Just got my new 1tb external hard drive since my gf broke my old one. Im wondering what is the best way to have a back up of all my files and so i can also used it to transfer videos to other computers

The three options as i see which are sync, back up and image.
The software i got with the HDD has a sync and back up option which i dont really see how they are any different. I went for sync for now as i need to repair windows
So which is the best way to have a back up? I understand i need some software to create an image of my hard drive but it would also mean i wouldnt have to reinstall all my programs again right?

cheers

if you image the your computers main hard drive, it does just that. Takes an image of how it was at that point. So if something did happen, and you could restore the image and the computer would be back how it was at the point you made the image.

Backup and sync are similar. My understanding is as follows;

Say you have a folder full of 1000 pictures. If you back that up to the drive, it'll simply take a copy of the whole folder. Sync will do this the first time also. But say you add 10 more photos to it, and run the process again. Backup will copy the whole folder again, overwriting the old one. Sync will look at what's there, what's changed and only copy over what is new.

arc said:

if you image the your computers main hard drive, it does just that. Takes an image of how it was at that point. So if something did happen, and you could restore the image and the computer would be back how it was at the point you made the image.

Backup and sync are similar. My understanding is as follows;

Say you have a folder full of 1000 pictures. If you back that up to the drive, it'll simply take a copy of the whole folder. Sync will do this the first time also. But say you add 10 more photos to it, and run the process again. Backup will copy the whole folder again, overwriting the old one. Sync will look at what's there, what's changed and only copy over what is new.

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Almost right, sync will also copy over what's changed

it depends how you define "what's new"

Just remember - replication should be used in addition to and not in place of a good backup routine. Replication won't resolve your data corruption problems

30111987 said:

Just remember - replication should be used in addition to and not in place of a good backup routine. Replication won't resolve your data corruption problems

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:worship: I wish my colleagues took the same view

jenks69 said:

:worship: I wish my colleagues took the same view

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:yeahthat:

Talking to brick wall comes to mind.

ChrisUK said:

:yeahthat:

Talking to brick wall comes to mind.

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At least a brick wall won't argue back about a subject it's qualified to do but somehow knows feck all about.....