Ro's Newsletter Info On Backing Up...

[Chris]

I thought I saved this info somewhere but I have my laptop only for the summer and can't get the info....can someone tell me what was in her newsletter or maybe point me in the direction of free upload space online?

Thanks!

[angelaNussbaum]

I dont know what newsletter.. nor of a free one. But i do remember her mentioning Carbonite.com?... they dont charge very much and they are a very awesome company.

 

Hope that helps

 

Angela

[Mommymosier]

Here is what Ro said on the MB about backing up. If I can find a link, I'll edit this post and just include the link. Sorry so long.

Wendy

__________

 

What is my own set up? (Ro) My monster desktop has four internet drives: C, D, F, and G. I have an external drive, as well. Two of my internal drives and my external drives are 250 G. Two of my internal drives are 500 G. I run all of my software and have my documentation and important business graphics on my C drive. I back this drive up three different ways.

o I use Carbonite to automatically back up all of the documents, graphics, and other files on my C drive. I used something similar to this when I worked at Novell, so I was extremely excited to find out about this program. Carbonite backs up everything but your software, configurations, and executables to their servers. The files are encrypted before they leave your computer so the backup is secure. It runs behind the scenes and once the initial backup occurs, it only has to backup the changes, and that occurs quickly.

 

Each file that Carbonite backs up has a little dot by it that indicates its status. Green means that it has been backed up. Yellow means that it needs to be backed up. If you delete a file from your computer, Carbonite keeps it on their servers for 72 hours, which allows you to retrieve a delete "oops" without a problem. If your hard drive crashes, you can recover all of your important documents, files, photos, etc. by simply reinstalling Carbonite on your fixed/new computer and choose to restore your data.

 

Because this happens behind the scenes, you don't have to panic about not keeping your DVD backups current every minute. You can rest easy knowing all of your important financial data and other things that you simply do not want to lose are safe. And it is reasonable. It costs $49.95 for a 12-month subscription.

 

The important thing to know about Carbonite is that you cannot back up external drives with it so anything you consider to be critical has to reside on your C drive. It is my solution for business data that I must not lose.

 

o I also use a software program called Acronis True Image to clone my entire C drive onto my G drive. Acronis is much easier to use than other software I have tried and it doesn't blow out my RAM when it runs. It was also simple to set it up so that backs up my external hard drive onto that G drive, as well. This was important to me because my external hard drive has all of my personal photos, layouts, and designs. I try to keep up with DVD burns, but you know how that is… it is easy to get behind. With Acronis True Image, I have the peace of mind that both of these important drives are backed up on another drive.

 

o I also back up occasionally onto DVDs. I use date backing so that I can figure out where I left off and back up from there. I have too much data to keep backing up what was backed up on DVD before.

 

This might seem like "over the top" backing up, but when I was at Novell we always talked about having triple-redundancy. It is not uncommon to have backups fail. My recent discovery of Carbonite was what finally gave me peace of mind about our critical business data. When I worked at Novell, I had experienced losing data and having to have it restored to system three times. We had a system that worked identical to Carbonite. The software we used, called iFolder, saved my sanity repeatedly. I practically did back flips recently when I found a consumer version of this process.

 

I put all of my scrapbooking supplies on one of the other internal drives and the remaining internal drive contains other random graphics that I use to run the company. The vital ones end up on my C drive so that Carbonite can back them up for me.

 

I tell you all of this so you can see that there are various options available to you for backing your files up. How you choose to do it is up to you. The important thing is: BACK UP YOUR FILES NOW!

 

(Feeling confused about this discussion? Let me "un-geek" it a bit for you: An external hard drive is computer storage (think closet space) that plugs into your computer. It's a great way to add extra room for photos and supplies. An internal drive is storage that is built into your computer. Some computers have room for you to add extra hard drives (closets) inside of your computer. Some do not. You can add as many external hard drives to your computer as your pocket book allows as long as you have USB ports (think plugs in your wall) for them to plug into. If you would like to have a drive to back up your drive and you don't have enough ports for it to plug into, you might have to temporarily unplug your printer or other peripheral item while you are using it.

 

It is not uncommon to plug things in and out of your computer if you have more equipment than you have ports. I do it all day long and it doesn't hurt a thing. So, for instance, you could unplug your printer, plug in that extra hard drive, use it to back up your main external hard drive, unplug it, and then plug the printer back in. Does that sound too hard? It's not. It's as easy as plugging lamps in and out of a wall plug once you get used to it!)

[Guest firecracker55]

A sort of condensed version of the above was in the May 17th newsletter. Good luck!

[Chris]

Thanks so much Wendy! This is exactly what I wanted!

-Chris

Here is what Ro said on the MB about backing up. If I can find a link, I'll edit this post and just include the link. Sorry so long.

Wendy

__________

 

What is my own set up? (Ro) My monster desktop has four internet drives: C, D, F, and G. I have an external drive, as well. Two of my internal drives and my external drives are 250 G. Two of my internal drives are 500 G. I run all of my software and have my documentation and important business graphics on my C drive. I back this drive up three different ways.

o I use Carbonite to automatically back up all of the documents, graphics, and other files on my C drive. I used something similar to this when I worked at Novell, so I was extremely excited to find out about this program. Carbonite backs up everything but your software, configurations, and executables to their servers. The files are encrypted before they leave your computer so the backup is secure. It runs behind the scenes and once the initial backup occurs, it only has to backup the changes, and that occurs quickly.

 

Each file that Carbonite backs up has a little dot by it that indicates its status. Green means that it has been backed up. Yellow means that it needs to be backed up. If you delete a file from your computer, Carbonite keeps it on their servers for 72 hours, which allows you to retrieve a delete "oops" without a problem. If your hard drive crashes, you can recover all of your important documents, files, photos, etc. by simply reinstalling Carbonite on your fixed/new computer and choose to restore your data.

 

Because this happens behind the scenes, you don't have to panic about not keeping your DVD backups current every minute. You can rest easy knowing all of your important financial data and other things that you simply do not want to lose are safe. And it is reasonable. It costs $49.95 for a 12-month subscription.

 

The important thing to know about Carbonite is that you cannot back up external drives with it so anything you consider to be critical has to reside on your C drive. It is my solution for business data that I must not lose.

 

o I also use a software program called Acronis True Image to clone my entire C drive onto my G drive. Acronis is much easier to use than other software I have tried and it doesn't blow out my RAM when it runs. It was also simple to set it up so that backs up my external hard drive onto that G drive, as well. This was important to me because my external hard drive has all of my personal photos, layouts, and designs. I try to keep up with DVD burns, but you know how that is… it is easy to get behind. With Acronis True Image, I have the peace of mind that both of these important drives are backed up on another drive.

 

o I also back up occasionally onto DVDs. I use date backing so that I can figure out where I left off and back up from there. I have too much data to keep backing up what was backed up on DVD before.

 

This might seem like "over the top" backing up, but when I was at Novell we always talked about having triple-redundancy. It is not uncommon to have backups fail. My recent discovery of Carbonite was what finally gave me peace of mind about our critical business data. When I worked at Novell, I had experienced losing data and having to have it restored to system three times. We had a system that worked identical to Carbonite. The software we used, called iFolder, saved my sanity repeatedly. I practically did back flips recently when I found a consumer version of this process.

 

I put all of my scrapbooking supplies on one of the other internal drives and the remaining internal drive contains other random graphics that I use to run the company. The vital ones end up on my C drive so that Carbonite can back them up for me.

 

I tell you all of this so you can see that there are various options available to you for backing your files up. How you choose to do it is up to you. The important thing is: BACK UP YOUR FILES NOW!

 

(Feeling confused about this discussion? Let me "un-geek" it a bit for you: An external hard drive is computer storage (think closet space) that plugs into your computer. It's a great way to add extra room for photos and supplies. An internal drive is storage that is built into your computer. Some computers have room for you to add extra hard drives (closets) inside of your computer. Some do not. You can add as many external hard drives to your computer as your pocket book allows as long as you have USB ports (think plugs in your wall) for them to plug into. If you would like to have a drive to back up your drive and you don't have enough ports for it to plug into, you might have to temporarily unplug your printer or other peripheral item while you are using it.

 

It is not uncommon to plug things in and out of your computer if you have more equipment than you have ports. I do it all day long and it doesn't hurt a thing. So, for instance, you could unplug your printer, plug in that extra hard drive, use it to back up your main external hard drive, unplug it, and then plug the printer back in. Does that sound too hard? It's not. It's as easy as plugging lamps in and out of a wall plug once you get used to it!)