How Do you Backup Important Files? [Poll]

Time for another MakeUseOf Poll, and this time we want to know how do you backup important files and folders on your computer.

Are you using default Windows Backup Utility? Maybe some other desktop backup program to automatically backup selected files and folders to external hardrive or USB thumbdrive? Or do you prefer to have a fresh copy of important folders online? Whatever it is, share it with us below.

Please Vote!

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Let us know how you backup your data. Are you using something different from the above? What makes it better? Share it with us below… Thanks in advance.

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Aibek Esengulov

The guy behind MakeUseOf.com. Follow him and MakeUseOf on Twitter @MakeUseOf. For more details check out MakeUseOf about page.

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  • Martin

    I wrote my ownscript that syncs my data to Amazon S3 servers. Cheap. No problems wih storage space. Reliable

  • http://www.michaelwales.com/ Michael Wales

    I use Microsoft’s SyncToy to sync between a folder on my desktop and my thumb drive – works fabulously.

    • http://makeuseof.com Aibek

      Oh man how did I forget that one :-) , thanks for heads up

  • http://www.keithkeirstead.com/blog Keith

    I use drop box and I back up everything to one or two external hard drives, depends on how important the information is or if its for a client.

  • moshe pack

    I use Titan Backup. Nice, clean interface, no problems.

  • makeuseofReader

    Allway Sync (http://allwaysync.com/) and Amazon S3. Allway Sync will determine which files have changed and upload the files to s3.

  • http://ubuntulinuxtipstricks.blogspot.com Mackenzie Morgan

    rsync -av /home /media/backup

  • Jack

    I use ADrive.com for larger, more permanent backup copies; 50 gigs of free space, desktop client, and Dropbox for short-term sync/storage of everyday stuff. Being paranoid, I also backup “priceless” data to DVD/RW.

    • http://makeuseof.com Aibek

      I head lots of complaints about ADrive recently.How did it work for you? Any issues?

  • http://www.simplehelp.net Ross McKillop

    I voted Mozy, because I use it to backup all of my website files, but I also use Time Machine to backup to an external HD.

  • Michiel

    I use Windows Home Server

  • daveytay

    MS Synctoy Beta 2.0 to my USB external drive, scheduled daily (using the -R switch I think) Only changes get copied, open files don’t though so I still use ghost on occasion.

  • JohnB

    Either Cobian Back-Up or GoodSync depending on what I’m backing up and the destination of the back-up.
    Both are excellent programs – all I need.

    • http://www.tinsie.net/Recommended Tina

      I’m also using Cobian Backup.

  • ajohal

    Can’t believe comodo backup is only used by 4%. I have tried Genie Backup Manager, back2zip, Comparator Pro, DmailerBackup, Second copy 7, SyncBack, memeo backup and default Windows Backup Utility, and I found Comodo backup did exactly what I wanted, i.e.
    1) Backups files into full path to my USB device eg C:\Docs, will be E:\Docs on my USB drive
    2) Free
    3) Runs as a service,
    4) Scheduler
    5) Option to compress backups into zip files

    If I had to pay for one I would definitely buy Genie Backup Manager, home, that was just as good as Comodo – but Comodo’s free , no brainer choice really

  • http://www.RigsVille.org.uk Rig

    I use Sugarsync for my backups.

  • http://www.reclaimingthemind.org Richard

    I’ve used Retrospect for several years.

  • Nick Robo

    NeroBackItUp

  • Vic Peters

    I use Second Copy 7 from Centered Systems.

  • http://www.theskywaspink.com Alex

    Microsoft SyncToy here, just to an external USB HDD.

  • JT

    I use ViceVersa to backup to an external hard drive. Works fast, has some good options.

  • http://www.betterthantherapy.net Mark O’Neill

    I backup pictures, small videoclips, small unimportant documents, e-books, web bookmarks, small audio files and so on to various Gmail accounts using “Backup to Email”. The rest gets burnt to DVD disks and stored in metal boxes. I am not a big believer in keeping a lot of stuff on my actual hard drive.

    • http://www.tinsie.net/Recommended Tina

      I find hard drives easier and faster to maintain than CDs or DVDs. Also depending on what quality your discs are, they may not even last longer than the average hard drive (~5 years). That’s why I personally prefer to backup to hard drives.

  • phil

    For the PC, I use the ASR backup for the C drive, SyncToy2 to back up documents (mostly photos) to two different network storage servers, and manual backups for other stuff. On the Mac, I back up the main drive to external storage using SuperDuper, but I’ll be switching to Time Machine soon.

  • http://py.com Jack Wallace

    I use a shareware program called Second Copy. (http://www.secondcopy.com) It is very easy to use and reliable. I synchronize my desktop with laptop, and also backup data files to an external USB drive using Second Copy. It has never missed a beat :)

    Jack

  • http://www.linkedin.com/in/cmschroeder curts

    Still using BackupMyPC 6.0 for a full backup (ripped music excluded) every weekend of the WinXP box that currently doubles as my home server. I use Clonzilla to periodically image my WinXP gaming rig and System Restore’s PartImage to image my Linux system partitions. I use ‘rsync’ to mirror the music collection on the home server to the Linux box. Still need to implement a backup solution other than ‘tar’ for my personal files that are local to the Linux box (i.e. not on the home server).

  • Kevin Reynolds

    Make Use Of turned me on to Comodo backup recently and it works great. Thanks guys!

    • http://makeuseof.com Aibek

      ;-) Welcome

  • http://www.jonforrent.com Jon

    I use SpiderOak, and it’s awesome. Use it to back up 3 computers all under the same account. It’s $10 a month for 100GBs, once you get to the 100GB mark you can pay another $10 and get another 100GB.

    Nice thing about it is it has versioning built in, share your files you back up with people if you choose to, completely encrypted back ups, and easy recovery … VERY easy.

    I tried going the S3 route but it’s too slow and end up being too expensive.

    I do keep a local weekly backup but my SpiderOak is my main backup.

  • Chris

    I use Jungledisk – $20 then just Amazon S3 fees for storage – very cheap, reliable and accessible anywhere if needed. I haven’t had any speed problems with S3 in the 6 months I’ve been using it.

  • http://systemBash.com Dave Drager

    I have a three step process:

    1. Daily backups – I use SyncBack SE to automatically backup my photos and documents nightly to a server in a datacenter.

    2. Monthly – I have a portable harddrive that I plug in roughly monthly to backup everything onto. My goal is to eventually store this in a safety deposit box.

    3. Yearly – Burn to CD. I do this because of the off chance there is some crazy war with EMPs that wipe out all magnetic media on earth. Yeah, I’m a little crazy.

    • http://makeuseof.com Aibek

      :-) well if someone wipes out all magnetic media on earth there won;t be much to browse.

  • http://www.janetbarclay.com Janet Barclay

    I use Norton 360, not necessarily because I love it, but I bought it for the security features, and there’s no way to disable the backup function without it warning you that you need to do a backup – and if you just ignore it, you won’t see any other warnings.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/28791486@N03/ -=Ben=-

    I am with @Richard:
    I use Retrospect since 2004
    No problems, only awesome compression!

  • http://www.nomadesk.com Filip

    Hi Aibek. Full disclosure here: I work for http://www.nomadesk.com, which offers small businesses (or nomadic professionals, as we like to call ourselves) an innovative way to share documents and work together on a “virtual fileserver.” I read your post on online backup with great interest, and just wanted to add NomaDesk to the discussion – although we are much more than a backup solution.
    Actually, NomaDesk comes with a feature set specifically geared toward the digital nomad, such as local encryption and “remote shredding” with TheftGuard. Furthermore we impose no limits on storage and bandwidth. I would appreciate your review.

    Thanks!

  • http://nomadesk.com Crazy

    I’m amazed I haven’t seen NomaDesk anywhere yet.
    It’s a client app that allows you to synchronize files between multiiple computers. All data is stored on a server. They don’t have any size, storage or bandwidth limit and to top it off, because it’s still beta it’s free!(but more then stable enough, especially with the new release).

    A couple of days ago the free tail got extended indefinatly.

    Although the main target for NomaDesk is ppl that work in team and travel around allot and need to share the data + off line availability it can be used for so much more.
    Being it you need to ‘back up’ your data, sync your data between your own computers or work in a team. NomaDesk is fit for all of those :)

    The Dashboard, that is the client application responsible for keeping the files in sync between your local pc and the server, lets you manage everything very easily :)
    It mounts a windows drive in your explorer and lets you use it just like it was another partition on your hard drive.

    Anyway, just check it out on http://nomadesk.com
    Might be just what you’re looking for :) , I haven’t even scrashed the surface of the features nomadesk can offer, so definatly worth a look :)

  • http://st.thomsen-jones.co.uk Steven Jones

    I’ve created my own scheduled backup process via a batch file which makes use of 7zip and PAR archives to create DVD sized backup files and a set of PAR records incase of future dataloss from any of the individual archives.

  • http://housemdvideos.com Simon Mills

    i use both mozy and drop box

  • http://kccsonline.com kc0eks

    Jungledisk is my savior when it comes to this. Synctoy works well for local stuff

  • http://makeuseof.com Aibek

    I oticed that a few people mentioned Cobian Backup as their backup software of choice. My bad for not mentioning that popular backup tool. In case anyone interested here is the link to its website

    http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm

  • http://lethann.wordpress.com Lethann

    While I mostly use my external harddrive, I just had it critically fail due to physical defects on the drive, so fare warning to anyone who does the same exclusively. However, I do make use of Dropbox for somethings, and after this I might start doing a bit more especially with some of my more critical files.

  • http://www.softtechreviews.com Alisha

    I’m surprised Norton Ghost isn’t on this list. I have tried a lot of others, but Ghost seemed to do the best job and was easier to schedule backups and stay out of my way without slowing down the system.

  • Richard

    I use Cobian Backup 9 (freeware). I like the “Special” feature, which allow you to include/exclude specific files from any folder. I also like the “Events” feature, which can execute various “Before backup” events, like closing open programs that be running and “After backup” events, like shutting down the PC when backup is complete.