Back-up
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Berkshire
Age: 80
Posts: 118
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Back-up
Have tried backing up files and when I put in a CD in drive D: or a mem stick in drive E: it doesnt seem to be recognised.
The programme seems to run and then says insert cd etc, wasted hours sitting thinking it's working
The programme seems to run and then says insert cd etc, wasted hours sitting thinking it's working
Lot's of possibilities here.....
Please tell us more about the hardware /software in use, ie computer model (in broad terms), operating system (essential), backup software (if any), brand of memory stick etc, and what sort of files / information you want to backup.
We've got something to work on then ....
Please tell us more about the hardware /software in use, ie computer model (in broad terms), operating system (essential), backup software (if any), brand of memory stick etc, and what sort of files / information you want to backup.
We've got something to work on then ....
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Berkshire
Age: 80
Posts: 118
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Thank you for helping F.O.R
advetnt laptop
intelceleronT3100
windows 7 home premium
3072mb ddr2RAM
hard drive 320gb
wireless 802.11b/g
graphics Intelmobile 4 series
advent has a backup programme as well as windows, both unhelpful in this case
am trying to use cd r+w discs or a memory stick (drive d: and e: respectively)
Back up system reboot info in case things go orribly wrong!
Then if successful, other programmes I feel important.
Hope I've given what you need ?
and thank you again.
advetnt laptop
intelceleronT3100
windows 7 home premium
3072mb ddr2RAM
hard drive 320gb
wireless 802.11b/g
graphics Intelmobile 4 series
advent has a backup programme as well as windows, both unhelpful in this case
am trying to use cd r+w discs or a memory stick (drive d: and e: respectively)
Back up system reboot info in case things go orribly wrong!
Then if successful, other programmes I feel important.
Hope I've given what you need ?
and thank you again.
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: London
Posts: 7,072
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I use Acronis to take a complete image of my main machine onto a large USB (2TB) drive- that a way I get all my programes and settings back as well as the data if it all goes pear-shaped
Spoon PPRuNerist & Mad Inistrator
I wonder if it's simply that the capacity of the media you are attempting to back up to is too small, and the program is prompting you to feed in another disc?
What size media are you backing up to and how much data are you trying to backup?
A DVD has a capacity of 9.5GB max (double-sided), whereas a CD has a max capacity of only 10% of that.
If you are trying to back up your system drive, which is going to be much bigger than that, you will need either a) a bigger receptacle or b) lots and lots of media.
SD
What size media are you backing up to and how much data are you trying to backup?
A DVD has a capacity of 9.5GB max (double-sided), whereas a CD has a max capacity of only 10% of that.
If you are trying to back up your system drive, which is going to be much bigger than that, you will need either a) a bigger receptacle or b) lots and lots of media.
SD
Thanks for the extra information Victor Tango.
I think SD may be onto something here. I know it involves some extra outlay, but I wonder if an investment in an external hard disk drive might be the way to go. The existing programs may be hung up on the backup media being too small (memory stick) or (relatively) too complex (writing to a DV or CD).
Mixture is a great advocate of backups for all occasions. I'm sure he will assist with good advice when he's able.
Other suggestions as offered need also to be considered, but I'll stay with the suggestion of an external HHD to start with ...
FOR
I think SD may be onto something here. I know it involves some extra outlay, but I wonder if an investment in an external hard disk drive might be the way to go. The existing programs may be hung up on the backup media being too small (memory stick) or (relatively) too complex (writing to a DV or CD).
Mixture is a great advocate of backups for all occasions. I'm sure he will assist with good advice when he's able.
Other suggestions as offered need also to be considered, but I'll stay with the suggestion of an external HHD to start with ...
FOR
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Berkshire
Age: 80
Posts: 118
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I just want to make an emergency back up of the computers main system files should a catastrophy occur where everything gets wiped.
I feel Im expecting too much to think I can back up the WHOLE of ALL files.
A sort of contents of laptop on a disc !!! ???
Maybe Im a dummy but I'm using a DVD+RW 4.7 GB up to 4X multispeed.
I feel Im expecting too much to think I can back up the WHOLE of ALL files.
A sort of contents of laptop on a disc !!! ???
Maybe Im a dummy but I'm using a DVD+RW 4.7 GB up to 4X multispeed.
VT,
I'll second SD's and FOR's suggestion. Don't mess around with DVDs, buy an external disk and make a bootable clone.
My wife's computer had a hard disk failure last year, but because of a bootable clone, she was able to keep working, after I had taken the failed disk out and sent it away for a warranty replacement.
I'm not familiar with Acronis - I use Super Duper on a Mac - but the key with these programs is to set them up to do an incremental backup every night. After the first backup (of all the files), which might take a few hours, the nightly backups are quick and each morning, you will have a complete, bootable copy of your whole disk.
These disks are becoming amazingly cheap. The other day, I bought a Windows/Mac compatible 1TB USB 3 disk from my local Apple store for C$82 ( ~£40).
It is more expensive in the UK, but still good value:
G-Technology G-DRIVE Mobile USB 3.0 1 TB External Drive - Special Edition £59.95
You can setup the disk to have two logical partitions - one matching the size of your hard drive for backups and the other for storing other files.
It will be well worth the investment to avoid the pain and time taken to rebuild a working system from a DVD backup.
I'll second SD's and FOR's suggestion. Don't mess around with DVDs, buy an external disk and make a bootable clone.
My wife's computer had a hard disk failure last year, but because of a bootable clone, she was able to keep working, after I had taken the failed disk out and sent it away for a warranty replacement.
I'm not familiar with Acronis - I use Super Duper on a Mac - but the key with these programs is to set them up to do an incremental backup every night. After the first backup (of all the files), which might take a few hours, the nightly backups are quick and each morning, you will have a complete, bootable copy of your whole disk.
These disks are becoming amazingly cheap. The other day, I bought a Windows/Mac compatible 1TB USB 3 disk from my local Apple store for C$82 ( ~£40).
It is more expensive in the UK, but still good value:
G-Technology G-DRIVE Mobile USB 3.0 1 TB External Drive - Special Edition £59.95
You can setup the disk to have two logical partitions - one matching the size of your hard drive for backups and the other for storing other files.
It will be well worth the investment to avoid the pain and time taken to rebuild a working system from a DVD backup.
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Berkshire
Age: 80
Posts: 118
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
India four two and all you other chaps, your help is much appreciated for this numpty !
If I bought this external drive and backed up the whole computer would I be able to relaod it into a newly purchased laptop ??
What is a TB
I found this one and will go for it if you say it'll do the job.
Await your reply Sir.
Samsung M3 1TB USB 3.0 Slimline Portable Hard Drive - Black
by Samsung
5,364 customer reviews | 652 answered questions
#1 Best Sellerin External Hard Drives
RRP: £79.99
Price: £45.99 & FREE Delivery in the UK. Details
You Save: £34.00 (43%)
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon. Gift-wrap available.
Want it tomorrow, 17 Feb.? Order it within 5 hrs 57 mins and choose One-Day Delivery at checkout. Details
57 new from £45.99 1 used from £65.00
Size Name: 1TB
1.5TB
£64.99
1TB
£45.99
2TB
£65.99
500GB
£35.99
Handy portable storage - Massive 1TB
Future your conectivity with USB 2.0 and USB 3.0
SafetyKeyTM protection for your data
Enjoy stable HD videos and gaming
If I bought this external drive and backed up the whole computer would I be able to relaod it into a newly purchased laptop ??
What is a TB
I found this one and will go for it if you say it'll do the job.
Await your reply Sir.
Samsung M3 1TB USB 3.0 Slimline Portable Hard Drive - Black
by Samsung
5,364 customer reviews | 652 answered questions
#1 Best Sellerin External Hard Drives
RRP: £79.99
Price: £45.99 & FREE Delivery in the UK. Details
You Save: £34.00 (43%)
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon. Gift-wrap available.
Want it tomorrow, 17 Feb.? Order it within 5 hrs 57 mins and choose One-Day Delivery at checkout. Details
57 new from £45.99 1 used from £65.00
Size Name: 1TB
1.5TB
£64.99
1TB
£45.99
2TB
£65.99
500GB
£35.99
Handy portable storage - Massive 1TB
Future your conectivity with USB 2.0 and USB 3.0
SafetyKeyTM protection for your data
Enjoy stable HD videos and gaming
I do these things in a different way so my 'advice' should be read with some reservation as to its suitability for every situation.
With a 320 Gb drive one of the smaller external drives in your catalogue, (1Tb or less) should be adequate.
As I see it - probably not.
A new laptop will almost certainly have an operating system (probably W8) already installed. The operating system files in any given computer were loaded with the specific hardware options in that machine as a blueprint for the whole job. Every computer (other than (perhaps) exact clones of a prototype production machine) will, after the OS is installed have significant differences in what files are installed both in the OS itself and most other programs / applications which are installed to any other computer.
What this means is that unless it is an exact physical clone of the failed machine, simply loading a complete saved C drive partition unto a 'new' machine will not result in a working alternative. I need also to add that given the 'protection systems' built into Windows, it's unlikely that even a reload to a clone machine will be successful.
India four two's suggestion is a good one - one which follows my own process - but it's only going to be totally successful if loaded back onto the computer which 'fathered' it. This assumes that the potential failure in the machine is a HD crash and nothing else.
My backup 'policy' is simply to save all data (photos, documents etc) onto external hard drives, and if a smoke should appear from the computer at some time, be prepared to start again with a new installation of the OS and all programs on a rebuild or new box and selectively then add the saved data from the previous computer.
You can also save your emails, address books and favourites /bookmarks and reload them into a new machine. Most of these programs have a backup facility for these parameters in their tools options.
Most backup up programs - like the ones you already have - will probably do more or less that same thing (as far as I know) but in an automated and structured manner.
I hope that other esteemed contributors to this board may add their observations and personal experiences in this matter.
However a purchase of a modest external HDD - one of those you've mentioned - and using your existing programs to operate with this as the backup medium may well be all you need.
Please let us know how you go.....
FOR
With a 320 Gb drive one of the smaller external drives in your catalogue, (1Tb or less) should be adequate.
If I bought this external drive and backed up the whole computer would I be able to relaod it into a newly purchased laptop ??
A new laptop will almost certainly have an operating system (probably W8) already installed. The operating system files in any given computer were loaded with the specific hardware options in that machine as a blueprint for the whole job. Every computer (other than (perhaps) exact clones of a prototype production machine) will, after the OS is installed have significant differences in what files are installed both in the OS itself and most other programs / applications which are installed to any other computer.
What this means is that unless it is an exact physical clone of the failed machine, simply loading a complete saved C drive partition unto a 'new' machine will not result in a working alternative. I need also to add that given the 'protection systems' built into Windows, it's unlikely that even a reload to a clone machine will be successful.
India four two's suggestion is a good one - one which follows my own process - but it's only going to be totally successful if loaded back onto the computer which 'fathered' it. This assumes that the potential failure in the machine is a HD crash and nothing else.
My backup 'policy' is simply to save all data (photos, documents etc) onto external hard drives, and if a smoke should appear from the computer at some time, be prepared to start again with a new installation of the OS and all programs on a rebuild or new box and selectively then add the saved data from the previous computer.
You can also save your emails, address books and favourites /bookmarks and reload them into a new machine. Most of these programs have a backup facility for these parameters in their tools options.
Most backup up programs - like the ones you already have - will probably do more or less that same thing (as far as I know) but in an automated and structured manner.
I hope that other esteemed contributors to this board may add their observations and personal experiences in this matter.
However a purchase of a modest external HDD - one of those you've mentioned - and using your existing programs to operate with this as the backup medium may well be all you need.
Please let us know how you go.....
FOR
VT,
A TB is a Terrabyte or 1000 GB (Gigabytes), so a 1TB drive has slightly over three times the capacity of your laptop's 320 GB hard drive.
The 1TB Samsung on Amazon is a very good price, but BE CAREFUL. It requires a USB 3 port. Depending on the age of your computer, yours may only be USB 2.
So check the specs on your computer's USB ports, and make sure you choose the right version of USB, before buying a hard drive.
Having said that, get a 1TB drive and use it for your backups. I agree with FOR's comment about backed-up clones of C drives only being reloadable onto the 'father' machine.
My recommendation, given that there is a lot more space on a 1TB drive than you need to back-up your hard drive, would be to partition the 1TB disk into two logical drives - one of 350 GB (slightly more than your laptop's 320 GB) and one of the remainder of the drive. Then when you attach the drive, Windows will see two new drives. Use the smaller one for automatic, incremental back-ups and use the larger one, as FOR suggests, to make copies of all your important files (documents, videos, pictures, email folders, etc.) on a regular basis. Incidentally, because of the way formatting works, the total usable space will not add up to 1TB, it will be slightly less.
I'm not fully up to speed on Windows partitioning these days, but here's a good link from a safe source (I Googled "partitioning an external hard drive"):
How to partition a hard drive | PCWorld
I also looked up Acronis and it looks like a suitable backup program for your needs. Not free, but then look at the cost as an insurance premium.
Finally, I should mention that I've had four hard disk failures in my computer career, and in every case, there were tell-tale signs before the final failure, i.e. corrupted files, bad reads and writes, corrupt sectors, etc. So the moral is any time a disk displays symptoms like these, it is time to back it up and replace it.
A TB is a Terrabyte or 1000 GB (Gigabytes), so a 1TB drive has slightly over three times the capacity of your laptop's 320 GB hard drive.
The 1TB Samsung on Amazon is a very good price, but BE CAREFUL. It requires a USB 3 port. Depending on the age of your computer, yours may only be USB 2.
So check the specs on your computer's USB ports, and make sure you choose the right version of USB, before buying a hard drive.
Having said that, get a 1TB drive and use it for your backups. I agree with FOR's comment about backed-up clones of C drives only being reloadable onto the 'father' machine.
My recommendation, given that there is a lot more space on a 1TB drive than you need to back-up your hard drive, would be to partition the 1TB disk into two logical drives - one of 350 GB (slightly more than your laptop's 320 GB) and one of the remainder of the drive. Then when you attach the drive, Windows will see two new drives. Use the smaller one for automatic, incremental back-ups and use the larger one, as FOR suggests, to make copies of all your important files (documents, videos, pictures, email folders, etc.) on a regular basis. Incidentally, because of the way formatting works, the total usable space will not add up to 1TB, it will be slightly less.
I'm not fully up to speed on Windows partitioning these days, but here's a good link from a safe source (I Googled "partitioning an external hard drive"):
How to partition a hard drive | PCWorld
I also looked up Acronis and it looks like a suitable backup program for your needs. Not free, but then look at the cost as an insurance premium.
Finally, I should mention that I've had four hard disk failures in my computer career, and in every case, there were tell-tale signs before the final failure, i.e. corrupted files, bad reads and writes, corrupt sectors, etc. So the moral is any time a disk displays symptoms like these, it is time to back it up and replace it.
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Confoederatio Helvetica
Age: 69
Posts: 2,847
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Just out of curiosity is their no 'Clone' possible of a WinTel machine? I use Carbon Copy Cliner daily to (incrementally) clone my iMac's HD. If I need to I can boot from the clone.
I also use Apple's Time Machine to back up hourly and I also copy my Documents, Music and Pictures folders nightly to a third external drive.
Ya, whatever, belts and braces but I'm fairly confident that I won't ever lose my files.
I also use Apple's Time Machine to back up hourly and I also copy my Documents, Music and Pictures folders nightly to a third external drive.
Ya, whatever, belts and braces but I'm fairly confident that I won't ever lose my files.
I can come round and clean your windows????????? Whats the address again??
Thanks for the offer but LHR to YYC is 3800 nm. I think your travel expenses might be a tad high.
Just let us know how you get on and if you need any help. I don't think I'm a wizard - just very experienced by learning the hard way!
ExXB,
Backing up and cloning, like many things in Windows, is complicated. The Mac is so much easier. My backup scheme is much like yours, except I use Super Duper.
To paraphrase a well known aviation saying:
There are those who have had a hard drive failure and those who will.
Spoon PPRuNerist & Mad Inistrator
Just out of curiosity is their no 'Clone' possible of a WinTel machine?
The problem is that you can't simply drop the system disk from one computer into another and expect it to work without considerable intervention, unless the underlying hardware (motherboard, CPU, etc.) are nearly identical.
Providing that you can supply the drivers for the different hardware it is often possible to do this - provided you have plenty of time and a reasonable amount of know-how.
SD
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Confoederatio Helvetica
Age: 69
Posts: 2,847
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Thank's guys. But I wasn't suggesting taking a HD out of one PC and putting into another - I was thinking about having a external HD connected to a PC that would be a clone of the drive on the PC. I do this with both my iMac and my wife's Macbook. A couple of years back when I was having 'kernel panics' (bad 3rd party memory chip) on my iMac it was great to be able to boot from a clone - giving me access to all my 'tools'. The stuff on the recovery partition of my HD has some tools, but not all of the ones that I use.
VT,
Good luck.
Good luck.
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Berkshire
Age: 80
Posts: 118
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Plugged in dead simple, good help programme.
managed to back up all docs and photos (theres loads of em)
Plus my flight simulator which is very big and the msg was only used a tiny bit of the destinations backup places memory got about 400gb spare after all that lot !!!!!!!!!
Thanks guys dead impressed !
managed to back up all docs and photos (theres loads of em)
Plus my flight simulator which is very big and the msg was only used a tiny bit of the destinations backup places memory got about 400gb spare after all that lot !!!!!!!!!
Thanks guys dead impressed !
VT,
Well done. The important thing now is to configure the backup program to do regular, incremental backups. Because only new or changed files will be backed up, it takes very little time. I set mine to run at 1am each day.
If you do this and you have a drive failure sometime in the future, in the worst case, your backup will only be one day out of date. Don't forget to copy some files from the backup, once in a while, just to make sure your backup drive is still working correctly.
Well done. The important thing now is to configure the backup program to do regular, incremental backups. Because only new or changed files will be backed up, it takes very little time. I set mine to run at 1am each day.
If you do this and you have a drive failure sometime in the future, in the worst case, your backup will only be one day out of date. Don't forget to copy some files from the backup, once in a while, just to make sure your backup drive is still working correctly.