Spin-off: How do you back up a computer?

[robinb]

We use Backblaze to automatically backup all of our computers.

Edited, I had some backups on external drives at one point. My hard drive failed and then the external drive failed too. I lost photos from when my DD was young.

 

[firefly_ris]

I keep 2 external hard drives in-house for backup. I back up work files & archives, home videos, photos, music and my Plex movie library. I keep 1 other backup at my parents in Maryland as an off-site backup. The issue with that is it only gets backed up once or twice per year, but if my house were to burn down then I'd at least have that.

 

[bcla]

With a Mac, the easy thing would be to use Time Machine. It's really easy and just needs an external drive. The initial data saved may take a few hours (depending on what you have) and incremental saved data is fairly short and more or less unnoticeable. It's possible to go back to "snapshots" where you might be able to find content that was mistakenly deleted. The snapshots eventually get consolidated and deleted to make more space available.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250

I have a secondary backup too using cloning software. I can boot directly off of it if necessary.

 

[kdonnel]

We use Backblaze to automatically backup all of our computers.

Edited, I had some backups on external drives at one point. My hard drive failed and then the external drive failed too. I lost photos from when my DD was young.

I also use Backblaze. Actually had to use it for recovery to get back 1.7tb of data.

 

[goofyernmost]

My owners manual says to first start it up, put your foot on the brake, check the rearview mirror and if all is clear you just let your foot off the brake and slowly back it up. Wait! Computers are made by Ford, right?

 

[Imzadi]

This is a great article on what is and isn't backing up a computer. It is the Computer Backup Rule of Three:

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/the-computer-backup-rule-of-three

 

[tazdev3225]

I am in the process of trying to sort everything out from an external hard drive failure. It cost me more than buying a new computer to get about 50% of my photos back. Sadly, hard drives, memory cards and memory sticks can fail, I learned this the hard way.

Since this all happened, I have learned a few lessons from my brother the computer expert and my son in law who is also a computer expert.
1. Always store the external hard drives in static free and dust proof bags. They are very inexpensive on Amazon but can save you a large headache as dust was one of the causes for my hard drive failure. It gets in there and damages the heads.
2. NEVER use a WD Passport external drive. They are well known for having issues. I am getting Toshiba now, which is what the Salvage company used to send me back what they could save.
3. Back up the back up, and then back it up again and then keep one in a fire proof safe, updated periodically.

I wish I had known to do these things before because I lost three or four years of cataloging and possibly around 30,000 pictures. A couple of my memory cards also have an issue with them and 32 GB cards hold a lot of pictures. Thankfully all my documents are on the cloud with Microsoft but I do need to back up downloads. I have a lot of work done on Ancestry that would be just as hard to lose.

I'm retired with a lot of free time on my hands so at least it gives me something to do.

 

[mikehn]

backing up is probably overkill for your average diser. The vast majority of people just want to save certain files, such as pictures, music, tax returns, and important files like that. There's a much simpler and cheaper way to do that which you can google.

 

[Micca]

I'd just be happy if I could back up my computer without the annoying beep beep beep

 

[bcla]

I am in the process of trying to sort everything out from an external hard drive failure. It cost me more than buying a new computer to get about 50% of my photos back. Sadly, hard drives, memory cards and memory sticks can fail, I learned this the hard way.

Since this all happened, I have learned a few lessons from my brother the computer expert and my son in law who is also a computer expert.
1. Always store the external hard drives in static free and dust proof bags. They are very inexpensive on Amazon but can save you a large headache as dust was one of the causes for my hard drive failure. It gets in there and damages the heads.
2. NEVER use a WD Passport external drive. They are well known for having issues. I am getting Toshiba now, which is what the Salvage company used to send me back what they could save.
3. Back up the back up, and then back it up again and then keep one in a fire proof safe, updated periodically.

I wish I had known to do these things before because I lost three or four years of cataloging and possibly around 30,000 pictures. A couple of my memory cards also have an issue with them and 32 GB cards hold a lot of pictures. Thankfully all my documents are on the cloud with Microsoft but I do need to back up downloads. I have a lot of work done on Ancestry that would be just as hard to lose.

I'm retired with a lot of free time on my hands so at least it gives me something to do.

I don't know about ESD bags. As an engineer who has got ESD certification (got me a couple of ESD smocks with my name) that's pretty useless for an assembled piece of electronics like an external hard drive. I've never heard of an external hard drive being zapped by static. I've never even heard of an internal hard drive being zapped by static although I've seen them packaged in ESD bags. I wouldn't put it in a bag either as the hard drive itself needs to be able to regulate the pressure. There's typically a filtered breather hole on every hard drive along with a warning to not cover it up. There's a danger of a head crash if it can't regulate the pressure.

I wouldn't recommend storing anything long term on a memory card. They're simply not designed for long term storage. A lot of people have discovered that the data had "faded" after a few years of storage. They're really meant for being used, erased, and reused.

As far as external hard drives go - it really depends. I have a variety including some old external drives with 3.5" drives. But many get 2.5" drive based external drives which generally don't require an external power source (typically powered by the computer through the cable). I've got an old WD MyPassport. I guess it's OK but I don't rely on it for anything. Not sure about Toshiba either, although I've got Toshiba Canvio too. My preference is for Seagate external drives or possible separate internal drive with USB enclosure. That's just in case the USB interface fails for whatever reason. I've seen teardown videos of Seagate external bus powered drives, and they all have a real SATA drive with a separate SATA to USB interface. If the interface fails (like a damaged port) then it's a lot easier to just remove it and plug it into an enclosure. A lot (like WD or Toshiba Canvio) have a single board that connects the drive to the USB interface. If there's something that malfunctions there, it may be very difficult to fix it, although I suppose someone might be able to fix a damaged USB port.

 

[Dan Murphy]

There's a much simpler and cheaper way to do that which you can google.

What are the search words we should use?

 

[tazdev3225]

I don't know about ESD bags. As an engineer who has got ESD certification (got me a couple of ESD smocks with my name) that's pretty useless for an assembled piece of electronics like an external hard drive. I've never heard of an external hard drive being zapped by static. I've never even heard of an internal hard drive being zapped by static although I've seen them packaged in ESD bags. I wouldn't put it in a bag either as the hard drive itself needs to be able to regulate the pressure. There's typically a filtered breather hole on every hard drive along with a warning to not cover it up. There's a danger of a head crash if it can't regulate the pressure.

I wouldn't recommend storing anything long term on a memory card. They're simply not designed for long term storage. A lot of people have discovered that the data had "faded" after a few years of storage. They're really meant for being used, erased, and reused.

As far as external hard drives go - it really depends. I have a variety including some old external drives with 3.5" drives. But many get 2.5" drive based external drives which generally don't require an external power source (typically powered by the computer through the cable). I've got an old WD MyPassport. I guess it's OK but I don't rely on it for anything. Not sure about Toshiba either, although I've got Toshiba Canvio too. My preference is for Seagate external drives or possible separate internal drive with USB enclosure. That's just in case the USB interface fails for whatever reason. I've seen teardown videos of Seagate external bus powered drives, and they all have a real SATA drive with a separate SATA to USB interface. If the interface fails (like a damaged port) then it's a lot easier to just remove it and plug it into an enclosure. A lot (like WD or Toshiba Canvio) have a single board that connects the drive to the USB interface. If there's something that malfunctions there, it may be very difficult to fix it, although I suppose someone might be able to fix a damaged USB port.

I appreciate your input, but after losing over 100,000 pictures on an external hard drive and the biggest issue was scratched heads from dust, I think I will take the advice of my brother who I do know even if he is annoying. WD Passport Hard Drives after some research he did for me are known to fail due to dust. I am not as computer literate as he is but I trust his advice. My mistake was trusting one external hard drive. I don't keep them in the bags when I'm using them, just for storage.

I'm also planning on looking for cloud storage of all my pictures. They may not be as important as work files but as I am a serious amateur, they are very important to me. The memory cards that failed were almost new and only 2 of them, but one had a trip I can never duplicate. The oldest memory cards I have are still OK.

Again I do appreciate the input.

 

[JLTraveling]

I just save all my files to Dropbox. Literally, instead of saving to wherever you would normally save on your hard drive, I have a Dropbox folder instead. So like, I have a folder "Work Stuff" that lives in Dropbox, and then subfolders from there. I don't care about the settings and whatnot, those are easy enough for me to reset. I just don't want to lose my files. It's cloud storage that has both a paid and a free option, but despite me saving absolutely everything there, I've never gotten close to the limit on the free option.

One thing that's super nice about it is that since it's in the cloud, I can access my files from any device. When my old laptop died and I needed to use my dad's for a few days until this one was delivered, I could just work as normal. If I ever found myself somewhere without my laptop and needed to work on something, I could access everything from my phone or a library computer or whatever.

 

[bcla]

I appreciate your input, but after losing over 100,000 pictures on an external hard drive and the biggest issue was scratched heads from dust, I think I will take the advice of my brother who I do know even if he is annoying. WD Passport Hard Drives after some research he did for me are known to fail due to dust. I am not as computer literate as he is but I trust his advice. My mistake was trusting one external hard drive. I don't keep them in the bags when I'm using them, just for storage.

I'm also planning on looking for cloud storage of all my pictures. They may not be as important as work files but as I am a serious amateur, they are very important to me. The memory cards that failed were almost new and only 2 of them, but one had a trip I can never duplicate. The oldest memory cards I have are still OK.

Again I do appreciate the input.

Not sure there's anything specific about hard drives that would make them susceptible to dust. There are basically only three actual hard drive manufacturers left in the world. There has been massive consolidation over the years with the survivors being Seagate (absorbed Maxtor [which previously absorbed Quantum] and Samsung), Toshiba (absorbed Fujitsu), and Western Digital (absorbed HGST [formerly IBM] and SanDisk).

Western Digital hard drives are extremely well regarded. The Black series is generally the gold standard although SSDs have pretty much been their focus after they joined with SanDisk.

I know some recommend just getting an internal hard drive and then sticking it in an enclosure. At that point I'm pretty brand agnostic. Anyone going out looking for bare hard drives is generally only going to find Seagate or WD at this point. Toshiba only has a single model for 2.5" consumer grade hard drives at this point and they're kind of hard to find.

 

[mikehn]

What are the search words we should use?

Dan, one example regarding pictures.

I have an iphone, but I believe there should be a similar setting regardless of what phone platform you have. Basically, there should be a setting on your phone that automatically saves pictures and videos to your 'cloud' storage account, which is basically remote file storage, not on your phone, that is yours and nobody can access the account but you. This remote storage allows you to safely store, retreive, search, and share these picture files with any device, be it another computer, another phone, etc. So should you lose or damage your existing computer or existing phone, you would simply log into your cloud account with your new phone or new computer and retrieve whatever file that has been saved there. This principle should apply to any file you have on your computer as well. There should be some setting which automatically saves files to your cloud account for future retrieval from any device. Apple gives you some free cloud storage, but if needed, you can buy additional cloud storage space for pennies. Im sure this is similar with microsoft.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Dan, one example regarding pictures.

I have an iphone, but I believe there should be a similar setting regardless of what phone platform you have. Basically, there should be a setting on your phone that automatically saves pictures and videos to your 'cloud' storage account, which is basically remote file storage, not on your phone, that is yours and nobody can access the account but you. This remote storage allows you to safely store, retreive, search, and share these picture files with any device, be it another computer, another phone, etc. So should you lose or damage your existing computer or existing phone, you would simply log into your cloud account with your new phone or new computer and retrieve whatever file that has been saved there. This principle should apply to any file you have on your computer as well. There should be some setting which automatically saves files to your cloud account for future retrieval from any device. Apple gives you some free cloud storage, but if needed, you can buy additional cloud storage space for pennies. Im sure this is similar with microsoft.

Oh, okay, thanks. I thought you were speaking of some new 'secret' method. When I take pictures, they are automatically, real time, backed up to my Google Photos account, Verizon cloud account, Dropbox and One Drive.

Thanks again.

 

[disneychrista]

Okay computer gurus. What is the difference between and external hard drive and a portal hard drive? They look the same to me.

 

[bcla]

Okay computer gurus. What is the difference between and external hard drive and a portal hard drive? They look the same to me.

Do you mean “portable”?

 

[bcla]

OK - assuming you meant portable, there are several ways to power these things. Some won’t power on unless supplied by separate DC power - typically a “wall wart” power adapter. So they need a separate power supply from the data connection.

Others are powered directly by the port. FireWire used to be somewhat common but is no longer. These days, USB can supply enough power for smaller drives. Some call them portable, but a more descriptive term would be “bus-powered”. A computer generally can power the drive through the connected cable.

There’s generally a cost premium and performance hit for bus-powered drives, but they’re extremely convenient. I haven’t bought an external drive that needed an external power supply in over a decade.

 

[sam_gordon]

Okay computer gurus. What is the difference between and external hard drive and a portal hard drive? They look the same to me.

Not much really. As @bcla mentions, an "external" hard drive will generally have a separate power supply, whereas a portable will get it's power from the USB connection. An external I think is generally larger (both in physical size and storage size) but you can get "large" (storage wise) portables.