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  1. #11
    Devonmade
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    I've read your thread with interest. I haven't downloaded Windows 10 yet, I don't mind Windows 8 and haven't had any problems with it, but fear the day for Windown 10 is getting nearer so with that in mind I have just purchased a 2TB external hard drive and will back everything up just in case.

  2. #12
    Valued member of Brit-Gen MrsPoppy's Avatar
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    I think that's a very good idea, you will most likely have no trouble at all but you are prepared if anything does happen.

    Mrs P

  3. #13
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    There are some simple things that you shoud do before you do a major upgrade. Firstly BACKUP. make sure all your data is stored on a separate external drive. In fact a MIRROR copy of your drive is best as this allows you to go back to exactly the system you had before the backup.
    Secondly, do a scan on your computer. Programmes like CC CLEANER, COMBOFIX or MINITOOL BOX are free and can ensure your Hard Drive is free from nasties. Also do a Disk Cleanup and Defragment (found in Start/All Programs/Accessories)

    You can buy a new 500gb HDD for a laptop for a less than $A75. and labour should cost less than $A150 to do most things with a laptop. I just upgraded my HP Pavillion dv6 with 1 terrabit SSD, additional 16gb Ram for less than $A500 including labour, mirror copies, scans and 12 months warranty. It is now a rocket ship, easily handles all my photo processing as well as all the other stuff I demand from it. Cheers, John W.

  4. #14
    Valued member of Brit-Gen MrsPoppy's Avatar
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    A quick question, as I already have an external hard drive with a mirror back up & everything backed up, system recovery and so forth, when I plugged it into the laptop it couldn't run anything from it, so if I buy a new hard drive will that solve the problem or will the laptop still not be able to use it -I hope that makes sense.

    I have got someone looking at it & will be having a chat with them, all I've heard so far is a problem with no drivers.

    I made a system restore point before I started upgrading, but the laptop could see no restore points.

    Forewarned is for-armed.

    Mrs P

  5. #15
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    Hello Mrs Poppy, It's great you have a mirrored back up. However this is not like a system restore. A system restore is basically a process where you can reset your operating system back to a previous time or state where it functioned as you wanted it to. ie. if you installed new software and it kept crashing because of a conflict, you can restore the operating system back to when it worked satisfactorily.

    A mirrored backup is as it says, a mirror copy of your old hard drive, warts and all.
    When your new hard drive is installed, you can copy the mirrored drive onto your new drive. How you do this will depend on the programme you used to create the mirrored copy. Sometimes there is an embedded install programme as part of the backup. Your computer bloke will be able to sort that.

    When you have all the new drive and system sorted out, you need to make sure that you have a regular and automatic backup process in place. Ideally off site, ie CLOUD, or stored completely away from where your computer is normally located.

    I'm a photographer as well as doing family history, so I have a very thorough process in place.
    All my data, including photos and documents is backed up to an external 3tb hard disk drive attached to my desktop. Nearly all my genealogy and photo downloads are done on my laptop, so i have two copies of my stuff there. Then I use a NAS, a network drive that stands alone but is connected to my home network. It has two mirrored 3tb drives and an incremental backup is done automatically every week.

    So in effect I have FOUR copies of all my stuff. I'm paranoid about a power surge (although I have surge protection too) and more importantly bush fires. I live almost in The Royal National Park and we are due for a big one soon.

    I value my data and photo collections at many thousands of dollars, so the bit I spend to give me peace of mind is worth it.

    Good Luck John W.

  6. #16
    Valued member of Brit-Gen MrsPoppy's Avatar
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    Thank you. John.

    I do need to think about using cloud as its not something I've used before, although thinking about it I use dropbox for all the fund raising documents I'm involved in. That's with a group of other people though.

    Stupid question coming up, is the NAS wireless.

    Sounds like a lovely place you live but bush fires, that's frightening but part of the equation I guess.

    There is a lot to lose if it's not backed up. Mine is mainly family photographs I worry about & they could go on the cloud.

    Thank you for your reply, some good information to take on board.

    Mrs P

    Ps. That is helpful to me to know about the hard drive, I'll feel more confident talking to the comp guy next week.

  7. #17
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    That's OK Mrs Poppy, my pleasure. I'm not completely sold on the Cloud as well, but my son is an IT executive for a major bank, insists that the technology is bullet proof and is so secure that is now very common place.
    My concern is that you can only access your property as long as you pay the fees and what's to stop them being ruthless in their fee structure.

    NAS stands for Network Attached Storage. Basically it's an external hard drive in a box. I have a Netgear Ready NAS, it consists of two 3tb drives. It is connected via a network cable to my Router/Modem. I connect to it wirelessly with my laptop through the wifi on my router/modem. Actually i can remotely log in via my smart phone and access any photo or document on it. Pretty nifty.

    We haven't had a big fire since about 98, when we were last evacuated. They haven't backburned for about five years so there is a fair amount of fuel and we've just had a heap of rain over the last month or so. It will be intense when it happens, but we have a plan and will be safe. The house is insured and it takes us about ten minutes to grab what we need, pack the car and go.

    Take care, John W.

  8. #18
    Valued member of Brit-Gen MrsPoppy's Avatar
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    I agree about cloud, I think I can get a small amount of storage for free from my internet provider. If they put the price up I think they have got to tell you first thereby giving you some kind of option. My daughter uses it and talks about it occasionally.

    That's a handy bit of kit then, it's good to know as keeping up with the technology, a lot of which makes life easier, is something I don't look into enough. I am reasonably technically minded but i get complacent whilst things are working well.

    I hope the Bush fire doesn't happen any time soon but I can see you have to be prepared. Perhaps they need to do a controlled burn soon & lower the risk. We see it on tv but it's hard to imagine what it must be like.

    Mrs P

  9. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jamwood View Post
    That's OK Mrs Poppy, my pleasure. I'm not completely sold on the Cloud as well, but my son is an IT executive for a major bank, insists that the technology is bullet proof and is so secure that is now very common place.


    Take care, John W.
    John I was impressed with your procedures until I read "is an IT executive for a major bank" that reminded me of a major bank here in the UK that had been archiving their records on microfilm but changed to digital archiving on the advice of their IT experts. Five year later they discovered their digital archives were not accessible due to software updates.
    The result all records are now on microfilm, even those which start as digital records are archived on microfilm.

    Cheers
    Guy

    PS have you considered a small underfloor/ground firesafe to ensure your collection is protected in the event of a bushfire.
    As we have gained from the past, we owe the future a debt, which we pay by sharing today.

  10. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by Guy Etchells View Post
    John I was impressed with your procedures until I read "is an IT executive for a major bank" that reminded me of a major bank here in the UK that had been archiving their records on microfilm but changed to digital archiving on the advice of their IT experts. Five year later they discovered their digital archives were not accessible due to software updates.
    The result all records are now on microfilm, even those which start as digital records are archived on microfilm.

    Cheers
    Guy

    PS have you considered a small underfloor/ground firesafe to ensure your collection is protected in the event of a bushfire.
    Haha, true Guy. My son's role is to ensure the integrity of their data and the processes he uses are controlled (in Australia) by Government regulation and I believe are closely guarded. I don't think any storage they use would equate in any way with what you and I need or use. I merely make the point that the internet, storage, both local and cloud has come such a long way. Most software vendors now have their products in the Cloud, ie Adobe, Microsoft Office 365 and most business compliance software is now cloud based. So my trepidations were genuine, but short lived.
    I don't need a floor safe when my documents are kept in a bank vault and anything else is either kept off site or backed up off site. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll have to go out and feed the Dobermans now that all the internet trolls will be casing my place to steal the photos of my grandkids.

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