computer games forum

I know some users here are tech-savy (probably more than me!). So I wanted to ask... what could be a good setup for development and backup? What I'm looking for is a good backup system (but I think I have that done already) and a simple way to "switch computer". What I hate is if a computer fails, I usually spend 1 whole day to reinstall the OS, all the programs I need, restore from backups, etc. A pain which I would like to minimize somehow

What I have now is: a main PC, on which I develop, and as backup have Crashplan that backups Online and to two HD, one internal and one external. Plus dropbox that I don't really use as backup, but in practice does (I share file with partners).

I was wondering if would be better to get a NAS and put there all the work related stuff, this way if I change computer I wouldn't need to copy anything on the new HD? like for example I have a "develop" folder with all assets for games, if is in the NAS, I could setup the new PC faster, right? I could also put my emails archive there (I use Thunderbird but I have changed the default directory to another one that I can easily move around).

Well, if anyone has any tips about this, I'm interested in hearing it thanks

I am not exactly sure which programs you need, but in the company I work a bunch of developers and a fully staffed IT department are not enough to make sure switching a computer is pain-free.

The backup-plan you have sounds fine. Should work (more than say 5 minutes) get lost, this is really horrible. However, you will always have to reinstall the various programs, and the drivers they need, and basically the plain system. And since it always feels as if the driver version needed depends on the day of the week and which voodoo was last done, (not to mention used hardware etc.), there is no easy way to transfer everything from the old or broken computer to a newly bought computer. You might be very lucky if it is only a HD-replacement, but anything beyond means a day lost for sure.

Thats my 5 cents. If anyone has better news, I would be interested to hear.

Yes, that's what I thought... I minimize the various annoyances of emails, for example I just need to install Thunderbird, point to the fixed folder (normally has it under a terribile C:\program files\blabla\krj2392uik\) and copy over the archive from the old PC/backup and usually I never lose an email this way.
Probably is not possible to do better than that, and every time I change computer I must reinstall the various programs I use (photoshop, audacity, ren'py, etc). Luckily aren't many

There is a program called HDclone, and it does what the name implies. It permits you to copy the enire contents of one hard drive to another, including operating system, programs and data files. I've used the free version on Windows XP computers with great success. If I remember correctly, the hard drive you are copying to should be the same size or bigger than the source hard drive.

Hm yes, actually now that I remember in one of the SSD HD I bought recently there wa a similar program, Norton Ghost, I guess I could try that too