Never Losing Data

[tigress35]

I'm a picture whore. I have over 50 gigabytes of pictures. Yes, I know. It's ridiculous. Some of these pictures I would just utterly bawl my eyes out if I ever lost. Some are family photos and some are photos that I just will never ever be able to download again if I lose them

Comments

[amberlynne]

So funny that you posted this, because I have been contimplating doing several of those things. I do have an external hard drive and a new laptop, so I'd like to move all my info to the external and then clean up my desktop but reformatting it frightens me! I hate losing all of my settings and everything. Any suggestions on how to make *that* part of the process less painful?

[tigress35]

If you have a Mac I can help you out... if you use Windows, you're probably better off seeking advice elsewhere, because I'm not really sure where Windows keeps things and what you need to save.

Sometimes it's better to rebuild settings from scratch because preference files can become corrupted, but sometimes you could save them and replace them after you reinstall the programs. You don't need to back up the actual program if you have the installer file, but make sure you save your bookmarks and stuff, and in the case of Photoshop, any brushes or added textures.

Reformatting is a huge bitch, but it'll definitely make your computer seem new again.

[nothf]

WinXP has a feature where you can make a diskette with your settings for just that purpose.

[enderwiggin24]

hi amber,

I have the same as you, laptop and external HD.
what you need to do is (if you are sure that your system is clean and virus free) an Image program, this ensures that not only all your data (like pics, word-doc, music vids, trailers whatever) is backed-up, but also all your settings of your software-programs can be copied back to the laptop, after the reformatting.
I would go crazy if I had to install the hundreds of little programs again if my laptop would ever crash.

I use the version 7.0 of Acronis True Image (they are now at 8.0, but the free copy I had from a computer magazin works perfectly and is really easy to use, like 3 steps)
http://www.acronis.com
they have a trial version of Acronis True Image 8
I am not sure there really exists free image programs.

[suzycat]

Freakishly, I have no idea how to back up my hard drive. There is no backup facility on my XP Home and the best I can do is save individual documents to my USB drive and/or CDs. Oh,and email them to myself at about nine hundred different places.

It sux. I'm adding this to my memories, though!

[teaphile]

I back up everything religiously to CD and keep multiple copies in different locations (like my husband's office), so that if my home burns down/collapses in an earthquake/gets flooded I don't lose my writing and personal photos.

[moonilicious]

I live in constant fear of losing data. I have nightmares about it, seriously.

That reminds me: the next back-up is long overdue. I really need to get an external HD. *adds to wishlist*

[phoiniks]

Thanks for this post. I really must back-up my data.