backup. What backup?

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mobile
Posts: 122
Joined: Sat May 29, 2010 10:52 am

nearly lost my laptop the other day and realised that although I have cloud backup for all my primary files and software.
I do not have any way of restoring my system.
Have tried to do some reading online but I'm getting more than a little confused.
Could anybody with reasonable technical ability point me in the right direction.
Online they talk about system files and disk images.
Ideally I would like to be in the position that should my laptop be lost and I have to replace it or if the hard drive fails, then I can simply plug into new hard drive or computer… Click the button…… And everything will be as was.
Disc images appear to be quite large and I have no idea whether system files are just another word for the same thing, or whether if system files are a different entity then I would simply like to add them to my cloud storage. (If I knew where they were in the 1st place).
Many thanks.
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ShaunWhite
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Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2016 3:42 am

Never trusted 'the cloud' personally, I'd rather have my backup in my bottom draw and another copy held by a friend.

I'd suggest you buy an external drive (not expensive) and then get yourself a copy of https://www.easeus.com/backup-software/

It's free, reliable and brilliant. I've used it for at least 10 years. Simple interface. Does what you want.

In the meantime, for any files you simply can't afford to lose (not software cos that can always be easily reinstalled if you have the licence numbers) I suggest you email them to yourself? Yes it's still a bit 'cloudy' but it's by far the easiest way to keep a copy of any important docs.
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Derek27
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Location: UK

mobile wrote:
Thu Jan 25, 2018 4:58 pm
nearly lost my laptop the other day and realised that although I have cloud backup for all my primary files and software.
I do not have any way of restoring my system.
Have tried to do some reading online but I'm getting more than a little confused.
Could anybody with reasonable technical ability point me in the right direction.
Online they talk about system files and disk images.
Ideally I would like to be in the position that should my laptop be lost and I have to replace it or if the hard drive fails, then I can simply plug into new hard drive or computer… Click the button…… And everything will be as was.
Disc images appear to be quite large and I have no idea whether system files are just another word for the same thing, or whether if system files are a different entity then I would simply like to add them to my cloud storage. (If I knew where they were in the 1st place).
Many thanks.
A disk image is an entire copy of a disk stored in a file.

If you have to buy a new computer your system disk image will be useless because the operating will be configured for a different computer with different hardware and drivers.

My advise to anyone who buys a new computer is to repartition and format the drives - get rid of all the crap software that comes with it. Reinstall the OS. Have one partition for the operating system, another for all your data. If you keep large amounts data/videos you may want more than one data partition. Image your OS and data partitions and store the images on another partition, or better still, an external hard drive.

By doing this, if you have a major operating system error and your system is beyond repair, you can simply restore an image in half-an-hour (depending on how big it is) and your data will be intact, because it's on another partition.

Most important of all, test your disaster recovery plan before you start installing software and using the computer so you know it works.

I used to feel the same way as Shaun and didn't trust the cloud but I've now decided the convenience of it out ways everything else. I encrypt all data I upload for peace-of-mind.
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ShaunWhite
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Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2016 3:42 am

Derek27 wrote:
Thu Jan 25, 2018 5:37 pm

If you have to buy a new computer your system disk image will be useless because the operating system will be configured for a different computer with different hardware and drivers.
100%, that's why you need to focus on backing up your files (docs, photos, spreadsheets etc). Everything else can be re-downloaded and re-installed. What's valuable is the stuff you can't do that with. It makes backups so much easier too because they're just copies and you don't have to get into the nerdy stuff like partitions and disk images. Even a couple of memory sticks would be enough for most people but a small external HDD would give you plenty of space for the big stuff like family videos.

The other way you could go would be to have your own cloud, get one of these (below) and stick it on your home network, £100 for 3TB and you can access it from anywhere on the planet....no good if your house burns down though.

Btw cloud is just marketing jargon for networked storage, something we've had since about 1970, now it's got a cool ad agency name everyone thinks it's new.

https://www.comms-express.com/products/ ... VQQAvD_BwE
mobile
Posts: 122
Joined: Sat May 29, 2010 10:52 am

as I originally said, I haven't lost anything yet.
But once the paranoia sets in.... I feel as if I have to take some steps now.
At the moment I am going with easus, as kindly suggested.
I thought I would have to use it with a separate SSD drive, as a stand-alone.
However once I started to use it, I have discovered that there is a system backup facility, which only appears to take a few hundred mg.
This I can link to my cloud storage.
So as it stands now I have all my major folders (documents, downloads,pictures) already automatically uploading to this storage.
I intend to add the system backup file as another folder to be uploaded.
In case of disaster, I hope that it will cover it all.
Or am I still missing something?
mobile
Posts: 122
Joined: Sat May 29, 2010 10:52 am

along with the paranoia also comes the hallucinations.
I could have sworn that it said mg, but it turns out to be gb.
so the cloud uploaded is out. It has a 10 GB single file limit.
But I now have a separate SSD with complete Microsoft system.
the software shows a file size of 225 GB for the system backup.
That does not appear to show a lot of unused capacity on my laptop hard drive.capacity 256 GB.
However when I use file explorer it shows 55 GB free on my laptop hard drive and 56 GB free for the external hard drive that I'm using as system backup.
don't understand that.
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Derek27
Posts: 23471
Joined: Wed Aug 30, 2017 11:44 am
Location: UK

ShaunWhite wrote:
Thu Jan 25, 2018 6:10 pm
Derek27 wrote:
Thu Jan 25, 2018 5:37 pm

If you have to buy a new computer your system disk image will be useless because the operating system will be configured for a different computer with different hardware and drivers.
100%, that's why you need to focus on backing up your files (docs, photos, spreadsheets etc). Everything else can be re-downloaded and re-installed. What's valuable is the stuff you can't do that with. It makes backups so much easier too because they're just copies and you don't have to get into the nerdy stuff like partitions and disk images. Even a couple of memory sticks would be enough for most people but a small external HDD would give you plenty of space for the big stuff like family videos.

The other way you could go would be to have your own cloud, get one of these (below) and stick it on your home network, £100 for 3TB and you can access it from anywhere on the planet....no good if your house burns down though.

Btw cloud is just marketing jargon for networked storage, something we've had since about 1970, now it's got a cool ad agency name everyone thinks it's new.

https://www.comms-express.com/products/ ... VQQAvD_BwE
A system image is useless if you need a new computer, but if your operating system is corrupt and beyond repair, re-imaging the hard drive would take me less than an hour. It would probably take a whole day to install Windows 10, all the essential software, do all the network configurations and implement all the registry hacks to get around Microsoft's mummy knows best design. It would take another day to download and install all the updates - potentially two days without trading!
mobile
Posts: 122
Joined: Sat May 29, 2010 10:52 am

suspect you know a lot more about this than I do.
but under the list of abilities that the software I am trialling has....
transfer system to different PC.
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Derek27
Posts: 23471
Joined: Wed Aug 30, 2017 11:44 am
Location: UK

mobile wrote:
Thu Jan 25, 2018 7:55 pm
along with the paranoia also comes the hallucinations.
I could have sworn that it said mg, but it turns out to be gb.
so the cloud uploaded is out. It has a 10 GB single file limit.
But I now have a separate SSD with complete Microsoft system.
the software shows a file size of 225 GB for the system backup.
That does not appear to show a lot of unused capacity on my laptop hard drive.capacity 256 GB.
However when I use file explorer it shows 55 GB free on my laptop hard drive and 56 GB free for the external hard drive that I'm using as system backup.
don't understand that.
The software and file explorer are probably looking at different things such as partition free space and disk free space. I think you really need to get somebody to look at it. It's not easy to give advice over a forum (especially a trading forum ;) ).
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ShaunWhite
Posts: 9731
Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2016 3:42 am

Derek27 wrote:
Thu Jan 25, 2018 8:51 pm
potentially two days without trading!
Sorry I didn't realise life was a race ;)

I was just trying to keep it simple for the OP.
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Derek27
Posts: 23471
Joined: Wed Aug 30, 2017 11:44 am
Location: UK

ShaunWhite wrote:
Thu Jan 25, 2018 10:12 pm
Derek27 wrote:
Thu Jan 25, 2018 8:51 pm
potentially two days without trading!
Sorry I didn't realise life was a race ;)

I was just trying to keep it simple for the OP.
That's why it's called the rat race. ;)
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