  Eriedearie Member Username: Eriedearie Post Number: 3861 Registered: 08-2007 |
What do you use to backup your computer files? Do you use one of the online storage sites? Or do you distrust that method? What about trusting a Patriot or a Kingston USB flash drive for your backups? Any advice on this? | ||
Jimaz Member Username: Jimaz Post Number: 6801 Registered: 12-2005 |
I'm considering switching from DVDs to online. I have Comcast and I believe they offer it for free to customers now. I'll have to look into it. | ||
Flanders_field Member Username: Flanders_field Post Number: 1801 Registered: 01-2008 |
DVDs, external HDs and now my 10+ Gmail online accounts Free gigs FTW!! As an added benefit, they are accessible on any computer with the shell extension installed on a Windows OS. Nothing financially revealing is stored online, however. GMail Drive shell extension 1.0.13 | ||
Jimaz Member Username: Jimaz Post Number: 6803 Registered: 12-2005 |
quote:That's wise although it should also be noted that the security of storing such data online, properly encrypted, can be assured with epistemological certainty. | ||
Flanders_field Member Username: Flanders_field Post Number: 1803 Registered: 01-2008 |
"Please note that GMail Drive is still an experimental tool. There's still a number of limitations of the file-system (such as total filename size must be less than 40 characters), and it doesn't make full use of the secure internet protocols available" I am aware that Comcast has "free" online storage available for its customers, but I never looked into it fully, to see if my data could be stored with encryption. I remember that it was only MB storage at the time, and right now, I don't have an "exclusive" primary customer account, per se... | ||
Jiminnm Member Username: Jiminnm Post Number: 1779 Registered: 02-2005 |
I back up to DVDs every week or so, and less frequently to the free Dell online service I received when I bought my computer a few months ago. I'm considering buying a USB hard drive and getting Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost to back up my entire hard drive for easy recovery of my entire system should something go terribly bad. I also have Comcast internet, but they charge $5/month for up to 10GB storage. | ||
Olddetroiter Member Username: Olddetroiter Post Number: 1444 Registered: 04-2008 |
I'm not comfortable with backing up my critical files on an external medium over which I have no control.... Use Norton Ghost to backup entire system onto an external hard drive at the start of each month... Also Iomega Automatic Backup to backup selected files onto the exernal drive each time they are changed. | ||
Eriedearie Member Username: Eriedearie Post Number: 3865 Registered: 08-2007 |
Hummm...some interesting ideas so far - anyone else want to chime in with their advice? | ||
Bigb23 Member Username: Bigb23 Post Number: 4190 Registered: 11-2007 |
I backed up to a 250 gig external drive, and that fell off the desk and crashed. Like I've said before, back up your back up. | ||
Wolverine Member Username: Wolverine Post Number: 621 Registered: 04-2004 |
I back up on a 500 GB passport drive. I plan to back up in two places though. I want to purchase a 1 TB drive eventually when they put one out on the market without a power cord. I would never use an external hard drive that would have to be plugged into a wall outlet. Far to risky. I need a lot of space because photography is my hobby and the image size of each is quite large. | ||
Ccbatson Member Username: Ccbatson Post Number: 19434 Registered: 11-2006 |
Apple time machine to a 1TB external HD, and laptops to a 1TB time capsule. Completely automatic and transparent. Photos, documents, etc also backed up onto optical media. | ||
Lodgedodger Member Username: Lodgedodger Post Number: 1677 Registered: 05-2008 |
Erie, we use external hard drives. | ||
Ccbatson Member Username: Ccbatson Post Number: 19455 Registered: 11-2006 |
Don't forget that most garden variety optical media (CDs, DVDs) will degrade over time...contrary to old and conventional wisdom. The solution is to reburn them at certain intervals (2 years...maybe 1). | ||
Ro_resident Member Username: Ro_resident Post Number: 224 Registered: 11-2003 |
I use a Thermaltake BlacX hard drive docking station. ( http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/ Product.aspx?S=1268&ID=1642#Ta b0 ) It is like an external enclosure, however a SATA drive plugs into the base like an old Nintendo cartridge. It accepts up to 1.5TB drives. The drives are also hot-swapable to the base. I only plug in the drive when I make my weekly full-backup. An advantage is you can make backups to multiple drives--keep one on-site if needed, the second off-site for added protection. | ||
Eriedearie Member Username: Eriedearie Post Number: 3883 Registered: 08-2007 |
Thanks so much for all the advice. I've made myself a list of your suggestions and I'll look into them. Once my tax return comes in...I'm goin' shoppin'! | ||
Ccbatson Member Username: Ccbatson Post Number: 19465 Registered: 11-2006 |
The cost of memory is still plummeting (a good thing). 1 TB for 300 dollars (3 years ago it was more than triple that). | ||
Wolverine Member Username: Wolverine Post Number: 632 Registered: 04-2004 |
"The solution is to reburn them at certain intervals (2 years...maybe 1)." Noooo! Definitely don't do this. Extremely high risk of corruption. | ||
Bigb23 Member Username: Bigb23 Post Number: 4290 Registered: 11-2007 |
Oh brother, another worry ! Time to take your backups seriously. Beware Conficker worm come April 1 quote: http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/nu ll/128643/beware-conficker-wor m-come-april-1/ | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 6178 Registered: 04-2005 |
quote: Do you mean hard drive? Memory doesn't come in TBs. If you mean HD, you're getting ripped off. I recently bought a 1TB Western Digital HD for $94 on newegg.com. A lot of people mistake memory for HD space. RAM is memory, HD is not. It can be used as swap space, which the computer will use as short term storage, but it's not really memory. | ||
Cinderpath Member Username: Cinderpath Post Number: 963 Registered: 05-2006 |
Mirrored External Hard drives, run through Apple's "Time Machine". I stopped using DVD's a long time ago, as it got too expensive. | ||
Bigb23 Member Username: Bigb23 Post Number: 4292 Registered: 11-2007 |
Jcole - Cc always knows what he's talking about.  | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 6179 Registered: 04-2005 |
Right | ||
Ccbatson Member Username: Ccbatson Post Number: 19669 Registered: 11-2006 |
Hard drive is memory, no?? Not RAM (that would be silly to think that 1TB referred to RAM). We are talking about back ups, how could you not know that HDD was the format when referring to HDD? Cinderpath..what if the hard drives fail? DVDs, or CDs for things like documents, photos, and videos are a good 2nd tier. | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 6181 Registered: 04-2005 |
You didn't refer to a hard drive, you referred to memory, and a hard drive IS NOT memory. | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 6182 Registered: 04-2005 |
Memory is not the same as disk space. Memory refers to the random access memory (RAM) inside your computer. The hard drive holds the programs that you run on your computer. Memory is volatile, hard drives are not. When you install a program, it is physically placed on the HD. When you load the program for use, it is loaded into memory, but when you close it, it releases the memory, but continues to physically reside on the hard drive. When you reboot a PC, the memory is cleared, but the HD continues to hold the program. | ||
Bigb23 Member Username: Bigb23 Post Number: 4297 Registered: 11-2007 |
He's not going to admit he's wrong, Jcole. Nice try though.  | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 6183 Registered: 04-2005 |
Well, he is wrong whether he admits it or not. I build the damned things, I have a pretty good idea of how they work and what the parts are called. I don't try to tell him that a brain is also a kidney. Thanks, Big, for the support. (Message edited by jcole on March 26, 2009) | ||
Jimaz Member Username: Jimaz Post Number: 6848 Registered: 12-2005 |
Jcole, thanks for delving a bit deeper into the subject. You helped me resurrect a valuable memory (pun intended) that was about to be lost. (It's a shame so many of these heated disputes are based on trivial semantic differences.) quote:Of course, you're referring to virtual memory. Before operating systems provided virtual memory services, programmers had to manage their RAM space manually. Typically, a small core portion of the program resided in RAM for the life of the program but there wasn't enough RAM to contain the entire program. So the core contained a loader that would copy other pieces of its own program from disk to RAM as needed, overwriting other pieces that were no longer needed. The technique was called overlaying. Thanks again for helping rescue some tech history. | ||
East_detroit Member Username: East_detroit Post Number: 2062 Registered: 11-2003 |
I use headlight fluid for DASD, for (chemical) synapse gap filler and in a pinch for kidney bio-filtering. Your viscosity may vary. | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 6185 Registered: 04-2005 |
Jimaz, I was never much of a programmer, but I do remember learning about overlaying and managing memory spaces when I took C++. This is the statement of CC's that I was correcting, though, which is misleading at best when it comes to the difference between memory and HDD. You don't purchase memory by the TB, and the cost he has quoted there is very inflated. quote: (Message edited by jcole on March 26, 2009) |
