The single biggest reason for data loss on personal computers is drive failure, the easiest way to prevent that is with 2 drives in RAID1 configuration. RAID1 utilizes two drives to mirror each other, in sense it's instant backup. If one drive fails you still have the other one, pop a new drive in and it will rebuilt from the healthy one. On my system I have a SSD for the OS and applications. Drive D is two drives in RAID1 configuraton and for convenience I've moved all of windows personal folders like "My Documents" to that drive.

While that will prevent the most common reason for data failure it's not 100%. Of course there is a slim chance that both drives could be damaged simultaneously. You will want another drive as backup to that.

It also will not prevent data corruption and this is often overlooked. Suppose you are writing your life's story in Word and you have hundreds of pages. You walk away from the computer and Jr. deletes 300 pages in the middle and you don't realize it. You save your work and couple of days later you do your backup routine overwriting your backed up file with the new one.... bye bye 300 pages. It's important to incorporate versioning in your backups.

Last but not least don't forget about catastrophic loss, take it from someone that had a house fire and watched that fire slowly creeping towards his computer room it's not a very good feeling knowing a lot of that data material is all that exists. Fortunately for me everything came out fine.

Granted you need to be practical, obviously storing numerous videos in multiple places is going to get expensive. Those for example don't go on the RAID1 drive. I have a networked drive to access them in the house, all my material is also on DV tape/another drive and those are stored at a relatives home.

Lock your office, use a password, never share a computer with kids. :wink2:

It's only one example and loss of data like that is always a possibility. Your backup scheme should always account for versioning of files.

So if i have a Mac should I go with a LaCie or still with the recommended Fantom?

But what if we assume a high speed connection and that the data would be safe, or at least safer than at our location? Given the thecoalman's story, wouldn't the risk of fire, flood, earthquake, etc. make online storage more secure, at least for those companies which backup their data in multiple locations?

Also, has anyone used the M-discs for backup and known their reliability? Theoretically, their failure rate would be much lower than a hard drive.

LaCie is overpriced. Get the Fantom.

If you do use online storage, then encrypt it on your end. Just be sure that you can decrypt it later, should it actually be needed.

M-disc is not better than other blank DVD-R like Verbatim.

I read a post that said DigitalFaq planned a test of the M-discs. Do you still do?

A anecdotal report last year found positive results:

http://www.zdnet.com/article/torture...1000-year-dvd/

Every bit helps. :wink2:

Have you bought a Fantom drive recently? I only ask because several of the Fantom drives have been receiving more negative reviews in recent months, so perhaps something has changed in the manufacturing process. Particularly the GreenDrives for some reason.

The normal drive did not seem to have as much negative feedback:
http://www.amazon.com/Fantom-Force-E...tom+hard+drive

Also, does anyone have any recommendations for (or warnings against) certain external portable hard drives?

No Western Digitals. :no2:

The WD aluminum Mac drives are nice, but that's it.
The non-Mac and portable drive are built cheaply (100% plastic).

Thanks, I know you are not their biggest fan. Besides the usual choice of Seagate, any thoughts about Toshiba, Buffalo or Verbatim (7-year warranty)?

Toshiba = Samsung (TSST). For hard drives, yuck.
Verbatim? For HDD? Fine for optical media, but not anything else.
Buffalo = rebadger not known to use the best hardware -- it's no Lacie or Fantom!

Thanks, I did not know Samsung was so bad! I have a Verbatim from 2010, also with warranty. Works fine so far, but I'll stick with Seagate..