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SAME TIME DATA BACK UP


KATHERINE

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Hi dear friends here,

Would you advice what is the best way to keep data?  I am not very tech savvy.  So, I usually backup my computer in to external hard drive once a while.  But yesterday, one of the external hard drive cannot be found by computer and making click noise, which scared me a lot.    Now, I want to have an online same- time back up which can back up everything at a daily basis.  I dont know is that going to slow down my computer or not?

Actually, I think I need to get two online same time back services because just in case one failed.

 

Any advice will be appreciated.

 

Thank you!

 

Kate

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8 minutes ago, ILLMAS said:

I usually buy a external hardware from Costco and use the software included, an 8TB drive is priced under $150.00, not bad for the amount of TB and software. 

Hi Illmas, 

I have two externals.   Seagate and WD:  I usually save additional copies in both of them.   But the WD cannot show on MY COMPUTER and making click noise yesterday.  Now, I get scared, so looking some thing like real time online back up to clouds, which I think is more reliable.

I am not very good at computer, just want all my work is back up online into clouds REAL TIME, so I dont loose anything.   But, I dont want to slow down my computer, because I used to have an live anti virus software which slow down my computer so much.

 

Thank you!

Lan

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Online backup is a good choice, it won’t slow down the computer after it has fully backed up all your files, I would recommend starting on a Friday night and not touching the computer until Monday.  FYI like any other backup software, make sure you know what is backed up, you might be surprised to find out your software was not part of the backup.

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I hired an IT guy to set me up with back-ups when he set up my new computer. Well worth the money. I got a recommendation from a small tax prep firm in my NYCTATP group back when we were live; he raved about the guy he'd used for 20 years. IT guy set me up with an external hard-drive plus cloud backup. I pay him a small retainer ($150/quarter) plus his hourly rate is low for any extra work for his retainer clients. He taught me how to maintain the system; I changed the time on one drive to 4 am because I work late, I upped the frequency during tax season, and I check to make sure the backup folders contain data and check the dates. But I still ask him to check on it during his monthly checks on my system. One less thing to worry about. I can do what I do best, and use him for what he does best. Ask around to find a local guy you trust.

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1 hour ago, cbslee said:

If you are trying to keep the cost down, large capacity thumb drives on sale are very inexpensive.

You just have to develop a regimen and follow it.

I don't know how to setup automatic back up either scheduled at a fixed time, or continuously real time when I am working on my computer to external hard drive.  I did is I will export tax returns  and copy & paste client folder every once a while.  I knew it is not a good way to do, so, to simplify my process, an online back up seems good.   especially, the WD external was not shown on my computer, which is so scary, I didnot figure out how to recovery it yet.   now, I will have to arrange something before I lost another external.  

But, got some idea here and made decision to go with at least two online back service to keep my data safe. :)

Thank you all for kindness. :)

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3 hours ago, Catherine said:

None of the online backup services should slow down your computer, if you set up for once (or even twice) a day backup, rather than continual.  PC Magazine gives high ratings to Mozy. iDrive. Acronis. OneBackup. 

 

Hi Ms. Catherine,

May I ask how do you handle your back up task?  Which services do you use?  I checked CARBONITE seems good because I can back up more than one computer and unlimited storage space for same price. 

Thank you!

 

Kate

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27 minutes ago, KATHERINE said:

Hi Ms. Catherine,

May I ask how do you handle your back up task?  Which services do you use?  I checked CARBONITE seems good because I can back up more than one computer and unlimited storage space for same price. 

Thank you!

 

Kate

I use Acronis to back up on-site, and iDrive to back up to the cloud. Acronis does an incremental backup nightly and full backup weekly.  iDrive backs up all new files to the cloud nightly.

Carbonite requires you to choose each and every folder you want backed up. Both Acronis and iDrive default to all folders, but allow you to choose any you don't want backed up (mostly temp files).  At some point I may switch to using Acronis' online backup system, just to have it all the same, but I've been very happy with iDrive.  Some years ago I used Mozy and that was also set as a daily backup.  Strange thing was, sometimes it only took a minute or two, and other times it took hours and did slow my computer down on those occasions.  They could never explain the difference, and I did not like that.  They may well have changed since then, so I would not discount them because of my experience over 5 years ago.  

Hope this helps.

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1 hour ago, Catherine said:

I use Acronis to back up on-site, and iDrive to back up to the cloud. Acronis does an incremental backup nightly and full backup weekly.  iDrive backs up all new files to the cloud nightly.

Carbonite requires you to choose each and every folder you want backed up. Both Acronis and iDrive default to all folders, but allow you to choose any you don't want backed up (mostly temp files).  At some point I may switch to using Acronis' online backup system, just to have it all the same, but I've been very happy with iDrive.  Some years ago I used Mozy and that was also set as a daily backup.  Strange thing was, sometimes it only took a minute or two, and other times it took hours and did slow my computer down on those occasions.  They could never explain the difference, and I did not like that.  They may well have changed since then, so I would not discount them because of my experience over 5 years ago.  

Hope this helps.

Thank you!  Will take your reference when I shop mine, very helpful :)

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I also use IDrive to back up the cloud daily.  I'm not super savvy and found it was very easy to set up.  It has saved my butt several times when I accidentally deleted a file.

They also allow you to set it up on up to 5 computers, so I also use it to move whole folders and files back and forth between my laptop and desktop computers. 

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Hi friends.  I get Carbonite because I think the unlimited storage space is appealing.   The install process is easy, and it back up local (internal harddrive fast); but with external, I followed instruction, but it did not back up.  I have issue to log in, the error message said wrong match of user id and pw., but if I use another computer, I can log in.    Will call them.   

I think it is better use cloud back besides save copies with external hard drive after the incident of fail of one hard drive.

I am also looking for a product or application  which can back up to their cloud storage also can help me back up to external hard drive , so I dont have to manually copy and past the file from internal to external, does any one have something like that already?

The data is so important to us, I think we would die if we lose them. :)

 

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11 minutes ago, KATHERINE said:

Hi friends.  I get Carbonite because I think the unlimited storage space is appealing.   The install process is easy, and it back up local (internal harddrive fast); but with external, I followed instruction, but it did not back up.  I have issue to log in, the error message said wrong match of user id and pw., but if I use another computer, I can log in.    Will call them.   

I think it is better use cloud back besides save copies with external hard drive after the incident of fail of one hard drive.

I am also looking for a product or application  which can back up to their cloud storage also can help me back up to external hard drive , so I dont have to manually copy and past the file from internal to external, does any one have something like that already?

The data is so important to us, I think we would die if we lose them. :)

 

Buy a Seagate external hard drive from Costco, comes with the software already, I just bought another for $129.99.

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Just now, ILLMAS said:

Buy a Seagate external hard drive from Costco, comes with the software already, I just bought another for $129.99.

Hi Illmas,

I have seagate external right now, does it back up automatically?  What I did in past is: copy and paste file from computer to it?  I think it is too much work.  I also do the same to a WD and WD hard drive broke, because my computer cannot detect it.  So, I am afraid it happens to seagate someday too.

Still trying to find the best way to keep data safe.

 

Thank you!

 

Kate

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Before treating and backup source as functional, test a FULL restore.  Some online sources take an inordinate amount of time for a full restore... Plus, you may not have realized the default settings will not likely backup everything you wished to be able to restore.

I am willing to repeat one day's work.  Thus, I backup once a day, at my off peak times (lunch, usually).  I have an SD card, an external hard drive, a personal AWS location, and a separate secure online location.  I use various free or low cost backup software, such as CloudBerry and Cobian.

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29 minutes ago, Catherine said:

Keep in mind, folks, that while local hard drive backup is good and cheap and reliable, you have to take the drives home with you every night - or one break-in, broken pipe, or fire could destroy all your records including all your backups!  

And more likely to happen, make sure you have a good full backup before letting any tech "expert" touch your "live" computer.  Today's incident is a customer who thought they had some sort of nefarious software on their machine.  A certain national company who comes to your site sent someone out, who "cleaned" things up by doing some sort of "tune up".  (Likely an off the shelf software anyone can use, likely for free!)  Unfortunately, whatever was done removed their PDF software, and the customer had no idea what PDF software is, or what it does, other than they could no longer view PDF files.

This is not the first time I have had customers share their experiences in this vein.  Usually it is a failed transfer of all data and programs to a new computer (which is way more complicated than some sort of $99 service can do), with the customer having no idea of the consequences, and having no backup.  The next common is when a "backup" system is put in place, and when needed, it is found to only have the things in the pics, photos, and documents folders.

Ironically, the same type of customer who relies on the call out services have never availed of our free - included - secure online backup storage, or even made a backup of any type at all.  They usually assume we were somehow connecting to their computer to make backups for them.

--

I assume I will (again) have to bug out with 15 or less minutes notice, so I have all things securely online in backup form, so I do not even need to grab my computer.  The pro photos we do not have digital copies of, the photographer has them securely stored (we asked after our last bug out).

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Carbonite won't let you backup the folder that contains ATX data. That's why we switched to BackBlaze. Plus we image our server drive overnight when no one is (usually) working.

Online backups are not great for databases like ATX. That's why some online backups have a special service for backing up databases. We opted to do local disk images instead. There's no quicker restore than loading a disk image. (https://www.acronis.com/en-us/articles/imaging-software/)

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I, too, use Backblaze recommended several years ago by my computer guy (he has personally built the last 6) and set up for me.  I also have a second hard drive next to the main drive and I back up to an external drive (alternating between tow) which I keep in a fireproof safe.  That's what I am willing and able to do.  It may not be enough but it's what I do.

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55 minutes ago, Margaret CPA in OH said:

(alternating between tow) which I keep in a fireproof safe

As long as the "fireproof" safe is not in the same potential harm area as your computer, this is not bad at all.  I would personally add one or two more drives, and make them monthly swaps, with the offsite storage at a different (third) location.  A bit more work than using online backups as your second and third location, but can be easier to manage.

Once There is a good backup system in place, keep reviewing it.  Testing to see if the backups contain what you actually need, considering the area of "harm", etc. Backup plans are not "set and forget" - without testing, there is no point even having a backup!  (When you get a duplicate key made, the first thing to do is see if it works....)

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Warning with BackBlaze: some colleagues near me use it, and it failed to make any backups for two weeks and never notified them of the failures.  How'd they find out? Looking for a backup copy of something accidentally deleted, that was less than two weeks old.  They were seriously not pleased.

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42 minutes ago, Catherine said:

Warning with BackBlaze: some colleagues near me use it, and it failed to make any backups for two weeks and never notified them of the failures.  How'd they find out? Looking for a backup copy of something accidentally deleted, that was less than two weeks old.  They were seriously not pleased.

Now, I am thinking, how about two online backup services instead of one.   I have WD failed, so not trust external hard drive much anymore, because the machine may not expensive, but to recover the data is.   How do you think?

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Hard drives do fail. But sometimes they just become electronically or physically disconnected. I called my IT guy in a panic when my computer no longer had my external hard/backup drive listed. He had me restart my computer, and it found the drive. I should've know that when something fails, reboot. And, that's why I have an IT guy on retainer!

Good luck, Katherine. I think with at least two methods, you're in good shape (the belt & suspenders method). I have the IT guy set up of external hard drive plus online backups that run automatically and are checked by my IT guy, and often by me. AND I have flash drives for specific folders/specific purposes, but those rely on my backing up to the flash. One's for my tax software, one for my "clients" folder, one for my own biz folder, one for a large biz client that I go to his site on occasion, those kinds of things. (I used to backup to the flash drives when a nor'easter or hurricane or...was expected, but now we have a generator so I worry less.)

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