Creating back-ups effectively

[KatyMac]

I tend to copy my memory on to an external hard drive once a week

Then delete the version from a month ago

Is this effective

What happens if the house burns down?

Should I be doing something else?

If the house burns down, you should call the fire brigade as well as making a back up of your hard drive.

HTH

Hmm - big hunky firemen

I like that idea - but what about my data - I guess the HMRC will understand if I can't produce my accounts.....but my OCD would cause me to have a melt down

I guess the only way to save it in the event of a fire is to use an off site storage facility or keep your external hard drive in a fireproof safe/box..

Ah Fireproof box

I could put our documents (birth certs & passports in that too)

I like that idea - I will google

Would a fireproof box protect data storage I wonder

I tried BT vault but it was not a success

Backup online with Carbonite. This is not free, but it is probably the cheapest online backup and it works superbly.

How big are the (vital) files? You could just mail them to a gmail account.

Storing everything on an external hard drive works ok - you're protected against a hard drive crash, which is waaay more likely than a big fire. We have a terrastation, and use Norton Ghost to do the backups, so it's automated, and happens every day.

Still undecided over this - I may leave it 'til the New Year & see what I can come up with

Sorry for not replying before