What is the safest way to make back-ups?

[SheerGold]

I usually use hard drives for backing up. I have two backups of everything (on separate HD's).

This has been OK until the Mac froze during a back-up and the back-up HD would not mount afterwards. Luckily I had a second back-up.

I have a lot of information (over 600Gig). Thus it is very laborious to keep all that stuff on DVD's (and even they are not 100% foolproof).

Are there any other REASONABLY ECONOMIC and fast alternatives to hard drives for backing up?

 

[elbirth]

nothing really economic comes to mind other than hard drives, which is what I do as well.

my question, though, is would the drive no longer mount on any computer at all? as in it somehow got corrupt? If so, that's very odd... however, you're doing the right thing by having 2 separate backups. If something like this happens, just reformat the drive that's acting up and then copy everything from the 2nd drive back to it.
IMO, using DVDs as backup media is costly and very time consuming. they can easily get scratched and ruined where a hard drive (in my experience) has a better chance at survival.

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

Hard disks are going to be the fastest, most economical way. Ideally, you'll keep one of the hard drives at your place, and then keep another one off site. That way, if anything happens to your house/apartment/dorm room/condo/whatever, you'll still have all your data in a safe place.