A computer question
 

Hi,

I want to plug a device into my pc's usb port and save everything on my pc. If anything happens to my pc, I want to plug in the device to the new pc's usb port and upload everything my last pc had on it.

Please post a link to what I need to order.

My fan stopped spinning because of dust build up. It would not boot until I cleaned it... and it got me worried.

Thank you for the links. Amazon/ebay are ok with me


~Ray

Just buy an external USB HardDrive... that'll do ya just fine :P

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ddrive&x=0&y=0

Exactly then use the windows back up tool to back up everything to it.

Yeah, get an external and use the back up feature on windows 7

Get a Mac and set up Time Machine and forget it. Done.

You still need an external hard drive or NAS ...

EDIT: Oh and fuck macs, my MacBook Pro died 1 week after the warranty expired and they want $1,800 for a new fucking logic board?! Even used I can't find one cheaper than $1,200... It's two years old! That's insane... Macs are way over priced... you can get twice the performance, if not more, for the same dollar amount.

thank you for the replies... I ordered this one, hope it is ok...

Delivery estimate: January 27, 2011 - January 29, 2011 1 "Western Digital WD Elements 2 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDBAAU0020HBK-NESN"
Electronics; $104.99

How often should I run it?


~Ray

Use "ghost" to create an image of your current machine and save it. When you want to reformat, you just use the ghost image and it will install everything exactly the way it was when you made the image

http://www.symantec.com/themes/theme.jsp?themeid=ghost

how much data can you afford to lose?

If you're constantly downloading stuff, constantly working on stuff, then backup more often.

Another thing you could use is Mozy (www.mozy.com) it's like 5 bucks a month for unlimited backups.

You select the directories you want it to watch and it will create a back up of anything you put in there w/o you having to do anything. It also saves all versions of files so that you can roll back if you made a change to a file and need to recover the old one

This is good for code, data, images, vids, etc...

What backup software do you guys use?

I use multiple hard drives.... ;)

I install new operating systems often and you could say I have an 8 boot system. Those systems all run other systems in various virtual machines... So I end up with multiple shit all over the f'ing place...

If I lost the C: drive I'd still have a shitload of shit on 4 other drives...

external hard drive

I back up to a external HD at the end of each work day into a folder that is named for that date ( 01.21.11 )

These backups sit on the external HD for 30 days. I can toss the HD into my briefcase and take with on the road .. mostly between one of my 2 houses.

Then onto a NAS device here for eternal storage after 30 days to archive.

God you Apple cultists never stop do you. Worse than Jehovah Witnesses. Yes spend tons of $$$$ on a Mac when for less than $100 you can a 1 TB external HDD.

acronis is your friend.

how to use it as mirror drive

My Western Digitial external hard drive that I used solely for back-up just died after only having it for a few months. I'm pretty pissed.

From what I've read online it's best to only plug the thing in when you're going to back-up files. Apparently leaving it running all the time is the fastest way to kill it. Next one I buy I'll be sure to only use when backing stuff up.

wrong, if you got proper cooling, running it 24/7 is better then turning it on/off all the time

I have RAID for uptime and basic data protection, plus multiple backups (currently 3 sets, one rotated offsite regularly). I also use snapshots so that if I stuff up and accidentally delete something I can restore it from an earlier snapshot.

If your data is important then the cost of extra HDs is very cheap insurance. :2 cents:

BTW, don't forget to back up your servers too...

I dunno, man. I tried to troubleshoot mine for a few hours yesterday with no luck. I found tons of people who had the same model as me and had the same issues. The consensus was it's best to only use it when you need it. I wish I had just used mine every two or three weeks instead of leaving it running 24/7. I've seriously only had the thing for a few months and it's dead already. I was surprised at how many people had the same issue. Maybe the newer models (or different brands) are better.

it could of been a bad drive, rather have it fail sooner then later..... i had bad drives too, but most of them run 24/7 for years with no issues so far... I have old seagates still running for 6 years+ 24/7....

My production server has raid in it. And i have a backup server..... making backups ;)

LINUX, 3 SATA Drives, sbackup (simplebackup). Backed up to hda2 (SATA2) every 24hrs at 4am.

Just save all your data to the flash or external HDD, and do it frequently :)