i agree it's a brilliant service from MS and that it's become invaluable to me. However, when it comes down to it, how heavily are you prepared to rely on MS's Google's etc. servers' for your hardcore backup needs.skydrive.live.com is a good place to store images online, free 25gb of storage from MS.
With MS's & T-mobile's recent mobile phone blunder it'll be more difficult for MS to convince people to do just that.
Makes me think more about getting an external hard drive
especially as I'm doing computer tech couse at college they dont take lost/corrupted data as a reason for your coursework not being on time (and I only want to do it once)
I use SkyDrive for storing files mainly freewares where I can no longer locate the original site they were found on or have been replaced by others. But 25-30gb online won't cover over 400gb seen on just one drive alone here.
For optical media that can also pose a problem for permanent storage there as well. Even with more then one disk is burned containing the exact same files/data you can lose things there when some if not all files are inaccessible when going to get on the next build. Somehow the disks may become unreadable.
Even when backing files up locally to more then one storage drive you can lose a few files along the way simply copying them back and forth. On occasion some files will lose a degree of integrity making them unusable. But it still safe guards against a possible 100% loss by not taking any steps.
Don't laugh but businesses do that all the time! But for the typical average user the regular monthly fees may be a bit too steep for the actual amount of files and data seen on the home pc compared to everything any business would require.
WLM is free however while still being limited in capacity "until" note you actually start uploading files to SkyDrive! I already am well past the 35gb mark let alone the 25gb with files in custom folders created there!
it's only a perception...there is nothing that important...if it is ask yourself...what did I do before computers...I moved on and everything was fine....dishearting...earth shattering no...move on...IMOMore at: One second: The time it takes to wipe three years of work | iGeneration | ZDNet.comOctober 20th, 2009
One second: The time it takes to wipe three years of work
Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 5:43 pm
It only takes a single second, some would argue a micro-second, to wipe an entire hard drive. Without the need for electromagnetic pulses or an industrial liquidiser, all it takes is a single spark of electricity to cause havoc with your entire electronic life.
How do I know? Because last night I hit the realisation that I lost everything in a blink of an eye. Here’s how, kids.
Two days ago, I was in my home office working on my degree work for the week. Just as I finish writing up a seminar, I stretch my legs, kicking out the all important power cable at the back of my machine. It’s not the first time I’ve done it, so I was annoyed at potentially losing what I had been working on but not particularly fussed.
I restarted the machine and with an element of surprise, the POST took a while longer than per usual and it stopped, not before asking me to insert boot media. At this point, I thought the master boot record used to boot up Windows was corrupted. No big deal, but the Windows 7 disk I needed was in my office on campus - over a mile away, and this was 11pm.
So I trail my way up to campus and get the almighty powerful disk I thought needed to fix my master boot record. Instead of trailing all the way back home, I decided to pull an all-nighter and get some work done. To say that I felt a little delicate the next day would have been a massive understatement.
Once I finally got home, I slam the disk in and with a little persuasion begin Windows setup to recover the drive. After a while it dawned on me that not only can Windows setup not find my drive but neither can BIOS. At this point I realise that I am in deep trouble.
Even frequent backups on a spare ide or isata drive(internal, external makes no difference) is a good preventative measure to avoid loss due to an unrecoverable disaster of some kind.
Whilst i understand & appreciate what you're saying. I think you're taking fore-granted, just how much people rely on PC's. Sure, if you're a hippy, this materialistic conversation would be laughed out of the canal boat. Most people, loosing thousands of family & friends pictures, years of paperwork, emails, contacts, all time best music collection, favourite movies, etc. would experience a little more than disheartenment. Sheer panic is the first emotion. Not, oh well......i wonder what's for dinner tonight!it's only a perception...there is nothing that important...if it is ask yourself...what did I do before computers...I moved on and everything was fine....dishearting...earth shattering no...move on...IMO
What if SevenForum's servers went down tonight because of a catastrophic hardware failure (God forbid that ever happens). I hardly think the reactions of the Admin team will be that of calm.....................or maybe it's just me
Point taken! But the one thing I'm a little more sure of is that the administration has much better preparations for disaster recovery then the typical novice even average user! I suspect it wouldn't take long to see things going here again real soon!
As far as simply "moving on and not worrying" I would expect to hear something like that from someone who doesn't have any serious concerns to worry about like loss of unreplacable personal data and other things as well as facing the down time especially for those who work at home, bring work home, or are in school where any losses could easily be a major setback!
Just think of your boss saying something like: "where the .... is that report you are supposed to have?!GGrrrrr...." or how about those final exams for the sememster and seeing all that go up in a puff of ESD!
The article there does bring up the concept of "real world" preparation just in case...
Hi all
I can't add to the problems encountered here -- but only to add :
It's been repeated AD NAUSEAM -- take ADEQUATE Backup and preferably always have a copy OFF SITE - even if it's only in your Office desk at work or your Grandma's house.
Not only Computer errors / glitches / hardware failures can cause loss of data.
Other things such as Natural Disasters - Flood, storms, fire.
Don't forget loss or damage by burglary, malicious damage etc etc.
If possible backup to 2 different types of media.
Loads of youngsters (and not so youngsters) today can't do anything without having some sort of "music" playing. These Music collections can be very large and unless you are an oldie like me who can re-create the collection by re-ripping (what an enormous cost of time that would be) 100's or even 1000's of CD's the collections are usually irreplaceable if lost or damaged - especially with the electronically downloaded stuff from Itunes and the like.
Whilst backing up a computer might be a hard concept to get across -- explaining to a youngster that they could lose their entire music collection if they don't back it up might have more effect.
I also tend to backup DVD Movies to disk drives these days -- save's space -- if I need to play a DVD on a dvd player I just burn it again on a RW DVD and play it.
Collection is easier to manage as well.
A 1.5 TB disc costs almost nothing these days. (1TB = 1000GB).
2 of these should serve as adequate backup for most people for a reasonable while.
Really critical data such as legal documents etc can be backed up to DVD-RAM -- this has a lifetime of over 300 years and is often used by commercial libraries for long term permanent archive.
(Another issue - but there IS a BIG difference between Archive and Backup).
For individuals I'm not really sure about online backup - especially if you are talking > 50 GB.
Reasons
1) Upload speed of typical ISP's is usually appalling. Download speeds are fine.
2) Your connection might not (probably won't) be available when you need to get a particular file etc.
3) some of the servers are located in countries who'se record of handing out confidential data to "third parties" for peanuts aren't good. Recent cases in the UK who is a HUGE user of Indian off shored facilities have shown Banks details, / credit card pin numbers etc being readily available in Mumbai, Bangalore etc etc for around 3 USD per 100 accounts / pin numbers. - BBC undercover reporters have made several shows on how easy it is to get this info.
Now I'm not saying its that easy but I tend to trust the BBC even if I don't always like what they report. So beware of what you load up on to these type of servers.
Cheers
jimbo
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