Backing Up

Aiadi

10past6 wrote: »

I’m useless when it comes to computers, I’ve never backed anything up in my life, wouldn’t have a clue how to, but I have been looking at this, I have a few questions if someone can take the time to reply:

Is it straightforward to use?

Do I have to use a disc? (Never used one ever)

Does the backup remain on my system?

Do I have to backup every time I’ve finished on my comp?

I only use my comp basically for surfing and email; do I still need to backup?

The price looks quite expensive, is this about average price? On the site it has a voucher code, can I be cheeky and ask does anyone have one please?

Sorry for so many questions.

One of the best products on the market allows you to backup onto a different partition on your hard drive, an external hard drive, a USB flash drive, CD or DVD (basically anything you can write data on). If you don't have anything on your PC that will make your heart break when your PC fails then you don't need to back up but I can't believe that anyone has a computer with no precious picture, piece of video or some documents that are important to them.

If you only have few important files then you don't need to back up your whole system with special software. Just keep a copy on an external drive or CD/DVD or even using an online backup site.

tradetime

10past6 wrote: »

I’m useless when it comes to computers, I’ve never backed anything up in my life, wouldn’t have a clue how to, but I have been looking at this, I have a few questions if someone can take the time to reply:

Acronis is either a great product or a terrible product. If it works with your system then it is great, unfortunately it seems to take a dislike to many systems. If your system has either a Maxtor or Seagate hard drive you can download the previous version Acronis TI 10 for free. For a Maxtor drive the product is called Max-Blast and for the Seagate drive it is called Disk wizard. It is definitely a try before you buy.
Alternatively, another leader in drive imaging has made a free version available that does not have the restriction of a particular make of drive. Paragon Backup Express.

10past6 wrote: »

Is it straightforward to use?

That's a bit of an ambiguous question, what s easy to some is not so easy for others, as computer software goes, I'd say it is reasonably straight forward.

10past6 wrote: »

Do I have to use a disc? (Never used one ever)

Not sure what you mean by disc.

10past6 wrote: »

Does the backup remain on my system?

Ideally, no. One of the points of imaging is to recover from a drive failure, unless you have two hard drives on your system then ideally you want it on an external drive, or some storage means separate from your system drive.. If it is on you only drive and that fails then it is unlikely you can use it.

10past6 wrote: »

Do I have to backup every time I’ve finished on my comp?

That would depend on whether you use your computer to compose, make, or create important or valuable data/files everytime you use it.

10past6 wrote: »

I only use my comp basically for surfing and email; do I still need to backup?

That probably means the answer to the previous question is no. As to this question, primarily imaging software is for disaster recovery, your hard drive fails and you want to restore your computer as it was to a new hard drive. Major software failure perhaps a destructive virus or system corruption, and you want to restore it to how it was before this happened. If you are just backing up important documents, photos, music or whatever files a simple freeware backup solution such as Karen's Replicator would suffice.

10past6 wrote: »

The price looks quite expensive, is this about average price? On the site it has a voucher code, can I be cheeky and ask does anyone have one please?

It's probably about average.

Marty999

10past6 - I use Acronis True Image version 10 - I bought it off eBay a few weeks ago for £10 and I schedule regular backups to an external hard drive of various important data on my PC. I think it's pretty straight forward to use but I think it might be overkill for yourself - if you only have a few imporant files/folders you would be better off burning to CD perhaps once a month.

10past6

Hi Aiadi, thanks for your advice below

Aiadi wrote: »

I can't believe that anyone has a computer with no precious picture, piece of video or some documents that are important to them.

It's true, all I have are some personal documents.

Aiadi wrote: »

If you only have few important files then you don't need to back up your whole system with special software.

OK, I understand that bit

Aiadi wrote: »

Just keep a copy on an external drive or CD/DVD or even using an online backup site.

So, may I ask, which is best?

I should've said, more importantly which is easiest and straight forward for a silver sufer like me with no computer knowledge?

10past6

Thanks TT

tradetime wrote: »

Acronis is either a great product or a terrible product. If it works with your system then it is great, unfortunately it seems to take a dislike to many systems.

That's what worries me TT, if it went wrong during installation I have nowhere near enough confidence or knowledge with computers to even attempt to fix it

10past6

Hi Marty

Marty999 wrote: »

I think it might be overkill for yourself

Having read numerous negative reviews from those far more experienced than me, I would agree with you

Here’s where I’m at folks, because of my lack of computer knowledge, I’m worried about my system crashing and not being able to get it back to normal, losing all the programs I’ve downloaded.
At present, my personal documents are stored on a USB pen drive.
Although my computer is around 2 ½ years old, I doubt I’ll ever have the funds to purchase a new one, that being said, when I do a disc defragment it shows I still have 76% free space.

I recently lost my mobile with all my messages and contact details, it’s a nightmare having to re enter everything onto my new phone, I then got thinking what would I do if the same happened with my computer which generated my original question.

Thank you all for taking the time to answer with my query.

savemoney

I store a lot of data on several HD including 2 usb HD's and also DVD abet mainly HD as its much quicker

I back OS with Acronis and personnel data of which there is much using SyncBackSE which I have set so it only backup newer files to two USB HD

Over the years I have lost data the last being about 2 years ago so I have learned not to be complacent because it will happen to you eventually and it always just when you least expect it.

Loosing OS and programs I can live with okay it can take me a couple of days to get back its the personnel things that matter

Get a decent backup program and back it up on several types of media

HD'S are relatively cheap now a 500GB one for less than £60 for a usb HD

10past6

I forgot to mention guys, if it means anything to anyone, I have an Acer Aspire desktop machine I recall during set up something about backup / recovery, but that’s where my technology knowledge stops.

superscaper

10past6 wrote: »

So, may I ask, which is best?

I should've said, more importantly which is easiest and straight forward for a silver sufer like me with no computer knowledge?

Each have its' advantages and disadvantages and you shouldn't be approaching this as mutually exclusive methods. Don't put all your eggs in one basket or even two. This is about ensuring the survivability of your information and as with anything in nature, survivability is about quantity and diversification. Use many backups in a multiple of methods. I back up to external hard drive, online and CD/DVD and also a few things to my flash/pen drive (but that should be a last resort rather than a primary backup).

10past6

superscaper wrote: »

Don't put all your eggs in one basket or even two.

Thanks super, and that's where my problem lies, not knowing what to backup or even how, which is why I was looking for something very simple and straightforward.