250 Gig External Hard-drive

[Black Bart]

Office Max has one of these on sale for $119. Does anybody think this is a bargain? If so and I buy it, then what's it good for? Do you copy all your computer's files onto it every night and take it someplace else in case the joint burns down?

P. S. Dear Way-out-west: Sorry for the gig about your gigs the other day. If that apology is sufficient, would you mind telling me how to get all that junk off my computer and onto that hard-drive? In return, one of these days I'll give you some old-timer's advice that may be useful and that you can only get by living a long time.

[jainen]

it will all fit

>>how to get all that junk off my computer and onto that hard-drive<<

Are you talking about the sticky notes and the velcro that you can't remember what's supposed to attach there and the Sharks schedule and the plastic lizard? 'Cause I don't think it will all fit.

[DaveO]

We use two external drives on our network.

The backup utilities on the various programs are set to directories specific to each user on the external drive. At the end of each month we swap drives and take one offsite. We should probably do it weekly. If you are a solo user you will hook the drive up to your machine with an USB cord. It will likely have a utility program with it that you can use or you can use Windows Backup. On my home computer I copy the entire hard drive to the external and refresh about once a month.

[outwest]

I dig that gig...

couldn't resist.. Good price today but you know how tech is. These things are cheap enough, I like to get two. When it comes to backups, especially if using less paper, redundancy is good.

I like using backup software to manage the data copy. A lot of these drives now come with the backup software in the package.

Generally, the backup software will make a complete copy the first time. (Just leave it running overnight) After that, the software will copy only the added or changed files. That will only take 10 minutes or so, I usually read these boards while the backup is running before going home.

And there is more well-earned gray in my scalp than you might think...

Doug

Office Max has one of these on sale for $119. Does anybody think this is a bargain? If so and I buy it, then what's it good for? Do you copy all your computer's files onto it every night and take it someplace else in case the joint burns down?

P. S. Dear Way-out-west: Sorry for the gig about your gigs the other day. If that apology is sufficient, would you mind telling me how to get all that junk off my computer and onto that hard-drive? In return, one of these days I'll give you some old-timer's advice that may be useful and that you can only get by living a long time.

[Black Bart]

Dougout-west

couldn't resist.. Good price today but you know how tech is. These things are cheap enough, I like to get two. When it comes to backups, especially if using less paper, redundancy is good.

I like using backup software to manage the data copy. A lot of these drives now come with the backup software in the package.

Generally, the backup software will make a complete copy the first time. (Just leave it running overnight) After that, the software will copy only the added or changed files. That will only take 10 minutes or so, I usually read these boards while the backup is running before going home.

And there is more well-earned gray in my scalp than you might think...

Doug

Thank you very much.

[Black Bart]

Dave,

Thanks to you, too.

jainen: Please take two running jumps and go...