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Backed Up - 5/27/2008 5:20:49 PM   
Aileen1968


Posts: 6062
Joined: 12/12/2007
From: I miss Shore, New Jersey
Status: offline 		So I had a slight scare these last 24 hours or so when my laptop started acting all bonkers.  Programs wouldn't load and open and everything moved reeeaal slow.  Stuff like that.  I came to the realization that I better figure out a way to back all my stuff up since it had been about two years since the last time I had.  And you all thought this thread was gonna be about something slighty ickier, didn't ya.    I finally got my photo programs to open and I started backing up literally thousands of pics ( the majority of them were of my kiddos so I was extremely concerned about losing them).  Took me all day and 36 discs later.  Anywho...my main questions are...how often is it recommended to back up important files and should I be using an external hard drive for important files and pics?  Is one external hard drive better than another or are they all similar?  Obviously I'm not techy so please keep your answer simple.

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RE: Backed Up - 5/27/2008 5:26:58 PM   
CalifChick


Posts: 10717
Joined: 10/28/2007
From: California
Status: offline 		Disks are the most unreliable of the media types out there.

Backup to a jump drive, you can get a 1 or 2 gig for $20 or less nowadays, and keep it somewhere outside your home or in a fireproof/fire resistant safe.

For very slow performance, it sounds like you need to archive photos, and if you have a DVD burner on your computer, that is the best way to go. Get blank dvds that are NOT rewritable, so you cannot accidentally erase them. So burn them to two dvds (one goes in the safe, one goes in your desk), and erase the originals from the computer.  You might want to get help on this, if you aren't sure of what you're doing, so you don't accidentally lose everything. 

When you're done, defrag, and the vastly increased hard drive space should help everything run faster.

Cali


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RE: Backed Up - 5/27/2008 5:29:01 PM   
Level


Posts: 25145
Joined: 3/3/2006
Status: offline 		I was thinking there was some sort of sexual backing up going on....

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RE: Backed Up - 5/27/2008 5:29:22 PM   
CalifChick


Posts: 10717
Joined: 10/28/2007
From: California
Status: offline 		Oh, and I forgot... you're going to be backing up data files, not the programs. So find your comfort level with how much work you're willing to lose.  Are you willing to lose a week's worth?  Then backup your data files once a week.

Cali


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AKA "The Undisputed Goddess of Sarcasm", "Big Bad Cali" and "Yum Bum". Advisor to the Subbie Mafia, founding member of the W.A.C. and the Judgmental Bitches Brigade, member of the Clan of the Scarlet O'Hair-a's and Team Troll

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RE: Backed Up - 5/27/2008 5:34:37 PM   
Aileen1968


Posts: 6062
Joined: 12/12/2007
From: I miss Shore, New Jersey
Status: offline 		I know that the cd's aren't a long term answer.  I was concerned about just getting copies of the pics in case my laptop fried and I got that evil error screen at boot up.  I'm pretty sure that my laptop can't write dvds.   

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RE: Backed Up - 5/27/2008 5:36:44 PM   
lusciouslips19


Posts: 9792
Joined: 9/8/2007
Status: offline 		Get an external Hardrive and copy everything to there.

(Luscious, who Sir is in IT and gets her all these things)

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RE: Backed Up - 5/27/2008 5:51:22 PM   
camille65


Posts: 5746
Joined: 7/11/2007
From: Austin Texas
Status: offline 		I use Dell Data Safe and back everything up once a week.

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RE: Backed Up - 5/27/2008 5:54:13 PM   
cjan


Posts: 3513
Joined: 2/21/2008
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quote:

ORIGINAL: Level

I was thinking there was some sort of sexual backing up going on....


Me too, bro.*sighs* Just another techy thread, though.


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RE: Backed Up - 5/27/2008 5:59:47 PM   
Aileen1968


Posts: 6062
Joined: 12/12/2007
From: I miss Shore, New Jersey
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: cjan

quote:

ORIGINAL: Level

I was thinking there was some sort of sexual backing up going on....


Me too, bro.*sighs* Just another techy thread, though.



Heh heh heh.  I'm so fucking evil.

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RE: Backed Up - 5/27/2008 6:04:49 PM   
petdave


Posts: 2479
Status: offline 		i use a Western Digital Passport portable hard drive. It's compact, and very easy to use- only requires one cable (USB), has its own backup software included (not the best software, but it works), and you can get 250GB for $100 at Costco.

DVDs are a decent medium-term solution (5-15 years), but make sure you test them, preferably in another computer, after you've burned them. i've had some... learning experiences as far as that goes.

The issue with frequency is balancing security vs. convenience. It's safest to keep your backup media off-site (in a safe deposit box, for example) so that if there is a fire, natural disaster, etc., your backups won't get fried along with your computer. However, if your backup drive is in a bank vault, it's not going to be practical to back it up every day. Monthly tends to be a good compromise. Another option is to do a daily backup to an external drive that never leaves your computer, and do an off-site backup as frequently as you can comfortably manage. That way, if your main drive has a hardware failure, you have all of your data handy for immediate use, but if you lose your whole system to some kind of catastrophy, you can at least get the bulk of your stuff back.

Only backup the data you don't want to lose

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RE: Backed Up - 5/27/2008 7:00:25 PM   
JulieorSarah


Posts: 552
Joined: 8/25/2007
Status: offline 		At work we do backups during the day due to the volume of work.  So if you use the laptop daily, do backups daily, then the most you'll loose is a day.  Then once a week/month, again depending on your usuage, back up and keep the stored stuff away from the laptop (off site).  If you know someone who has the technology and you don't have much stuff, Zip it and email it to someone else.  Also check teh back ups are restorable, learned that the hardway ... a week of transactions, not a simple task.

Or approach someone you know who seems to have a tech approach, without being a wizard, so they don't bamboozle you or be bored by your need.

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RE: Backed Up - 5/27/2008 7:07:42 PM   
Aileen1968


Posts: 6062
Joined: 12/12/2007
From: I miss Shore, New Jersey
Status: offline 		Yay.  Thanks you people for the good advice so far.

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RE: Backed Up - 5/27/2008 9:25:39 PM   
DomKen


Posts: 19457
Joined: 7/4/2004
From: Chicago, IL
Status: offline 		I have a few suggestions for you.

1) Backup your photos onto a good CD or DVD and it will last several years. If you need/want longer storage you probably want to look into an online service over a USB harddrive or flash device. Those don't have terribly long lifespans and if they go bad you're screwed. I've been using iDrive for a while now and been very satisfied. Ultimately I'm pretty sure they will use both RAID systems to keep my data available and professional grade backup systems that simply aren't worthwhile for a single person to use.

2) A sudden unexplained drastic slowdown of a computer is often a symptom of a spyware or virus infection. Run your adware and AV scans. Otherwise you've likely got some sort of conflict or poorly behaved program. If the slowdown occured right after you installed new software try uninstalling the software and see if your problem goes away.

3) Do backups on a regular basis. No matter what solution you choose do the work regularly. If you follow this advice the inevitable hardware deaths in your life will be much less traumatic.

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RE: Backed Up - 5/27/2008 9:59:58 PM   
petdave


Posts: 2479
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: JulieorSarah
If you know someone who has the technology and you don't have much stuff, Zip it and email it to someone else.


36 CDRs puts her in the range of 20GB... If your internet connection doesn't start with "OC", you're gonna need patience for that.

quote:

ORIGINAL: DomKen
If you need/want longer storage you probably want to look into an online service over a USB harddrive or flash device.


While flash RAM is limited in the number of read/write cycles it can sustain, and the real high-density stuff hasn't been around long enough to have a solid track record, i'm not aware of any problem with USB (or Firewire)-based portable hard drives.

quote:


Those don't have terribly long lifespans and if they go bad you're screwed.


Per my observation of the past 10-15 years of computer technology, i've found this to be far more applicable to iCompanies (and e-Companies) than to hard drives!

Although it's funny that this should come up on the board today... just this weekend my wife turned up an old Syquest 270-GB cartridge with all of her grad school work on it from 1998...  If you're saying "WTF is a Syquest?", just remember... in 10 years, your younger cousins could be asking "WTF is a USB?"...

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RE: Backed Up - 5/27/2008 10:58:48 PM   
PainSmith


Posts: 53
Joined: 12/30/2007
From: the Republic
Status: offline 		Many cheaper laptops don't write CDs properly. Make sure you can read the CDs you've written from another computer, even from your laptop. Doing a directory listing isn't enough, you need to copy all the files to check.

If you can't, do the backup again, but first set your CD burner to run at the lowest speed it can. Turn on verification after burn. Of course, this'll make sure a backup lasts much longer. It's worth getting good quality blank CDs for the backup process; the cheap ones are far more likely to fail to write properly.

I think a better alternative is to back up to a pair of external hard disks. One is probably enough for your data, but I'm paranoid about these things. If your laptop is, say, taken down by a power surge when the hard disk is connected, there's a good chance that surge would take down the disk too.

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RE: Backed Up - 5/27/2008 11:43:40 PM   
JulieorSarah


Posts: 552
Joined: 8/25/2007
Status: offline 		DomKen, petdave and PainSmith all wrote using english words ...  i didn't understand ... thank goodness work does all this stuff!

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RE: Backed Up - 5/27/2008 11:57:20 PM   
SugarMyChurro


Posts: 1912
Joined: 4/26/2007
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: lusciouslips19
Get an external Hardrive and copy everything to there.


That's your easiest answer right there.

You can walk into most major electronics retail stores and get something useful in the $100 or less range. The hard disk will most likely have its own power supply and connect to your computer via a USB cable.

Depending on the importance of the data you are backing up, it may be worthwhile having two backups: one backup can stay at the house and the other should be kept somewhere else that's safe (safety deposit box, mom's house, etc.) Periodically, you should renew your backups making sure both your on and off-site copies are being kept up to date. Schedule the backups for you comfort level: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.

That data can also be encrypted using something like this:
http://www.truecrypt.org/

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RE: Backed Up - 5/28/2008 6:26:13 AM   
DomKen


Posts: 19457
Joined: 7/4/2004
From: Chicago, IL
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: petdave
quote:

ORIGINAL: DomKen
If you need/want longer storage you probably want to look into an online service over a USB harddrive or flash device.


While flash RAM is limited in the number of read/write cycles it can sustain, and the real high-density stuff hasn't been around long enough to have a solid track record, i'm not aware of any problem with USB (or Firewire)-based portable hard drives.

IME external hard drives fail slightly more frequently than internal ones, my guess is the external's power supply increases the failure rate, so while you might have all your data safe and sound on the platters you're now stuck with sending the drive off to a recovery business and paying fairly significant money to get your data off the platters on to a media you can read.

As to flash RAM, I know just enough about the underlying technology to not be very comfortable that a device will still be readable in 5 to 10 years.

If the OP hadn't specifically mentioned that she had a laptop I would have recommended buying two, or more, good high capacity internal hard drives with RAID which is the best option easily available to the individual at any sort of reasonable price.

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RE: Backed Up - 5/28/2008 6:48:57 AM   
Marc2b


Posts: 6660
Joined: 8/7/2006
Status: offline
quote:

And you all thought this thread was gonna be about something slighty ickier, didn't ya.


Yes I did. I was dreadfully worried for a moment that this my interfere with my plans for the Cabinet meetings.

Alas, when it comes to computers I’m afraid that I can be of little help so I’ll just wish you the best of luck and return to my regularly scheduled fantasizing.

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RE: Backed Up - 5/28/2008 7:10:12 AM   
pahunkboy


Posts: 33061
Joined: 2/26/2006
From: Central Pennsylvania
Status: offline 		ok- got it.

On backing up.  Use a USB memory.  Place that in your safe deposit box.   Or your home fire safe.  A safe in the home should not be to out in the open.  The govt can freeze a safe deposit box and all your accounts - try to get a lawyer when all your money is frozen.

anyhow proper storeage of old pics books ect can be good.

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