# Talk to me about backing up a computer



## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

My brand new fancy pants Win 7 computer went belly-up Monday. After hours on the phone with tech support it appears the hard drive has failed. (Samsung drive, which is a name brand.) I have to send the computer back for repair/ replacement of the hard drive. I decided to take it to my local repair guy to see if he could pull the data off before I send it back. No dice. Thankfully I hadn't yet wiped my old XP one clean so have all but what I've done in the past month. I hadn't made any backups of the new computer since I was still transferring data over to it. 

This is the first time a hard drive has ever failed on me and I've had computers since 1985. But it has, so that raises the question of what kind of back up system should I use? 

There are paid services that hold the data on the internet, but I'm not sure I trust them to keep everything safe. I do have have an external hard drive I use to back up my old computer, but it won't be large enough for this new one which is a real memory hog. So... what's a gal to do? Should I buy a larger external hard drive or are the paid services safe and reliable? Or what other options are there out there? Thanks.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

Anything important I back up to a CD or DVD. Most home users don't need anything fancy(although most home users think they need to back up everything). 
Your programs are no doubt on a disc so its just data you need to worry about. How much needed data does a home user really need?


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## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

mnn2501 said:


> Anything important I back up to a CD or DVD. Most home users don't need anything fancy(although most home users think they need to back up everything).
> Your programs are no doubt on a disc so its just data you need to worry about. How much needed data does a home user really need?


Home business: invoices, orders, accounting data, pics of products, correspondence, over 10 gig of photos/ graphics alone, educational/ formation materials, members lists, web site backups, e-mails, and other stuff. When I was transferring everything over, it was about 20 gig of material. Took forever to transfer to stick drive, dump into new computer, wipe stick drive clean, repeat. 

My external hard drive is only 20 gig, and I have the "old" computer backed up on that just fine, but it won't be large enough for this new one. Hence my question about preferred methods.


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## arabian knight (Dec 19, 2005)

Belfrybat said:


> My brand new fancy pants Win 7 computer went belly-up Monday. After hours on the phone with tech support it appears the hard drive has failed. (Samsung drive, which is a name brand.) I have to send the computer back for repair/ replacement of the hard drive. I decided to take it to my local repair guy to see if he could pull the data off before I send it back. No dice. Thankfully I hadn't yet wiped my old XP one clean so have all but what I've done in the past month. I hadn't made any backups of the new computer since I was still transferring data over to it.
> 
> This is the first time a hard drive has ever failed on me and I've had computers since 1985. But it has, so that raises the question of what kind of back up system should I use?
> 
> There are paid services that hold the data on the internet, but I'm not sure I trust them to keep everything safe. I do have have an external hard drive I use to back up my old computer, but it won't be large enough for this new one which is a real memory hog. So... what's a gal to do? Should I buy a larger external hard drive or are the paid services safe and reliable? Or what other options are there out there? Thanks.


 I would go get a new external HD back up drive.
These have gone so far down in price that they are really a bargain now. 
1TB under 90 bucks.
So easy to have it do automatic backups, that once down it will back up every hour or so you don't even know it is doing it.


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

What I normally do in this instance, is remove the hard drive from the computer, and plug it into another hard drive.

This is done by purchasing a SATA/IDE to USB converter - they are around $20 or so at Best Buy, or online at Newegg or Tigerdirect. It essentially allows you to remove your drive from your laptop, and plug it in, such that you can connect it to your computer like a normal USB hard drive.

The OTHER thing you can do is - if you have access to another computer - to

- download a bootable CD (such as Ubuntu) and boot from it
- and then see if it'll recognize and read the Windows partition

If it DOES, grab a USB hard drive or thumb drive, plug it in, and start copying to the USB drive. You can also burn stuff to DVD.

If you're interested in the SATA/IDE to USB thing, here's a link to one I have.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

Anything I create is backed up on an external hard drive, a usb drive, and to my online gmail account. And I also backup data regularly to a dvd.

One doesn't have to survive but one hd crash, and they learn the importance of backing up.


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