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General => Technical Help => Topic started by: rosijayne on Saturday 31 January 15 19:16 GMT (UK)
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Hi
I have always backed up individual files/photographs etc to various discs, but I have now reached the stage where I would like to back up my entire laptop to an external hard drive, just in case my laptop gives up on me. My laptop is an Acer Aspire 5532 with windows 7 operating system, so I wondered if anybody could advise me of a suitable HDD which is easy to use?
Many thanks
Gill
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Have a look at the Seagate official site which shows a number of EHD's that are suitable for laptops. Then shop around the usual sites to get the best price. I use Seagate drives and find them very reliable.
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Also there is the clickfree automatic backup.
If you google it there is info online, including a video and you can buy on the high street or online.
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Thank you, I have been looking at the Seagate Expansion which would seem to be suitable for me.
Gill
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There are dozens of options for external hard drives nowadays but one thing you need to decide first is whether the you intend to leave the drive at home or cart it around wit the laptop. If the latter, you'll find that a suitable one will cost you more.
Interestingly, over the last 10 years hard drives seem to have increased in capacity exponentially whilst getting progressively cheaper. The same goes for computers. I've just invested in an new Mac desktop, the third since 1999, and each has been cheaper than the previous one.
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You should consider buying two drives so that you can always have one 'off-site'. Prices are reducing so quickly that it makes no sense to buy one with many multiples of what you need..
You should go for a USB3 drive even if your current laptop only has USB2. Most drives come with free backup software.
Ken
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Just bought a replacement external hard drive and really like it. Western Digital MyCloud. It is a NAS drive, meaning it can be connected directly to one's router as a standalone device on the network with an ethernet cable (my cable company WiFi router did not have a networkable USB port). I particularly like it because I can access the files from anywhere as opposed to just on my local network meaning the drive can stay home. Basically, it like your personal Google Drive.
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Many thanks for your replies, I have now bought a Seagate Expansion 500gb portable drive, which hopefully, I have now backed my files on to. Have not had chance to check further, but it did tell me that some files had not backed up successfully, so will need to check this.
Many thanks
Gill
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I have only just managed to see this. I do hope it is more reliable than mine was. Had it on auto back up and left it on while on holiday and when i got back the hard drive was corrupt. Had to get someone to sort PC out as it wouldn't start afterwards.
I now have another external HD although not marketed as Seagate turns out to be made by them.
The difference is i now do a manual back up rather than an auto back up. My new one has a secret section too.
My son has had the same Seagate expansion for a few years without a problem, so maybe it was my bad luck.
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Why o why do people use back up software?
Why not simply copy the files over to the external hard drive this is far more reliable and cuts out another source of failure.
Cheers
Guy
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well, to be fair here, I'm not entirely sure if it has worked or not! ???
I put it on auto backup, and now I have plugged it in to view the files, I am unsure where they are. I am not at all computer savvy, I just wanted somewhere to put all of my precious documents/photos etc where I could access them in case of laptop failure, but I am having problems working out where I find everything on this drive!
Oh well, maybe I should have stayed with memory sticks/c d's.
Gill
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Just to add to that, I have just plugged drive in again and manually moved each one of my individual family history folders over, and it actually lists them clearly! When I first plugged this drive in I asked it to backup the whole of my computer, and I think that's probably where I went wrong. Seems to be easier just to move each one individually.
Gill
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and manually moved each one of my individual family history folders over
Hello, I hope you meant copy rather than move. In computer language, move means to displace a file or folder from one place to another, whereas copy means to leave the original where it is and make a second version elsewhere.
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Yes, I did mean copy thanks, I can now see a neat row of folders on new hard drive which is the same as on my laptop _ just the result I wanted!
:)
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Why o why do people use back up software?
Why not simply copy the files over to the external hard drive this is far more reliable and cuts out another source of failure.
Cheers
Guy
We learn the hard way, Guy. Will never use back up again!
I do it manually now, only trouble is remembering to do it ;D ;D
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I do not agree that manual copying is best. If you change a file that has been copied most software packages will just replace the latest version. Doing things manually you usually end up copying the whole lot again. Once your backup drive is 50% full you need to delete the backup copy to give you room for the latest copies. This means you are at risk for a time having no backup.
With cheap disk space it is good practice to create a backup library/partition on your PC and then copy from this to a backup device.
Ken
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I do not agree that manual copying is best. If you change a file that has been copied most software packages will just replace the latest version. Doing things manually you usually end up copying the whole lot again. Once your backup drive is 50% full you need to delete the backup copy to give you room for the latest copies. This means you are at risk for a time having no backup.
With cheap disk space it is good practice to create a backup library/partition on your PC and then copy from this to a backup device.
Ken
No if you have a good back up procedure you will have more than one copy of a file.
For example if you change your files daily at the start of the day you will have yesterdays file "in" the program and also a back up on an external hard drive a folder (folder 1).
When you have finished working on that program you save the files and make a copy of the saved file.
On the second day you work on the file you start the day with the previous day's file "in" the program but when you finish that day you save a back up of the file to second folder ( folder 2) on the external hard drive.
This means you have three copies of the file 2 current copies and one copy one day old.
At the end of the third day you replace the file in folder 1.
By making back ups like this you always have 2 current copies of the file and 1 copy one session old.
This means that even if the two current copies become corrupted you have the safety of a third copy only one session old.
If you allow automatic back-ups the system overwrites the back-up file meaning you could lose all your work.
Cheers
Guy
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Yes, I agree with Ken.....I think there are plenty of situations when back up software is appropriate and even necessary.
If you use only one or two apps that have a single database then maybe manual backup is fine for you. Apps like Family Tree Maker or Quicken are like this...These apps usually have some sort of internal utility for making back ups and that might be enough for you.
However, I work on quite a variety of apps, and generate multiple new files and modify existing files frequently. If I had to keep track of what had changed, or as an alternative, just re back up the whole lot each day, or hour, or whatever, eventually, I would stop doing it.
Also, even in the home environment, people often have multiple users on the same computer and/or multiple users on different computers. Having everyone responsible for their own manual backups is okay, but hardly efficient.
Although backup software is certainly an additional point of failure, for the most part, it is quite reliable. I think it is more reliable than the average user who manually backs up. People that manually back up don't usually keep multiple generations, something that back up software can do without additional effort on your part.
My scheme is to have a drive on my network for all critical files including documents, databases, email, and media. Then I have a second drive that is the back up for that administered with back up software. It backs up daily with only those files that have changed or been added. Once a week it does the whole group of files. As I mentioned in the earlier post, the main drive is a WD MyCloud, meaning I can access files from any location. The drive stays at home. Of course this only works when the backup computer is connected to the network...so the back up does net skipped sometimes.
I have also been experimenting with Microsoft's One Drive which I like quite a bit. It creates a mirrored version of you files in their "cloud" So those files are continuously backed up. I . for the most critical files. Not sure where this will lead me....am a bit leery about the expense and the reliability of a "cloud" only back up scheme.
At the risk of overselling, I think, except for the very, very casual user, the manual backup route is a dead end that will end in a mess.
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At the risk of overselling, I think, except for the very, very casual user, the manual backup route is a dead end that will end in a mess.
Absolutely but I think that most RootsChatters with their tree on their computer and a dozen or thirty folders containing the underlying information, certificates, censii, photos etc, and with e-mail on google, gmail, yahoo, live, etc, are what is known as casual users so it would be best for them (us :) ) to keep it simple.
When I copy files from one folder to another or even one disc to another and I have a file in the destination of the same name then my 'puter asks if I want to replace "older with newer"/"newer with older"/"bigger with smaller" or make a copy then I go with the flow and take the safest path. Afterwards I check the results to avoid having too many copies which are not needed.
cheers, falcybe
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I agree with you Falcybe - I am not a huge computer user at all, and therefore wanted the most simple option to store my precious family tree information safely. Now that I can see my named folders on my external drive, I feel much happier! I also intend to use the very method that you suggest of replacing older with newer etc.
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Gill
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Bear in mind that there are two types of data:
Personal
System
Microsoft's backup program backs up both types, incrementally (weekly) as well as a full backup (monthly). How would you know which Windows system files to backup if you were doing it manually? Manual backups very limited in scope and should only considered as extra copies of existing files - probably not something you will use for a full restore. Backup/Restore software checks the age of a file before overwriting it - humans cannot be relied on to check hundreds of files before restoring them.
The other thing I would say is that I will never use a USB backup device again as they are prone to failure - I use an ethernet backup drive or NAS drive (Network Attached Storage) and I have never had a failure with that.
500GB is too small these days - you need a terabyte at least. I had a 500GB drive and had to upgrade it after a year as I ran into capacity problems. I now have a 2 TB drive which I hope will last for a couple of years or so.
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Hello rosiejayne,
If you are the slightest worried then you could keep a copy of an older version the time you make one back-up and then delete it the second time you make a back-up of the same information. That way you always keep two levels of security.
Downside, I don't understand why we would want to keep back-ups of Windows system files, surely Windows does that anyway? Yes, I keep my Windows programme files, or with my latest computer, the general back-up should I wish to restore but I don't keep backing up on a daily or weekly basis
cheers, falcybe
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I don't understand why we would want to keep back-ups of Windows system files
If you did have a hard disk failure, I guess it would be the quickest method to get your computer up and running is if you had a fully up-to-date system backup. I don't think I mentioned daily backups only weekly/monthly backups which should be enough. Additionally, it can be helpful if you get a bad virus and need to get the Windows operating system back to prior being infected.
It is always useful to have a backup of the things people don't always think about, like drivers and the operating system as well as personal data.
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Thanks for your reply, Downside, I shall have a think about it.
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Thanks falcybe, that sounds a good system and one which I could get my head round easily.
Gill.,
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NAS solutions are fine for recovering from hardware failure. But to recover from fire or theft you need a copy offsite; be it in the cloud or a copy in your car, or at your sisters. Or both.
Ken
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Yes, a NAS (Network Attached Storage) is a great solution.
With desktops and laptops we've had good experiences with www.synology.com but there are other ones that are just as good I'm sure.
The synology ones allow you to also backup the NAS itself to the cloud (http://www.synology.com/en-uk/dsm/5.1/data_backup) (to different cloud providers).
So you could have your computer in one room, the NAS box hidden somewhere, the two them connected to your router (either by wire or wireless), then the NAS also backing up to the cloud.
It's a great solution, but for many it's probably a bit too complicated, and the cost of keeping the backups in the cloud soon start adding up. The Amazon Glacier is very cost effective if you don't mind waiting to get your backups back after a disaster - if you had a 1Tb (1000 Gb) then this works out at about £7 per month.
For most people, just backing up your computer onto an USB External Drive and putting it somewhere safe (preferably somewhere away from home) is cheap and simple. You just have to accept that when you do need it, then there's a good chance you won't have backup up for a while so you'll just lost that bit of data.
If you don't have much data, you don't need a big external hard drive. Nowadays it's more future proof to not buy one much bigger than you need, because the costs of storage keep tumbling and the technology keeps moving on.
It's just what works for you, really.
Trystan