The importance of backing up....

[bizzard]

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.

But supposing your computer kicks the bucket,you can't afford another or get that one repaired,and you've got no Gooseberry or i devices,therefore no access to your storage sticks and things. You would then be reduced to going around with a pocket full of these sticks, bothering and pleading with other folk to stick your sticks into their usb's ect,and it would all become a nightmare.

I do have one of these special sticks though with a couple of rare Amy Winehouse concerts on,which i,ve burn't off a DVD of.But i shall keep her on ''The stick''also just in case.

[Robbo]

But supposing your computer kicks the bucket,you can't afford another or get that one repaired,and you've got no Gooseberry or i devices,therefore no access to your storage sticks and things. You would then be reduced to going around with a pocket full of these sticks, bothering and pleading with other folk to stick your sticks into their usb's ect,and it would all become a nightmare.

I do have one of these special sticks though with a couple of rare Amy Winehouse concerts on,which i,ve burn't off a DVD of.But i shall keep her on ''The stick''also just in case.

 

I said I don't use sticks I use "the cloud", if something would happen to all my devices all i would need would be web access. This could be the library's or a friends, and then I could print of if needed.

 

If your boat or house burnt down to the bottom of the canal tomorrow with your laptop and notepad or whatever else you have on boat would you loose important stuff, if the answer is yes then you need off-site backup.

[bizzard]

I said I don't use sticks I use "the cloud", if something would happen to all my devices all i would need would be web access. This could be the library's or a friends, and then I could print of if needed.

 

If your boat or house burnt down to the bottom of the canal tomorrow with your laptop and notepad or whatever else you have on boat would you loose important stuff, if the answer is yes then you need off-site backup.

But i keep me note pad close to me heart all the time,like old Corporal Jones did with his army pocket book and discharge papers.

Supposing elecrtic power failed throughout the whole world,no types of fuel of any sort left to power power-stations,no fuel for generators,nothing,and all batteries gone flat. All your data would have to remain up there,lost in the clouds,just whizzing around in cyber-space lost forever or until electrical power was somehow restored. But i'd still have my note book,but of course with nothing much to refer to anymore would also be rendered pretty useless too.

[Guest]

Even though some of my work is with computers in education, I can see where Bizzard is coming from. We have become obsessed with these bloody things (me included) and they are taking us over. I once had a life, now it is a virtual one. I can barely write with a pen anymore, which I find rather disturbing.

[Guest]

But i keep me note pad close to me heart all the time,like old Corporal Jones did with his army pocket book and discharge papers.

Supposing elecrtic power failed throughout the whole world,no types of fuel of any sort left to power power-stations,no fuel for generators,nothing,and all batteries gone flat. All your data would have to remain up there,lost in the clouds,just whizzing around in cyber-space lost forever or until electrical power was somehow restored. But i'd still have my note book,but of course with nothing much to refer to anymore would also be rendered pretty useless too.

 

and when you leave it on the bus???

[Robbo]

But i keep me note pad close to me heart all the time,like old Corporal Jones did with his army pocket book and discharge papers.

Supposing elecrtic power failed throughout the whole world,no types of fuel of any sort left to power power-stations,no fuel for generators,nothing,and all batteries gone flat. All your data would have to remain up there,lost in the clouds,just whizzing around in cyber-space lost forever or until electrical power was somehow restored. But i'd still have my note book,but of course with nothing much to refer to anymore would also be rendered pretty useless too.

 

If you fell in the canal your notepad will be quite unusable.

 

Whatever your method of storing stuff, if you have either one copy or one place where multiple copies are stored then if something happens you've lost it.

 

Those tools make it easier, there cloud based which is my off-site storage and I don't need to think about backing up because it's just does it. If the "Cloud" went or I have no Internet access, they are still stored on the devices I have.

 

If I lost all possessions tomorrow due to fire, flood or earthquake. I won't have lost my important docs, whatever they may be (guessing photos and insurance could be the most important!).

[bizzard]

Even though some of my work is with computers in education, I can see where Bizzard is coming from. We have become obsessed with these bloody things (me included) and they are taking us over. I once had a life, now it is a virtual one. I can barely write with a pen anymore, which I find rather disturbing.

Indeed,they have taken most people over.I'm self taught with computing,learning about Gorillabites and all, as indeed most of us probably are,and i am capable of performing the suggestions that Robbo describes,but i'm honestly not that interested and get bored with it quickly,and don't want it to ''get a hold of me''.I have a collection of fountain pens all filled up with ink and ready for action,one of which is my old school pen,a Parker 51,which i scribe with regularly.

[Guest]

and when you leave it on the bus???

Carbon paper backup is the answer. Quick, cheap, easy reliable. No need to spend a fortune, no need to go to night school to learn how to use it. Readily available, environmentally friendly, no power required to use it, and easy to dispose of when spent.

[Keeping Up]

What operating system Allan?

 

It's Windows Vista.

 

The PC is an Acer so for the backup side of things I use Acer's e-Recovery system.

 

The problems I believe first started when the Trend Micro antivirus database became big enough that I started running out of memory, and during all the paging that was happening, an anti-virus update got corrupted. Meanwhile I gave the PC some more memory, then Chrome issued an update which was incompatible with Rapport, that caused Chrome to isolate the PC from its Internet connection and the whole thing started to get hopelessly muddled up.

 

Even now there's a weird thing where Chrome won't start from the "Startup" folder but is quite happy to start up from Windows Scheduler instead. Apparently that's not uncommon and nobody knows why.

[bizzard]

and when you leave it on the bus???

Oh yes i forgot to mention i do it in carbon copy triplicate and keep em dotted about in different locations,a bit like folk do with their hard-drives,memory-sticks and clouds.

[Guest]

Carbon paper backup is the answer. Quick, cheap, easy reliable. No need to spend a fortune, no need to go to night school to learn how to use it. Readily available, environmentally friendly, no power required to use it, and easy to dispose of when spent.

 

Unless it's improved since I last used it in around 1980 it's also pretty messy when handled with moist (sweaty!) hands.

 

I do have to be honest though and admit to lovingly eyeing up the Filofaxes (in W H Smiths I believe it was) the other day, but I guess in striving to be 'minimalist' as possible even these would be considered too 'advanced'....

[bizzard]

That's me lot chaps i'm bored now but thanks for chatting about it folks.Having just wasted about 3 hours on here,I now have to catch up on various unfinished jobs.

[Guest]

Unless it's improved since I last used it in around 1980 it's also pretty messy when handled with moist (sweaty!) hands.

 

I do have to be honest though and admit to lovingly eyeing up the Filofaxes (in W H Smiths I believe it was) the other day, but I guess in striving to be 'minimalist' as possible even these would be considered too 'advanced'....

I believe filofax's are making quite a comeback? I recall sitting in meetings watching people lovingly fondle their filofax's and it used to annoy me (probably because I didn't have one.) Then mobile phones became the source of annoyance,though my annoyance did recede when I bought my first Nokia. The associated hernia was less pleasant though. Laptop's were the next thing, and don't even get me going on Powerpoints;I am powerpointed to death. I haven't caught up with Smartphones yet, so will have to be annoyed by them for a little while

[Guest]

I believe filofax's are making quite a comeback? I recall sitting in meetings watching people lovingly fondle their filofax's and it used to annoy me (probably because I didn't have one.) Then mobile phones became the source of annoyance,though my annoyance did recede when I bought my first Nokia. The associated hernia was less pleasant though. Laptop's were the next thing, and don't even get me going on Powerpoints;I am powerpointed to death. I haven't caught up with Smartphones yet, so will have to be annoyed by them for a little while

 

Bloody Blackberries were the thing at work. People would constantly be on them despite what else they were supposed to doing (paying attention in meetings or whatever).

 

They also intruded into your personal life because the culture was to respond to emails no matter what time of the day or if you were on leave.

 

I made myself pretty un-popular at work as I started to use it's auto on/auto off feature to ensure that little red flashing 'you've got an email' light didn't suck me in to have a look.

 

Often I would go into work the next morning to the likes of

 

'what's your take on the figures I sent last night'

 

me 'No idea, give me a chance to have a look and I'll let you know...'

 

- cue incredulous look along the lines of 'what you didn't have your Blackberry on at 9pm....'

 

When mine packed in a month before I left I had an even better excuse, no body was going to authorise one for four weeks....bliss.

 

I like my current smart-phone though - but the emails I retrieve with it now are from family and friends....

[Guest]

Funny how people respond to texts. My missus answers them immediately lest there should be some impending disaster. Sometimes I think she knows there is incoming before it actually bleeps. my daughters are exactly the same. My phone can bleep a text and I might look at it sometime that day.

[jelunga]

Even though some of my work is with computers in education, I can see where Bizzard is coming from. We have become obsessed with these bloody things (me included) and they are taking us over. I once had a life, now it is a virtual one. I can barely write with a pen anymore, which I find rather disturbing.

You make a good point here. Similar to mental arithmetic. You needed to be able to quickly add/ subtract in yr head once. Then cheap pocket calculators arrived and Ths skill was lost. How many youngsters now how to use a slide rule or log tables?

[dor]

How many youngsters now how to use a slide rule or log tables?

 

Whilst I agree that agility in mental arithmetic is a valuable skill, how many people need to use log tables or slide rules today? My slip-stick hasn't been out of its case for 40 years.