Backup help please

[ruth900]

Yes i have an external hard drive just put everything i couldnt be with out on there one of the best things i have purchased

now I know I'm gonna get laughted at, but please explain!!
I don't back up and know I should. I need to save mostly spread sheets and hundreds of photos. Huddy please explain in idiot style no techie talk........

[PATRIOT73]

now I know I'm gonna get laughted at, but please explain!!
I don't back up and know I should. I need to save mostly spread sheets and hundreds of photos. Huddy please explain in idiot style no techie talk........

just plugs into usb port

then drag n drop from pc to hdd


explains it ere
step by step
http://www.ehow.com/how_2006209_use-hard-drive.html

[PATRIOT73]

just plugs into usb port

then drag n drop from pc to hdd


explains it ere
step by step
http://www.ehow.com/how_2006209_use-hard-drive.html

just ignore steps 1-5

[JanetB]

How did you get your hubby on an external hard drive

Sounds mighty painful

*Hehehehehehee*


~Jan~

[mainlypostcards]

Hubby bought something called Acronis. Does an entire image of your pc, which is then stored on an external hd. Came in very handy couple of months ago when our hard disc failed - reinstated the entire pc onto a new pc with just a couple of mouse clicks.
Apart from that I copy and paste all documents on a weekly basis to an external hd - may sound ott, but we've had our fair share of pc problems and I'd hate to lose any files, especially all my photos.

[PATRIOT73]

Hubby bought something called Acronis. Does an entire image of your pc, which is then stored on an external hd. Came in very handy couple of months ago when our hard disc failed - reinstated the entire pc onto a new pc with just a couple of mouse clicks.
Apart from that I copy and paste all documents on a weekly basis to an external hd - may sound ott, but we've had our fair share of pc problems and I'd hate to lose any files, especially all my photos.

buy a digital frame
just store pics on a sd card

[mainlypostcards]

buy a digital frame
just store pics on a sd card

Whatever device you have, they could potentially all fail. I'm quite content with having copies of "important" files in multiple places.

[alsoldbooks]

Hi Peeps, Great stuff. Just what I wanted. A real forum of opinions.

I’m intrigued so much that I am here long past my bedtime. I’ve been taken through networks, which in my time needed a team of techies; past whole families of re-writable disks; on to external usb hard drives; I’ve heard of compressing information on hard drives; and yet again how the best thing ever purchased was a hard drive; I learn that acronis makes images of a pc; I hear of digital frames and sd cards and finally I read from mainlypostcards, ‘Whatever device you have, they could potentially all fail. I'm quite content with having copies of "important" files in multiple places’. I look up all the references and I google all the leads and now its nearly 230 in the morning.

This brings me neatly back to the start of my quest - how to ‘simply’ and 'effectively' avoid total failure & loss.

It seems to me that if my service provider is telling the truth, then automatic backing up on line does this very simply.

BUT if online back up is 'pie in the sky', then the good old fashioned systematic ‘family’ back up is the only way.

Please continue your comments, especially I would like to hear from anyone with good or bad experiences of online back up

Thanks so much for your input to this discussion,

Steven

[kengillam]

Whilst an online backup may seem to be an easy solution to your prayers, ask yourself this question would you trust the most important thing in your life to a third party. When you need the backup, if they say sorry we don't seem to have your data, you would wish you had taken control of your own destiny. The most important thing with backups is the discipline to do them regularly.

[alsoldbooks]

Hi Ken, Thanks for your wise words.

The attraction to me of the idea of online backup is the concept that it is automatic. Yes! Of course there will be times when it is not perfect, such is life. IF it is automatic just like my service providers online security has already proved to be, simply happening in the background and occasionaly telling me what it has done, then I think it will augment my failing personal memory beyond all measure. I regularly forget the paper stuck on the top of the monitor that says in 3 inch letters BACK UP. I often forget the note on the back door that says TAKE PHONE & WALLET and drive back from the shop mumbling - you'll forget your head next..

I am prepared to put my life in someone elses hands. I do it constantly, as we all do by trusting doctors, other drivers and countless others throughout our lives. My days as a pilot, going through all the pre-take off checks personally, every time I fly are in my past - now I must trust the other pilot.

That does not mean I am prepared to blunder in regardless. So I ask the question again.

DOES ANYONE HAVE REALTIME EXPERIENCE OF ONLINE BACKUP?

Thanks, Steven