Back-up Drive

[Tropo-Bob (Bob)]

My computer had a near-death experience, but obviously is OK now.

That has made me think about a back-up drive. Has anyone any experiences, problems or hints that may better inform me before I go shopping?

[leon]

Wow Bob that surprises me, I thought everyone had their computers backed up a bit late after it dies.
There are a number of drives you can get, Office works is a good place to start, maybe Seagate or WD external drives would meet your requirements.
Depends on how big a drive you need though, anyway they are all pretty simple to use.

Leon

[glend (Glen)]

I have a 3 terabyte backup drive, which I use alot. I move all my image files onto it as soon as stacking has been completed, then final images go into separate directories. I suggest you develop a naming convention for files, sub directories and directories, so that you can easily find things in the future.
Of course you can just rely on a backup function to mirror your existing laptop drive, however most people won't want to save garbage files. For example if you have 100 image files, and after grading them you find 15 are well below the quality of the best 85, you don't want to backup junk.
Ask yourself, do I really want to keep every sub file? Unless your going to go back and add data, then consider letting them go. I know people will scream about keeping everything, but how many times do you go back and reshoot an object?

[Outcast (Carlton)]

Originally Posted by Tropo-Bob

My computer had a near-death experience, but obviously is OK now.

That has made me think about a back-up drive. Has anyone any experiences, problems or hints that may better inform me before I go shopping?

Make sure you buy one that has significantly more storage space on it than you're main hard drive on the computer. This allows your backup system to do iterative backups which means, you can return to a safe point if something untoward happens.

Backup both your data files (pictures, documents, etc...) and do a system backup as well..

I use the free version of Ease To Do which is sufficient for my needs & I use a 1 Terrabyte drive for my 250Gb hard drive...

It's quite simple to setup, you just have to remember to do it often.. although, the software does remind you that it's been a while since you backed up if you forget...

https://www.easeus.com/backup-software/