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Back up, Back up, Always Back up!

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PAUL161

PAUL161

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Since loosing a ton of information plus a tremendous amount of photos, I now back up everything on a separate external hard drive. I now don't trust the restore to a previous date feature after the hard drive issue. If the drive goes, you have nothing! The new externals are super. No external power needed, just a USB cord and the 250 gig case is so small, you can put it in your shirt pocket. My old external is 1 1/4 inch thick, 5 inches long and weighs a lot. Plus it needs external 110 power. This new one is fantastic! PJ
 
Paul - you're doing what I wish every 'puter user would do. Back up to an external device. I've been doing that since the early 1990s, when I had a HD failure on a university network server.

What software app do you use for making the backup?

Also, you might consider also making a disk image of your HD, onto the external drive. That way, if your HD dies a horrible death, you put in a new HD, then copy the disk image back on to it. Takes about half an hour, and you don't have to re-install the OS.

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
Tom
 
A little boy and his dad are standing in line at the grocery store behind a big fat lady.

The little boy says, "Hey dad, look how fat that lady is!"

"Shh, quiet son, she'll hear you," the father says.

"But dad, look how big and fat that lady is!"

"Shhh, don't say that son, it's not nice!"

"But dad, LOOK HOW BIG AND FAT THAT LADY IS!"

"Shhh, don't say that son, it's not nice and it's rude!"

Suddenly the fat lady's beeper goes off.

"LOOK OUT DAD, SHE'S BACKING UP!" the son screams.
 
This thread is very timely... The screen on my laptop just went out last week; the computer works, but since I can't see the screen I can't navigate. My laptop is automatically backed up on the cloud through my ISP; now all I have to do is go to their secure site, enter my UN and PW and I should be able to retrieve all my data. As plan "B" I am going to pull the hard drive and get a docking case and wire it to my new desktop that I'm using. I should be able to see the drive and get all my data back. That's the plan anyway...
 
Gliderman8 said:
This thread is very timely... The screen on my laptop just went out last week; the computer works, but since I can't see the screen I can't navigate. .
Click to expand...

I believe you can connect your laptop to a monitor and use <Ctrl><F5> to utilize the monitor as the computer screen.
 
Thanks Rick... I did think of cabling the laptop to a monitor, but then decided that if I pull the hard drive not only could I access the data, but I could also use it as a backup hard drive.
 
Elliot, if it's just the screen gone "dark" it is likely the back light. Replaceable with a little judicious knobbling.
 
I have all my stuff (mostly photos and videos) saved on a removable hard drive. I actually have two of them, with the older one packed with files that are over 10 years old. I like the new, small ones that Paul described. That might be a good Christmas gift! One of the things I HATE to see (and I see it every semester) is a student who has lost his flash drive and did not back up any of his work. So he cannot present any of his class work and ends up failing or dropping classes as a result. A hard lesson.
 
Triple redundancy for all my clients. Thermaltake has a nifty removable HD bay for rotating drives as a scheme.

We have a BlackX box as well, that comes in handy when a client has a need for data recovery from a drive when the system hardware fails and they didn't follow the backup regimen. :devilgrin:
 
DrEntropy said:
Elliot, if it's just the screen gone "dark" it is likely the back light. Replaceable with a little judicious knobbling.
Click to expand...
Don't know if you remember doc, but about 3 years ago I replaced the fluorescent tube in the same laptop. I had to peel apart multiple layers of the screen to replace the tube. In the end, it worked fine for the past three years. At this point the laptop is OLD so I can't see replacing it again; I'll just use the Sony Vaio desktop that sits unused here in the house.
We got it for free when some dirtball ordered it after stealing my wife's credit card number. The credit card company issue her the full credit, then I called the retailer to pickup the computer. I made three calls to them and they never picked it up.
 
ah. I do recall that, now that you mention it.
 
In terminal or shell prompt and type the following dd command:
# dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb


BWUHAAHAAA!!
 
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