Full Version: PC too full?
From: Upacreek [#14]
21 Feb 2006
To: Paul (JACKPETTY) [#13] 21 Feb 2006
I agree with you as I commonly do that too. Then again, I have the skills to do so without any worry of loss of data or the need to spend all day (or week) to rebuild it.
Keeping data separate from your OS is a good thing. I had the most trouble recovering data when it was stored on the same drive as the OS.
Speaking of storing data, you may want to read this article on CD and DVD life spans:
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,124312,00.asp#
Michel
From: Paul (JACKPETTY) [#15]
21 Feb 2006
To: ALL
From: Upacreek [#16]
21 Feb 2006
To: Paul (JACKPETTY) [#15] 21 Feb 2006
I found that to be quite a surprise too. I was under the impression they had a very long life.
I immediately thought of all the people who have converted their video tapes to DVD in order to save them from degrading, as well as all the photos being stored on CD.
Your idea is not bad considering the method you are using to back up your data. RAIDing your drives is a good thing. You're actually doing better then I am. I don't always backup every night - and I know better! ;-)
Michel
From: Paul (JACKPETTY) [#17]
21 Feb 2006
To: Upacreek [#16] 21 Feb 2006
It was the back up that saved my butt after the hurricane. I didn't miss 1 invoice or payment and even sent bills from my evacuated room in Baton Rouge to customers throught the states.
I can say that Acronis True Image is awesome but we had trouble using a backup on a different system running Windows 2003 SBS. It seems that the exact motherboard, ram, HD etc are needed for it to re image correctly. No big deal, installed 2003 SBS then everything else. In half a day, I was back up and didn't miss a beat.
From: logojohn [#18]
21 Feb 2006
To: ALL
I have the data files taken care of but would like a sure fire way to have a total os and other applications backup outside the computer in case of a drive crash.
Drive Image was a total waste of money and didnt work for me. It wouldn't save to anything but a local drive and then crashed and never
did work.
Our tech guy recommended ghost but wasn't sure if it would work to a removeable drive or just a second hard drive in the same computer.
It will also become too expensive if I have to buy an $80 license for
a dozen different computers so it would have to be able to be used through a network or allow more than one installation.
If that is the case, it is cheaper to just buy a new harddrive ahead of time and clone it when installing it and set it aside with the critical os and registered aps on it for a backup.
.
From: Upacreek [#19]
21 Feb 2006
To: logojohn [#18] 21 Feb 2006
I'm not fluent with Acronis, but I used to use Ghost and Drive Image quite a bit.
Drive Image is capable of working over a network or on different drives provided you configure the right settings. Many times I would just boot a machine with a floppy with TCP/IP parameters and grab images from a central location on the network or from a specific server that stored images.
I haven't used Ghost as much as I did 5 years ago, but last time I used the newer version a year ago, I could have sworn I could get it to recognize an external drive as long as the right drivers were installed.
Michel
From: Bieb (HABIEB) [#20]
17 Mar 2006
To: Upacreek [#19] 17 Mar 2006
You can ghost to various "external" media. I have used it to create a set of image CD's. I am sure you can write to an external hard drive.
If you are using the MS backup that comes with WinXP, be careful to pay attention to what you are including in the backup. I have seen the .bkf file reach more than 20gb, which is great if you are moving it to an external drive, but you can not move it to any other media at that size.
Harold
From: Upacreek [#21]
17 Mar 2006
To: Bieb (HABIEB) [#20] 18 Mar 2006
Ahhh, so my memory did serve me right! Thanks for confirming my suspicion.
Michel
From: LaZerDude (C_BURKE) [#22]
17 Mar 2006
To: Cody (BOBTNAILER) [#1] 18 Mar 2006
Cody,
No such thing as an ignorant question.
Several things will make a computer run slower. TOO much crap on the hard drive. A drive that is fragmented. SPYWARE will slow down a drive. A corrupt registery.
Too much stuff? Copy what you don't need ON the drive to a cd.
Fragmented? Defrag. XP has a pretty decent utility.
Spyware? PCTools (available for download) has a great program to monitor and delete spyware. The same company also has a program called "Registery Mechanic". I use both and have had no problems. After running registery mechanic, I DID see a noticable difference in performance.
However as I have been told, and as someone has said, the best thing to do is to reformat your hard drive at least ONCE a year and re-install. But of course you will back up or copy any important files to a cd or alternative drive or tape drive.
I hope this helps.
It was great to meet you in Vegas. I'm sorry we did not have more time to chat
From: Gary White (GARYWHITE) [#23]
22 Aug 2006
To: LaZerDude (C_BURKE) [#22] 22 Aug 2006
From: UncleSteve [#24]
22 Aug 2006
To: Gary White (GARYWHITE) [#23] 22 Aug 2006
Any fontaholics onboard? ;-)
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