Hello, LzD Friends.
My computer's back up is an action that always makes me think... I tried a couple of software in the past, that didn't satisfied me, and now I'm trying to save my libraries' content in an external hard drive, from time to time (which can be many many months...). I recently read about online back up, and I would like to ask what's your opinion about CrashPlan. Would you back up your computer online with it or something else you have already tried?
http://www.howtogeek.com/242428/whats-the-best-way-to-back-up-my-computer/
https://store.crashplan.com/store/
CrashPlan is a viable solution, but like many is not free.
There is no one solution that is best for everyone. You need to find what works best for you. And as the How-To Geek points out, "one backup isn't enough". You need to have multiple levels or layers of backups with at least one that is "off-site".
Backing up to an external drive is great, but not good enough. There are where users judiciously backed up their computers to an external drive, but then both the computer and drive was destroyed by fire, flood, or tornado. I know of a case where a bad guy broke into a home and stole the computer and the external drive.
For me, I have several computers in my home and I regularly "drag and drop" the contents of my Documents folder to a different networked connected computer, including my backup computer. I also have a couple old drives I insert in my drive docking station (https://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Sata-HDD-Docking-Station/dp/B0012Z3MKW/ref=pd_lpo_147_tr_t_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=956JC0EV9GTGBHJM1WP3) then make an "image backup" to this drive. I keep this drive at a trusted neighbors house for an off-site backup.
The thing is, have a backup plan, and use it.
Thank you, Digerati.
I tried the free version of CrashPlan yesterday. It took 3-4 hours to ''back up'' on an external disc 152 GB of data from my computer, but at the end I couldn't find all these data. There was a folder, including many other folders, and nothing was looking familiar with something from my documents. I don't know if I made something wrong. Finally, I uninstalled it.
I think I will keep saving my data to my external disks manually, hoping that they (we) will be safe from a fire, a flood or a tornado! :)
Having a backup plan is a HUGE first step. Sadly, most users have the invincible teenager mentality of, "it will never happen to me". Everybody knows they should have backups, but most don't bother - until it is too late. But note EVERY drive WILL fail - eventually.
But note I said having a plan is the "first" step. Testing it is the second. At some point before it is too late, you should pretend your primary drive(s) has failed and see if you can fully recover from your backups.
I had to use an image 2 weeks ago for something that should have been simple. Thank goodness for images! Those images have saved several computers quite a few times.
MS Security Essentials newest version removed the right click option to scan a file. I use this feature a lot and did not want to see it disappear. So three computers I was able to restore to before the upgraded version was installed. The fourth computer failed to restore using 2 different restore points. So I dragged out the image and restored it to a much earlier time. Problem solved.