Backing Up

System

Summer01 wrote: »

I want to back up my computer, is IDrive (idrive.com) a good tool for this? I've not backed up before and considering my photos and music are stored on my computer I really need to rectify this

Thanks..

I used idrive in the end however got a big stuck as their are two users on the PC. Managed to backup one of the users stuff, but when I tried to change over to the other user to back this up aswell, it asks me to download idrive again. Is it better to have two accounts in each persons name and back up seperarely to get around this please..

drdoom

Would recommend Adonis True Image for complete backups, find it very good.

Have been using Dropbox for backing up important files, it automatically syncs files online as you save them on your HD.

A great service and completely free!

tronator

john1j wrote: »

What about the rsync technique ,i have been used it and it is great.

Yeah, it's great. I'm using it. With a little script you can build your own "time machine" using --link-dest=xxx as parameter. You can use it locally or even better you can backup remotely via SSH.

NoreenOMS

Hi everyone,

We have one computer in the house - which is our laptop. It needs sending away to be fixed, as the space bar has stopped working, and the computer is in general very slow - can take 40 minutes from load up until ready to use internet/or load files.

We have a lot of photos & music on the laptop, so after a bit of googling for info - brought a WD essential passport hard drive to store everything on before we send to be fixed - just encase everything is wiped once we receive the laptop back (if they can fix it).

However, I am not clued up on this sort of thing at all. Have we done everything we need to do to make sure we don't lose our files, by backing them up on this external hard drive? Is it as simple as it sounds - i.e we could just plug the external drive into another computer or our laptop when it comes back, and all the files will be there? Even if it is a different laptop to one the hard drive was set up on?

Any advice anyone can give before we send the laptop away would be much appreciated!!

Thanks,

zaralondon

NoreenOMS wrote: »

Hi everyone,

We have one computer in the house - which is our laptop. It needs sending away to be fixed, as the space bar has stopped working, and the computer is in general very slow - can take 40 minutes from load up until ready to use internet/or load files.

We have a lot of photos & music on the laptop, so after a bit of googling for info - brought a WD essential passport hard drive to store everything on before we send to be fixed - just encase everything is wiped once we receive the laptop back (if they can fix it).

However, I am not clued up on this sort of thing at all. Have we done everything we need to do to make sure we don't lose our files, by backing them up on this external hard drive? Is it as simple as it sounds - i.e we could just plug the external drive into another computer or our laptop when it comes back, and all the files will be there? Even if it is a different laptop to one the hard drive was set up on?

Any advice anyone can give before we send the laptop away would be much appreciated!!

Thanks,

Get an external hard drive/back up your data and try a reinstall of windows?

NoreenOMS

zaralondon wrote: »

Get an external hard drive/back up your data and try a reinstall of windows?

Thanks for the reply, but I don't really understand.

We have already purchased an external hard drive. What would a reinstall of windows do?

Thanks again.

busenbust

NoreenOMS wrote: »

Hi everyone,

We have one computer in the house - which is our laptop. It needs sending away to be fixed, as the space bar has stopped working, and the computer is in general very slow - can take 40 minutes from load up until ready to use internet/or load files.

We have a lot of photos & music on the laptop, so after a bit of googling for info - brought a WD essential passport hard drive to store everything on before we send to be fixed - just encase everything is wiped once we receive the laptop back (if they can fix it).

However, I am not clued up on this sort of thing at all. Have we done everything we need to do to make sure we don't lose our files, by backing them up on this external hard drive? Is it as simple as it sounds - i.e we could just plug the external drive into another computer or our laptop when it comes back, and all the files will be there? Even if it is a different laptop to one the hard drive was set up on?

Any advice anyone can give before we send the laptop away would be much appreciated!!

Thanks,

Provided the Windows install is intact then, yes, just copy over files from wd external drive onto the new hard drive. Don't delete the files from the wd drive either -- just in case for another mishap

danielmeade

I kinda have an OCD when it comes to backing up. I back up daily to the 'cloud' and to a portable hard drive every other week or so. Working in London, it's a must!

tc1992

NoreenOMS wrote: »

Thanks for the reply, but I don't really understand.

We have already purchased an external hard drive. What would a reinstall of windows do?

Thanks again.

most new external drives come with a programme that will automatically back up all your files. does anything on the box for the external hard drive indicate that it comes with such a programme? or does anything pop up on the screen when you plug the hard drive in?

if you have one of these you should be ok - follow the instructions, can take several hours to copy the files over depending on how many you have. if you are in any doubt that you don't know wata you are doing - you could always ask the guys at the repair shop to help you,.

reinstalling windows means basically wiping your computer and putting windows on it again from fresh - so it is free from bugs, errors, viruses, etc. if you, or any family or friends have a little computer knowledge it is fairly easy to do - and will save you some money. if you really dont feel comfortable then best take it to the repair shop. i believe you need the original windows disc and serial number.

cwaite

I use the online backup service Mozy to backup my files its a great service as its easy to setup and it backs up my important files in the background automatically, so its great if you find backing up a chor, I have also recomended it too a few of my friends and customers, its been a life saver for one of my customers that had a hard drive fail on her.

I think they maybe stopping new sign ups for the free 2gb service as they have removed all references to the free 2gb version on Mozy.com, if anyone is still interested in signing up for the free 2gb version then you can still get to the registration page at:

http://mozy.com/registration/free

Enter the referal code T4ZDHM at the bottom of the final page of the sign up and you will get an extra 256mb of backup space free and if you recomend your friends you can also get another extra 256mb of backup space for every person you recomend.