External hard drive

[Nathaniel]

Re: External hard drive

True Andy. Thats why I will use Flickr & a CD to back up my best photos I presume I will be OK. As far as documents are concerned I am happy just to have one back up as these are deleted by me anyway over a period of time.

[Thndr_strck]

Re: External hard drive

I would love to back up to a cloud service, but bandwidth is expensive for high speed or slow for free in S. Africa.
I spoke to somebody recently that backs up to SD's cards for their reliability.

[2Beers]

Re: External hard drive

I would love to back up to a cloud service, but bandwidth is expensive for high speed or slow for free in S. Africa.
I spoke to somebody recently that backs up to SD's cards for their reliability.

backing up to SD cards is an expensive way to do it better to buy an Ext Hdd

[antoeknee]

Re: External hard drive

SD cards are not that reliable never mind the cost.

[Nathaniel]

Re: External hard drive

I am now backing on to an external hard drive- everything from photos to documents but my best photos are backed up to a CD/DVD & to flickr as advised by member Paul.

[2Beers]

Re: External hard drive

I am now backing on to an external hard drive- everything from photos to documents but my best photos are backed up to a CD/DVD & to flickr as advised by member Paul.

I wouldnt trust CD/DVDs either a you can put them away and the next time you go to read the disc it fails

[Nathaniel]

Re: External hard drive

Thanks Alex. A mine of information indeed. I should have mentioned that I also get some prints of my best pictures for my coffee table albums.

[Dave_S]

Re: External hard drive

Its a bit like having a good insurance policy Nathaniel.

You hope you never need to use it, but its nice to know its there, and a saviour if you do need it.

I have two external HDDs, and back up my photos to both of them.

Dave

[Wayne Els]

Re: External hard drive

With regards backing files up I use a program called Beyond Compare. It is free (I think - I certainly didm;'t buy it), pretty easy to use and great for managing lots of files. Especially if you make changes to some instead of just adding more. It will automatically compare files and give you the option to update the changes rather than copy the lot again. Worth a look.

[MX5]

Re: External hard drive

Plenty of backup tools are available. For Windows, I find Microsoft's Synctoy fit for purpose (and you can schedule it to do its stuff automagically).

See http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/downl....aspx?id=15155

[antoeknee]

Re: External hard drive

Yep lots of choices my choice Syncback.

[Nathaniel]

Re: External hard drive

One of the main reasons I went for a back up- external hard drive,CD/DVD, flickr,even photobox (the firm I use to print some of my photos) is that when I had my computer "restored" with as many photos that were recoverable, I find that I have ended with several duplicates of the same photo- sometimes duplicated 15-25 times. I really don't want so many duplicates of the same photo and find it difficult to delete them one by one. Anyway I am getting the IT chap to call round to connect my external hard drive and to check that everything is OK (he is doing this free for messing up my photos- losing many and duplicating the others) and will try and get him to remove the duplicates. I only hope he doesn't further mess things up.

[S_J_P]

Re: External hard drive

Nat, I've used a free utility called (I think) Easy Duplicate Finder to find, and then delete identical copies of files. It may be worth a try?

[antoeknee]

Re: External hard drive

Nat, I've used a free utility called (I think) Easy Duplicate Finder to find, and then delete identical copies of files. It may be worth a try?

I've used this before and its very useful.

[AndyA]

Re: External hard drive

Plenty of backup tools are available. For Windows, I find Microsoft's Synctoy fit for purpose (and you can schedule it to do its stuff automagically).

See http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/downl....aspx?id=15155

I'm trying this out at the moment, but I'm wondering if there's any other alternative available? For some reason (probably iffy settings on my behalf), I'm getting duplicates of images.

Edit: I'm just trying out this one at the moment http://fbackup-free-backup-software.soft112.com/