scrapnnana
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,115 
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Post by scrapnnana on Sept 21, 2019 15:06:25 GMT
Consider this a reminder.
My computer has been acting wonky, so I am backing up this morning in case it decides to suddenly die on me.
I have had computers fail unexpectedly before, so I’m glad I at least got a chance to back everything up before this one does.
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Post by joblackford on Sept 25, 2019 4:24:40 GMT
Thanks for the reminder. Hope your computer isn't messed up.
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Post by wendifful on Sept 25, 2019 5:40:34 GMT
Great reminder! I'm not always the best about backing up to my external hard drive, but about a year ago, I started using iDrive, which lets you back up your computer to the cloud. I have mine set to automatically back up any new files every night, which is so great. (My dad is a computer engineer who's recovered many a corrupted hard drive over his life and he recommended this product to me. It probably shouldn't be your ONLY backup, but if you back up to an EHD monthly, then this helps catch any files that you've created in between.) They usually have a deal where you can sign up for the first year of 5TB of storage for $6.95. After the first year, the price goes up to $60ish per year, which is expensive, but might be worth it if you create a lot of files regularly. I'm not affiliated with iDrive, just thought I'd mention it since it's given me some ease of mind about backing up. scrapnnana, hope your computer lives a long life! |
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scrapnnana
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,115
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Post by scrapnnana on Sept 25, 2019 16:32:37 GMT
I was able to back up everything onto more than one external hard drive.
The Cloud is not infallible. Every form of technology can fail eventually, be hacked, etc. An external hard drive is a one time purchase, no monthly or yearly fees, and I don’t have to worry about whether or not anything personal (like tax returns) is open to hacking.
Right after I started backing up, my oldest son told us on Sunday that his computer had died before he could back up everything. He did get his photos backed up before it died, but he lost everything else, including 3 years of tax returns and other financial records.
I’ve had one or two computers fail unexpectedly in the past. I’m glad this one gave me some warning. It’s still running, but I need to do better about backing up regularly.
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Post by wendifful on Sept 25, 2019 16:51:14 GMT
scrapnnana, I agree that the cloud is not perfect, but my family's attitude toward backups is colored by the fact that our house burned down in a wildfire over twenty years ago, so we believe strongly in having multiple backups, especially off site backups in case of a natural disaster. YMMV but for me, it's worth the fee.
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maryjo
Full Member
Posts: 395
Jul 31, 2015 16:40:25 GMT
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Post by maryjo on Sept 26, 2019 1:44:42 GMT
Definitely can’t depend on external hard drives. Ours crashed at the same time I lost a file with all my photos from 2004-2006. So now we have online back up as well. I say back up in all the places you can! Thankfully I had made prints of the photos I lost! So print them as well! At least the special ones.
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Post by sunny1016 on Sept 26, 2019 2:43:04 GMT
Definitely can’t depend on external hard drives. Ours crashed at the same time I lost a file with all my photos from 2004-2006. So now we have online back up as well. I say back up in all the places you can! Thankfully I had made prints of the photos I lost! So print them as well! At least the special ones.  I had just moved 2 years of pictures onto a brand new EHD. I needed to get them moved quick because I thought my pc was going to fizzle. A month later I went to add more pictures and the drive wouldn't read. I tried everything. I even sent it out. They could not be recovered. I still can't even think about it or I get sick! It was a brand new drive that I placed safely in a protected case and put away. I thought for sure it was fine. I was so wrong. I now back up to 3 EHD's, Backblaze, Google, Amazon, Apple (for phones) and Onedrive!! Yes, total overkill! Oh and I hadn't printed any of them either  I now make sure I am doing PL so I know I also have physical pictures of anything important through the year. How I wish I would have done that with those lost years!! |
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Post by wendifful on Sept 26, 2019 2:51:31 GMT
Definitely can’t depend on external hard drives. Ours crashed at the same time I lost a file with all my photos from 2004-2006. So now we have online back up as well. I say back up in all the places you can! Thankfully I had made prints of the photos I lost! So print them as well! At least the special ones. I had just moved 2 years of pictures onto a brand new EHD. I needed to get them moved quick because I thought my pc was going to fizzle. A month later I went to add more pictures and the drive wouldn't read. I tried everything. I even sent it out. They could not be recovered. I still can't even think about it or I get sick! It was a brand new drive that I placed safely in a protected case and put away. I thought for sure it was fine. I was so wrong. I now back up to 3 EHD's, Backblaze, Google, Amazon, Apple (for phones) and Onedrive!! Yes, total overkill! Oh and I hadn't printed any of them either I now make sure I am doing PL so I know I also have physical pictures of anything important through the year. How I wish I would have done that with those lost years!! I agree, better safe than sorry! Doing all those backups is a pain, but just imagine how much more painful it would be to lose all those photos. We were lucky enough to save most of our family photos from the fire, but my parents didn't have time to grab their photos from college and trips abroad when they were young. They're lost forever now. |
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scrapnnana
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,115
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Post by scrapnnana on Sept 26, 2019 12:17:37 GMT
Fire loss is a good reason to back up to the Cloud, and one that I had not considered.
I backed up to 4 different external hard drives, but it would probably be wise to keep at least one or two of them at another family’s home.
I’ll consider the Cloud. However, since the Silhouette Cloud managed to lose or corrupt several of my own files lately, even though I had just synched, I don’t feel that the Cloud is infallible, either.
Whatever system(s) you use, don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
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Post by streetscrapper on Sept 26, 2019 19:46:31 GMT
I learned this the hard way many years ago but it wasn't the computer that failed... it was the CDs that my photos were stored on. I had one CD with hundreds of pictures on it suddenly become unreadable. Thankfully most of the photos were recovered after taking it to a specialty shop that had some type of software allowing them to recover about 95% of the photos. They told me this was common and not to use CDs or DVDs as backups! I think it cost me about $100 at the time, money well spent to recover my precious photos! I now have two external hard drives that alternate every and back up all the important files on my computer. I also have my photos stored in the cloud. I know it sounds like overkill, but I know how terrible I felt with I thought I had lost a bunch of photos years ago, and I don't want that to happen again!
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Post by anniefb on Sept 27, 2019 5:54:34 GMT
Thanks for the reminder. I back up automatically to a local external hard drive, the cloud and also have Blackblaze plus photos also go to Dropbox.
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Post by claire on Sept 27, 2019 6:57:27 GMT
Thank you for the reminder! Normally I backup online and to an EHD, but the last back-up to an EHD has been a while ago...
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I had just moved 2 years of pictures onto a brand new EHD. I needed to get them moved quick because I thought my pc was going to fizzle. A month later I went to add more pictures and the drive wouldn't read. I tried everything. I even sent it out. They could not be recovered. I still can't even think about it or I get sick! It was a brand new drive that I placed safely in a protected case and put away. I thought for sure it was fine. I was so wrong.
I now make sure I am doing PL so I know I also have physical pictures of anything important through the year. How I wish I would have done that with those lost years!!
