Backing up a computer

mgookin · Apr 7, 2008

Quote from Capablanca:

I'm just curious but why is it a contradiction to use the disc to run the system and also use it as virtual memory?

The disc can't walk and chew gum at the same time. If you only have one disc, then that's all you have to work with and you can have Page File, but it's not going to have the performance otherwise if you had 2 hdd's.

silver914 · Apr 9, 2008

Quote from gnome:

Easiest thing to do is get a USB Flash drive... say 2GB size... then just drag and drop [copy] your My Documents Folder onto the flash drive... then drag it back [again, copy] when you finish the install. After you've restored your system, you'll also have a copy of your valuable stuff backed up.

Flash drives are VERY handy... I use one at least several times each week.

Did you get this idea from me?

I could be wrong, but I thought you said in a pm some time ago that you used to keep everything on hd. Or somesuch thing. Flash drives are awesome.

gnome · Apr 9, 2008

Quote from silver914:

Did you get this idea from me?

I could be wrong, but I thought you said in a pm some time ago that you used to keep everything on hd. Or somesuch thing. Flash drives are awesome.

I've done both for years. Though usually greater cost, external hard drives are much faster... especially if the backup is of any size.

TraderSystem · Apr 17, 2008

Quote from gnome:

Yes. With Acronis, you can make a "boot" disk.... which if you had a drive failure, you mount a new drive, run the boot disk, then "restore image" from your external hard drive. The whole process could take as little as 10 minutes.

You can't "restore" from just any hard drive... it has to be a "clone" or "image" from the machine which had the drive failure.

Thanks gnome for your answers.

A good thread, learned a lot from it.

ethos · May 5, 2008

Quote from silver914:

...Flash drives are awesome.

Specialy this one:
http://www.eritastore.com/0/12386145.html

I need to replace my old 2Gig flash with that one. 32Gig is more then enough. And it is waterproof!

caementarius · May 5, 2008

If you have a few gig of files that you want to back up and keep periodic backups of, I recommend using JungleDisk if you have a reasonably fast internet connection. I was going to use an external disk but I travel around a lot and I'm worried about losing it, theft, or if it fails - or just remember to make backups.

JungleDisk is software that uses Amazon's S3 computing cloud service. You pay $0.15 per gig per month for storage and $20 for the jungledisk software, which can be installed on as many computers as you want (for your account).

You can set it to backup at any time interval (every 5 mins, once per day, etc). This is useful if you are working on files and you want a periodic backup of your progress. It only copies the files that have been added or changed. It keeps 60 days of versions of files - unless you change that setting to keep more or less history of changes.

Also, it's great for keeping all of your files accessible from either home or work or elsewhere. Anyway, it's been pretty seamless for me. www.jungledisk.com

krazykarl · May 9, 2008

If you need something that is more business/compliance oriented, check out VaultWise(http://vaultwise.com)

They aren't fully live yet, but I spoke with one of the engineers and was able to get a package setup. Really a great value for level of service you get.

Regards,

Landis82 · May 9, 2008

Quote from gnome:

Yes, slow for big jobs... but just fine for downloading .exe and PDF files, Word .doc's, photos, making backups of FF Bookmarks, things like that.

Gnome,

I've had a brand new ACOM-DATA push-button external drive sitting on my desk for the last year and a half and have still yet to figure out how to use the DAMN thing!

I've read through the instructions on two occasions and the booklet "baffles" me to no end!

gnome · May 9, 2008

Quote from Landis82:

Gnome,

I've had a brand new ACOM-DATA push-button external drive sitting on my desk for the last year and a half and have still yet to figure out how to use the DAMN thing!

I've read through the instructions on two occasions and the booklet "baffles" me to no end!

I'll not be much help on that. I've always avoided the "one button backup" dealies. Perhaps you can not use the one button feature and just copy to it like an ordinary external drive... drag and drop, destination for Acronis image... that sort of thing.

lotsofloot · Jul 5, 2008

Hi Folks

Have just purchased a new PC which comes with Vista loaded. With all the problems relating to that particular operating system I got the manufacture to remove it completely so the computer now comes with a complete blank hard drive.

My intention is to make a "Boot-Disk" and "Hard Drive Image" of my old PC hd using Acronis TrueImage. I will then start my new PC with the bootdisk and copy all my software onto it. Now my question is will work or am I suppose to format the new PC hd before I take the above action.

Thanks for any help received.

LotsOfLoot