Major PC crash
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Joined: Feb 2000
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From: UK
Major PC crash
Had a major crash recently that meant I lost all my files on the PC. As I hadn't backed up at the time I'm trying to find out how to do this if it crashes again.
How do I go about backing up everything?
How do I go about backing up everything?
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 871
Likes: 0
From: Chichester, UK
Safest and easiest is probably to buy yourself a CD writer. They are pretty cheap now, and a CD has enough space for almost anything. Also a CD (unlike floppies) will not die when left in a cupboard somewhere for a while.
If you really want everything backed up (rather than, say, the My Documents directory) then you'll probably have to go and buy a tape drive - once you've installed Windows, Office etc. and a few other things you've used much more disk space than can be backed up on a single CD. Tapes offer more capacity but aren't as quick or simple as buring a CD. Much more expensive too. I hate them, but YMMV.
[ 13 November 2001: Message edited by: Evo7 ]
If you really want everything backed up (rather than, say, the My Documents directory) then you'll probably have to go and buy a tape drive - once you've installed Windows, Office etc. and a few other things you've used much more disk space than can be backed up on a single CD. Tapes offer more capacity but aren't as quick or simple as buring a CD. Much more expensive too. I hate them, but YMMV.
[ 13 November 2001: Message edited by: Evo7 ]
Joined: Dec 1998
Posts: 3,038
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From: .
If you do use a CD writer you'll find that the burning software i.e nero and easy cd creator 5 have a backup provision in them. 
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 71
Likes: 0
From: England
If you are going to go this route, buy a CD Re-writer.If you get something like the Phillips 400 series, it comes with bundled Easy CD, which has an option to configure a re-writeable cd as a hard drive. So for example, you can drag and drop files straight onto the CD and it will write them automatically. If you update a file, and drag it to the CD, it will ask you if it should update the backup and so on.
Excellent for all backups, and leaves no excuse for not doing it!
Joined: Nov 1999
Posts: 39
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From: England
I use a CD Writer and its great.
I have 5 ReWritable disks that I use to back up different directories from my hard drives.
Just pop them in, and use them like a hard drive, as mentioned above.....drag and drop.
I use a batch file to only update files that have changed, so the whole things only takes a couple of minutes after the original save.
No excuses for not backing up now !!
You can get CD Writers of as little as £75.
Shop around, and buy on the Web.
I use www.scan.co.uk or www.dabs.com Always been good for me.
Good luck.
A lesson well learnt !!! We have all done this at one time or another. I lost a load of data once, and have only just started to be able to look back and laugh at the experiance !!
I have 5 ReWritable disks that I use to back up different directories from my hard drives.
Just pop them in, and use them like a hard drive, as mentioned above.....drag and drop.
I use a batch file to only update files that have changed, so the whole things only takes a couple of minutes after the original save.
No excuses for not backing up now !!
You can get CD Writers of as little as £75.
Shop around, and buy on the Web.
I use www.scan.co.uk or www.dabs.com Always been good for me.
Good luck.
A lesson well learnt !!! We have all done this at one time or another. I lost a load of data once, and have only just started to be able to look back and laugh at the experiance !!
