Computer files backup options?

[Mr Panda]

Re: Re:

Like this?......

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271659298952?ul_noapp=true

Why the two USB plugs?

Some USB devices need extra power, one of the two plugs is for Data and power, the other is for power only. If you popped the Hard drive out of an old laptop then you simply plug the SATA plug into it and the USB into your pc or laptop and it reads it as an external drive, a good way to recover files off a laptop that doesnt boot up anymore. You can wipe the drive and use it just as a back up drive, then like i said you can buy a cheap enclosure for it and carry it about with you. You will see a lot of external hard drives for sale on ebay which are just that, some old hard drive out of a pc/laptop and someone has just bought a cheap enclosure off amazon and popped the drive in and sell it for price of an external.

Thats another thing, amazon seems to be cheaper for enclosures and cables.

well I've just reformatted 3x old laptop HDs with one of these £1.99 cables, liberating over 1TB of storage - not earth shattering but a handy option if yer tight!

Any port in a storm as the bishop said to the actress :xmas-big-grin:

 

[mattr]

Re: Re:

What are folks using to backup valued info such as photos and other files nowadays?

Online storage, by and large. There are pros and cons but, for many people, the convenience (e.g. automatic backup of phone photos) outweighs the cons (e.g. online storage providers changing their terms and conditions). There are advantages to using your own external hard drives (although, obviously, it's a good idea if they can be kept in a secure location that is somewhere other than where your computer, laptop, etc. are) but if you're wondering about what current trends are, online storage is probably the answer.

You mean someone elses computer? why? do you think they store your photos anywhere different than you can? Personally i would prefer to store my valuable items myself.

Really? Most of the commercial storage people are using some form of raid storage, so drive failure is a pain in the arse rather than a loss of data. I know more than one of them are using multiple locations as well (but you might have to pay for it).

I have all my non-essential stuff (1000+ albums, several hundred movies, 10s of thousands of photos, spread across a fastish 4 bay NAS and a micro server. Then all backed up to a (soon to be remotely located) fairly basic and slow 2 bay NAS (takes about 2 days to fill, the fast one is twice the capacity and does the same job in an couple of hours).
Have about 35TB of drive space total, but with RAID and duplication i've got about 14TB, currently storing 8 or 9TB, give or take. Though if i lost it all, it'd be expensive, time consuming and annoying to replace, but it's not irreplaceable.

Important stuff that i don't want to lose and is irreplaceable is on google drive as well, about 120GB of stuff. Costs me ~£20 a year for 200GB of space.

You can get a basic 2 drive NAS with 2x2TB drives for about £150 now.
With a bit of formatting and set up you can access your stuff from anywhere with a connection, via other peoples computers, your phone, overseas, whatever.

We did a movie night at a mates house last year, from my server. In a different country.

 

[CassidyAce]

Re:

What are folks using to backup valued info such as photos and other files nowadays?

Online storage, by and large. There are pros and cons but, for many people, the convenience (e.g. automatic backup of phone photos) outweighs the cons (e.g. online storage providers changing their terms and conditions). There are advantages to using your own external hard drives (although, obviously, it's a good idea if they can be kept in a secure location that is somewhere other than where your computer, laptop, etc. are) but if you're wondering about what current trends are, online storage is probably the answer.

You mean someone elses computer? why? do you think they store your photos anywhere different than you can? Personally i would prefer to store my valuable items myself.

Well then, Mark, before posting on this thread, I wondered if there would be a response like this from you and, lo and behold, there was. Let's work through your comment one step at a time.

You mean someone elses computer?

Roughly speaking, yes. I'm not sure what the laughter is for, though: backing up my own computer to itself would be the laughable option, surely. However, online storage does not have to be someone else's computer: you can do it yourself, and there is an example above.

why?

Why do people use online storage? As I said before, they find it convenient. To a large degree, that's because they are using portable devices that are intended to be used with online storage - iPads, smartphones, etc. While it is possible to connect an iPad to an external hard disk, and there might be advantages in doing that, it's less convenient. They also use online storage, for ease of sharing, because it's economical, because it's an extra layer of backup in addition to external hard disks, etc. None of this implies that it's a good idea to rely on online storage alone. Just Google 'backups best practice'.

do you think they store your photos anywhere different than you can?

Yes. Although, I wasn't, actually, referring to what I do in my earlier post, as you might have realised if you had focused your efforts on reading carefully rather than being snide (again!). The question referred to 'folks', which could have meant people using Retrobike or people in general. I opted for the latter. One of the most important features of Onedrive, Google Drive, etc. is that they are geographically distant from their users so, for example, if disaster strikes a whole region, destroying computers and hard disks, there are still safe backups elsewhere. Aside from that, data centres have a range of security that most home users do not, including emergency power, fire prevention measures, etc.

Personally i would prefer to store my valuable items myself.

That's up to you. Cynics might respond that that's like storing your life savings as cash under the mattress, instead of on a bank's computer, but, believe it or not, I do actually have some sympathy with your approach.

Anyway, Mark, I hope that's cleared few things up for you. I'll continue to enjoy your ride reports.

 

[mk one]

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the laughter face at the begining of my post was to set the scene so to speak, one of light-heartedness in response to the ever growing idea to entrust ones personal items to a stranger to look after.

Mark

 

[mattr]

FWIW my first attempt at "backups" were essentially cloning the data drive and leaving the clone in a cupboard.

Until i came to it one day to update my backup and a load of magic smoke came out when i plugged it in.
Good job i wasn't trying to restore the drive wasn't it.