how can i back up my external drive?

Yep. You should buy an other external dedicated to make a weekly clone with SuperDuper.

 

I don't know if there is a quick and convenient way on PCs but one way to do it is to connect both external hard drives to your PC and then copy one to the other. If your PC has a free drive space then you can install an extra internal hard drive and then have an external as your cloned secondary backup. For selective important files I also back them up to DVDs that way I'm not just relying on hard drives.

 

Not sure to understand ... you have two computer so ?

Having 2 backups is maybe not necessary, but you told that you deleted stuff from your computer after having transferred them to the external drive.

So you have to backup that external drive.

Note : with Time Machine you can set up two or more drive to be backed up.

 

He is talking about his PC computer and not his Mac so no time machine. Also he is deleting stuff from his computer so his external will become the master original which means he will need a second drive to back that up.

 

Hmmm yeah this is what I said

 

Or just buy a RAID-1 (mirrored drive) solution, e.g.:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/usb/raid_1/Gmax

Then instead of having to continually keep the backup of your backup up to date, it will just be done automatically.

 

Ok, several things, and I think almost everyone has experienced this (well I guess it is safe to say you haven't yet, you are lucky ), but it is NOT a question of IF your hard drive fails, but rather WHEN.

So, how important is your data? If it is full of stuff that is not that important, then no worries. If it is important, then you need to get another drive.

Rule of thumb is that you should have 3 copies of all the important info. That is for photography, anyway. I am sure it is the same for graphic/web design, piece of mind, etc .

The most important things on my drive is my iTunes library (70GB, just music), pictures, graphic/web design projects. Everything else is just freeware applications, applications I paid for, movies, etc. Stuff I can easily get back.
I have burned a lot of my images to a DVD-DL as well as backed up my iTunes library on 13 DVD+Rs. I am going to be buying a new internal HD, and going to use the one i replace as an external. With Hard drives getting so cheap now, there really is no reason NOT to have extra storage.

 

Don't forget off-site storage. You can have all the external HDs you want, but if your house burns down, it won't help you.

One option is to go with online backup. You'll be paying for it, but I think it's worth it. I use Backblaze ($5/month), which backs up my entire computer, including my external hard drive. I also have a second external drive that serves as my on-site backup, which is much easier for restoring. But if my house burns, it's all up on Backblaze.

Something to consider.

 

well, I'm not a mac genius....or backing up genius for that matter, but i'll give it to you like this.

I have a 1.5TB Seagate external HDD

I have it partitioned (900GB for time machine, and 600GB for regular use)

Time machine disk name : Walla Walla
Regular use disk name: My B****h

When in time machine prefs while both disks are mounted, under "options" I have the option to opt out of backing up folders. By default (I think) the other hard drive (in this case, the other partition) My B****h, is listed. You can opt that out though, simply by selecting the device, and clicking the minus sign. and then opt out your entire computer...thus making a clone of your other external hard drive.

That is what I would do first....cuz I figure hey, may as well you use the best software to do it - the one designed by the same company making the operating system your running

That may work for you, again...I'm no genius, nor have I tried it, but it may work for you

 

OMG. People, a mirrored array doesn't protect against human error. And neither will adding parity!

 

If you are swapping out your main hard drive then you should clone it to your new hard drive before swapping your original drive out. If you have an enclosure or a free drive slot you should be able to do this. Make sure to check if your new internal drive is set to master before installing it as the main hard drive because most are set to slave at least the ones I've bought have been that way.

If your PC has an extra drive slot then you can install a second internal hard drive which will be faster for cloning and data transfer compared to an external hard drive. If you have never installed an internal hard drive or are not comfortable doing so you can always pay someone to do it for you. Your main hard drive is tiny at only 80 gb so it's probably a good idea to get it swapped out. This way you don't have to delete files from your main.

That shouldn't be an issue. Your computer should be able to handle it, but yes if you are adding an additional hard drive then you are consuming more power. Don't worry about it. Also people upgrade to larger hard drives all the time.

If you clone the hard drive it shouldn't disrupt any file links.

Yes, many people reuse their old hard drive with enclosures. You would have to reformat them though. Just make sure your new internal hard drive works and all your data is there before you format your original hard drive. You should wait about a week to make sure your new hard drive works and has all your data.

Again, don't worry about power consumption. Your electric bill might go up but your computer won't die. Most external hard drives/enclosures have their own power supply anyway so your computer isn't taxed for power.

Yes.

 

Here is my setup. This may help you.
I have:

1TB External for iMac backup via SuperDuper
1TB External to store all movies and media
1TB External to backup movies and media, via Chronosync.

 

I have one of these puppies and its great. And since I'm the only one using it, I don't really have to worry about human error. It doesn't hurt that I have my more important stuff (docs, music, photos... movies are important but not that important) in 2 different places, though.

 

"Cloud" storage is an alternative as well. I haven't had any experience with it myself, but I have started looking into it. Isn't MobileMe the same deal? I still have my 60 day trial, a year after buying my MBP.

 

Nothing protects against human error. But there's a lot more potential for human error in needing to manually make a backup of a backup, than there is in having an automatically mirrored copy.

 

Huh?

If this user sets up a mirrored raid and puts all his files on it, and then his file system becomes corrupt, its all gone.

If he accidentially deletes a file , its gone.

If he overwrites a file, its gone.

The only thing a mirrored copy will do is make it hurt twice as much, and the amount of pain will go up only by the number of drives used in the array.

See what i'm saying? A RAID is built for speed and reliability, and for this reason (zero lag time between updates on the drive) it doesn't serve the purpose of a backup. The schema can be as robust as the user wants it, whether that be a rotating backup every 12 hours, single backup every 24 hours, one backup ever week etc etc, but the buffer time needed between the master copy and the last copy is what we have to guard against accidental deletions/overwrites/corruptions/etc.

Op isn't backing up a backup. He has files on his external drive that aren't on the desktop making it a master. A live mirror of a master does no good if something related to the OS goes haywire. It might be more difficult, but dealing with a false sense of security when the time comes will really hurt.

 

Go back to the original post. He said "But say if one day my external dies. I've lost the data." I'm talking about guarding against what he's concerned about - a drive going bad. That's where a mirrored drive is useful. Human error can always happen in any scenario. If he writes a file to his external drive then accidentally deletes it before he gets his 12 or 24 hour or weekly backup done, then it's just as gone as it would be on a mirrored drive.

 

Windows will probably make you reactive itself since you are changing your computer configuration. I believe this was Microsoft's new way to prevent piracy which started with XP. Other than that it should be pretty straightforward.

If you are nervous about this then you can bring it to a computer center to have them do it for you. If you have all the parts then the labor shouldn't cost that much.

If you want to go the easier route then stay with external hard drives. Just buy the larger ones so they will last you awhile. If you connect both external hard drives to your computer through USB, etc you can clone the master external to the backup. It's the easier way to go. The benefit of the internal hard drives are they are faster to transfer data and if you swap out your main drive with a bigger one then you don't have to keep deleting the files so often. It also means that your main hard is now your master copy so you only need one external backup drive.

Also you shouldn't do all internal hard drives because you want at least one external cloned hard drive so that you can take it out of your house or keep it in a fireproof safe. If something happens to your computer then all is lost which defeats the purpose of a backup.

Your computer may not have the wiring for another drive but read the part I wrote above about having too many internal drives.

If his main hard drive is large enough then it's the master and one back up is all he needs unless he's paranoid. You on the other hand are deleting files from your main hard drive so it's no longer the master copy.