Backing up my laptop

[gamebird]

I've got problems with my laptop - and though I've been saying I need to do something about it fo ages - I've shied away cos I have no idea WHAT it is I need to do

All my music and photos are in here so any handy(easily understood) hints on what to do would be gratefully received

[DavidY]

Backing up is very good - it can save your bacon.

Couple of questions...

What operating system is it?

Do you have anything to back up onto? For instance do you have an external hard disk drive? If not, can your laptop write to a DVD? A CD?

[Gav]

I have a large USB hard drive that I use to back up everything. Mind you, it's part of my regular routine for my business data too so I tend not to forget.

[pmjd]

What do you want to back up? Just your photos, music and important stuff or is it complete disaster recovery, where you can get your laptop back to where it was if it had a sudden hard drive failure?

[frodo]

I've got problems with my laptop - and though I've been saying I need to do something about it fo ages - I've shied away cos I have no idea WHAT it is I need to do

All my music and photos are in here so any handy(easily understood) hints on what to do would be gratefully received

It may be worth considering the amount of data involved.

If your laptop is relatively old the hard drive is probably small compared to current model USB hard drives.

Do you know how big the hard disk is or age of the laptop.

[gamebird]

Befoe I stat - one of the poblems I have with my laptop is that the lette between q and s in the alphabet doesn't wok! (eithe that o it gets stuck on and I get a lot of them - this is making it vey had to google stuff and fo anyone to iunrdestand what I'm typing - Apologies!)

Backing up is very good - it can save your bacon.

Couple of questions...

What operating system is it?

Do you have anything to back up onto? For instance do you have an external hard disk drive? If not, can your laptop write to a DVD? A CD?

Aleady with the technical questions! - Opeating system - um? the what?
Nothing to back it up onto - I was thinking of buying an extenal had dive but have no idea how easy that would be o what a good dive might be. It can wite to a DVD o CD

What do you want to back up? Just your photos, music and important stuff or is it complete disaster recovery, where you can get your laptop back to where it was if it had a sudden hard drive failure?

Mainly potos and music but the way things ae going at the moment I'm thinking complete disaste ecovey might be a good idea

It may be worth considering the amount of data involved.

If your laptop is relatively old the hard drive is probably small compared to current model USB hard drives.

Do you know how big the hard disk is or age of the laptop.

It's a Sony Vaio - the sticke (yep, total dunce) says 1GB memoy and 120GB/Go HDD

Having had a look online it would appea I can get a 1Tb Seagate o WD Elements had dive for about £50.

If you've got this far thanks for persevering

gb

[Agente Secreto]

Try looking at http://www.brighthub.com/computing/smb- ... 65377.aspx

It is relatively easy if all you want to do is copy documents, pictures and music since a simple drag and drop operation into an external drive will get that done for you. I have a couple of external drives now so back up to them in turn so I always have 3 copies of the information on the go.

The sticky keys are more than likely to simply be caused by some crap under the keys, and someone that knows what they are doing can normally gently tease the keys out so you can clean under then replace them. Otherwise get yourself a can of compressed air or a camera puffer brush and direct it under the offending keys to try and blow the clogs away.

[frodo]

It's a Sony Vaio - the sticke (yep, total dunce) says 1GB memoy and 120GB/Go HDD

Stickers are underrated. There might even be a serial number sticker giving the operating system DavidY was asking about.

Given the size of your hard disk I suspect it would be either Windows Vista or Windows XP, if either of these ring a bell.

[jivecat]

Get an external hard drive and save your most important things to it without delay. NOW!

I didn't back up some important stuff for ages because I was waiting for someone to show me a quick way to do it. Then my laptop was stolen in a burglary with masses of unsaved work on it. It still hurts!

[gamebird]

Thanks geeks

Especially pmjd who's gonna help me out at SP this weekend

Though it does sound like buying an external hard drive and copying everything will be the way to go...

[DavidY]

Get an external hard drive and save your most important things to it without delay. NOW!

I didn't back up some important stuff for ages because I was waiting for someone to show me a quick way to do it. Then my laptop was stolen in a burglary with masses of unsaved work on it. It still hurts!

Think about what you'd lose if it died totally or was stolen.

There are a few ways to do it. I think an external hard drive is the way to go for all of them though.

* You can back up certain files or folders. Some versions of Windows have Backup features built in which do this. Depending on your operating system, you may find all "user" files and folders live in certain folders (eg. C:\documents and settings). This takes up less space than a full backup, and it's easier to restore indivudual files.

The downside is that it's not always easy to know which bits to select. Some software store settings in subtle places and may not work unless you've backed up that bit of the disk. Also something like iTunes may have protection on certain files and I'm not sure (?) if they always work if you restored them onto a new computer. iTunes does have its own backup option which I've used (although I've not worked out how to make it save to an external drive).

But once you have some good backups of the whole PC, you may use this approach to save a few files that have changed since the last one.

* Or you can select all files and folders using the built-in backup. This takes up more space but gives more chance of applications working again when you restore them. But this is tricky to restore if the entire operating system died, because you have no way to run the "restore" bit.

* You can also back up an "image" of the disk. This creates a big file that's a snapshot of your whole disk, and if your disk dies, you can get back to exactly that state. This is good because you don't have to worry about which bits to back up, but I think you need to buy a utility to do this (eg. DriveImage or TrueImage).

These utilities will boot from a CD and read your external disk, so if your disk dies totally, it's easier to put it back once you have a new one.

Personally I'd get down to PC World/Currys sharpish, get an external hard disk and (if you have the right operating system ) use the Windows Backup to back up the whole disk. A utility that can make an "image" of your whole disk is preferable but it may take you longer to find one.

[David Franklin]

* You can also back up an "image" of the disk. This creates a big file that's a snapshot of your whole disk, and if your disk dies, you can get back to exactly that state. This is good because you don't have to worry about which bits to back up, but I think you need to buy a utility to do this (eg. DriveImage or TrueImage).

A utility that can make an "image" of your whole disk is preferable but it may take you longer to find one.

As I understand it, the free version of http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/ does a full image backup. Of course, one problem about image backups is that doing a true "catastrophic disaster recovery" test isn't that easy.

I'd recommend doing a full image backup (so you can quickly get back up and running after a HD failure), and *also* backing up your documents folders (so you have your files in a relatively easy to access format).

Ideally on separate drives, with the documents backup being copied to an off-site location. (We exchange USB sticks with our in-laws every time we meet up).

[gamebird]

Having taken good advice on board I am now bakcing up with my new Seagate Replica.
The blue light is on so hopefully it's doing what it should...though the licence agreement bit didn't appear....I'll turn it off and turn it back on again later and see what happens.

Cheers for all your help geeks

gb

PS the sticky keyboard seems to have sorted itself - for now

[philsmove]

the next stage
test the system

1 create a few unimportant files
2 back up
3 delete unimportant files
4 check you can get them back, by restoring

[gamebird]

the next stage
test the system

1 create a few unimportant files
2 back up
3 delete unimportant files
4 check you can get them back, by restoring

Good idea, it's still backing up at the moment but I'll bear that in mind.