"Clive Summerfield" wrote in message
...

"David" wrote in message
om...
As the organization of my home life becomes ever more paperless I
really need to sort out my strategy for backing up my PC on a thorough
and regular basis... bit OT I know, but (a) I really value the
opinions of like-minded people in this NG, and (b) the idea I want
feedback on is sort-of diy related...

At the moment I back up onto CD-RW, using Windows XP's built-in backup
software, which bizarrely doesn't let you save directly to CDs - an
extraordinary PITA which means you have to create sequential files on
the HD less than 650Mb, then copy them over manually. So I do this
far less often than I should.

My idea was to set up my old unused PII machine in the back of my
garage with a wireless network card, then do my regular back-ups to
its hard disk. The principle being that if my house burns down or is
burgled, the (detached) garage is unlikely to be similar affected (and
vice versa if the garage is hit). Couldn't replace CDs altogether due
to risk of losing all to a virus, I suppose. Does this sound like a
reasonable/cost-effective solution (I currently have only a hard-wired
network and router).

What do others use/do? Is there a better hardware/software combo that
I should use instead?

I use a 2-stage process. Step 1 is an automatic backup over the network to
a
dedicated hard disk in one of the other PCs. The second step is a
once-per-week backup from the hard disk to DVD. With the falling price of
DVD writers and the capacity of the media, I can't see the point in
messing
around with either multiple CDs or unreliable tape drives.

What is the price a storage capacity of a stand alone with USB cxn DVD
writer?



---
--

Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.520 / Virus Database: 318 - Release Date: 18/09/2003