Computer backups

[Astro Forever]

A recent computer would have burnt down in a few hours, if not an hour or less (although some models have security devices that shut the system down before something bad happens).

That should be mandatory!

My computer is about your server's age, so it's good to know that it probably won't burn right away if the fan dies.

It's worth buying an external hard drive: their price are very affordable now and they have decent storage. Even a USB key could do the trick: all your data at hand, whenever and wherever you want

It's true that they are inexpensive in comparison to what they were not so long ago. As for the USB drive, that's right, it's a good option, however I don't really tend to play Photoshop the picture game elsewhere!

Thanks for everything, fafner!

[CommanderEVE]

[QUOTE=fafner;74465]A recent computer would have burnt down in a few hours, if not an hour or less (although some models have security devices that shut the system down before something bad happens).

That should be mandatory!

My computer is about your server's age, so it's good to know that it probably won't burn right away if the fan dies. [/QUOTE]


That happened to my cousin's computer.

[Anapan]

I back up with harddrive redundancy. I buy a bigger hard drive and copy the old stuff over, leaving the old one intact or donating it to another computer in the house. I delete stuff as necessary knowing that there's probably a copy or 2 of the important stuff somewhere else. I also keep dvd software packs of installers with the latest versions of any programs I use. The only things I don't have backed up are video files that I recently downloaded but haven't burnt to dvd yet - 300+ gigs is going to take a long time to burn . As system files go, I've been pretty lucky. I can still boot into 2 older operating systems on one of my oldest harddrives . Too bad Audiogalaxy doesn't work anymore, I have some good songs queued up in win98...

Maybe I can trade my brother some welding and grinding work for some dvd burning work when he gets home...

Edit: I remembered an old video about what happens when the heatsink is removed from different CPUs. Funny stuff. Found it on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSGcnRanYMM

[jeffbert]

[QUOTE=Astro Forever;74462]I do consider buying an external hard drive!

It's worth buying an external hard drive: their price are very affordable now and they have decent storage. Even a USB key could do the trick: all your data at hand, whenever and wherever you want [/QUOTE]
I have an 80 GB HD that I could put into my external USB box, but it is partitioned into 7-8 small logical drives. I do not think that WXp has a partitioning app anywhere but in its installation software, so I am stuck with all these small pieces.

[fafner]

I do not think that WXp has a partitioning app anywhere but in its installation software, so I am stuck with all these small pieces.

There is a utility burried somewhere in Windows XP. Go into Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, and then click on Disk Management on the left list. You can manipulate the partitions on hard drives. I don't know whether it works with USB disks though.
Otherwise, you have the fdisk utility that works in a command prompt. Not sure it works with USB either
If you feel adventurous, I can point you to a GNU/Linux distribution that you can burn on a CD-ROM, so you can boot on it and use utilities that I'm sure will work.

[Anapan]

There are some utilities that can modify full partitions, but it's never a good idea since the wrong button press could wipe them very easily. I had to recover all the data off someone's hard drive after recommending one of those utilities. It took me 6 different HD recovery apps and several hours to get it all back.

As long as you back up everything first, XP's disk management utility can easily repartition any USB storage device.
Right-click on "My Computer" and choose Manage, then under Storage choose Disk Management.
Right-click on the block beside the harddrive you want to modify, and choose Delete Partition for every one you no-longer want. When you've done, you can right-click on the unpartitoned space and choose New Partition to make one large one.

[jeffbert]

Thanks, guys! I think that will work, but I because my full-sized bay's ribbon cable is too short to reach the HD when it is mounted, I will buy an HD-sized one before fiddling with it.

The 2 GB memory stick on my USB shows up in the window, but its "delete partition" is grey. I assume that is because it has no partition, rather than because the utility will not work through USB.