Why don't you back up your computer?

Good said, Hero. I do agree absolutely ---- complacency and false self-confidence.

It's not easy to do. It should be an automatic process. There should be a button that says "back up computer", you press it, and it does it. It doesn't work like that though, does it? Look, I have no interest in taking cars apart, though I understand why car guys can get into it, and I have no interest knowing my computer inside and out, though I understand there are people that are into that. Make it easy, we'll do it, otherwise forget it.

Besides, in my experience, the best policy for personal computers is prevention. Every computer I own runs great and rarely crashes because I do the following:

1. Remove all antivirus software - This stuff doesn't work and just slows down your computer, alot.

2. Remove all programs I don't use - In the era of "internet updates", more programs just leads to all kinds of problems as updates compete with each other to get downloaded. Believe me, you don't need Adobe's Japanese Fonts on hand, you can cross that bridge when you get to it.

3. Make sure I have plenty of RAM. Processing power is nice, but RAM is essential. I have Vista, and its great, but only because I have 3GB or RAM. Those of you complaining about Vista slowing your computer, its the RAM, get more. It's like trying to drive a car with no gas, sure you can complain, but its not really the cars fault, is it? You may say that its not right that Vista chews up so much RAM (~800MB), well guess what, it's 2008 and RAM is cheap, so what exactly is the issue?

4. Get Spybot and Adaware and run periodically to clean up system.

5. Avoid fringe websites and never download a program unless it's name brand.

6. Task Manager Processes is the best weapon you have. Use it to see what's eating up your RAM and Processing Power. Use google search to find out that ccapp.exe is run by Nortan Antivirus.

The above isn't practical for business computers since you have to average down to the lowest common denominator when you are at the workplace. Luckily there is an entire department at work dedicated to keeping computers running, at home, do the steps I wrote above and you should be all good.

I genuinely don't back it up because I have found that those occasional failures make for an excellent way to force me to upgrade of both hardware and software. Some of us old fuddy-duddies need a nudge to keep up with the times.

Yes, I do sometimes inconveniently loose some file or bit of info that I'd rather keep. But for the most part nothing that can't be reconstructed. If it's REALLY critical file (say my memoirs of the years I spent building the pyramids) then I dump it off onto a thumb drive periodically. But a backup of the whole bloomin' system? Nah.

Good point. I too backup critical work files to thumb drives.

I have an 80GB external USB hard drive - I back up my My Documents folder, which has all my stuff - photos, videos, documents, porn, etc.

I don't backup my applications - I'll reinstall them on my next computer.

Yeah, that's true do. I have an external hard drive, and I too back up my My Documents folder.

Wow, I really back stuff up much more than I thought.

Hello bhankiii! I wouldn't advice you to rely so on USB hard drive if it based on FLASH technology.

As regards to real hard drive, one day by reasons of power cut I "lost" all my data on hard drive with windows and linux partitions. I was really surprised then how relatively easy to recover practically all data even those I thought lost after several cycles of formatting.

Storage is always a problem, as we have records back to the early 1990's and require them all.

With some local 2.6TB presently here, and all carefully partitioned, we have had to order 2x 1TB HDD's so they can be used as e-SATA external Storage.

Once those are installed, I intend to think further ahead.

Backup to DVD or CD here is useless, simply from the volume of Data to be backed up, and I don't intend to have a room full of DVDs or CDs, just a'waiting, in case they may be needed.

We use Seagate HDD's here, all with the standard 5 year Warranty, and I have found that Seagate will replace a faulty HDD under Warranty even after 7 years, as a sign of goodwill.

We replace all HDD's at 5 years, because they run 24/7, as that means there is less expansion/contraction because the HDD's remain at a constant temperature.

All HDD's here are monitored 24/7 with Hard Drive Inspector Professional, refer: http://www.altrixsoft.com/en/ which we operate in the Advanced Mode, and that gives detailed analysis, including expected death of each HDD.

A good UPS is essential, of course.

So, in almost 20 years, we have not lost any data whatsoever.

Thus I never feel like this chap below:

Kind Regards....

Because no one dies if I don't.

I think that every thing that we and our fathers before us have done is all "documented" and will shown to us when we pass. How else do you explain having similar habits of a relative even when you are not exposed to them at all. Its not all in the "genes"!!

Science can't explain everything. Thats why I turn to religion.

I do back up my computer - wtf is wrong with the rest of you???

It's not the backup that is hard but just try to recover the files from a backup on another computer. After yours just fried and you have to get those procedures out by 8a.m.!

Information is fluid, and does not have the value that most people seem to ascribe to it. Rather than back up, I prefer to occasionally do a "reformat c:" just to get a clean slate. There is no information that can not be recovered somehow (unless you happen to be a voter in Florida).

I do.

Because I've lost irreplaceable data due to negligence.

It's easy, takes only a few minutes, and gives you peace of mind.

You only really learn this by going through it.

It's not re-installing the OS, it's not re-installing the applications that are the problem. Your data is gone, it's not coming back.

The time consuming part is getting all the settings, preferences, bookmarks, updates, etc. for ALL of your applications back up to speed.

I could reinstall XP2/drivers/Used Apps in under 4 hours.

Configuring them all, again, would take 40 hours.

Hard drives are cheap, most come with free backup software (Acronis), so why not backup before the big D'Oh!!! comes. And it will, I can assure you.

All of this effort is worthless if your backup doesn't work.

TEST it! Really, it's scary, but you need to actually overwrite your OS/APPS/Data, whatever, with the restore from backup software in order to have confidence that the backup actually works.

If you have a significant amount of time and effort invested in how your computer works then it makes sense to spend a few minutes to insure that effort with a backup.

Or you can just learn the hard way, like I did.

I use Norton Ghost 2003, running on a floppy that backs up an image of my disks to a 200 GB Tape Drive....I have many tapes and many many backups.....just in case!!

I also keep my data on a completely separate RAID drive from XP which is on a small 80GB SATA drive.....

XP is still the best at the moment, but having your data and your OS on the same physical disk is dangerous!!! Do not believe just because one is marked C: and the other D: that they are on separate disks.....look and see first!!