Fifty Plus (50+) - How Do 50+'rs Backup Their Hard Drive withe the Bicycle Pictures and Info?

How Do 50+'rs Backup Their Hard Drive withe the Bicycle Pictures and Info?

Okay, I have been reading the horrors of losing your hard drive, which evidently is in the future of EVERY hard drive known to mankind.

SO, I am thinking of ordering an external hard drive for backup

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10362387&adid=17070&dcaid=17070

http://ak.buy.com/db_assets/prod_lrg_images/387/10362387.jpg

What about the rest of you?

I have a Maxtor external hard drive. Once a quarter I also burn all my picture directories to CDs or DVDs which I then store at work.

Losing your hard drive is just one way of losing irreplaceable photographs. There is theft, there is fire in the home, and external hard drives fail on the same rate as their internal cousins. The only truly safe version is one burned to disk and saved in a separate location.

I have a Maxtor external hard drive. Once a quarter I also burn all my picture directories to CDs or DVDs which I then store at work.

Losing your hard drive is just one way of losing irreplaceable photographs. There is theft, there is fire in the home, and external hard drives fail on the same rate as their internal cousins. The only truly safe version is one burned to disk and saved in a separate location.

Yes, I have put all of my important pics on cd's or on web sites.

BUt, hopefully, an external HD would not fail at the same instant as my internal(s)

There is so much more stuff to back up, stuff I really do not want to "CD"

BUt, hopefully, an external HD would not fail at the same instant as my internal(s)

Its quite possible for that to happen (virus, power surge, lightning, short circuit, etc.)

Thumb drive here.

Same failure rate, it's nothing more than an internal hard drive housed in a box and attached via USB. The things that kill the drive in your computer will kill one of these just the same.

Not saying they aren't a good idea - I have one - just saying for irreplaceable stuff, you need to use a perpetual media. Backing up everything to an external drive is the best way to prepare yourself for a catastrophic failure. You clearly don't need to burn every little thing onto a DVD, though using a disaster recovery program and burning a disk image to DVD once in a while is a good strategy too.

Just don't forget that a random carload of crackheads with burglary in mind won't leave the external drive untouched when they steal your computer. Same thing with a fire that burns up your office. Or any other type of natural disaster. If the computer goes in some physical manner, the external drive is going with it.

Same failure rate, it's nothing more than an internal hard drive housed in a box and attached via USB. The things that kill the drive in your computer will kill one of these just the same.

Not saying they aren't a good idea - I have one - just saying for irreplaceable stuff, you need to use a perpetual media. Backing up everything to an external drive is the best way to prepare yourself for a catastrophic failure. You clearly don't need to burn every little thing onto a DVD, though using a disaster recovery program and burning a disk image to DVD once in a while is a good strategy too.

Just don't forget that a random carload of crackheads with burglary in mind won't leave the external drive untouched when they steal your computer. Same thing with a fire that burns up your office. Or any other type of natural disaster. If the computer goes in some physical manner, the external drive is going with it.

OK

What are folks thoughts about backing stuff up on one of the web backup sites?

I burn my pic collection to a CD on a semi-regular basis. In fact, it's time to do it again! Most computers have the capability for multiple internal drives, so another good solution is to have a 2nd internal drive, just for backups.

Accidents can -+happen.....I dumped a hot chocolate and wrecked my keyboard 2 weeks ago.

I am a computer tech and what I recommend my customers do is have at least 2 external HDD's and use tham alternately. Do a backup on one and put it somewhere off site, then backup to the other one and switch them. How often this is done is up to the individual according to how much data accumulates.

The off site location can be a friends house a bank vault or any location of your choice.
As far as the Web storage goes, it can be slow if you have a lot of data to backup, especially on the first time you use it and it's on who's computer and who has access to it? Your choice

I also recommed the smaller 2.5" drives as they do not have to have external power supplies, they are more expensive and don't come in as large of drives, so there again what ever fits your needs.

DVD and CD burners seem to be more difficult for people to master for what ever reason but, if you're currently using one of them that might not be a problem. They also can become scratched and eventually will no longer work under some circumstances.

In the end it's how valuable you consider your data to be, how much trouble you want to go to and how much you want to spend.

Fireproof safes in your home will not protect data from a fire, even though it won't burn it can be destroyed by the intense heat.

As a minimum, I recommend that at least 2 copies be kept at different locations, the methode is up to the person or business.

Same failure rate, it's nothing more than an internal hard drive housed in a box and attached via USB. The things that kill the drive in your computer will kill one of these just the same.
For this reason I only plug the external USB hard drive into my cumputer and the power supply when I use it to backup. Other wise it is completely dormant. I've been told by the historians at our denomination, that even data burned into a CD degrades over time. "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, bits to to oblivion..." (see Isaiah 40:6-8)

Another thing is depending on how long you expect something to be on the shelf the technology may change. 20 years from now the CD's/DVD's you burn now will be extinct and no one will be able to read the data unless you get a computer from a museum.

Another thing is depending on how long you expect something to be on the shelf the technology may change. 20 years from now the CD's/DVD's you burn now will be extinct and no one will be able to read the data unless you get a computer from a museum.

If I can make it for 20 more years, I will be 87, and I will be ecstatic!:D

You can extend the life of your hard drive by using spinright. http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm
It usually will recover lost data and more importantly does a superior job isolating sectors that are going bad and keeps you from saving data there.

I would back up to a CD and a USB external drive. Although tech, don't back up much as I rarely have had failures. Most data failures are my fault by overwriting a file or forgetting to save at the right time.

Good that you are thinking of this, you put in a lot of work.

I am a computer tech and what I recommend my customers do is have at least 2 external HDD's and use tham alternately. Do a backup on one and put it somewhere off site, then backup to the other one and switch them. How often this is done is up to the individual according to how much data accumulates.


Good advice.

Which part of the desert? I used to live near Palm Springs.

That is how I "clean up" my computer..... it crashes, wiped clean, start over. :D

If I can make it for 20 more years, I will be 87, and I will be ecstatic!:D


I was thinking more if you want to pass the photos down from gen to gen.
Technology probably won't last that long though.

Good advice.

Which part of the desert? I used to live near Palm Springs.


I live in Palm Desert right now. I made the mistake of moving to DHS, that didn't last for long though.

What you do is you have a Future Son-in Law, that is head of an IT department and he links into your computer and makes a back up on his companies Back up Network system. Saves a lot of hassle. Then as He is borrowing your Kona on a semi- permamnent basis, He daren't lose your Backup- even if he is marrying your daughter. (Eventually)

I put a few things on an online storage site free. They went out of business and I lost all. But I still had it on the computer. In 1999 - 2000

For this reason I only plug the external USB hard drive into my cumputer and the power supply when I use it to backup. Other wise it is completely dormant. I've been told by the historians at our denomination, that even data burned into a CD degrades over time. "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, bits to to oblivion..." (see Isaiah 40:6-8)

Boy, ain't that the truth, Rev. Try finding olde-fashioned slotted cleats for those platform pedals. Isaiah do much cycling?

I put a few things on an online storage site free. They went out of business and I lost all. But I still had it on the computer. In 1999 - 2000

That is one of my worries about on-line storage.

The other is the whole privacy thing. Periodically, I use a program witha "bleach" component which erases all the log files, etc., files 7 times. If it is stored on the internet, it will be there forever, unerasable.

OK, I got my 250 gb hd

I formatted it NTSF (it was fat32)

I want to use it to backup two different computers. Therefore, the word "partition" comes to mind!

SO, I go to the "help screens" in Windows Explorer, and they talk all about partitions, except the one vital question - HOW do you make a partition - which I always find MOST frustrating - when they talk about something assuming everyone understands.

SO, I mess around with google, - "How do you partition a hard drive" and come up with three possibilities:

1. Some software, mostly expensive, or

2. Using DOS FDisk in some manner, which seems to have the possibility for screwing up my current HD if I use it wrong, thereby with one improper key stroke destroying the very reason I got the external HD.

3. A variety of unknown free programs, mostly designed for Linux or whatever.

HELP!!

I see "partition magic" (Symantec) mentioned a lot - but - hey - it is $69.95 from Symantec.

There must be an easier (cheaper) way? I downloaded some free program which had a *.tar name, and my windows refused to open it.

If you want to make a partition you would go into...

I'll start at the beginning. Left click unless I say right click.

Click on start.

Find "My Computer" and right click on that.

When the menu opens up, click on "Manage".

When that opens up, look for "Disk Management" and click on that (left section of window).

On the right section of the window find the drive you want to partition (it will be Disk x, Disk followed by a number). There will be a drive letter, don't do anything on drive C:.

Right click on the part that says "Disk X".

When the menu opens up find and click on "Delete Partition".

Confirm any warning messages, DO NOT DO THIS ON DRIVE C:.

At this point you should have an area on this drive that says "Unnallocated".

Right on this area.

When the menu opens up click on "New Partition".

When the next window opens up click on "Next".

Below where it says "Select the partition you want to create" select the "Extended" option and click "Next".

Click on "Next" again.

Click on "Finish".

It will now say "Free Space" in this area.

Right on this area that says "Free Space".

When the menu opens up click on "New Logical Drive".

Click on "Next".

"Logical Drive" should be select, everything else should be grayed out.

Click on "Next".

You must choose how much to allocate to each partion, probably divide it in half.

By default it will have the total size of the drive already, you could just split this number in half (your choice).

After choosing the size click on "Next".

Now you can use the default "Drive Letter" that's in the box or assign your choice, as you wish.

Click on "Next".

Now you can make a few choices. I would recommend "Format this partition wth the following settings".

"NTFS"
"Default"
Change "New Volumn" to "Backup 1" or your choice of names.
Put a check mark in the "Perform a quick format" check box and click on "Next"

Click on "Next".

Click on "Finish".

Once it's done do the remaining portion of the drive and that's it.You only need to go back to the part that's relating to the "Free Space" for the second drive.

If your totally confused let me know and I'll do what I can to help.

Hey thanks - I am printing it out - this is good for XP HOme?

If you never hear from me again, I screwed it up royally!

It should work for XP anything (Home, Professional, Media Center or Server 2003 whatever).
Just make sure you don't do anything on drive c:, can't stress that enough!

OK - I now have a drive F and a Drive G

I will try the backup software and see what happens.

Why doesn't the help section of the Windows Explorer reference this procedure?

Grr!

Okay, I am now backing up my entire 40mb HD to the external HD
===========

Hmm!

I think this is going to take a while at 99 mb per minute.

You can extend the life of your hard drive by using spinright.

Even with a second internal hard drive, you can leave it disconnected when you're not making backups (or restoring a backup.) Like a few others have written, having a copy offsite protects against disasters that destroy the computer: theft, fire, etc, but of course everyone has to decide for themselves just how valuable their data is. Triple redundancy and off-site storage aren't always warranted, especially if all you're saving is a few copies of letters to Aunt Matilda and a few unimportant wallpapers.

Even with a second internal hard drive, you can leave it disconnected when you're not making backups (or restoring a backup.) Like a few others have written, having a copy offsite protects against disasters that destroy the computer: theft, fire, etc, but of course everyone has to decide for themselves just how valuable their data is. Triple redundancy and off-site storage aren't always warranted, especially if all you're saving is a few copies of letters to Aunt Matilda and a few unimportant wallpapers.


I agree.

One of the things I say to my clients is: "You don't need to spend a million to keep $5 safe but it doesn't make sense to spend $5 to keep a million safe".

It's totally an individual thing as far as how much trouble and expense you go to.

I guess I came along too late, but I ordered this one today.

I have a 300GB internal for data, a 200GB internal system disk (with some other data), and a 300GB external just for media files (I ripped all my Cd's to MP3 for example).

this 500gb will be used to backup the data (not software) on the two internals. If the media drive fails it's not the end of the world.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144069

I have a fair amount of redundancy simply between my two main computers - i.e., my web pages are identical on both computers, and they are also on the web host.

I really don't keep much that does not have a hard copy - i.e., turbotax is all printed out and saved, my funds are all available online, etc.

It is not a critical issue, but having a recent copy o my HD would save a lot of effort. I lost a HD once, and paid a fair amount to have the thing recovered.

How Do 50+'rs Backup Their Hard Drive withe the Bicycle Pictures and Info?

Okay, I have been reading the horrors of losing your hard drive, which evidently is in the future of EVERY hard drive known to mankind.

SO, I am thinking of ordering an external hard drive for backup

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10362387&adid=17070&dcaid=17070

http://ak.buy.com/db_assets/prod_lrg_images/387/10362387.jpg

What about the rest of you?
I still use a zip drive in my computers, anything I want to save goes on them. The are outdated but still work fine for me. I have a internal and external zip drive. If I need to save anything over 250 megs it gets brunt to cd for backup.