The importance of backing up....

[Guest]

Following on from my reverting to XP thread I just wanted to reinforce to folk of the importance of backing up personal data on your PC.

 

I'm back up and running with Vista for the mo and have re-installed most of the programs I had installed (Open Office, Itunes etc etc) since wiping the OS and personal data as the PC wouldn't start.

 

I've long since got into the habit of backing up regularly to an external hard drive I bought a few years back and so glad I did.

 

I would have lost around £250 worth of iTune music, thousands of digital images and several electronic copies of important correspondence.

 

So if you don't back up – start now....

[KevMc]

Aye, tis ever so important to backup - but it's also important to check that you can read your backup again if you need to .... I recall a good few years ago when I was working closer to the hardware than I do at the moment and we found that we had been merrily backing up key files every day only to find that when we needed to restore one that we couldn't becuase the backup (tape) was unreadable

[Guest]

Aye, tis ever so important to backup - but it's also important to check that you can read your backup again if you need to .... I recall a good few years ago when I was working closer to the hardware than I do at the moment and we found that we had been merrily backing up key files every day only to find that when we needed to restore one that we couldn't becuase the backup (tape) was unreadable

 

I don't even use the 'back up' facility provided by Vista as I don't trust it not to mess the process up.

 

I simply make direct copies of all my personal data direct onto the LaCie external hard drive. No compression nothing.

 

There is of course the risk that both drives will fail simultaneously but I'd have to be pretty unlucky for that to happen I reckon.

[alan_fincher]

I don't even use the 'back up' facility provided by Vista as I don't trust it not to mess the process up.

 

I simply make direct copies of all my personal data direct onto the LaCie external hard drive. No compression nothing.

 

There is of course the risk that both drives will fail simultaneously but I'd have to be pretty unlucky for that to happen I reckon.

Perhaps your dog causes less problems than ours ?......

 

On the boat, David was aware that his ailing laptop was failing, so connected it to an external hard drive, and copied the files.

 

Charlie the dog loves lying under the seat where people sit at the computer, but emerged, got caught in the extra cabling, and brought the ensemble crashing to the floor.

 

The hard disk drive was unreadable. I believe David did eventually recover most, but not all of the data, of the already ailing PC, as fortunately its disk was made no worse by the incident.

 

I gather hard disk prices are up at the moment, because of issues in the factories where they are made, but when cheap as chips (relatively) I'd venture it is worth having two, and alternating your backups between each, whilst keeping the not being used one in a safe location.

[Guest]

Fair selection here - but yes a bit pricier than last time I looked.

 

http://www.ebuyer.com/store/Storage/cat/Hard-Drive---External

[dor]

I'm not happy unless my data is in at least three different places.

I currently backup overnight to anexternal hard drive. Every so often copy personal data and pics onto USB sticks and also copy data between desktop and laptop.

 

I can't understand how people sleep when data is in only one place! Having just had a hard disk fail it is so easy to lose data.

 

Once decent data transfer rates up as well as down become widespread and reliable then backing up to the cloud isgoing to be the obvious answer - as long as that can be trusted!

 

I'm just about getting round to trying it as I can get a 2Mb/s upload on BT Infinity since I changed from the orange snail.

[Guest]

I'm just about getting round to trying it as I can get a 2Mb/s upload on BT Infinity since I changed from the orange snail.

 

Thanks for that - I'd forgotten Virgin offer this too....

[Robbo]

Also remember if you only backup to a hard drive that's physically in the same place as your pc/laptop/mac then it really isn't a backup! Having a backup off-site is good.

 

I use Dropbox for documents as it backs up as soon as I hit save (also has versions) (2Gb free - if you use this link and you install we both get an extra 250mb http://db.tt/zMw8i30)

[Mrs Tawny Owl]

This looks like a blatant advert, but it's just a link to a page on my website where I have given some hints and tips.

 

Many people forget their emails, which is OK if you use webmail, but do remember them if you use outlook or similar, especially if it's business because they can form part of your contracts.

 

Please ignore the prices, hard drive prices have at least doubled in the last 3 months, and I need to redo them.

 

Golden rules are duplicate and separate. (and as has been said above, do check you can read the backups once you have done them). Sues Link

 

Sue

[PeteS]

The classic backup routine as I use to practice when in charge of a computer centre is son, father, grandfather.

 

Son is the latest backup and is kept somewhere locally, the next time you backup this becomes father as the new backup is son. Father is moved to a seperate location in the same building. The next backup up gives you a new son, the old son is moved to replace father and father becomes grandfather and is moved to a seperate building.

 

Obviously the data we were storing was commercially sensitive and the above is probably a bit over the top for home users, but there is no harm in periodically storing a backup off-site with a relative.

[dor]

Thanks for that - I'd forgotten Virgin offer this too...

But only on cable i think. BT infinity gives you cable speeds on ordinary landline (as long as your area had been upgraded). My download is 24Mb/s which is pretty good for a 40 year old bit of Post Office wire! £18 month for 40GB usage + off peak phone calls.

[Guest]

I is on cable - we were one of the first areas in the UK to get fibre optic broadband when they were NTL...

 

This looks like a blatant advert, but it's just a link to a page on my website where I have given some hints and tips.

 

Many people forget their emails, which is OK if you use webmail, but do remember them if you use outlook or similar, especially if it's business because they can form part of your contracts.

 

Please ignore the prices, hard drive prices have at least doubled in the last 3 months, and I need to redo them.

 

Golden rules are duplicate and separate. (and as has been said above, do check you can read the backups once you have done them). Sues Link

 

Sue

 

Nice web site Sue....

 

I do use web mail but pick it up normally using Thunderbird, this being one of the reasons - mind you I'm putting my faith in Google to have good security and back-up routines.

[Guest]

I am paranoid about backing up data. I have a second hard drive in the tower which is purely a backup device. I also have an external hard drive caddy with an unwanted 80Gig drive fitted (8 quid off flebay complete with illegal 13Amp plug-50p for a legal plug.) The external unit plugs into the USB on the laptop and is great for transferring and backing up data.

[Robbo]

I would have lost around £250 worth of iTune music, thousands of digital images and several electronic copies of important correspondence.

 

BTW, with iTunes you can re-download all purchased tunes since iCloud came out, before you had to ring Apple up if you lost your tunes, but now their on the cloud thing so all your devices will be eventually be clients, etc...

[Lady Muck]

Also remember if you only backup to a hard drive that's physically in the same place as your pc/laptop/mac then it really isn't a backup! Having a backup off-site is good.

 

 

Agreed. I have my stuff on a laptop and 2 hardrives - one of which is off-site. I lost the laptop and one of the hard drives when they were stolen last month on the tube, I have now purchased a laptop with a bigger hard drive so I'm not tempted to take a hard drive with me when I'm out and about.

 

After this incident, my partner has now shut up about how I spend too much time backing up.

 

I'm considering backing up to the cloud as well - you can't be too careful.

[matty40s]

I lost the laptop and one of the hard drives when they were stolen last month on the tube, I have now purchased a laptop with a bigger hard drive so I'm not tempted to take a hard drive with me when I'm out and about.

After this incident, my partner has now shut up about how I spend too much time backing up.

 

were you on the victoria line when it happened???? This seems to be happening more and more down there,I did have one attempt on my rucksack lappy bag one evening late on. Luckily I had me deterrent ready, and had spotted them coming....

[weeble]

For home and small office use I'd thoroughly recommend an application called "GoodSync". Very flexible and can be fully automated. Been using it for several years and never had a problem.

[Nickhlx]

were you on the victoria line when it happened???? This seems to be happening more and more down there,I did have one attempt on my rucksack lappy bag one evening late on. Luckily I had me deterrent ready, and had spotted them coming....

 

What was that ? A sub-machine gun ?

 

Nick

[Lady Muck]

were you on the victoria line when it happened????

Yes, lots of bags, half asleep....

[Keeping Up]

I'm very glad I have a good backup regime.

 

Last week the computer started to go a bit unstable. Before starting to try various drastic cures I decided to take a backup in its unchanged but slightly-unstable state, so at least I could always back out from any changes that turned out to be disastrous.

 

It spent 5 hours backing up onto a separate partition then merely reported "backup failed" and locked itself up. After restarting, several things including both IE and Chrome refused to work so I decided the only thing to do was to restore from one of the three weekly backups that are held on a separate hard drive; but when I attempted to restore from them, the PC decided to write a blank file to the third one and erase the other two.

 

Thank goodness I had got a full backup from the month before, stored on a pile of DVD's. Six hours later the PC was restored to stability, and the various items that wanted to update themselves were only allowed to do so one at a time under careful supervision. I think I identified the culprits OK and now the updates have all finished and the PC seems to be stable; it has even managed to make a proper backup of itself again too.

[bizzard]

Frankly,thank goodness i'm not ruled like some seem to be by this computing machine under my finger tips.

Anything important like passwords,websites,email addresses ect ect ect,i always religiously write down,important pics i'll print off right away ect.my machine is fixed for auto back up also,but not much good if the whole thing blows up or something. I've no need to have expensive extra hard-drive storage backup ect,when a 10p Bic biro and a £1 note book from Wilkinsons will do the same thing.And all the electricity i save too.

But this is just me.

[Robbo]

Frankly,thank goodness i'm not ruled like some seem to be by this computing machine under my finger tips.

Anything important like passwords,websites,email addresses ect ect ect,i always religiously write down,important pics i'll print off right away ect.my machine is fixed for auto back up also,but not much good if the whole thing blows up or something. I've no need to have expensive extra hard-drive storage backup ect,when a 10p Bic biro and a £1 note book from Wilkinsons will do the same thing.And all the electricity i save too.

But this is just me.

 

I would rather trust a few backups on a number of hard drives or USB sticks in various places than paper backups. Paper is too fragile, and alot more dearer than what a simple USB stick can even hold. Important photos on paper - don't make me laugh, the cost of getting a decent photo print is well more than the cost of HDD's or USB sticks, and no where near as good.

 

They only use electric when plugged in you know.

 

If you just want to keep simple notes, then try Evernote, it's a client/server based free solution for Mac/Windows/iPhone/Android....

[bizzard]

I would rather trust a few backups on a number of hard drives or USB sticks in various places than paper backups. Paper is too fragile, and alot more dearer than what a simple USB stick can even hold. Important photos on paper - don't make me laugh, the cost of getting a decent photo print is well more than the cost of HDD's or USB sticks, and no where near as good.

 

They only use electric when plugged in you know.

 

If you just want to keep simple notes, then try Evernote, it's a client/server based free solution for Mac/Windows/iPhone/Android....

Thank you Robbo,very kind of you to make these suggestions.I know these things can be done,but i fear the whole buisiness of doing it and still worrying and thinking about it all rather a bore. I've been doing this computing lark for only three years and i survived perfectly well before that,in fact a lot better,as i wasn't wasting a lot of time messing about with one.I was out there getting me work done.

[Robbo]

Thank you Robbo,very kind of you to make these suggestions.I know these things can be done,but i fear the whole buisiness of doing it and still worrying and thinking about it all rather a bore. I've been doing this computing lark for only three years and i survived perfectly well before that,in fact a lot better,as i wasn't wasting a lot of time messing about with one.I was out there getting me work done.

 

Digital media is cheap, a £5 USB stick will store more documents and notes than a £5 worth of notepads. But even then you don't really need to use em, I use Evernote and Dropbox, both free on-line services that have dedicated applications.

 

I even scan in paper documents from Insurance companies and the like. Evernote will even make this searchable. So if the time comes I need some information, I have it 24x7 no matter where I am. Paper filing isn't for me...

 

I only really use hard drive backups for backing up my photos, and that's mainly because of how many I have and wish to store, and backing up to on-line storage over 3G isn't feasible.

[jelunga]

I'm very glad I have a good backup regime.

 

Last week the computer started to go a bit unstable. Before starting to try various drastic cures I decided to take a backup in its unchanged but slightly-unstable state, so at least I could always back out from any changes that turned out to be disastrous.

 

It spent 5 hours backing up onto a separate partition then merely reported "backup failed" and locked itself up. After restarting, several things including both IE and Chrome refused to work so I decided the only thing to do was to restore from one of the three weekly backups that are held on a separate hard drive; but when I attempted to restore from them, the PC decided to write a blank file to the third one and erase the other two.

 

Thank goodness I had got a full backup from the month before, stored on a pile of DVD's. Six hours later the PC was restored to stability, and the various items that wanted to update themselves were only allowed to do so one at a time under careful supervision. I think I identified the culprits OK and now the updates have all finished and the PC seems to be stable; it has even managed to make a proper backup of itself again too.

What operating system Allan?