If this can happen to a really smart guy like me. . . well...

[beowulf]

I was not sure which forum to post this on - so it is here. Anyway, my ten year old desk top hard drive crashed on Sunday. Took it in to Best Buy to salvage what could be salvaged and bought a new computer - asking to have whatever could be transferred put on the new one. The bad news is that they could not transfer any data as the hard drive was damaged beyond what they could resolve, and I don't think there is any good news here, unless it is a lesson learned. This was the Geek Squad at Best Buy - they did say that there were firms with greater expertise and tools to recover data from crashed hard drives and recommended I try that course. But for now, and maybe forever, thousands of pictures, thousands of documents and more things than I care to remember are as of now gone. I am checking out businesses that are exclusively into data recovery from compromised hard drives. We shall see. I am told it may be expensive but they say there is no charge unless they can recover the data - but they cannot tell you the cost until they dx the issue.

I knew better than not to back up and save pics and documents in more than one place, but like I said, I am really smart. Anyway, please, please take the time to learn how to back up your data - crashes really do happen.

 

[Jstpssng]

That Sux. Most of us learned to do that years ago, yet computers have gotten so dependable over the years that it's easy to forget.
I had a scare about a year ago which reminded me to do as you suggest, I try to back up once per month.

Hopefully somebody can help you.

 

[TheMan419]

That Sux. Most of us learned to do that years ago, yet computers have gotten so dependable over the years that it's easy to forget.
I had a scare about a year ago which reminded me to do as you suggest, I try to back up once per month.

Hopefully somebody can help you.

We have an external hard drive hooked up to the computer. It backs up every time the computer is turned on. It is smart enough to know what files are new or have changed so it is a very quick process.

 

[plowhog]

Backing up computer data is universally recommended. When disaster strikes, people are relieved ... they think .... because they have a BACKUP. But you are not out of the woods .... yet.

Unfortunately, many who faithfully do backups have never once attempted to do a "restore from backup" to make sure that function also works. Often, the first time a "restore" is attempted is following a disaster. At this time some folks learn all those backups they faithfully made are worthless because there is something wrong or missing with the restore process.

If you make computer data backups, periodically test your ability to restore them as well.

 

[plowhog]

We have an external hard drive hooked up to the computer.

That certainly add some peace of mind. But it is still a risky approach-- if that room in your house burns down all is lost. Or if a power spike originates in the PC power supply it could zap both of them at once. Probably low risk ... but still ... the gold standard is to have an off-site backup.

I like the auto-backup systems like you have, but you might consider mixing in something like a once-a-month backup to a completely different media stored in a different place. Just sayin ...

 

[Diggin It]

We have an external hard drive hooked up to the computer. It backs up every time the computer is turned on. It is smart enough to know what files are new or have changed so it is a very quick process.

Convenient, but not best practice. Some nasties that infect a machine seek out and infect all connected drives. Once a given backup is complete, disconnect the drive physically.

And don't get too comfy with the new Solid State Drives. They can fail too and they are much more difficult and costly to recover data from.

I had one just suddenly stop on me a few weeks back. No warning. Just died.

Luckily, I had a backup from just a few days prior, so I only lost a relatively small amount of stuff that I was able recreate.

I also keep a separate backup of some things on thumb drive, but they too can fail.

 

[beowulf]

We have an external hard drive hooked up to the computer. It backs up every time the computer is turned on. It is smart enough to know what files are new or have changed so it is a very quick process.

TheMan419, actually I had one as well, a Western Digital My-Book - it was hooked in, but I don't think I used it correctly - I am trying to access that now as well. What external hard drive do you have. I would like - actually need - to do what you are doing and have it back up every time the computer is turned on - that would be daily.

 

[mrmikey]

Convenient, but not best practice. Some nasties that infect a machine seek out and infect all connected drives. Once a given backup is complete, disconnect the drive physically.

That's the way I do mine, separate hard drive, I enable it to do the backup and disable it once done..........Mike

 

[Topzide]

One nice way to do an on-site backup is have a fire rated safe with power and network capabilities! My gun safe has this and works great to send doc and pics too. Basically it's a network attached storage. Many of us have to extra things laying around to put one together. I recommend solid state drives as they don't have a motor to die which seems to be the most common failure of hard drives. Sorry about the crash. Been there done that myself. Now I save anything with value to multiple things, thumb, NAS, cd or DVD and last but not least a ssd in a case to be used like thumb drive. Lessons learned!

 

[/pine]

Hindsight makes everyone a little smarter...foresight is not so common...!