nylyon-(Admin) 7,880 #1 Posted November 7, 2013 Backup data.... blah blah blah.... you've all heard this but is it really important. Most of you are aware that I have a degree in Computer Science and work for a very large technology company, but even I was lax at one time. Back in 2000, I had a brand new laptop computer. Like many of you, I put all my digital pictures from my children's first years on it. The computer developed a problem which required service and I sent it in for repair which turned out to be a bad mother board. Part of the repair was that they not only replaced the mother board, but the hard drive as well and I lost everything! The actual value of the data lost was small, but these were irreplaceable pictures which I will never have again all because I didn't do a backup, after all it was a new machine anyway. Since then, I have purchased external hard drives which cost like $100 and my computers are now backed up HOURLY which is a good thing. This past weekend I had to replace the keyboard on my MacBook Pro (because of a liquid spill). I have no idea what happened, but when the computer was booted back up, the hard disk was corrupted and required a complete format to fix. THIS time, it was not a problem, I formatted the drive, and restored the backup. I lost only 3 hours of my time doing this, and kept all my data which includes all the information about RedSquare! It's not just data loss like this, but there's a new NASTY malware on the loose. This program comes by e-mail and will encrypt all your files. You then receive a notice where to PAY to get the key to unlock them. If you do not pay, you do not get to access your files PERIOD! Having a backup will protect you! If you have data on your computer which would hurt to lose, spend the money NOW and back it up. Don't wait to lose your children's pictures to learn the lesson! 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Stigian 1,234 #2 Posted November 7, 2013 My problem is remembering to do the back-ups to my external drive.. I might do a back-up once a month! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
stevasaurus 23,274 #3 Posted November 7, 2013 Great advice Karl. When I was taking some computer classes the instructor said..."There are 2 kinds of computer users, those that do back ups, and those that will". Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SousaKerry 503 #4 Posted November 7, 2013 I would make a crack about Apple products but it would probobly get my account mysteriously deleted.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nylyon-(Admin) 7,880 #5 Posted November 7, 2013 I would make a crack about Apple products but it would probobly get my account mysteriously deleted.... Nah, but it would be off-topic for this topic. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rmaynard 16,290 #6 Posted November 7, 2013 I back up my desktop pc, my laptop, and my Android phone to Carbonite. It's automatic so I don't have to remember to do it, and in the event that a catastrophe were to occur where I were to lose my computer and/or a local backup drive, Carbonite is off-site. Also, with Carbonite using cloud technology, I can access any of my files from anywhere in the world. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wrightorchid 261 #7 Posted November 8, 2013 There is a basic feature within windows, that will do a complete backup of the hard drive. This is a full image, not just a few files. You can set it to run how often you want. You can get a huge hard drive , 2-3 TB at Costco or elsewhere for under $100. It is well worth it. Carbonite or other services are good too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rmaynard 16,290 #8 Posted November 8, 2013 I know that I have told this story before, but my brother had his computer backed up to an external drive. He had all of his pictures, financial info, everything on those drives! Well, his house burned to the ground and he lost everything, including his backup. That is one reason why I backup to an off-site facility. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rboski 114 #9 Posted November 11, 2013 I know that I have told this story before, but my brother had his computer backed up to an external drive. He had all of his pictures, financial info, everything on those drives! Well, his house burned to the ground and he lost everything, including his backup. That is one reason why I backup to an off-site facility. Any bulletproof backup strategy should include some offsite data storage. Cloud solutions are great. Could be as simple as storing an external drive at work or a family members house. Work out some sort of rotation schedule to keep the data current. I have a couple of external drives and periodically update them with all my latest pictures and documents and then keep one at my parents house or work. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Stigian 1,234 #10 Posted June 4, 2014 Evening all, thought I'd post about the er.. fun I had a few week's ago with my wife's computer to remind you all how important it is to do back-ups!! Can you guess how I know? The computer blue screened one evening for no reason that I could see.. Normally a reboot and all is fine.. Well not this time!! No sign of the hard drive in the bios!! A bit more fiddling about showed the hd was spinning up, but that was all!! And of course as you have guessed no back-up of my Wife's computer had been done! After asking about I had 2 options, send the hd to a specialist to get the data extracted (starting at £99!) or have a fiddle myself... As the hd was spinning up it stood to reason that the electronic side of things might of packed up.. So onto Fleabay I went and bought an identical working hd and swapped the electronics over between drives... This time I got lucky and managed to extract all the data from the dead drive much to my Wife's happiness as it her whole life was on in including spreadsheets of all the bills, tax stuff etc... So there you go boys and girls, always remember to do back-ups. As soon as another hd arrives it will be going to into my Wife's computer as a second hd so everything can be backed up to it every day... Oh, if you have a look on my YT channel you can see how I got my revenge on the dead hd Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nylyon-(Admin) 7,880 #11 Posted June 4, 2014 Glad you were able to get it all back, in todays times digital information is pretty critical! Many of us only have to lose it once. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Terry M-(Moderator) 2,226 #12 Posted June 5, 2014 Karl, I got the shivers when I read you lost irreplaceable pictures ...Thats why my wife and I always back-up stuff all the time. especially all of the pictures of our kids!!( have over 29,000 pictures alone backed up according to my wife) and we also frequently back-up the back-up and store it in the waterproof/fireproof safe!! .....just to be safe. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nylyon-(Admin) 7,880 #13 Posted June 5, 2014 Yep, we lost a lot. Good news is while cleaning out our loft, I found a bunch of them on CD's. Really was fun to see these kids when they were that small, wish I had better backups earlier. I do now.... Oh, there was mention of off-site cloud type things. While I have no evidence the company I work for strictly forbids us from utilizing such sites because of security concerns. It's a major issue if we do, so there must be something to it, and my company kinda knows computers.... I'm sticking with the multi copies within my house. While a fire certainly could take out my data a data breach at the cloud vendors seems more likely to me. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Coadster32 793 #14 Posted June 7, 2014 (edited) Thank you for posting this. Definatly importation, and reminded me it's time to do mine as well. I use and external drive for most everything but the OS I use. I replace the drive every two years. The old drive backs up the external every quarter, and goes in the safe. Seems to work for me. Edited June 7, 2014 by Coadster32 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leeave96 490 #15 Posted June 7, 2014 Great advice! I'm hoping to gat my mini mac this fall and a network including auto backups too. However, one should also have a backup Wheelhorse too! I recommend the two tractor plan at minimum... ;) 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leeave96 490 #16 Posted June 8, 2014 I have a question. We back up to hard discs, but sometimes they fail too. Is there a media one can (and maybe should) back up to that unless physically damaged is otherwise totally reliable? I'm thinking a CD or DVD? Thanks! Bill Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nylyon-(Admin) 7,880 #17 Posted June 8, 2014 CD's and DVD's fail too, and they are SLOW and do not hold a lot of data. Take my laptop for example. I have a 1TB hard drive, it would take roughly 110 DVD's to back it up (assuming it were full) and several days to do so. With today's capacities the only viable home option is an external hard drive. Yes they fail, but the key is to use it as backup ONLY, not to archive. Again, let's take my Macbook. I never delete anything. When I get to the limits of the drive, I will either need to replace that drive or get a new computer. Either way, I never delete data and the external disk is just for backup purposes. When you start to archive data, you run the risk of the media becoming obsolete (think floppy disk, home use tape backup's etc). CD's, DVD's and such will be gone in a couple of years and many new computers sold today do not have those drives (almost all of the Mac line). The likely hood of your computers HDD failing AND your backup failing at the same time are low. To reduce it even more, backup on multiple external drives. My Mac Mini holds all the backups for the other computers. There's right around 12TB of disk JUST for backups. So, keep everything on your hard disk, keep your hard disk current technology and backup and you'll be fine. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leeave96 490 #18 Posted June 8, 2014 CD's and DVD's fail too, and they are SLOW and do not hold a lot of data. Take my laptop for example. I have a 1TB hard drive, it would take roughly 110 DVD's to back it up (assuming it were full) and several days to do so. With today's capacities the only viable home option is an external hard drive. Yes they fail, but the key is to use it as backup ONLY, not to archive. Again, let's take my Macbook. I never delete anything. When I get to the limits of the drive, I will either need to replace that drive or get a new computer. Either way, I never delete data and the external disk is just for backup purposes. When you start to archive data, you run the risk of the media becoming obsolete (think floppy disk, home use tape backup's etc). CD's, DVD's and such will be gone in a couple of years and many new computers sold today do not have those drives (almost all of the Mac line). The likely hood of your computers HDD failing AND your backup failing at the same time are low. To reduce it even more, backup on multiple external drives. My Mac Mini holds all the backups for the other computers. There's right around 12TB of disk JUST for backups. So, keep everything on your hard disk, keep your hard disk current technology and backup and you'll be fine. Good stuff - thanks!!!!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
