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Backing up, what do I need?


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Pretty much all my photos and documents are stored on a 2010 iMac with a 1TB drive. I have no backup solution and realise this is bad!

What do I need?

I have been looking at WD my passport 2TB or the WD my passport studio 2TB (as this has firewire). Mainly because these are powered from the usb so separate power pack.

Are WD producing good products or would something else be better or more reliable?

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I use the Time Machine method. Just have a big-ish drive on USB (no idea if 2 or 3) and hit the backup button when I attach it from time to time. Never had to rely on a restore though.

I think Mac might be the backup king.

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Pretty much all my photos and documents are stored on a 2010 iMac with a 1TB drive. I have no backup solution and realise this is bad!

What do I need?

I have been looking at WD my passport 2TB or the WD my passport studio 2TB (as this has firewire). Mainly because these are powered from the usb so separate power pack.

Are WD producing good products or would something else be better or more reliable?

In simple terms, both. If your Mac goes tits-up then a local backup in the form of an external drive will allow lost data to be easily restored. If circumstances were worse e.g. burglary, house fire then the whole lot goes so a remote backup saves the day +++.

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In simple terms, both. If your Mac goes tits-up then a local backup in the form of an external drive will allow lost data to be easily restored. If circumstances were worse e.g. burglary, house fire then the whole lot goes so a remote backup saves the day +++.

What he says, if you can't afford to lose the data, business files, personal photos of the family; whatever it might be, then you need more than one backup.

I use both the paid for parts of Crashplan and the free bits. The client can backup to an external drive for you and if you want to pay it will back up all of your data to its own service. I backup to an external drive that I give to my parents and also use the Cloud. If I do a wedding (photography) for someone I simply can't afford to not have a copy of the images of the day so its belt and brace and then some for me.

But then again I wouldn't want to lose copies of the photos and videos of the kids so I'd still do the same regardless.

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In simple terms, both. If your Mac goes tits-up then a local backup in the form of an external drive will allow lost data to be easily restored. If circumstances were worse e.g. burglary, house fire then the whole lot goes so a remote backup saves the day +++.

Thanks for that happy scenario +++ I guess, like most of us, I don't really think that'll happen to us. Of course I'm just deluding myself.

I think I'll get the WD studio drive and have a sort through the data and see what's critical and what isn't. I've probably got several thousand track day photos and loads of video that I'm not that bothered about, but any family images I'd be devastated to lose.

Once I figure out what volume of critical data I have, I'll look into offsite solutions. As Carmad suggest even if it's just having a second drive I swap with my parents every time I see them. Does time machine cope with that, 2 external drives in rotation?

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