Just had an amazing idea...

NoMoreSilence · 02-01-2010, 08:39 PM

My hard drive is split, I have my PRIMARY (C) and my BACKUP (D) but I'm going to format my D into a D and E, whereas my D will be for the purpose of backing up files from my C drive and the E drive will be for downloading things to, so if I wind up downloading a virus, I can keep it contained and then just format that drive to completely eliminate it

**scared2mosh** · 02-01-2010, 08:44 PM

My compy has two hard drives C: & D:. I keep all my basic stuff/ programs on C: and all my games, music, movies etc on D: Then I have a 1TB external drive that everything is backed up on.

It works pretty well for me.

NoMoreSilence · 02-01-2010, 08:52 PM

That's a pretty good idea too, except I don't have an external drive. I have a flash drive where I backed up all of my setup and registration files for whenever I need to format my computer... But it's only 2 GB. Since I can't fit ALL of my setup and registration on that flash drive, I have a 2GB SD card where I back up the rest of the install and registration files.

I want to write a program and put it on my D drive, and then a sister program on the removable media items so that in order to install the files back on the computer you have to enter a password, to prevent people from pirating stuff off my flash drive and SD card...

**scared2mosh** · 02-01-2010, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NoMoreSilence

That's a pretty good idea too, except I don't have an external drive. I have a flash drive where I backed up all of my setup and registration files for whenever I need to format my computer... But it's only 2 GB. Since I can't fit ALL of my setup and registration on that flash drive, I have a 2GB SD card where I back up the rest of the install and registration files.

I guess that isn't horrible, but you could get an external drive for pretty cheap. I'd suggest checking it out.

NoMoreSilence · 02-01-2010, 08:56 PM

Ha. before I do that, I'm going to get a laptop, though.

Cam42 · 02-02-2010, 06:22 AM

"Backing Up" to the same drive the original files are on is stupid. Your hard drive fails? Kaboom, there goes your files.
Buy an external drive before you buy a laptop.

NoMoreSilence · 02-02-2010, 06:43 AM

I'm going to need a laptop for school. Period. I got some old 40GB hard drives laying around in my basement, I can just format one and throw it in my computer to back up to.

**SporkV** · 02-02-2010, 10:54 AM

Dude, you can get like a 500GB external hdd for ~$120.....

RubberChipmunk · 02-02-2010, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NoMoreSilence

so if I wind up downloading a virus, I can keep it contained and then just format that drive to completely eliminate it

Viruses don't work that way. At all.

bobthecockroach · 02-02-2010, 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cam42

"Backing Up" to the same drive the original files are on is stupid. Your hard drive fails? Kaboom, there goes your files.
Buy an external drive before you buy a laptop.

Backing up hard drives with hard drives isn't really much better. Backing up to the cloud or to DVDs is a much better option.

Bryan · 02-02-2010, 11:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobthecockroach

Backing up hard drives with hard drives isn't really much better. Backing up to the cloud or to DVDs is a much better option.

it's loads better, the only instance I can think of where it would be bad would be a disaster at your house (fire/flood/theft), or the extremely unlikely circumstance where the backup and main drives fail at the same time.

I bet that virtually all the time, an external backup drive will suffice.

**scared2mosh** · 02-02-2010, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TFK14

Dude, you can get like a 500GB external hdd for ~$120.....

I got a WD pro 1TB external drive for 115$

Andrew · 02-02-2010, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RubberChipmunk

Viruses don't work that way. At all.

Thank you very much. Viruses are neither sentient, nor sapient. They require code structure to operate on.

In your three partition hard drive, where do you think that code structure is?

Cam42 · 02-02-2010, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NoMoreSilence

I'm going to need a laptop for school. Period. I got some old 40GB hard drives laying around in my basement, I can just format one and throw it in my computer to back up to.

yeah, having an internal drive isn't much better. if someone wanted to steal you computer, there it goes, external drives can be hidden.
Also, if your PSU goes out, it can bring down half of the computer, along with your HDD(s), with it. It's happened to me.

bobthecockroach · 02-03-2010, 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bryan

it's loads better, the only instance I can think of where it would be bad would be a disaster at your house (fire/flood/theft), or the extremely unlikely circumstance where the backup and main drives fail at the same time.

I bet that virtually all the time, an external backup drive will suffice.

A simultaneous hard drive failure is still much more likely than a DVD failure aside from physical damage to the DVD (scratching or melting, for example). DVDs are also completely impervious to damage from malicious code.

Backing up to the cloud makes your data impervious to damage from break-ins and fires and such.

Backing up to DVDs *and* the cloud makes your data practically immortal.

The problem with backing up hard drives with hard drives is that failure is not the only thing that's going to make you want to go to your backups. If you get a new computer, you will want to get data from your backup. If your computer crashes (not the hard drive, but the computer), you will need your backup. If your computer is stolen (this still isn't a hard drive failure), you will need your backup. If you reformat, you will need your backup. If you want to put the data on another computer, you will need your backup. The likelihood of one of *these* things happening at the same time as a hard drive failure is much more likely than two simultaneous hard drive failures.

Unless you check your backups before doing any of those things, you are putting yourself at risk. I actually had a back-up hard drive failure occur at the same time as a reformat.

DVDs are discrete chunks of backup data and much easier to tuck away somewhere safe. If you backup to a hard drive, you probably have it by your computer and use it all the time. A hard drive used regularly is more likely to fail or be stolen than a DVD that is never used in a sturdy box in your closet. Adding data to DVD backups means burning a new DVD. The old DVDs aren't touched at all, so there is no chance of damaging them. Backing up new data to a hard drive means using the hard drive and exposing all the data on it.

For data that is regularly changed (like projects you are actively working on), backing up to another hard drive is probably better (but backing up to the cloud is better than that) because you'd waste a lot of DVDs otherwise. For photos and videos and other permanent data, DVDs are a much better choice in my mind.