Backup!

Jogga · 09-02-08, 08:47 AM

It's been a rough couple of days one way or another, not least because yesterday (at around 09:30) I managed to fry my hdd. When I say "fry", I mean wreck completely! So bad was the damage, my XP repair disk couldn't even detect a hard drive

So, £600 and a shiny new DELL Inspiron later, I began my acquaintance with Windows Vista.

I am not unknown for the occasional exhortation to "BACKUP" your data :) and I know that this can appear somewhat evangelical (I'm sure my friends from the P&R Forum will forgive the expression ;)): however, I want you to know that I do follow my own advice and backup my pc (and laptop) every day! So, everything is where it should be including all of my mail, music, photographs, contacts and documents. Now all I have to do is figure out what Vista has done with it.

The moral of this tale?

Well, apart from demonstrating what a smart ass I am, those backups saved my bacon yesterday! If you aren't backing up regularly, it might be worth thinking about starting ~ when (not if) the unthinkable happens to you, you will be saved much heartache.

Tankman · 09-02-08, 11:40 AM

Backup automatically 'bout 0200 hrs, daily!

Saved my butt often!

nonentity · 09-02-08, 11:51 AM

Wise words oh great debating one.

I suffered a sticky end recently when I lost all but photos and music, which are on an external drive. I knew the pitfalls of not backing up regularly but didn't do it thinking that because my computer was new it would be OK. Not so. I now backup daily whether I need to or not!

**radimus** · 09-02-08, 12:11 PM

500gb external USB drive - about $100.00

not losing 10 years worth of family pics and videos - priceless

johnhu_2005 · 09-02-08, 04:34 PM

That reminds me of the mastercard commercial.

I do a system state backup daily.
I do a complete system backup weekly.

All done using Acronis True Image Home.

**Martin** · 09-02-08, 05:53 PM

Surely a key question is how to back your data up?

**radimus** · 09-02-08, 06:20 PM

an external drive and a basic xcopy will do it.

Most external drives come with a basic backup app.

If you have a even a vague idea of where your important data is, manually copying isn't a hard way to do it... but, I'd still use xcopy or even better robocopy.

**Martin** · 09-02-08, 06:30 PM

My problem with only using an external HDD to back up your data is that it does not cover all of your bases - far from it, in fact.

Some of the physical risks to your computer are echoed in the external HDD: fire, flooding, and so on. An external HDD would, not for example, be a good back up strategy for the residents of New Orleans.

So, I use a three-pronged approach: an external HDD, an 8GB USB drive (for critical data) which is left in a separate location, and Amazon's S3 service via Jungledisk.

**radimus** · 09-02-08, 06:50 PM

True, it doesn't do everything... but for those data hogs that have 30+gb of pics and video, it is about the only realistic method of doing so.

If most of your important data is in the form of office documents (and such), thumbdrives are a very reliable solution (as are cd/dvd backups)

I was going to look into offline data backup services, but once again... several hundred gb of pics/video/music/etc would be fairly expensive.

Buying a few XXX gb external drives, backing up the data and leaving/sending a copy to work/friend/family member suffices fairly well.

johnhu_2005 · 09-02-08, 08:40 PM

Regularly, I would not expect my home to catch on fire

I only use Acronis because of it's speed recovering. Besides, drive images are always better than backups. I backup to another internal HD. The critical data are also on my flash drive.

mkss55442 · 09-02-08, 09:04 PM

I use Norton Ghost 14 with a 500GB external HD. I do a full backup once a month and an incremental backup every day. Then the next month I copy the last month's worth of backups to another 500 GB external HD. I also do an hourly sync of critical project data to yet another 500 GB external HD. I'm paranoid (among other things)...

johnhu_2005 · 09-02-08, 09:26 PM

Lol, that's more paranoid that I am :)

Jogga · 09-09-08, 02:23 PM

Ok Troops, so now I’m up and running with Vista and I’ve replaced my (much loved) Photosmart 7660 and my (not so much loved) Canon scanner with an HP C6280 All-in-One and I’m good to go.

So, the old box is being fitted with a new hard drive and I’m thinking about playing around with Ubuntu for a while. I confess that I’m a bit of a spendthrift when it comes to gadgets and software, but, as I was rebuilding (more accurately, configuring) my new PC, it struck me just how much I had spent on applications and programs.

Office Professional 2003 (circa £350.00 when purchased and I have two legitimate copies)
Microsoft Visio 2003 (circa £200.00 and I have two legitimate copies)
Microsoft Project 2007 (circa £400.00)
Microsoft Money (circa £50.00)
Microsoft Digital Image Suite (circa £20)
Memory Map (£450.00 – basic and selections)

And so it goes on - £000s of pounds in software that is often unstable, unfit and overpriced. Moreover, that much truncated list doesn’t include all of the redundant or unused applications that I didn’t bother to load.

The idea of an OS that is not only free but subject to free upgrades forever is quite appealing and there seems to be a raft of free software to use on it :)

However, I’m nervous! Everyone that I’ve mentioned this little project to seems to shudder and roll their eyes skyward! What have I missed? The operating system seems easy enough to manage and I don’t need to worry about wireless (I’ll go with Ethernet). But, everyone I speak to seems to think that this is folly.

If there are any users out there that can pacify my misgivings (and offer a Linux noob some support), I’d appreciate any comments.

**radimus** · 09-09-08, 02:51 PM

I can't do much for you regarding any of the linux distros, but I will say that for virtually any PC based app/project that you want to do, there will be a freeware equivalent.

I posted a freeware thread here somewhere about a year or so ago with my choices for a freeware app for any given process.

All that aside, I'm sure that Linux will have very similar choices. If you just wanted to play, there are Linux Live CDs that have a bootable OS on CD for you to play with to see if you are comfortable with the interface and some of the apps...

DaLabrador · 09-09-08, 04:44 PM

Yep. Live CD of Ubuntu is the very first step for you. The install CD is a live cd. Pretty clever.

Primarily because of driver issues some people experience. Hardware manufacturers sometimes go the easy way (or get forced to, but that's OT) and only develop drivers for windows.
Most hardware work in linux, but for the best(easiest and smoothest) experience an atheros based wifi card and an nvidia graphics card are preferred. Not to say that alternatives won't work, but it's a good reason to start with a live cd.

I like Ubuntu but usually go debian (Ubuntu is a flavour of Debian), which is an extremely potent linux distribution (but not as easy to configure for safety and usability, to be honest). It works very much the same (and can be configured to work exactly the same).

If everything works out ok I welcome you to the linux community and I hope you bear with linux for a while, because if you don't play computer games nor is in need of a very specific windows application it truly kicks ass (hence the nickname "Wintendo" by *nix geeks).

Oh, and if you really need to run some windows application you can try wine, which emulates windows under linux. It's been a while since I played around with it, but oldish apps worked fine. Otherwise vmware player can be useful.

Good luck!