best way to back up data?

[doug boardley]

having recently had to get a new hard drive, I realise that I was very lucky that all my data was retrievable and transferred ok. It would have been devastating to lose all my kids photies and a real pain to lose all my accounts etc. What is the best way to back data up (as I might not be as lucky if it happens again) would it be onto cd's or do these have a "shelf life" so to speak?
thanks in advance for your input
Doug

 

[theyomper]

Have a look on QVC at this. I have one and it's so easy to use and can be used on more than one PC.
ClickFree Auto Backup 320GB Portable Multi PC Hard Drive

 

[doug boardley]

can't get the link to open mate

 

[theyomper]

QVC iten number 560835

 

[doug boardley]

cheers mate

 

[Dan]

You can get an external hard drive from ebay or any pc shop. I guess it'll be like that QVC one but I've not looked at it. I also have Norton 360 on the laptop and that has a feature to backup online though I don't have it turned on as I guess it has to lag the computer when it's doing it automatically, and I guess it'd take longer to transfer via the web, and cost me in bandwidth limits, than the free and faster option of USBing it to the hard drive. So I'd go with that Doug, I think it's pretty much the norm now.

 

[Dan]

Have a look on QVC at this. I have one and it's so easy to use and can be used on more than one PC.
ClickFree Auto Backup 320GB Portable Multi PC Hard Drive

Wow I just checked that out and that's expensive. The first one I found on ebay was nearly half the price - 320GB MOBILE PORTABLE EXTERNAL USB HARD DISK DRIVE NEW on eBay, also, Internal External Hard Drives, Drives Storage, Computing (end time 10-May-09 22:00:00 BST)
That appears to be a reputable seller, and I bet if you looked more you'd get one cheaper. That'd suggest even your local pc shop would have one somewhere between the ebay price and qvc price if you'd prefer to have a place to take it back to.

 

[theyomper]

The thing I find with this one is that it has a double usb plug, so it backs up extremely fast. It will remind you when you last backed up and all you have to do when backing up is plug it in and forget it. It's very easy to retrieve lost files. You can use it between other pc's and it automatically detects which pc you are backing up. No doubt there are other cheaper ones around. remember with qvc if you don't like it for any reason you have a 30 day no quibble money back guarentee

 

[chris.tiling]

I've got mine with the Norton 360 anti virus thingy. It has saved all my records and photos. The only thing with having an external hard drive or CD's is that if ever you have a fire in your house they will go too, so keeping it online somewhere is a good idea.(as is keeping your back up CD's at a friends house!). Someone I worked for had paper records, laptop records and CDs of backups - lost the lot in a fire

 

[White Room]

I know that virgin are now doing a back up system