Backing up...

bearwood.beckham · Renault 5 Driver Joined: 03 May 2006 Karma :

How do you back up files? I want to back up my music, pictures etc so that when I reset my comp back to factory settings I'll still have my files... Help appreciated..

Thanks

Lawnie · Nearly there... Joined: 23 Apr 2006 Karma :

When you say 'reset your computer to factory settings', do you mean a format?

How much data do you have to back up? 30MB? 200MB? 1GB? 10GB? 150GB? Tell me and I will advise you on the best media to use.

When I back up my data, I simply copy and paste the files to an external harddisk, overwriting existing versions. Although this can be several GBs at a time, it doesn't take very long as the drive uses USB 2.0, with a ~480Mbps transfer bandwidth. It's just as easy with CDs, DVDs, JAZ disks, ZIP disks, USB pens, etc. However, I believe there are proper back up utilities you can use. I know Iomega have one, and maybe even Windows.

Hope this helps.

djr · World Chat Champion Joined: 09 Nov 2003 Karma :

assuming all your videos/porn/music/pictures (my document\my music, my pictures e.t.c) e.t.c are all within your machine logon, create a new local admin user, log on as said user, then goto c:\documents and settings\ and zip up the folder the folder that has the same name as your windows user, then open the zip file and delete the three ntuser files.

burn sed zip to dvd's e.t.c (use winrar instead of winzip and you'll be able to have it create several seperate zip files each the size of one dvd to make it easier e.t.c)

anyway - then once you've burnt them all to dvd reinstall windows, then once you've done that create a user with the same name as your original windows login, login as it, create another local administrator user, log out and log in as new user, then extract the zip/rar file into "c:\documents and settings\original user name" then log off and log on as original user name...

Job done... hope that helps Confused

good night... me knackered Neutral

Courageous T · Scooby Slapper Joined: 08 Mar 2005 Karma :

ah good topic.
i reformatted the old pc yesterday which has two hard drives. i put all the music on the other hd which doesnt have windows is just storage, now ive reformatted it isnt recognizing the other hd in my computer ive tried finding hardware but cant seem to find it anywhere.
any suggestions?

cheers

bearwood.beckham · Renault 5 Driver Joined: 03 May 2006 Karma :

0ddball · World Chat Champion Joined: 15 Jul 2005 Karma :

5GB? Any self respecting perv has at least 50GB of porn!! Laughing

I find using external hard drives much easier. I use a couple of 400GB jobbies. One for main storage and the other as a backup.

Then, after a fresh factory reset i installed all my programs, drivers, codecs ect, made an image of the drive and stored it on one of the externals. It leaves the internal HD that windows is installed on uncluttered so it runs quicker and makes resetting a doddle.

syl · World Chat Champion Joined: 05 Dec 2005 Karma :

I use dual server class hard drives (Western Digital RE) in a RAID 1 configuration to reduce the chance of problems however I still regularly backup to tape (which remains the best archive and backup medium). I store at least one recent backup offsite, in case the whole house goes up in flames. I back up 15GB which takes around an hour on my 40GB DDS4 drive, which you can pickup on EBay for £25 - £50.

If you need more storage, there is DAT 72, DAT 160, DLT, AIT or LTO.

For 5GB or less, you may as well just use DVD.
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Lawnie · Nearly there... Joined: 23 Apr 2006 Karma :

djr · World Chat Champion Joined: 09 Nov 2003 Karma :