Terminalcoffee discussion

I want to get an external hard drive to back stuff up and I'm wondering if anyone here knows anything about that kind of thing. I'm not interested in backing up my computer, just photos and files.

Does this look like what I need and am I right that it just connects via the USB port and I can simply click and drag files over and then disconnect it when I'm not using it? Thanks!

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital...

Yes, yes, and yes.

What Larry said.

If you're just storing photos and individual files, though, you might be able to get by with a smaller and less expensive option, like a USB thumb drive, for instance, which can easily fit on a keychain (although it's probably better stored elsewhere). How much storage capacity do you need, Michael?

I would recommend the Seagate external hard drive. It is small and compact and would probably fit your needs just fine.
http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeAge...

What Mary said, Michael. I have the same one, and I have ooodles of pictures/music files/word documents stored on it.

You are so smart to get your stuff backed up. My computer crashed a while back and I lost lots of photos. Heartbreaker!

I back up my data files onto two USB thumb drives, and I recently discovered that my computer doesn't recognize one of them. The older one. Which is extremely disturbing.

Someone in another thread was complaining that her external hard drive had gone bad, as well. Also very disturbing. Are we supposed to have 3-4 backups now?

Just from personal experience-- I would highly recommend Western Digital drives, and highly NOT recommend Seagate (I've had multiple Seagate drives fail on me).

And yes, I'd say if you have important files-- redundant backups are a must. I have at least 3 external HDDs right now, all with multiple backups of each other.

When I went to Best Buy over the summer, the guy recommended Western Digital Drives.

they just came our with a 4TB ext drive. i am so geeked

My first PC has 107 mb of disk space. Somebody said to me, "How the heck are you ever gonna fill that up?"

I am not a tech guy, but now that all of my pictures and home videos are digital only, and have been for several years, I have a backup drive at home and a second one off-site that I use as a secondary back-up (In case home gets wrecked by flood/fire/thieves,etc.). I have software that backs up files every day and the whole thing once a month. Overkill? Yes, but if I lost those pictures my wife would kill me, and I'd feel pretty bad, too.

Just remember, ALL HARD DRIVES EVENTUALLY FAIL!

dropbox.com

Lobstergirl wrote: "I back up my data files onto two USB thumb drives, and I recently discovered that my computer doesn't recognize one of them. The older one. Which is extremely disturbing.

Someone in another thre..."

I have two... the external hard drive from my pc, the seagate and a 2TB time capsule. Plus I have this time machine thingy- I’m not sure how it works, but my friend set it up for me. It apparently is working right now. Right this minute.

Kevin "El Liso Grande" wrote: "they just came our with a 4TB ext drive. i am so geeked"

Oooh 4TB!

I have had a Seagate (it died), a LaCie drive (it died), and an Iomega drive (yup, it died). Unfortunately it isn't all that uncommon for them to die. I considered Western Digital but my research turned up indications that they aren't too reliable. External hard drives are fine when they work, but when they don't, ugh. So even though I know people who swear by certain brands, I don't trust them. They are just the lucky folks whose drives didn't die.

I am thinking about switching to online backup instead, or as a backup to my backup at least. Should have done it this last time, having been burnt in the past.

Jonathan wrote: "How much storage capacity do you need, Michael?"

First, thank you to everyone for the feedback and information. I never thought of a back-up to the back-up but maybe that's not a bad idea.

Jonathan, I don't know how much storage space I need. Stuff I write I keep on two thumb drives as well as my computer and my laptop so that isn't an issue. But I have a lot of music files and photos and that's what I want the back-up for. After reading these messages I'm thinking that maybe instead of getting a 1TB drive I might be better off with 2 500GB drives?

Larry wrote: "My first PC has 107 mb of disk space. Somebody said to me, "How the heck are you ever gonna fill that up?""

I remember we had a PC with somewhere around 50 mb. It was our first one with a colour screen - revolutionary! - and too fast to play our favourite game: Castle Adventure.



I think there was a necklace in this fountain, which is very difficult to type when you're 8.

That's cool.

My first Gateway PC had 64k of RAM, Windows 3.1, and two floppy drives (the big one and the little one).

I thought it was wunderbar.

Our older PCs were all MS DOS operated and we had the huge floppy discs that were actually floppy too.

Other favourite games were Tetris (which I ruled at) and 3-Demon (it's a sort of 3D Pacman, I drove my parents crazy with the tune from the menu).

I built my first PC-XT in 1985. It had a 5.25" floppy drive, 640k of RAM and a 10MB hard drive. I never thought I would need more space.

I used edlin to edit my config.sys and autoexec.bat files and, like J9, I played Castle Adventure. My other favorite was Zork.

I wasn't born until 1987 so you probably played it before me :)

I've never played Zork, but I had Mamba on my previous laptop. Unfortunately it doesn't work on this one.

I had forgotten about using edlin.

We had a Commodore 64!

My first pre-PC was a TI-99.

We had a PC as early as 1983 or 1984 - it was a Stearns that my father won in a drawing. No graphics, DOS based. I used to play the text based games like Wishbringer and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I still remember the first few steps.
>Stand up
>Take Analgesic (big word for me at the time - it took me a long time to realize this meant aspirin, and I had no clue why poor Arthur needed it)
>Don clothing (Another new word - who says computer games aren't educational?)
>Open door
or Look Out Window. At which point you see the bulldozers that you've been hearing. If you ignore them they bulldoze the house and kill you. Make sure to take a towel when you leave the house.

Computer games are very educational, I learned my first words of English from playing Castle Adventure.

I worked at Blockbuster until October of last year, and they still use DOS operated computers from 1986.

Michael wrote: "After reading these messages I'm thinking that maybe instead of getting a 1TB drive I might be better off with 2 500GB drives?"

Hard to know. You might want to check how much storage space these files are currently using on your computer and then choose a backup drive that will accommodate the existing files plus some future growth. Good luck!

My first computer was an Apple IIe. I spent so much time programming junk in BASIC. It was the best computer I ever had.

Jonathan wrote: "Hard to know. You might want to check how much storage space these files are currently using on your computer and then choose a backup drive that will accommodate the existing files plus some future growth. Good luck!"

I did that last night and 500 GB is more than enough back-up storage for me at this point. I also figured I only need one because the HD on the computer also works as a file back-up.

I had a Commodore Vic 20 with all the bells and whistles! Even a datasette for all my external storage needs:

Neat robot face.

Robot octopus!

Robot Cthulu!

My dad worked for Burroughs Corp. for 20 or so years. He would bring home punch cards for me to decipher, and big reels of tape -- maybe they were backups?

In college I learned FORTRAN with punch cards. Total dinosaur.

When I ask these questions, you'll know that I'm not computer savvy. My laptop has displayed a couple of messages that it's recovered from a serious error. I need to know how to save things like my contacts list and my favorites list in case it crashes. And suggestions on what else I might need to save. Can I save these things to a flash drive? I have all my important word documents saved on a flash drive, but that's all. I'll need step-by-step instructions, if anyone feels like taking the time.

Unless you are able to store your back up HD off site from your computer, you are still vulnerable to lose everything in a fire, flood, theft, etc. Consider an on-line back up.

How do I save to an on-line back up?

Typically you sign up for a service like Barracuda, Carbonite or Mozy.

A very simple way to do it is via the free app Dropbox. That's the one I use, and someone else in TC mentioned it as well. The basics are free, with small payments for additional storage.

Thanks.

Does anyone remember when, on Amazon, you would be on a book page and you could check a box that said you owned that book, and then rate it (without reviewing it)? They have disappeared this. They seem to have replaced it with a "like" button, which I do not like. Now you can only rate and check the own box from another page, and you have to go through several steps to get to that page. I can never remember where that page is. It might be a Wishlist page. Am I making any sense? I want someone to point me to the "I own this" box.

Ok, I found the answer. All explained in this thread, where everyone else is as irritated as I am and are threatening to leave Amazon for Goodreads.

http://www.amazon.com/how-rate-book-w...

Yick. One more reason never to go back to Amazon.

Laptop question: In the past week, my laptop has shut down unexpectedly three times. It's on - then it's off - and it feels very hot on the under side. It sits on a flat surface that allows ventilation. After it cools off, it's fine for a while. I've saved everything important to a flash drive. This is a 2004 laptop, and I'd like to keep it running if possible. Suggestions, anyone?

They are designed to self-destruct after 2 years.

DON'T SAY THAT.

Scout wrote: "Laptop question: In the past week, my laptop has shut down unexpectedly three times. It's on - then it's off - and it feels very hot on the under side. It sits on a flat surface that allows venti..."

Does it make a loud noise too?

What the hell, Felix? That's just depressing. Besides, mine's 8 years old.

Evie, no loud noises, just heat underneath.

Mine often sighs loudly.