Back your shit up

[kennith]

Had a custom built windows laptop since my freshmen year. the hard drive crashed right before finals (was covered under warranty) and I lost all my papers that I needed. Learned my lesson and bought a seagate external hard drive to back up everything, every day. Three years later, now in my senior year, my laptop took another dump and I decided to just buy a new MacBook pro. I used to hate apple as much as the last guy, but they are growing on me.

Just how do you think that Macbook stores your information?

I'll inform you, for future reference, that Apple products only appear to fail less often because fewer people have them, and the people that do, generally do less with them. These people also grew up in this age of computers, and are less likely to fuck up to begin with. PCs, on the other hand, are passed about like candy to unsuspecting yuppies that don't know what they are doing, and the ones on the shelves are jokes.

Apples are slapped together in China, just like your fucked up vacuum cleaner.

They aren't special, they are simply different. It seems better because it's got a better frame than most laptops, including that fancy Alienware wannabe crap that Dell owns now. It seems better because it's got a nice, pleasant idiot-proof interface that doesn't let you fuck up and does all the shit you are supposed to be doing in the background, by itself. It seems better for the same reason a Mercedes seems better than some other cars.

It's all about how that door handle feels, and the sound the door makes when it shuts.

It's just a tight cable and sound deadening material. Underneath, it's just a door.

Cheers,

Kennith

 

[peter sherman]

fuck em all
i have 3 kids 21 -12 the amount of bullshit fucking pc mac apple bullshit i have gone through_______________ they all shit the bed so use what u like!!!

What is life without my Commodore 64?

 

[gmookher]

terrastation

 

[rmuller]

Just use something like Mozy.com to backup * to the cloud... $5/mo is a lot cheaper than setting up a raid 5 or having a NAS.

 

[bigred]

Just use something like Mozy.com to backup * to the cloud... $5/mo is a lot cheaper than setting up a raid 5 or having a NAS.

I don't trust that "cloud" shit.

 

[ptschram]

I've been using PCs since back in the day when PC Jrs were the cheapie. I was in the first class at my college that did NOT have to do punch cards.

I can count the number of hard-drive failures I've suffered on one hand. To be honest, I'll admit that just like my Land Rovers, most of my computer problems have been due to pilot error.

I just had to replace the hard drive on one of the diagnostic computers... The hardware is so old that I am unable to find drivers for the I/O board (Yamaha DS1 sound/game/midi/serial I/O card). Right now, I'm trying to install WIn98 to regain functionality so I can "upgrade" to ME that was the last known good configuration as the antique OS hopefully will have the drivers I need.

Having all but given up, I bought a "refurbished" Toughbook with a lifetime warranty. Woo Hoo, I installed XP and it worked with both of my diagnostic computers.

There are NO other laptops that give the same level of resistance to the elements that compare, much less exceed the ToughBook. I have $322 invested in it. Take THAT Mac boys!

 

[brianhoberg]

If you don't want to go with the online storage solution, my suggestion would be to get a Network Area Storage you can connect up with two hard drives that are raided to mirror each other. Then get software that will backup your files to the network storage device twice weekly. That way, you have a dual backup if you ever have a crash.

 

[knewsom]

please point me to the apple without a hard drive.

ahem. http://www.apple.com/macbookair/

SSD for increased reliability and performance, use a network accesible external multiple drive array for backup and high-volume storage. Problem solved.

 

[bigred]

If you don't want to go with the online storage solution, my suggestion would be to get a Network Area Storage you can connect up with two hard drives that are raided to mirror each other. Then get software that will backup your files to the network storage device twice weekly. That way, you have a dual backup if you ever have a crash.

Tell me more....
That's exactly what I want to do.
If possible, I'd also like it to be able to back up my laptops across the network whenever they are in the house.

 

[knewsom]

Tell me more....
That's exactly what I want to do.
If possible, I'd also like it to be able to back up my laptops across the network whenever they are in the house.

Then you'll need your mirrored RAID-1 to be network accessible, and a software backup solution as well. Macs come with something called Time Machine which does precisely that, but I'm sure there are plenty of solutions that will do the same, if you're running Windows or Linux. If you're running a Hackintosh configuration, you'll need to use something like CloneX to make sure you back up everything including extensions, etc.

 

[kennith]

ahem. http://www.apple.com/macbookair/

SSD for increased reliability and performance, use a network accesible external multiple drive array for backup and high-volume storage. Problem solved.

So what? Any laptop can have an SSD. I can stick one in any laptop over here in less than 30 seconds, and there are any number of places where I can order one with an SSD already installed. Naturally, Falcon is one of them.

SSDs are much faster and more shock resistant. That's all. Now, that's enough for me to want one, but their very nature introduces many more problems. As far as reliability and data integrity over time, the HDD beats the pants off them. That said, advances are being made, and that's why I'm waiting.

As a boot drive however... They are fucking fast.

Cheers,

Kennith

 

[Axel]

If you don't want to go with the online storage solution, my suggestion would be to get a Network Area Storage you can connect up with two hard drives that are raided to mirror each other. Then get software that will backup your files to the network storage device twice weekly. That way, you have a dual backup if you ever have a crash.

There is no way i am going to trust my private data to some random online backup facility, for a number of reasons.

I put a couple of 1T drives in two retired towers on my network, and run Vice Versa on my main machines. It runs as a service in the background, and automatically makes a copy of my key files to both backup towers whenever a change is detected.

Vice Versa will also run a scheduled backup on each of my main machines overnight, and store a copy of the images on both of the backup towers. So I essentially have 3 copies of everything important. The odds of 3 drives failing on 3 different machines at the same time is negligible.

 

[rcshauger]

I am sure there are solutions in the other group that are as cool as the time machine apple makes. I am very happy with the hourly backup that my wireless router does for me...

I am a part of the hype, but I also think that a PC should look good if you are going to stare at it for hours at a time looking at pictures of Land Rovers online...

The grease is hard to mask on the white keys though... The mouse is my favorite thing about the interface.

 

[roverMc]

Then you'll need your mirrored RAID-1 to be network accessible, and a software backup solution as well. Macs come with something called Time Machine which does precisely that, but I'm sure there are plenty of solutions that will do the same, if you're running Windows or Linux. If you're running a Hackintosh configuration, you'll need to use something like CloneX to make sure you back up everything including extensions, etc.

If you use hot swappable drives, have an extra on hand to replace a bad one. It's so easy a caveman can do it....

 

[adriatic04]

Tell me more....
That's exactly what I want to do.
If possible, I'd also like it to be able to back up my laptops across the network whenever they are in the house.

build or buy a home server, it runs through your home network. Run Windows Home Server on the box and configure it to back up the computers on your network at night. WHS is very easy to use once you get it up and running. Plus if you build a box big enough and have hot swappable drives you can always add more room as you go. The other plus to this is the mirroring of the data, from data that is stored, to each backup.

HP has some out of the box systems that are popular.

 

[brianhoberg]

There is no way i am going to trust my private data to some random online backup facility, for a number of reasons.

I put a couple of 1T drives in two retired towers on my network, and run Vice Versa on my main machines. It runs as a service in the background, and automatically makes a copy of my key files to both backup towers whenever a change is detected.

Vice Versa will also run a scheduled backup on each of my main machines overnight, and store a copy of the images on both of the backup towers. So I essentially have 3 copies of everything important. The odds of 3 drives failing on 3 different machines at the same time is negligible.

I agree with not using an online storage as well, he just indicated he didn't want to go that route.
My only concern with a dual backup on site is that while you are fine with the backup solution and you are right, the chances of 3 drives on 3 computers going out simultaneously are very, very slim, I'd be more concerned about theft or fire since from what you indicated, they are on your network and most peoples networks are on-site. If you're storing offsite, that's awesome. But if it's all on-site, a fire or thief will render your backups useless if they take your equipment.

 

[chris snell]

Some of you guys are misinformed. There's nothing at all wrong with online storage. Any decent online storage provider is going to store your data in a datacenter with top-notch security procedures, regularly-maintained fire suppression systems, redundant power, redundant cooling, and 24/7/365 monitoring. Does the server room in your closet at home have all of these features? I can't speak for every Cloud storage provider but the mainstream ones (Amazon's S3, Rackspace's Cloud Files) store each block of data on multiple physical servers in multiple "zones", meaning that no single outage of a server, hard disk, PDU, or cooling unit will destroy your data.

If you're worried about security of the Cloud solution, encrypt your data. You should be doing this anyway, even if you don't use the Cloud. Burglaries happen all the time. Imagine what could happen if your desktop machine or file server was stolen.

Now, I'm not saying that you shouldn't back up locally, as well. A centralized, RAID-protected file server in your house is a great idea and it's convenient. Just don't discount the Cloud as a viable storage mechanism. Chances are, you rely on Cloud storage every day if you use a service like GMail, Flickr, Hotmail, Facebook, etc.

 

[chris snell]

If you're looking for a solid, business-class RAID-protected NAS for your home, look no further than Synology:

http://www.synology.com/us/products/DX510/index.php

 

[knewsom]

So what? Any laptop can have an SSD. I can stick one in any laptop over here in less than 30 seconds, and there are any number of places where I can order one with an SSD already installed. Naturally, Falcon is one of them.

SSDs are much faster and more shock resistant. That's all. Now, that's enough for me to want one, but their very nature introduces many more problems. As far as reliability and data integrity over time, the HDD beats the pants off them. That said, advances are being made, and that's why I'm waiting.

As a boot drive however... They are fucking fast.

Cheers,

Kennith

Obviously one can put an SSD in pretty much any laptop without trouble... First thing I typically do when I get a new laptop is put in a better drive - in my aluminum macbook, I put in a Hitachi 7200 RPM drive that uses LESS power than the one I took out of there and is twice as fast, and three times as reliable. My point was that Apple actually DOES make a computer without a hard drive... And if you count the iPad, there's more than one.

Agreed that SSD's aren't quite at the capacity per price that HDs are, nor is the data reliability over decades something we can really rely on yet, but they do offer a myriad of benefits - you mentioned speed and impact resistance.... there's also power consumption and no risk of mechanical failure - an inherent risk with hard drives because you're depending on so many physical devices to reliably and consistently behave with extreme precision; motors, servos, bearings, magnetic head, etc... its a wonder these things behave properly at all, when you think about it.

 

[C Ross]

I don't trust that "cloud" shit.

X2!