I have just bought a 1tb portable hdd. Apart from how to plug it in, there are no instructions regarding use.
Can anybody give me a quick "Idiots guide to backing up" please?
Can anybody give me a quick "Idiots guide to backing up" please?
[Question] USB HDD.
- Thread starter Grytpipe-Thynne
- Start date
This will require knowledge of what sort of computer you have (Windows/Mac/Other) as well as its operating system version. Knowing the "speed" of the USB port and the model of the drive will help, too.
--Patrick
If you have a PC:
http://www.seagate.com/services-software/apps/seagate-dashboard-software/
I don't use it, but I checked it out when a 4tb external backup drive I bought came with it. Looks simple and you can time backups on a schedule.
Two laptops. Toshiba and Acer. Both running Windows10. USB3 ports on both.
Toshiba Canvio Connect 2 Drive.
Operating system ??
Your operating system(s) appear to be WinX for both devices.
Assuming your hard drive does NOT already come formatted as NTFS (most are, but I would check, sometimes they come formatted as ExFAT or FAT32) then you will need to use the disk management snap-in to format the external drive as NTFS. MAKE SURE that you are formatting the EXTERNAL drive, and not your internal drive. Otherwise you will be unhappy.
Once your drive is prepared, you have a couple of choices. If you just want a place to put specific things (such as pictures, music, memes, etc) then you might be happy just manually dragging those things to copy them onto the external into whatever order you want to sort them. This would be treating your external drive as a sort of attic/cellar/garage where you just park things you don't use on a regular basis*.
If you are instead looking for a way to make backups that can be used to bring your dead computer back to a working state, well, then you will need to be more creative, and possibly purchase a program whose job it is to prepare you for such a disaster. I can't go into that right now (lunch at work is over and it's time to return to my post) but there are many solutions on how to do this out there, and I (or others) will no doubt be happy to go into some options for you.
--Patrick
*Keep in mind that this extra drive may fail/may be lost/may be stolen, so if you are moving over anything you DON'T intend to keep a copy of somewhere else, you should probably fix that by making another copy somewhere else...on DVD, on CD, on another separate hard drive, etc.
Thank you Patrick. This gives me somewhere to start in the morning. (It's midnight here!)
I get to watch enough people lose decades of data on an almost daily basis. The fact that you are willing to make any kind of backup, even if you want to wait until morning to begin, places you among the angels, as far as I'm concerned.
--Patrick
I had a nasty experience a few weeks ago. Not a lot lost but it cost me £90.00 to have it sorted.
This why I bought the second laptop to duplicate important data and reduce the risk of loss. The HDD is
another precaution.
Been busy all day and not yet started!
I'd also suggest that any extremely important data get backed up and stored off-site somewhere - I personally use cloud storage for my third backup of extremely important things (pictures of my son as he's been growing, etc).
I back up my laptop's documents and pictures (the OS and installation of the apps is trivial to me, so I just back up the product keys) to a network-based HD and also back it up to the cloud (am even redundant and have the pictures stored with 2 different cloud providers).
Having it off-site means in the event of a catastrophe (fire, tornado, flood, etc) that could potentially make me lose my laptop and backup, I've got them saved somewhere else.
I back up my laptop's documents and pictures (the OS and installation of the apps is trivial to me, so I just back up the product keys) to a network-based HD and also back it up to the cloud (am even redundant and have the pictures stored with 2 different cloud providers).
Having it off-site means in the event of a catastrophe (fire, tornado, flood, etc) that could potentially make me lose my laptop and backup, I've got them saved somewhere else.
Interesting. This HDD comes with 10GB free cloud storage, whatever that is!
Generally a small quantity of online storage on hard drives at a data center operated by them, much like having your own locker at the club or something. I'm sure they would be willing to expand this to a larger amount...for a recurring fee, of course.
--Patrick