What are good back up solutions?

[garthvater111]

Long story short, I torrent lots of movies and software. The included malware and viruses call for a clean install, backing up data is a must for me as re downloading programs and games with a 250gb /month data cap isnt pleasant sounding.

 

So everywhere i go, people say "do a back up" "back your crap up" ect. I do this manually and am tired of it. Basically i want a program that automatically backs up my stuff for specific set folders such as game folders, pictures, documents, program data ect. That said it cant be a background resource sucking c*** and can be set to back up at specific times.

I have a 1tb drive i want to back stuff up to as well.

 

Im open to tutorials (via Youtube) as well as software recommendations so pls, tell me everything you know. 

 

 

 

Obviously i can upgrade my internet but its 20$ /month and its 15mb down and 5mb up. And yes, i dont need to torrent all the time but, free stuff

[Guest]

Long story short, I torrent lots of movies and software. The included malware and viruses call for a clean install, backing up data is a must for me as re downloading programs and games with a 250gb /month data cap isnt pleasant sounding.

 

So everywhere i go, people say "do a back up" "back your crap up" ect. I do this manually and am tired of it. Basically i want a program that automatically backs up my stuff for specific set folders such as game folders, pictures, documents, program data ect. That said it cant be a background resource sucking c*** and can be set to back up at specific times.

I have a 1tb drive i want to back stuff up to as well.

 

Im open to tutorials (via Youtube) as well as software recommendations so pls, tell me everything you know. 

 

 

 

Obviously i can upgrade my internet but its 20$ /month and its 15mb down and 5mb up. And yes, i dont need to torrent all the time but, free stuff

wait, torrenting movies? WHY...

you can just stream them its  so much easier (Not recommending it)

[Blebekblebek]

Most people are exaggerating about the amount of storage they really need

I don't think anyone would use at least 500GB of critical data for now

 

I mean critical is it's really important for your life

as for media (picture, video or any moment of your life) use free services (or paid), I prefer flickr, youtube, picasa for that files.

 

for movies/music and stuff... well... I just don't think they are important or at least not a life changer

if you download it off torrent, there'll will always someone seeding them anyway

or if they don't have it you can always subscribe or purchase of digital store.

once you bought it, you can always watch it anytime you want as long as you have internet.

 

as for local backup, auto sync helps backup alot, instead manually moving your files, just set date/time for such task daily/weekly/or monthly

[Firestorm]

FreeFileSync does a good job of backing up but actually windows file history does a good job as well and is incredibly light on resources. That said windows does allow you to back up a system image to reinstall from if necessary but I don't know how good it is as I haven't used it.

[EmeraldFlame]

 

So everywhere i go, people say "do a back up" "back your crap up" ect. I do this manually and am tired of it. Basically i want a program that automatically backs up my stuff for specific set folders such as game folders, pictures, documents, program data ect. That said it cant be a background resource sucking c*** and can be set to back up at specific times.

 

Macrium Reflect is a great program for this, you may need the paid version to do exactly what you want to do though and it isn't exactly cheap. Crashplan also lets you use their client for free if you are backing up to another local location. It would likely do everything you want it to for free.

 

Most people are exaggerating about the amount of storage they really need

I don't think anyone would use at least 500GB of critical data for now

 

Not really true. Everyone's photos are now digital. I have well over 1TB of just pictures that if they were ever lost myself and my entire family would be devastated.

[Blebekblebek]

Not really true. Everyone's photos are now digital. I have well over 1TB of just pictures that if they were ever lost myself and my entire family would be devastated.

 

well you already give yourself an answer

 

when you said "Not true" and you mention your experience for your whole family

so what? that's about 1 person out of 5-12?

 

divide those amount of data with amount of your family member, and you get average numbers.

I think that's how it works.

[dreadpixel]

First, if you're really getting malware and viruses from just torrenting movies...you're doing it wrong.

 

As for backing up though, CrashPlan is great. It isn't expensive but it will take a LONG time for the first backup (depending how much you actually want to back up). Honestly though when torrenting movies is involved it just isn't feasible to store copies of all the movies or whatever you download. CrashPlan doesn't care if you upload pirated content BUT there's a reason no one really does it; too much hassle. As others have said, unless it's a torrent that was really poorly seeded that you think might be problematic of re-downloading in the future maybe it's worth your time to back it up but generally just backup content that's important and irreplaceable like photos or documents.

 

If you're really set on locally backing up everything you have then just worry about getting good quality (reliable) drives and use any of the software recommended here.

[garthvater111]

Most people are exaggerating about the amount of storage they really need

I don't think anyone would use at least 500GB of critical data for now

 

I mean critical is it's really important for your life

as for media (picture, video or any moment of your life) use free services (or paid), I prefer flickr, youtube, picasa for that files.

 

for movies/music and stuff... well... I just don't think they are important or at least not a life changer

if you download it off torrent, there'll will always someone seeding them anyway

or if they don't have it you can always subscribe or purchase of digital store.

once you bought it, you can always watch it anytime you want as long as you have internet.

 

as for local backup, auto sync helps backup alot, instead manually moving your files, just set date/time for such task daily/weekly/or monthly

I dont think you understand, data band with caps mean i cant just re download stuff whenever i want. I just dont have the data limit to.

[garthvater111]

First, if you're really getting malware and viruses from just torrenting movies...you're doing it wrong.

 

As for backing up though, CrashPlan is great. It isn't expensive but it will take a LONG time for the first backup (depending how much you actually want to back up). Honestly though when torrenting movies is involved it just isn't feasible to store copies of all the movies or whatever you download. CrashPlan doesn't care if you upload pirated content BUT there's a reason no one really does it; too much hassle. As others have said, unless it's a torrent that was really poorly seeded that you think might be problematic of re-downloading in the future maybe it's worth your time to back it up but generally just backup content that's important and irreplaceable like photos or documents.

 

If you're really set on locally backing up everything you have then just worry about getting good quality (reliable) drives and use any of the software recommended here.

Movies usually dont come bundled with anything i dont want but software torrents do

 

Also, just to point it out i asked for a way to automatically back stuff up on to a hard drive, not a cloud. I guess i didnt really make that clear but thanks anyways, i appreciate the help.

   pls ignore /\ 

I will definitely give crashplan a go, now that i realize it can do local. ty

[garthvater111]

wait, torrenting movies? WHY...

you can just stream them its  so much easier (Not recommending it)

Data bandwidth caps + watching on my phone or laptop with a 1gb data cap (on my phone = 0 streaming)

[garthvater111]

FreeFileSync does a good job of backing up but actually windows file history does a good job as well and is incredibly light on resources. That said windows does allow you to back up a system image to reinstall from if necessary but I don't know how good it is as I haven't used it.

System img really is only good for doing a clean install, which is what i use. HOWEVER it sucks for reliability in files and only does a pretty good job with small programs. I do a a clean install probably every 1-2 months and i just recently did a img back up for windows 10 with just some basic programs without my movies and games (there on separate hhd's so i unplugged them) and just had my programs including stuff like steam, adobe suit, office 2013 professional ect. But thanks for the suggestion, i will defiantly try it out. ty  

[garthvater111]

Most people are exaggerating about the amount of storage they really need

I don't think anyone would use at least 500GB of critical data for now

 

I mean critical is it's really important for your life

as for media (picture, video or any moment of your life) use free services (or paid), I prefer flickr, youtube, picasa for that files.

 

for movies/music and stuff... well... I just don't think they are important or at least not a life changer

if you download it off torrent, there'll will always someone seeding them anyway

or if they don't have it you can always subscribe or purchase of digital store.

once you bought it, you can always watch it anytime you want as long as you have internet.

 

 

Also my mother has several tb of pictures as well as some of my torrented movies but she doesnt really do back ups as she just stores them on a back up drive and has physical printed photos of the stuff she really wants to keep. I dont personally have that much critical data but the large amount i have would suck to lose because of my data bandwidth cap. again though i cant just re download because of the cap. but ty

[garthvater111]

 

 

 

Macrium Reflect is a great program for this, you may need the paid version to do exactly what you want to do though and it isn't exactly cheap. Crashplan also lets you use their client for free if you are backing up to another local location. It would likely do everything you want it to for free.

 

 

 

 

I will definitely try it, ty

[Godlygamer23]

Syncback is a decent program.

Edited August 23, 2015 by Godlygamer23

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

Hey there garthvater111,

 

You can either use a software that automatically manages everything you do, use the built-in backup feature of the OS or get an external drive or NAS and back everything up to it with a software. 

For software aI can recommend WD SmartWare: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=2SW96S It offers great solutions for scheduled or continuous backup and restore. 

For NAS devices I can suggest checking out WD's solutions and see if any of them meet your requirements and budget: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=whmXHs

 

Feel free to ask if you happen to have any questions

 

Captain_WD.