Posted on 01/18/2010 3:51:38 AM PST by SWAMPSNIPER
Just a few months ago my old computer reached the point where duct tape wouldn't help. My plan of having multiple drives didn't work, 2 out of 3 blew out with the rest of the package.
My new computer came with Vista which started showing signs of instability almost right away.
I heard Rush talking about Carbonite backup and signed up for the plan.
Last Thursday my OS really started going bonkers, nothing I tried would help. System restore would not work at all. Late Saturday I ran a reformat and recovery and got back on line. I only reinstalled the basics and turned on the Carbonite restore function. It's slow, the download is still running, but I have a lot of Tiff and large jpg files, a lot more than most folks have. All my stuff is coming back. My documents folder came in early this morning, lots of stuff I don't want to lose.
I don't usually do testamonials but Carbonite does exactly what they promise.
have had to use it several times. The only problem is you have to be careful and make sure all your important files are tagged for backup.
But I am using a Verbatim to back up.
I had one of those. Worked great until Seagate pushed out a software upgrade that killed both 500 GB drives. Since they were mirrored everything was lost.
That also wont protect you against a fire.
Carbonite is excellent.
Worth every penny.
FYI, wife Miss Emily uses Carbonite for her Acer netbook, and for previous laptops, and has been quite satisfied with it. It is slow, as noted above.
I use an outboard drive, plus ( since assorted data disasters, I got paranoid ) a network drive.
And the house's oldest PC is kept as a fallback, and has all my stuff on it, and it gets a separate backup to another outboard drive, and the network drive.
Since the main PC and the fallback PC share the NW drive, duplicating files is simple to do.
And when I upgrade any of the hard drives, the old one gets dated, and stuck in a drawer, so if absolute disaster strikes, I can at least go back to that point in time.
This digital stuff is wonderful, but it's ephemeral at best.
Highly recommend a router and LAN- it stops most of the bad stuff.
One thing about Carbonite and similar services? If a real disaster- hurricane or fire-- nails you, having your data offsite may be a lifesaver.
I’d suggest upgrading to 7.
Or get a second copy USB device and store elsewhere.
Pictures and scanned images of critical files I store on DVDs in a safety deposit box. Update it about once a year. I probably should listen to my own advice and back my NAS up to an external device and keep in the deposit box as well.
I saw these the other day and wondered about them. If you do crash and cannot recover and buy a new computer, do you just plug in the WD My Book USB and recover to the new computer? I guess I'm asking that of any backup/recovery devices.
Right now I save everything important to a flash drive. Granted, I don't have much to save.
I also have an external HD with Auto back up on two different drives. Of course with OSX I have no virus worries but I still have one PC laptop which I use on the road and I have carbonite for it. I have had it crash all the way to the ground, before carbonite, But I usully back up important files ( unless I forget).
barbra ann
I have not found an antivirus software yet that didn't slow down the machine it was supposed to protect. Anyone writing software to function as maleware, or destructive entities knows there are certain aspects of the antiviral software that they must deal with up front in order to gain access. Most anti-V software is known to have a "footprint" that is unmistakeable. Kind of like a big red flag waving in the wind.
I’m not sure all my software is compatible. I have a big investment in photo editing, also a monitor calibrating system. I already had to dump a good printer when I had to use Vista. That includes a new CISS.
There is a compatibility tool. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7/en-us/default.aspx
About half way down you can download a tool that scans your PC.
I do some photography but mostly it is because I have multiple computers to protect. My wife’s new laptop was the biggest driver since it shuts down when she closes the lid. I needed a realtime solution that would backup a the file as soon as she created it. Their software works great!
I lost my hard drive while on a 10-day business trip.
On-line back-up saved the day for me.
I employ on-line back-up also for business continuity in case of fire or theft of my physical media. This might sound expensive, but re-couping the loss of data on 6 machines would could more. It’s an insurance expense.
For my business machine(s) I back up to local spinning media ( happens to be Seagate NAS ) as well as an on-line provider.
To me, as a business expense, it’s worth it to use on-line back-up.
Go Western Digital, Seagate sucks. As for a fire, copy the data to a DVD or other hard drive once a year and store it offsite.
I don’t like the idea of my data being stored in some cloud by someone else...
“I am an electronic tech by trade and I do believe the anti virus software actually draws the bad junk to your computer. “
I believe some anti-virus does that, mostly Norton and Mcafee.
Not running something is a poor choice. Numerous legitimate websites have been compromised and will install malware on your PC when you visit them. These are normal shopping sites.
AVG, Comodo, and Avast are good choices and run very light.
The WD My Book is a NAS device or network attached storage. It’s always plugged in and available via the network. Once you reload your computer, basic Windows XP image, you can then restore from the My Book. I don’t believe My Book supports bare metal restores.
“I don’t like the idea of my data being stored in some cloud by someone els”
Encryption is a wonderful thing.
I have operated this way for approx. eight years, I have had very few problems, no crashes.
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