly what I'm looking for but for win7.

Why don't you just make an image of the initial install then?

Which is why you keep multiple images. If you don't realize you have an infection 2 months later, then something's wrong with you (or the infection is Stuxnet and you aren't Iran)

Contrary to what you are saying: imaging is the best way to remove an infection. Why bother trying to clean it up if you can just restore a previous image over it? Infection cleaned in a matter of minute without even a trace of it remaining.

I see that slipstreaming is not supported by win7. I guess I have to do the image thing. Kind of svcks though as now I need an HDD as large as the system disk.

No you don't, especially if you are smart and have your system partition separate from your data partition.

My compression is usually 1/3-2/3s that of the data on the hard drive, and that's without trying the advanced compression options Clonezilla offers. Any empty space is completely ignored.

Taking housefires out of consideration, is the minimum number of recommended backups still 2?

Yep. Gotta allow for data corruption/accidentally smashing it with a sledgehammer.

housefires being out of consideration doesn't stop the possibility of water damage, electrical damage, theft, tornado damage, earthquake damage, little sister damage, cat damage, or viking damage.

Or "Oops, I didn't mean to overwrite that" damage.

If that's happening, then your backups aren't being done right to begin with. Mirroring isn't a backup, file versioning FTW!

That brings back bad memories. "I'll re-use this backup tape rather than finding a new one, the stuff's still on the computer anyway." Half an hour later, "I'll reformat this disc now that it's safely backed up... oh."

I hasten to add that our proper backup procedures were a lot better than this, with at least a month's worth of daily backups and couriers moving stuff to and from off-site storage every day, but my experimental system with the now expired data was at the mercy of my own absent-mindedness.

I'm thinking of situations where one might, say, plug in the wrong drive and not realise until its too late. Because, y'know, sometimes we do things that are completely, utterly stupid . Having two backups means that if you manage to FUBAR one, you can just fall back on the other instead of beating yourself to death with your palm.