Never Again!

[Generation ABXY]

Okay, so as I've talked about in the PC Woes topic, I've been having a little bit of trouble with my computer recently. I've been talked through a couple of fixes with my editor, but none of them seem to be fixing the problems I'm having. Barring some last minute miracle, it looks like I'm going to do a complete restore and revert back to the factory settings.

As it means a working computer, this isn't so bad, except in addition to all of the programs I'll have to re-dowload and sites I'll have to bookmark again (little things I'm fine with), I'll also be losing a lot of my work. I'm a writer, and this means a few in-progress reviews and, even worse, several chapters of my book.

This is the second time I've had something like this happened (though it wasn't nearly as devastating that time), and I've still been really terrible about creating back-ups. Never again, I say. So, if anyone here is really tech savy, I need to know how to create a really comprehensive back-up.

If possible, I want this to be something that grabs all of my bookmarks and all of the files I've created in one shot, rather than going through and saving folder after folder and adding them to my external. The way I used to do it was really time consuming (probably one of the reasons I put it off so long), but if I can get something more simple, I'll can probably update it every week and have no worries. So...any thoughts on how to do this, or know of some place that can tell me how?

[iHap]

Hook up your HDD to another computer and backup. If you don't have a second computer, ask a friend.

[Generation ABXY]

Hook up your HDD to another computer and backup. If you don't have a second computer, ask a friend.

Okay, I have two laptops, will that work? And, if so, how would I go about doing this, exactly?

[NoName]

Um... go with option B, ask a friend. They should be able to install your hard drive into their computer and back up any files you need.

This is assuming that you have a computer dorkish like friend.

[Generation ABXY]

Ah, I see what you guys are saying. I thought you were talking about running some sort of cable or something - you want me to physically put the drive in another computer, right?

Assuming that's what you mean, that likely won't work. I probably should have mentioned my computer is a laptop (a Dell XPS M2010). So, if I want to even see the HDD, someone from Dell is going to have to come out and pop-off the casing. :(

But, as I've said, I'm just going to call my existing work a loss. What I want to know now is how to easily create a comprehensive back-up, so if this ever happens again I won't have to worry about it being a major loss.

[cppcrusader]

Okay, I have two laptops, will that work? And, if so, how would I go about doing this, exactly?

Pick up a IDE/SATA to USB Adapter (http://cheapguys.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=232_280&products_id=401&osCsid=12f0a63e9ef4a568e1517ba96ccf72d2), this will allow you to just plug an internal drive into a USB port as an external HDD. Then just find the files you need and copy them over.

Ah, nevermind, I was under the assumption that this was a standard PC.

[TheEvilNarwhale]

Is it really that difficult to get to your hard drive? I replaced the one in my Dell laptop pretty easily.

[cppcrusader]

Is it really that difficult to get to your hard drive? I replaced the one in my Dell laptop pretty easily.

The XPS line doesn't have removable drives, or at least I have seen any way of doing it on the M1730's we have at the office. The 2010 looks even more blackboxed than the 1730.

[Generation ABXY]

Is it really that difficult to get to your hard drive? I replaced the one in my Dell laptop pretty easily.

The last time I had a problem, the repairman had trouble getting to the damn thing.

[muddi900]

This problem can be solved by making 2 partitions. One boot and one for data. That way, you never lose anything due to software failure.

[KidCactus]

Get a Gmail account and e-mail yourself all things you write, so you know you have it off-site if/when your computer gives up.

[Spectre-7]

Also, I would highly recommend backing up your work in as many ways as possible. I've been known to keep my active projects backed up on flash drive, burned CDs and my Gmail account all at the same time. Technology is a fickle bitch, and you never know which format is going to fail on a given day.

For simplicity's sake, I keep my writing all branched off of a single directory, and my graphics work off another. Backing up is as easy as copying those two root directories to the media of choice. Since I do the bulk of my writing in flat txt files, it never takes up much space; graphics are, of course, a different story.

Once upon a time (in Linux), I had a cron job that would periodically TAR and Bzip my writing, which made it incredibly simple to store snapshots. Very handy, if you have the option available.

[DylonCorp]

Google Docs

[NoName]

Have you tried booting your computer with a boot disk? There are recovery CDs that you can boot straight to that has burning software.

[Generation ABXY]

Have you tried booting your computer with a boot disk? There are recovery CDs that you can boot straight to that has burning software.

It's done now. I've restored the factory settings and the computer still doesn't work. Instead they're sending someone out to replace the screen and the graphics card. In all, this means I've had to replace practically the whole thing - screen, graphics card, HDD and CD drive - in less than a year.

Don't know whether I should or not, but I'm holding this against Dell; I'll never buy another computer from them.