FileSlinger™ Backup Reminder 06-09-06: Passport to Backups

I’ve talked about backing up while on the road once or twice before. One of the reasons I got a 2.5-inch external hard drive instead of a less-expensive 3.5-inch drive was so it wouldn’t need its own luggage when I traveled.

Last time the Ur-Guru came to visit, he just backed up his laptop by sending everything to the server back in his home office.

This time he has a new laptop and a handful of drives, each with a different purpose.

First, there are two Western Digital Passport drives, an 80 GB and a 120 GB. The name seems particularly appropriate, since he bought them specifically for traveling overseas. The 80 GB drive contains several TrueImage backups of the laptop (system, software, and data), as well as the ISO of the Bart-PE recovery CD.

The 120 GB drive holds all the data he wanted to have along on the trip, including 18 GB of e-books, icons, source code, and project files for his current clients, a few virtual machines, software he might need to install, and an active synchronized copy of work and project data from the laptop. (He wrote his own script to do the synchronizing.) The rest of the drive holds instructional videos, MP3 music files, and other media. And there’s still enough room (or will be, after we watch the movies) for the photos he’ll be taking.

Then he has a 512 MB memory stick full of utilities he might need anywhere. (I have a similar memory stick which I load up with programs clients are likely to need, like the AVG free anti-virus or Karen’s Replicator.)

There are two more drives, each with a 4 GB capacity. One is a memory stick, one a 1.8-inch disk in a case about 2 x 2.5 inches, with a standard USB plug that tucks into one end. Because it has to spin, it’s slower than the stick, and it gets much hotter when used over an extended period of time. Now that the flash-memory sticks are available in multiple-gigabyte capacities, the Ur-Guru recommends using them instead of the mini-drives.

These two smaller drives serve as rotating backups of the source code for the Ur-Guru’s client project, so that he always has a copy of the current version and a copy of the previous day’s version. He also keeps his current work synchronized with the 120 GB Western Digital drive.

If you’re interested in getting any of them for yourself, the Ur-Guru and I will be happy to answer any questions you have about them.

Until next week—back up early, back up often.