Backup, Backup, Backup

[Freckles]

Remember, it's not IF your hard drive will crash, but WHEN.

AND

Backup often and it's less likely the hard drive will crash. And you'll breathe a lot easier when it does.

[jenluckenbach]

I think that is part of murphy's law.

[Cataholic]

Now, never liking to admit my ignorance, how exactly do I back up?

[sammi]

YES, What do they mean by backing it up? Back what up and where to??????
Do we need some other computer..........something's?

[boscibo]

I back up onto CD-Rs. You will need a CD burner and blank CD-Rs. Computers either come with CD-Rs, or you can add one fairly cheap. I back up all the things I create - all my pictures, my music files, anything that is my personal stuff. Other methods of backing up use Zip disks or floppies (but you can't fit much on one floppy).

I have folders named - My pictures, My music, My documents (and so on...). Then fire up the software that comes with your CD-burner, and it will usually tell you what to do, and that's about it.

I don't back up any of my program files or anything else I have the install disks for. Just my own personal stuff I couldn't live without if my computer crashed. You can back up old emails if you want, I don't.

[sammi]

Oh, I see..........or do I?

[popcornbird]

I know, I'm so stupid. My brother was telling me all these months to back up my file, but I was too lazy to do so. So this is what I get for my laziness. Loss of all my files! I hate viruses.

[The Cat Factory]

I have a CD Burner but I never burn any of my files, unless it's music

[Cataholic]

I never thought of using my CD burner to back up data..interesting (and ignorant of me). I am going to follow both Mike and Slaves instructions, and backup backup backup.

I wonder if when I am backing up if my computer will make that noise, "BEEEEP, BEEEEEP, BEEEEP" like trucks make when they are backing..

[Cincy'sMom]

We were havinga lot of trouble with our computer a a year or two ago, so we backed everything up to CD and re formated. About a year later the computer crashed and not even Windows would run...couldn't get anything recovered before we reformatted.

Soyes, Backup, backup, backup!

[kohala]

Originally posted by Cataholic
I never thought of using my CD burner to back up data..interesting (and ignorant of me). I am going to follow both Mike and Slaves instructions, and backup backup backup.

I wonder if when I am backing up if my computer will make that noise, "BEEEEP, BEEEEEP, BEEEEP" like trucks make when they are backing..

LOL - I will think of that forever, now, when I (if I) get around to backing up my stuff!!!

[RockyRoad]

I have a CD burner. My mom backed up all her pictures in case of a crash but I did not. God I wish I did. My computer just crashed too and of course now it is running again and I gotta run around to all these sites getting back my pictures(like animated ones like on my site). I wish I would have thought of backing up sooner.

I wonder if when I am backing up if my computer will make that noise, "BEEEEP, BEEEEEP, BEEEEP" like trucks make when they are backing..

Lol!!

[Freckles]

As Mike/slave described, I used to use Iomega zip disks and utilities to backup. These utilites compressed the data so they didn't take as much room, but the process was always a pain for me so I seldom did it and held my breathe a lot.

I got a new computer a couple of years ago with a CDRW drive so I use that to backup as boscibo described. It's really just copying files to a CD. I have folders called AAJoan data & AAJoan Photos. ALL of my data, (from WordPerfect, Excel, Calendar Creator, Printshop, Adobe PhotoDeluxe, etc) goes into one of these folders. This way when I go to the C drive, those folders are always easy to find because they are at the top of the list. In Windows, view, I use Details. This way I can see the file extensions and I know which program the file belongs to. When it's time to backup, the files are all in one place. Don't know if this method might be useful. Works for me.

Anyway, my computer crashed last week and a new hard drive is being installed. I lost just a couple weeks of data. When I get it back I will do as basibo described; reinstall all my programs, heee.

Fortunately I have a backup computer so I'm still here!