- Asicho
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- Registered: 4/10/2021
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Re: Hapless outrage
What a relief to find all the artwork safe! I am so sorry you've lost so many other files of value, though, nadi-ji.
And yes, I'm going to back up my machine today or tomorrow, just in case.
- Griffinmoon
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- Posts: 246
Re: Hapless outrage
Good to hear from you nadi.
Last edited by Griffinmoon (4/17/2021 4:07 pm)
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Thread Starter- scenario_dave
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- Posts: 68
Re: Hapless outrage
The cheapest way to back up is a using an ordinary hard drive. I bought usb cables for about $20 that can link most ordinary hard drives to my laptop. Then I go on ebay and buy at least two used hard drives cheap. They are usually hard drives designed for desktops because they are cheaper. Then I download a free backup software and backup my entire hard drive to the new drive. I always put it on two drives because it is safer to have two and when I can get drives for $10 or $20 each, I'd rather be safe then sorry.
I move everything over about one every month or two. If there is something critical, I back it to a thumb drive more often. It's the data that's most important to me. I can recreate my list of favorite sites but I can't recreate baby pictures of my children,
- joekc6nlx
- Minister of Kabiu
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- Registered: 4/16/2020
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Re: Hapless outrage
I bought a Western Digital MyBook with the RAID capability. I used it for a while, and yes, it was helpful, until it decided to crap out on me. So, I bought another one, a slightly improved and twice the capacity, and yep, it crapped out on me, too after only a few months. I think Dave's got the right idea, but I'm leery of purchasing used computer equipment off the intarwebz.....jmho.
"Those who can give up essential liberties in order to purchase a little extra security deserve neither liberty nor security." - Benjamin Franklin
"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." - Marcus Aurelius
- Griffinmoon
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Re: Hapless outrage
joe nandi and dave nadi:
Just saw your posts today about backup drives. I just bought a WD Passport 2Tb unit(reviewed and reputed to be decent enough for my purposes) and have backed up everything onto it--including the entire Artwork Project. I'm going to have to trust the thing as it's only for backup, not continual use. I'm also not savy enough for dave nadi's approach but I'll keep it in mind.
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Thread Starter- joekc6nlx
- Minister of Kabiu
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- From: West Central Ohio
- Registered: 4/16/2020
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Re: Hapless outrage
Best wishes! My first backup drive was a 1TB WD MyBook, and I had the option in the backup software to make it a RAID. In other words, it would copy the backup to both discs on the drive (it had two 500GB hard drives in it.) That way, if one crapped out, the other drive was still good. Nowhere as sophisticated as the RAID drives I'd like to have, which run a couple of thousand dollars or more, but it should serve your purposes. Glad you picked one up, and now, I hope you can get your pictures back that you still haven't gotten.
"Those who can give up essential liberties in order to purchase a little extra security deserve neither liberty nor security." - Benjamin Franklin
"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." - Marcus Aurelius
- Surtac
- Antipodean Assassin
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- Registered: 4/29/2020
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Re: Hapless outrage
Multiple backups are the key,
I used to rely upon a networked RAID unit until it was taken out by a nearby lightning strike which fried the ADSL router we were using for internet connectivity at the time.. Nowadays, backups are spread across a half dozen external hard drives in the half to 2 TB capacity range, none of which are left connected to a laptop or PC any longer than is necessary at the time. A few ''critical'' files / repositories are also copied to a couple of USB thumb drives that are kept closer to hand.
One thing that has been drilled into me over 40+ years of working in IT - backups are important, but recovery is everything.
It's a strange world. Let's keep it that way.
- scenario_dave
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Re: Hapless outrage
I only use my method because I am dirt poor at the moment but want a backup. I can buy a single new backup drive for $80 or $100 or 2 or 3 really cheap and old backup drives off of ebay for $25. I've had a few of them die but with my system I have my original and two backups. I'm betting the chances of two old backup drives dying at the same time as the original can't be much worse than one new backup drive dying at the same time as the original.
The two big problems with my systems are that old drives are almost always a lot slower and it takes twice as long to back up to two drives rather than one. I tend to backup my data to a thumb drive and then move it to both hard drives when I've got enough of it. I also have two computers so I can use one to backup the thumb while using the other one.
If you keep the backup unplugged unless you are using it it cannot be damaged by something like a power surge. My method works for me because I started with a 386sx computer which didn't include luxuries like sound cards. I learned how to install stuff early.
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