After replacing the harddisk and reinstalling all the drivers, upon plugging in the printer it hanged the computer. I am getting too old for this. So I went and bought a Mongkok Special this afternoon, got it picked up early this evening, and had the necessary applications, anti-virus, anti-spy, and OS updates installed tonight. As it will be used by M and Alec only, I have less than 1/3 the application I would need to install. It made me miss my gym time so I did the stepping machine at home instead.
The good news for M is, and thanks to Tin and the coop’s mother server, M had all her clerical works emailed to Alec’s school Tennis Club president, so they are all safe and sound in the IMAP server.
No such lucky for the practice quiz questions she made up for Alec although. Lucky for Alec, I suppose. Which reminds me our IMAP email server is actually a great and convenient way to backup any data files. All there is needed to be done by one is to email oneself’s data files to one’s own email account! Then there will be a copy in the local drive and a copy offsite! Which is even easier than my previous suggestion for M last night to have her works stored in her iPod mini.
Now, I have ample time to bring to old computer to the shop and have them salvage any parts and swap out the faulty parts and I would have a spare PC or a server. Not such a bad thing after all.
get yourself a 2.5″ HD case and a 80G HD, just a few hundred dollars and you can back-up all the important data via the fast USB 2.0.
Oh, is there any synchronizing software that can do the job automatically everytime you plug-in the portable HD? I supposed so.
There are many “one button” backup external harddisk available.
Not all solutions work for everyone equally well. We each have our own better ways to do our own backups. In case of M’s single-file-in-a-few-days kind of data, the emailing idea is as easy as they come for her.
HD for backup is a reasonable solution.
Ghost is good, but SuperDuper! for the Mac is better.
Say your HD dies. With Ghost, you install new HD, boot Ghost, restore from image on backup HD, and are back in business. It may take an hour. You still need to acquire and install new HD.
With SuperDuper!, if your main HD dies, you boot from the backup HD, and are back in business in no time. Finish work, install and clone onto new HD.
In any case, you still need to carry out the specific task of making a backup, which is intrusive.
I do monthly SuperDuper with my PB17. But like I said, not every backup methods are suitable for everyone.
In case of M’s files, the email backup method works just hunkydorry for her since she has to email all her work back to the President anyway, all that are automatically saved in the Sent folder in the IMAP/SMTP server anyway. When she cc: herself, it actually wasted the server space. OTOH, her work for Alec could have been emailed to herself and that would work just fine also.
She should also, once a month or so, duplicates her old email folder in the server back to her local folders which is extremely simple to do. With just 2 generations in the local drive and Bob’s her uncle.
I would no longer be using the desktop anymore so that took away over 95% of data on that computer, and Alec could do his back up the same way or at least they are on a floopy for school as well anyway. Emailing is hardly more work for them, zero more work for me until the next meltdown. So maybe a Ghost every 6 months or so would do just fine. A Ghost only backup would do them no go in case of a fire as it wouldn’t be off-site – touch wood, the emails with the key-point of being off-site could safe the day though.