jrogers397 Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 Does anyone here use an outside source or software to automatically back up your computer like Carbonite or some such program I'm looking for pro's cons or any other programs like this if anyone has used them.TIA,Janis Rogerswww.jansbathscents.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissMary Posted January 7, 2008 Share Posted January 7, 2008 Windows comes with a pretty good burning program in itself, so I just write directly to DVD/CD's as info disks when I back up. I've tried other programs, but in the end, for me it just overcomplicated things, when you can drag and drop onto burners anyways.ETA: I just zipped the files using WinRar btw, so that I could fit more on a disk as well, WinZip can do the same thing.Depending on how much you need to back up, a thumb drive is a very good tool as well. I've backed up all my website and business stuff there in addition to CD's and the thumb drive sits in my fireproof, waterproof safe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VerticallyEnhanced Posted January 7, 2008 Share Posted January 7, 2008 I am anal backup queen since I almost lost everything a while back. I use my website server to back up a lot of files, so that might be an option for you depending on how much room you have. I also have an external 250g drive which automatically backs up my computer every two days. My brother uses http://www.ibackup.com/ and is very pleased with it. I think it is about $10 for 5g, which for me, is not much at all, but I am sure you can add on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MochaMama Posted January 7, 2008 Share Posted January 7, 2008 I use an 80g external hard drive to back up my files. I just use the Windows XP backup. I used Carbonite, and it was good if you don't want to remember to back up your files (it does it in the background) - 50/year as someone mentioned, but I figured why pay when I have the stuff all ready here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beesweet Posted January 10, 2008 Share Posted January 10, 2008 I don't trust only burning cd's since I am now finding that they don't always work later. I have stacks of cd's burned over the last couple of years and have a sum total of 2 that were able to be read when my extra hard drive crashed and I lost a huge chunk of important business information stored there. Fortunately, I managed to piece together much of the crucial info from the 2 cd's, but we lost newer versions of logos, artwork, and labels.We just got an external hard drive and I am in love. I backed up all of the files from the main computer and also transferred important items to a second computer as a safety net.Flash drives are nice if you don't have a ton of files. Regardless, I would highly recommend more than one backup location after our recent problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Late Night Posted January 10, 2008 Share Posted January 10, 2008 I have a flash drive but I rarely use it. I usually burn everything on my computer to a cd at least once a week. When I remember. One mistake I made was just burning a shortcut of a program to the cd. You have to burn the actual program including the start up and everything it needs to run. I always keep an extra copy, burned on a seperate cd, of every program I buy. I also keep a backup cd of everything on the computer so, my backups have a backup. Yep, I've lost everything too, twice.As far as Carbonite and other like businesses, no way would I do it. As I understand it, you are paying someone you don't know to have access to everything in your computer? Including passwords? Banking files? And they are keeping that record? In this day and age of the frauds and identity thiefs, I wouldn't even think about it. Honestly, if you don't know how to save your important things then it's time to find out how. I don't know much more than the on/off settings so if I can do it anyone can.I'll admit I'm jaded and I don't trust anyone with my 'stuff' but me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissMary Posted January 10, 2008 Share Posted January 10, 2008 I don't trust only burning cd's since I am now finding that they don't always work later. I have stacks of cd's burned over the last couple of years and have a sum total of 2 that were able to be read when my extra hard drive crashed and I lost a huge chunk of important business information stored there. Fortunately, I managed to piece together much of the crucial info from the 2 cd's, but we lost newer versions of logos, artwork, and labels.We just got an external hard drive and I am in love. I backed up all of the files from the main computer and also transferred important items to a second computer as a safety net.Flash drives are nice if you don't have a ton of files. Regardless, I would highly recommend more than one backup location after our recent problems.That's definitely nice, but remember, hard drives can become corrupted to. I lost 100gigs of music that way, and I'm still bitter! This is why I store both the CD's/DVD's and the thumb drive. Not saying this is you, but CD's that become unreadable/damaged are usually from poor care (notice I say usually, there is no definite's in computers ), a good rule of thumb is keeping them in a cool, dry, place out of sunlight. And always use quality CD's.I don't use more than about 2 gigs right now for all my graphics and excel files though. I just like more than anything, that I can put the thumb drive into the safe cause it's smaller. But I also keep paper copies as well and all my original receipts are still hanging around. Not really sure if that counts as an extra place, but I'm terrified of losing my work, so I'm a nutso about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beesweet Posted January 10, 2008 Share Posted January 10, 2008 Oh, yeah...the loss of a hard drive is what caused all of this. I have always burned backup cds which are kept on my desk shelf...no light, heat, etc. I've tried various brands and write speeds. I first noticed a problem with the cds not being compatible between computers and thought it was just my laptop. After the hard drive crashed, I discovered that they either come up as blank OR they crash the computer. The 2 that finally worked will only work on the newest computer (barely) and can't even be read by the computer they were burned on! Crazy, I know. I can't tell you how much time I spent on the phone with tech support at the beginning and no one knew what was causing it. After 2 years, I finally discovered that there are some issues when burning cds with Windows XP and the solutions was supposedly using a separate cd burner software. (it doesn't seem that *ALOT* of people have been affected by this issue, at least not that I've found online, but it was a surprise after having no problems with burned cds for over a year) I thought, Yay, problem solved when the cds worked perfectly. Fast forward 3 months, new keyboard crashes the computer...and NONE of those cds worked...arrrggghhh So I don't trust any one method now!Now that I've transferred copies all of the files to another computer, I'm going to see how it goes with the dvd burner on that one while I still have copies on 2 computers and the external hard drive.I'd say cd's and a thumb drive would constitute 2 locations. No one but me can have bad enough luck to lose all 3 at once! I don't count hard copies of paperwork as that would be a nightmare to reenter and I'm lazy! LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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