Best way to backup data? My hard drive may be failing...

[deer of the dawn]

Any advice? DVDs, CDs, online service?? I don;t have an external HD and no where to buy one in this country. Thanks!

[Ananda]

Any advice? DVDs, CDs, online service?? I don;t have an external HD and no where to buy one in this country. Thanks!

This is free. www.dropbox.com/ We use it here at home and for our work. You get 2,5 GB free storage space.

[wayfriend]

The best way to back up your drive is to get a second drive.

If you can fit your data in, another good choice is a 8 or 16 gigabit USB "thumb" drive.

If you have a lot of data, backing up offline is going to take a LONG time even if you have mega-bit upload speeds.

[Avatar]

Yeah, dunno what bandwidth is like up North, but chances are you've got too much stuff to upload easily. In that case, DVD's are temporarily probably your best bet in the absence of an external drive.

They're not a long term solution though...and 2 copies of everything might be a good idea, just in case...

--A

[Shaun das Schaf]

Any advice? DVDs, CDs, online service?? I don;t have an external HD and no where to buy one in this country. Thanks!

Hey deer, 'scuse the ignorance but can you not order a drive on the net for delivery?
Just that DVD burning of back-up data, (depending on how much you have), could take a long time. Ext drive, firewire if possible, is definitely the quickest, easiest most reliable storage option.

[Avatar]

She's in Nigeria...postal service probably not that reliable and subject to theft...

--A

[Shaun das Schaf]

Oh, OK.
Glad I flagged my ignorance
Cheers for the reply Av and good luck deer working out a solution.

While I'm here, must be something in the air as my Mac died today.
I have an older lappy I can connect to the net with, but my main means of earning my keep won't even boot in safe mode. Tried a number of things today, will try a few more tomorrow with my IT buddy, but it's looking like I'll be shelling out a few thousand dollars just prior to Xmas.

Ni-yar, shit, it happens!

[aliantha]

Bummer, Shaun. Hope it can be salvaged.

My current laptop (which is a hand-me-down from Magickmaker) has started to make these little beeps and boops occasionally. I suspect I need to think about replacing it. Sigh.... Actually, "laptop" is a misnomer for this thing -- the battery died quite some time ago, so now it's basically a desktop with a very small footprint and an attached screen.

[deer of the dawn]

Thanks, everyone.... burning my pictures to DVD's as I type... seems to be best, quick solution. It was about time I hoed out anyway. I have to be careful though-- last time I did a system wipe a few years ago, I lost 1/2 of a novel I was writing, and some really sweet pictures of my daughter horseback riding-- irreplaceable.

[Shaun das Schaf]

Bummer, Shaun. Hope it can be salvaged.

Thanks Aliantha. It is apparently, unlike myself, quite religious, since it rose from the grave yesterday!
My most-handy IT friend introduced me to a program called "Disk Warrior" which allowed me to conduct repairs from its CD without having to boot, and though it couldn't complete the job, it did enough to get me into my system where I could fix the problem. I've never been so happy to see a login-screen! And as is usually the case when things fcuk up, I learned A LOT a long the way. For those who have near-death experiences with their computers, I can highly recommend this little warrior.

My current laptop (which is a hand-me-down from Magickmaker) has started to make these little beeps and boops occasionally. I suspect I need to think about replacing it. Sigh.... Actually, "laptop" is a misnomer for this thing -- the battery died quite some time ago, so now it's basically a desktop with a very small footprint and an attached screen.

Maybe it's just hungry? Or thirsty? You should probably pour a can of coke down its throat (the throat's just behind the keyboard) and see what happens. Seriously though, my JesusMAC is also essentially a desktop with a large hole in its belly where the battery once was, also attached to a screen. Now that it's celebrating a return to life, I might shout it a new battery. Anyway, I hope your computer's beeping and booping is merely reflective of an excitable disposition and not a cry for help!

[aliantha]

Ah, the old Coke can trick....

Nah, I'm betting this thing is headin' for the last roundup pretty soon. For one thing, I bought it for Magickmaker before she went away to college, which was fall 2007. That makes it, like, 95 in technology years, right? And then she beat it up for a year or two by taking it to class with her. *And* it's a Dell.

Anyway, glad your machine is back among the living!

[deer of the dawn]

Mine seems to have got over whatever its problems were, as well. Of course, I'm running it in XP mode, trying to clean up a lot of unused stuff, blurry pictures, etc. In the end, I copied my data to DVDs for safety's sake.

It's ironic, though. I baby my computer, take such good care of it. My daughter got a laptop at the same time I got mine, a cheaper model (both Dell). She leaves it on the bedroom floor to get stepped on, her friends pass it around like a football at school, uses it while bathing, etc and hers has no problems. Go figure.