Reminder: backup your system and files!

[Herbert123]

Yesterday I accidentally knocked against my computer while vacuum cleaning (I have a loose front panel due to all the hardware I installed inside that tower - it must have pushed hard against a component). The screens went black, and Windows would not load after a reboot: checkdisk failed to repair the boot drive (a OCZ PCI Revodrive 3 x2) - after hours I gave up.

Now, I use Paragon to create semi-regular bi-monthly backups of my system drive. Never had to use it before, but I once lost pretty much all my work due to me not having a backup - I learned a very tough lesson that day.

This morning it took me a couple of hours to create a Paragon USB boot drive on my Windows tablet, and within an hour I am up and running again, minus a couple of files from a month ago. Paragon's repair disk even allowed me to load up the Windows driver for the OCZ drive.

If I had had to reinstall Windows 7, with the mountain of drivers, software, settings, application preference I have, it would have taken me at least a week or two.

Point of this post: that $40 spent on a proper backup program saved my hide today! My system had been running for the past four~five years without a hitch. That one small bump with the vacuum cleaner could have caused me a LOT of headaches and increased work stress, if not for the backups I made.

GET YOURSELF A BACKUP SOLUTION. Best money you will spend. And keep a bootable USB drive/memory stick around with a repair environment to fix things.

Care to share your experiences here?

[photoken]

That one small bump with the vacuum cleaner could have caused me a LOT of headaches and increased work stress, if not for the backups I made.

Fair enough, but for the notebooks I've owned the last few years, the best investments I made were to convert them to all-internal SSDs. Not only do I not have to worry about physical abuse crashing the hard drives, but the SSDs made each machine fast, fast, fast....

[gmhofmann]

My Macs do the backup permanently in the background, I like TimeMachine

[Herbert123]

That one small bump with the vacuum cleaner could have caused me a LOT of headaches and increased work stress, if not for the backups I made.

Fair enough, but for the notebooks I've owned the last few years, the best investments I made were to convert them to all-internal SSDs. Not only do I not have to worry about physical abuse crashing the hard drives, but the SSDs made each machine fast, fast, fast....

The Revodrive is a SSD based raid PCI card which I use for my system drive. When I bumped into that loose panel, the power got cut somehow, and that corrupted the SSD beyond repair.

SSDs are not invulnerable

[Herbert123]

My Macs do the backup permanently in the background, I like TimeMachine

That is one of the tools I would like.

[Falaffel]

I don't know Timemachine (I don't use Macs), what means permanently? Always a File has been created, changed, deleted ..., or is the a backup plan for defined times.

PS: For my backups I use Easus ToDoBackup.

[gmhofmann]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Machine_%28OS_X%29

[Falaffel]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Machine_%28OS_X%29

Thank you.

So, it's the same than the integrated Backuputility of Windows or all separatly available imagebased backuputilities. It's just a matter on how you define yout backupplans.

[Falaffel]

Another simple and integrated feature of Windows is the "Shadow Copy Service".

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/window ... t-windows/

Maybe this could also be a useful thing for you.

But remember, you have a save backup, when the target has been removed from the Computer, from electric power, and has been stored outside of your house.

[iosoio]

Starting with version 7, I think, I'm still using it in both 32 and 64 bit variants on two different machines, Windows has its own “Backup and Restore” control panel. I can't say anything about it because, luckily, I've never had a chance to restore my 7 system so far.

Before Windows 7 I have used Acronis True Image for 10 years or so with results as good as they could be. If I had to recommend a 3rd party backup software this would be Acronis. True Image can even convert a “Backup and Restore” archive to an Acronis one.

Bye.