Backing up FS9

[fnerg]

A friend told me you can zip files and email them to yourself using Hotmail or another public email service, and if you don't open the file, it remains in cyberspace. In case something happens to your computer, you can always log on and extract that zip file to restore. Ideally, if I zipped my FS9 folder, and mailed it to myself I would feel more comfort knowing I could have all of my add-ons restored after reinstalling FS9 in the event of a crash.

Well I zipped a copy of my FS9, turned out to still be over a gig in size, and there is no way I could email the file so huge.

So, does anyone know a reliable way to backup FS9 without using 14 CD-rs. What are the options? How do people back up their entire drives in a reliable way?

Thanks,
Doug

[slarente]

Personnaly, I don't mind about using 14 cds to backup such a great program! ;)

(only backing up the addons...)

[W2DR]

No need to backup the whole thing. You can always reinstall the original files from the CD's. Just backup the original files for those add-ons you have downloaded. The most reliable method of backup for an entire drive is to image the drive (using something like Acronis PerfectDisc or Norton Ghost) and then store that image on a separate drive, either internal or external.

Doug

[Mojo2000]

One DVD-R disc will hold up to 4.3 GB of data, so your 1 GB would fit nicely. Fourteen CD-Rs' worth of data will fit onto three DVD-R's etc. etc. :+

Check out NewEgg or similar for the latest prices on LiteOn, LG or HP DVD burners.


SIGLINE: "Stealth is where it's not." :D

[JimmiG]

1. Email isn't very good for safekeeping things. Most providers delete messages after a certain amount of time or if you don't log in often enough the whole account may be removed.

2. You can buy a "cyberdrive". Some companies allow you to buy e.g. 1GB of space to upload your files to. There's still no guarantee that *their* harddrives won't crash (the data obviously has to be stored somewhere, it doesn't just exist in the ether) but one would hope they keep backups for such an event.

3. But really, the best thing to do is to keep local backups. This can be achieved with a Raid1 array or simply by keeping all the important stuff on two drives, which isn't 100% safe as a power supply failure or similar could take down both harddrives but it's very quick and convenient.

4. This leaves CD/DVD which are very handy actually, especially DVD. DVD writers and media are really cheap now so doing frequent backups is very affordable. In addition 16x and even 8x drives are fast enough to burn a disc in a couple of minutes.

[fnerg]

Thanks guys. I learned to save all of my zip files in a folder, so what I did was just back up the zip folder on a cd-r. Now if the sim crashes because I've altered something I just have to reinstall those.
Thanks for the advice, happy flying!