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This is kind of off-topic as it applies to people in all forums but I thought I'd post it here.
What method do you use to back up your graphic work? After a hard disk failure I now back up all work regularly. I used to use a Zip drive but then started using my CD-RW drive because it's possible to format a cd to act like another drive using Adaptec directcd software (which is now called Roxio), which I thought was great. I now discover that using a cd as a disk drive has risks. For example, if you're saving a big file and your computer freezes or stops, you can lose all data on the cd and the disk becomes completely unreadable. What backup methods do you use that you are happy with/confident in?
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This is kind of off-topic as it applies to people in all forums but I thought I'd post it here.
What method do you use to back up your graphic work? After a hard disk failure I now back up all work regularly. I used to use a Zip drive but then started using my CD-RW drive because it's possible to format a cd to act like another drive using Adaptec directcd software (which is now called Roxio), which I thought was great. I now discover that using a cd as a disk drive has risks. For example, if you're saving a big file and your computer freezes or stops, you can lose all data on the cd and the disk becomes completely unreadable. What backup methods do you use that you are happy with/confident in?
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Do you mean if you are saving a file to a CD when you computer freezes up you can loose all it's data. Or are you saying if you have a CD in the drive and your computer freezes up while saving a file to the hard drive the CD can become ruined? If so that is scary.
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Judi - Eky is saying the first.
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I use CD to backup for external use - that is cheap. I have one folder with "important files". Remember to take a copy of fonts. Remember to write the date and what´s on the CD - you know why? Ask your mother to keep a copy of a disk or two.
I also use a slavedisk, and both disks are partioned. Make a copy of importent files to each physichal disks. Use winzip as an archive - and drop new files into the zipfile. Clever and compressed.
If you have money, you can buy a real backupsystem.
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Eky
There are two of us here who have CD-RW drives but quite frankly we're not 100% happy with them.
With all due respect to Oystein, I don't really think he has answered your question. Essentialy, I don't think I would EVER entrust saving a large file to CD straight from any program - we've had too many problems trying that - we save to hard disk and then copy to a CD once we've finished for the day. With the cost of hard drives these days you would be much better off getting another, larger, hard disk and saving directly to that. Then, once you have it on hard disk and you've finished your editing for the day/session, you can copy it to your CD writer in the knowledge that you have it safe on your hard disk should the disk copy process crash.
I don't know what sort of PC you have or how PC savvy you are but current ATX motherboards normally have a means of fitting up to eight hard disks/IDE devices. Currently I have three hard disks on my PC as well as two CD drives and you may be able to do likewise.
Hope this has been helpful
Tracey
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I use two HDD and save all my work to both.
And when something important is finished, I save to CD-R. I never use CD-RW as it is, in my experience, asking for trouble. And CD-R's are really cheap nowadays.
Although it is far from the most popular software, I use Nero because after burning a CD-R you can let Nero verify whether the files are correctly copied.
If you don't work against time, time often works for you.
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I was surprised to learn recently that CD-RWs are much less reliable than CD-Rs. Though I liked being able to save and replace new versions of data on the same disks and being able to reuse to space, I think I will now use CD-Rs instead and eventually install a second hard drive.
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that are really reliable in my opinion.
for years now I use MO drives and disks for backups. They are fast and the most reliable of all the media I know.
Tapes can loose their contents after only 2 years if not refreshed, even CD loose data after 10 years or if not stored correctly. HD's can suffer from the same problems.
MO disks combine the best of all worlds if you want backup copies that last for a looong time.
juergen
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Juergen
I don't THINK I'm thick, dense or whatever since I always do my own upgrades and repairs to my PC including a week ago, the replacement of my motherboard. However, I just don't know what you mean by MO drives and disks. Would these have anything to do with Optical drives and disks? I'm afraid its a term I can't remember coming across so far, at least not in my reading, anyway.
Tracey
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I use a program called Second Copy 2000,
www.centered.com
This program makes a backup of your program
in the background. I believe there is a
trialware version.
I use a second and third hard drive with this
program.
Then as an archive I burn a CDR or CDRW.
Jon
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Tracey,
here is a link to the drives I use. At 2 locations I have the 1.3gig version ones, orded the 2.3Gb drive lately.
http://pr.fujitsu.com/en/news/2001/07/5.html
Something different that should be considered which is mentioned rarely. If you use backup software, think about what might happen if you want to access older backup after you perhaps upgraded your operating system.
The software might not be supported there. Safest way again is to use a file system like FAT on a medium that can be accessed like a hard disk.
just my 2c,
juergen
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the website has a suggested price of 60,000 yen, which comes to $505.26 U.S. for the drive. Do you know how much the disks themselves cost?
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Juergen
I've been browsing the web starting at the address you give above and it looks like I will be using hard drives for the foreseeable future. There's no way I can afford to get an MO disk.
I had a feeling it was something to do with magneto-optical drives but wasn't at all sure. I've also had a look to see where the disks can be obtained in the UK but so far haven't found any at all so don't know how much they cost. MO drives may be very good and very reliable but due to costs and other considerations I'll bow out here and stick with hard disks. Nevertheless, thanks for the information.
Tracey
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It may sound extravagant, but its really not. Get a cheap PC, anything P200 up will do. Buy a couple of network cards and some CAT5 crossover cable and link them up. Then you can back up essential stuff onto the other machine. The likelyhood of BOTH boxes going belly up at the same time is remote. 2 drives on one computer is good, but IMHO this is better as they are completely independant. Plus you have 2 other big advantages. First, you can share software between them. The more progs installed on a PC the worse it will run, so share between the two. I have all my heavy duty graphics stuff on the big one, and office stuff, accounts, translator progs on the other. Second, you can keep your main machine pristine, with only the programs that you definately know you are going to be using for ages on it. And use the second box as a guinea pig and install lots of junk to try out if you feel the need. After a few months of that sort of behaviour you'll want to nuke yer C-drive and reinstall Windows. A much easier task to do on your backup machine. I have never trusted those backup archive programs, such as MS Backup. I like to be able to SEE my backed up files.
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James, you couldn't be more right!
Strang coincidence: today I went to a yearly second-hand sale (I don't know the exact English word) of computer material, and there was this P200 machine with 48MegRAM and 2HDD of 1GIG each, a Matrox Mystique videocard, a network card and a 24xCDROM, with monitor, mouse, speakers and keyboard, and an original English WIN98SE for some £140. Needless to say that I bought it. I was thinking of using it to install Linux Mandrake for the Web, but your idea is very interesting too.
If you don't work against time, time often works for you.
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My work is precious, so I believe in Saver Saves.
I wrote a simple batchfile, that copies the content of my "work" folder onto another physical drive every 24 hours, silently and automatically.
With another batchfile, I copy the same folder to my notebook as well (over network). This also allows me to continue working, even if the desktop machine goes bust.
Third of all, like almost everybody here, I make backups on CD-R.
I have a dedicated machine for burning CDs (always the predecessor of my current machine), so it is saved there as well.
The current size of the "work" folder is 3.3 Gigs, this makes CD-R backup a real pain down there where it's dark. I hope, DVD-R gets affordable soon.
Most important for me is, to have the backup as simple copy, no fancy compressed backup file.
This way I can pick a single older file if needed.
Wolfgang
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Another option is to go for a new IDE RAID motherboard and set up some mirrored IDE hard disks. The basic premise is that both hard disks are unlikely to fail. If one does, you can use the other. It doesn't cover general hardware failures though.
Of course, there is no real substitute for proper tape backups (or other offlined backups) that are taken off site and rotated appropriately. Tape drives aren't as expensive as they used to be - a 30GB OnStream backup unit is around £200 and media are about £30 for a 30GB cartridge. Once you get to large data sizes tapes are generally the only option (and I know graphics people - of which I'm not really but who I know at work - do have huge 300DPI .TIF files ready-for-the-printers graphics files lying around that need backing up)
It all depends on how much you can afford to lose. At work I'm a software developer, so forking out cash for the protection of our data is easily justifiable, but for you it may not be so clear cut.
Hope that is of help,
James
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Can I second the call from James F for offsite backups.
I use an HP Colorado - for smaller capacities it is cheaper than the OnStream.
Inspired by my old mainframe days, I have three tapes - the newest goes to my wife's office, and she returns the previous tape. I normally only backup once per week, but I can cope with (on average) three days loss of work in the event of a total failure. So I have two or three weeks to discover a file is lost or corrupted.
In all this consider the risks - fire, disk failure, theft. Copying to another local machine only addresses disk failure.
www.thelondonhouse.co.uk
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I've read thru most of these posts with great interest. See many of you have shared my own experiences with CD-RW's. When I got my first CD-R 3 or so years ago, I thought that was the way to go for doing daily backups. (Yes, I was using Easy CD Creator too!) Guess about the only thing I did right at first was to save things to HD first before trying to write to CD. Boy, if ever there was an award for turning out useless CDs!
In my own case, not all of the problems were due to the software. Eventually had to replace drive as I guess they aren't designed to last very long. (Died after just over a year 1/2 of use.) I did find that the Direct CD thingie was causing a lot of interference with other software I used, so I was always disabling it while I worked. Then, I'd have to reset the machine to load those drivers back up if I wanted to use those.
Earlier this year, someone talked me into trying Nero, and I've been pretty pleased with that. Oh, I still make a few coasters but not nearly as many as before.
Speaking of CD media, was anyone else amazed to learn how many different types there are? Had read some other write ups, but I think Fred Langa's on Information Week was one of the best - http://www.informationweek.com/thisw...ection=opinion. Still not sure which kind I've got sitting around here, as Fred didn't include any color keys to help you identify the different dye & recording media combinations. Bet it's some of the cheaper stuff and not rated for long term storage.
One more thing for the shopping list!
Push yourself to notice the extraordinary in the ordinary.
Irene M. Kraus
www.design-comp.com
