I keep hearing people say that their external hard drives crashed. So is this really the best place to backup our files? I am so confused!!!!!

If you have a cd burner or dvd burner I would back your files up on those..I've had my hard drive give out on me several times....

I just thought of something but I dont know if there is a site to be able to do it for PC... but Mac has .Mac that you can subscribe too.. (dont know how much it cost.) but you can back up your hole computer on there internet site and they store it for you.. not sure if that is much better then external or not... but it is an idea if anyone can find something like that for PC... I work on both but I just normally resort to back up dvds.

I have not had problems with external hard drives so far. Knock wood. However, I am a firm believer in REDUNDANCY, see the link below for my backup strategy, which includes two external hard drives for each internal, optimally one should have three externals for each internal (two at home and one off site).

Advice on backup strategies/storage usuage

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Lysiane

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Ok... I would suggest the following. Take a good inventory of all the data you would like to backup. And, I just mean data.. Now.. how much do you reallly have that want to restore in a disaster? Obviously, there are the photos (which should be backed up to CD every time you transfer them to the PC), your layouts (again, just burn a CD with the layout when you are done creating it), your elements (you should have these on CD anyway), important documents (so small, all of them can fit on a CD), etc.

If you really look, I bet most of your items can easily be backed up on CD. Sure, external HD's are nice and all.. but who really needs a 200GB hard drive for backup?! CD's are cheap (0.02 a piece these days) and reliable and can be used in any computer.

So.. get in the habit of making CD's everytime you complete something important.. create an index sheet that shows what is on the CD and keep it in the jewel case with the CD.. and get yourself a decent catalog software that will allow you to keep track of where all your backup data is..

Its really easy and you don't need any fancy external devices or websites to get it done.. if you a DVD drive.. all the better.. use them as a writeable device. 9GB per disk will provide will a lot of space for your files.

If you are truly truly paranoid... just back up your back CD's and put them in a fire safe. Good luck!