best way to backup?

[Col127]

i was wondering what the best way was to backup files. i've been archiving files on my hard drive so far (locally and to another machine), but there's always a risk of my drives crashing. that being said, backing up to CD or DVD is another option, but there's limited life any kind of media.

what's the best way?

buy an external HD and use it solely for backing up? or use CD/DVD media?

also, would you archive all the files, using stuffit (for example)? or just copy them "as is"?

thanks for any help!

 

[wrldwzrd89]

i was wondering what the best way was to backup files. i've been archiving files on my hard drive so far (locally and to another machine), but there's always a risk of my drives crashing. that being said, backing up to CD or DVD is another option, but there's limited life any kind of media.

what's the best way?

buy an external HD and use it solely for backing up? or use CD/DVD media?

also, would you archive all the files, using stuffit (for example)? or just copy them "as is"?

thanks for any help!

My personal preference is to use Carbon Copy Cloner from Bombich Software to back up my entire hard drive in bootable format to a dedicated external FireWire drive. For my system, which has about 15 GB of data on it, a clone operation takes about 25 minutes. I can then boot from the clone in an emergency, and simply format my internal hard drive and "clone the clone" to it. Once that's done, I'll have a usable system again with very little effort on my part.