Online Data backup

[Daniel]

Anyone capable of reccomending a decent online data back up sight?

I recently came home to find that my mom is by far the worst computer user ever. While trying to figure out why her computer is all jacked and doesn't work I asked "When was the last time you ran a virus scan" and her response was, "I don't know, it expired like 8 months ago so I haven't bothered."

So yea, I bought her a new computer for christmas and I don't feel like going through the fiasco of her last computer upgrade again (What do you mean computers don't have 5.25 floppies anymore?)

So, preferably it would be somewhere with a rather intuitive upload function that would allow her to back up her research files without giving me a stroke.

Thanks.

[Renian]

www.hriders.com

You can upload the stuff to the email account there. They give you a terabyte of storage.

[Latrinsorm]

It's hard to compete with a free terabyte, but I'd say USB drive it up. Assuming she's got a somewhat recent operating system (and a USB port) you literally just plug it in and it's treated as a normal folder. You can get a USB thumb with plenty of storage space (considering she was using 5.25 floppies) for like 20 bucks. The transfer speed is also very, very quick.

[Soulpieced]

Thanks for the thumb drive idea. Another item to add to my list once I can afford to get a new computer and transfer all my files.

[Gan]

Its insane how cheap you can get thumb drives now. On the same line, I picked up a 1gig memory card for my palm treo phone for only 69 bucks.

I'd recommend a thumb drive for data backup. Or simply burn yourself a CD and file it away. I backup my work files monthly onto a CDR disk, its cheap, only takes a few minutes, and easy to recover as long as you store it in a safe and locatable place in your office/home.

[Bobmuhthol]

I still say the easiest transition to a new computer is to connect the old hard drive as a slave, copy it onto the new hard drive under a new partition, and format it. Then you have every file you had before on your new drive.

[Gan]

I did Bob's method a month ago with my new desktop and I pushed over 4 gig's of data so fast I had to check twice to make sure I had selected everything to move. Thats the only way to xfer huge amounts of data onto a new HD without spending all day plugging in disks.

[Jazuela]

I'm not looking forward to backing up my computer. Thing doesn't come with a recovery disk, you have to make one yourself. When I tried, right after I bought the thing, it said I needed 10 CDs. By now I probably need 15, heh. Guess I should go out and buy a pack. I'm assuming they should be R/W, since I'll probably have to do it again in a few months? Or should I toss the old ones and backup to new ones each time I do a backup?

I'm not talking about just new datafiles, I'm talking about backing up the whole computer. Someone suggested I just ghost it to my old computer. That means I'd have to buy Ghost. God I hate shopping <sigh>

[Bobmuhthol]

<<Thing doesn't come with a recovery disk, you have to make one yourself.>>

???

Do you know what a recovery disk is?

[Daniel]

Yea, USB drives sound good except for the fact that this computer doesn't have a USB Slot, and if it were me Bob that is exactly what I would do (and did with my old laptop) but we're talking about my mother who was aghast that her CD-rom drive didn't work, even though she just used it...a year ago.

[Jazuela]

The recovery disk that came with my other computer loaded the OS and all the system stuff, plus all the software that came factory-installed. So when you used it, the machine was as if you had just purchased it and took it out of the box. You'd use it if you had to reformat the hard drive for any reason.

Making a recovery disk on this machine, supposedly will do the same, but there's an option to include anything else you've installed on the machine after the purchase and any new datafiles. When I tried to do it after I bought it and hooked everything up, it said I needed 10 CDs.

[Bobmuhthol]

You can't arbitrarily make up a recovery disk. I think you're talking about a disk image. And you shouldn't use a CD for one. You should have another partition on your hard drive for it. Or keep it on a DVD if you absolutely have to.

[ElanthianSiren]

Originally posted by Daniel
Anyone capable of reccomending a decent online data back up sight?

I recently came home to find that my mom is by far the worst computer user ever.

Try again. Even your mom probably knows the difference between site and sight.

She'd probably benefit from the
master....
slave....
suggestion that was Bob's, however.

-M

[Daniel]

OMFG, I made a typo. I'm so gonna go shoot myself now.

[Asha]

ES you're such a bitch!!
:lol:

[Drew2]

Originally posted by Bobmuhthol
You can't arbitrarily make up a recovery disk. I think you're talking about a disk image. And you shouldn't use a CD for one. You should have another partition on your hard drive for it. Or keep it on a DVD if you absolutely have to.

Actually, my dear Alex, few computers actually come with the recovery disks anymore. eMachines especially now come with a program that creates it for you (from an image), and you are given the option to use CD's or a DVD (if your computer has a DVD burner).

So she's correct.

[ElanthianSiren]

Originally posted by Daniel
OMFG, I made a typo. I'm so gonna go shoot myself now.

Make sure to use a big gun or a semi-automatic. :kiss:

-M

[Bobmuhthol]

<<Actually, my dear Alex, few computers actually come with the recovery disks anymore. eMachines especially now come with a program that creates it for you (from an image), and you are given the option to use CD's or a DVD (if your computer has a DVD burner).

So she's correct.>>

Actually, my dear Tayre, my eMachines that I bought like a month ago came with a restore disk!!

[Bobmuhthol]

ps. I'm correct: it's a disk image, not a restore disk. A restore disk's function is to start the computer anew.

[Drew2]

The image itself is useless until it is put onto a CD. Which the program does.

I didn't say EVERY computer, I said most.

You're a jerk.

[Bobmuhthol]

<<The image itself is useless until it is put onto a CD.>>

WTF?!?!?!?! Disk images do not have to be put on CD.

[Drew2]

No, they don't. But in order for it to be useful at all when restoring a computer, it does, considering the HD is formatted in the process.

[Edited on 11-28-2005 by Tayre]

[Bobmuhthol]

Originally posted by Bobmuhthol
You can't arbitrarily make up a recovery disk. I think you're talking about a disk image. And you shouldn't use a CD for one. You should have another partition on your hard drive for it. Or keep it on a DVD if you absolutely have to.

[Drew2]

Please tell me how you would boot from and restore from the other partition (that cointains an image) when your computer is not made to do so?


This statement excludes the Compaqs, Gateways, etc. that I've seen with an option on startup to boot from the recovery partition.


[Edited on 11-28-2005 by Tayre]

[Bobmuhthol]

Do you have to have a fatal error and an unbootable hard drive in order to use a disk image?

[Stunseed]

Originally posted by Tayre

Originally posted by Bobmuhthol
You can't arbitrarily make up a recovery disk. I think you're talking about a disk image. And you shouldn't use a CD for one. You should have another partition on your hard drive for it. Or keep it on a DVD if you absolutely have to.

Actually, my dear Alex, few computers actually come with the recovery disks anymore. eMachines especially now come with a program that creates it for you (from an image), and you are given the option to use CD's or a DVD (if your computer has a DVD burner).

So she's correct.

Up until about 3 months ago, this was true. Emachines, Compaqs, HP's, Sony, they all did not have disks, just a simple partition on the drive.

For their ( the man, or companies imparticular ) 4th quarter machines, disks came back. I think they realized people were too stupid to utilize the partitions and sent computers back to them. Every machine I've put on display at the job has had recovery disks since like late Oct.

[AnticorRifling]

Originally posted by Tayre
No, they don't. But in order for it to be useful at all when restoring a computer, it does, considering the HD is formatted in the process.

[Edited on 11-28-2005 by Tayre]

False, only the logical partition that the OS requires will be formatted. It's actually much faster to have the image stored on another logical partition and do a reimage that way.

[Jazuela]

All I know, was that my computer didn't come with a recovery disk. And when I booted it up and got the "Welcome to your new computer" thing, it "highly recommended" that I create one. When I thought to myself, "self, this is something I need, so yeah I'll do it," and clicked "OKAY", it gave me a couple of options. One was the option I wanted, which was to do a full factory reinstallation and not simply an OS reboot. And for that, it said I needed 10 CDs.

Yes I have a burner. I use the term CD interchangeably with DVD, for the same reason I used to use the term "floppy" to identify both 5.25 and 3.5 floppy disks. Regardless of which *type* of round plastic/magnetic disk-shaped object I need, I need 10 of them. I know they didn't mean 10 floppies because my computer doesn't come with a floppy drive (which kinda sucks because I had saved all my text files to floppy on my other computer before it crashed).

You can save to another partition, but it won't do you any good at all if you have to *reformat your entire disk.* It turned out my hard drive fried during a power outage, my surge protector wasn't enough to protect it. I now have a battery-backup USP but I'd rather have a "full factory recovery" on a separate disk just in case. And I'd like for that full factory recovery to have, in addition, all the software - including the current version of IE, Netscape, Trillian, AIM, current drivers for all my software, ZMud, MushClient, etc. etc. etc. so I never have to spend hours and hours re-installing it online again.

[Skirmisher]

Originally posted by Stunseed
Up until about 3 months ago, this was true. Emachines, Compaqs, HP's, Sony, they all did not have disks, just a simple partition on the drive.

For their ( the man, or companies imparticular ) 4th quarter machines, disks came back. I think they realized people were too stupid to utilize the partitions and sent computers back to them. Every machine I've put on display at the job has had recovery disks since like late Oct.

I noticed that with Dell I think.

They started recently to give the option of getting restore disks for like ten dollars in addition to the restore partition thingie that comes automatically.

I think thats what I noticed anyway.

[AnticorRifling]

Originally posted by Jazuela
.... doesn't come with a floppy drive (which kinda sucks because I had saved all my text files to floppy on my other computer before it crashed).


If you really have to have those files and don't want to go to the library and email them to yourself here's a quick fix: QUICK F1X0R (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index%3Dblended%26field-keywords%3Dusb%20external%20floppy%26results-process%3Ddefault%26dispatch%3Dsearch%26store-name%3Dall-product-search/ref%3Dpd%5Fsl%5Faw%5Ftops-1%5Felectronics%5F10864342%5F1/102-1551027-9983302)

[Jazuela]

Heh - only 20 bucks for an external floppy? Who woulda thunk! Thanks Anticor, I had ruled out that option because I didn't think it would be so dirt-cheap. I have like - 80 floppies worth of jpgs and text files and word files and excel files and one floppy that's JUST a MS Access file that I'd like to be able to use once in awhile... and I wanna burn'em all to CD, so this will be a huge help. I even have around 5 disks of nothing but old gemstone logs and e-mails that I keep around for nostalgia purposes.

Thanks again!

[ElanthianSiren]

Originally posted by Jazuela
I even have around 5 disks of nothing but old gemstone logs and e-mails that I keep around for nostalgia purposes.

Thanks again!

She meant blackmail, not nostalgia :P

-M

[Jazuela]

Shhh ES, I told you if you mentioned anything I'd tell everyone about, y'know, that thing that happened, up in the treehouse, back when you and you-know-who were just starting out. This is your last warning, and I got the log!

[ElanthianSiren]

:rofl:

Omg, don't tell them about Lord Fancypantzce and me!

-M

[xtc]

What do you guys think of Data backup software like GR back up Pro (http://www.grsoftware.net/backup/software/grbackpro.html)?

I don't back up often enough. I have a multitude of word, excel, powerpoint and database files. I also like to back up my email. I was wondering if this would make it easier/faster?