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General => Technical Help => Topic started by: siskin on Friday 17 February 12 09:44 GMT (UK)
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At the moment I back up all my family history to a memory stick or an external hard drive.
I have decided to buy a new external hard drive and was wondering if anyone knows the advantages or disadvantages of using an external hard drive that I would connect to the laptop all the time I am working and it saves and backs up while the laptop is being used.
Is that better than saving the whole project at the end of the day?
Any help would be much appreciated.
A confused and technically challenged, siskin
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Hi
Suggest you use it as additional to any/all other backups.
Every time you make a change to your tree(s) save it/them with a date prefix/suffix in the filename itself. Suggest you do not just rely on "date created/modified"
You could also save an extra copy each time as a gedcom not just the natural software-based (eg ftm) backup.
Ray
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That is just the sort of help I need. I will do as you suggest.
Thank you very much.
siskin
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Have you thought about using an online facility as well?
Tribal pages is free. http://tribalpages.com/
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Please do not forget the free foto albums debacle on Fotopic.net
The number of people who put the only copy of their fotos on fotopic !
Fotopic wound up = no fotos.
No, be the master, or mistress, of your own destiny.
Soapbox away for the week.
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Thank you silvery.
I have thought about tribal pages but have decided that I would rather keep all my own backups myself.
I keep a few different backups, at different locations, so if the worst was to happen I would not loose all my research.
Regards siskin
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Thanks Ray
My feelings exactly!!!
siskin
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I do agree to keep stuff yourself. I wouldn't trust any one place. I too have backups and backups. But I've heard of hard drives and memory sticks failing and just hope it never happens to me.
You can't be too careful.
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I certainly wouldn't recommend using a memory stick for anything other than temporary storage. They are nowhere near as reliable as an internal or external hard drive. I do a daily backup to an external hard drive and a monthly one to online storage. I tried BT Digital Vault for a while but found it was often unavailable so I now do my monthly backup to Microsoft SkyDrive which gives you a massive 25Gb of free storage.
http://www.windowslive.co.uk/skydrive
I feel comfortable using this because, love them or hate them, Microsoft are unlikely to disappear overnight!
Jim
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Unlikely to disappear?
I really miss my pick-and-mix
but not
my self-controlled backups
Other things I miss in addition to Pick-and-mix................
Quink,
Times before chauvanism, feminism, veganism, arianism, anyotherism,
Lyons Corner Tea Rooms,
Watneys Red Barrel,
Party 7's
(Real) Dandelion & Burdock
British Rail
EggNog
Polaroid Cameras
NOKIA Mobile Phones with separate batteries (Man bags)
1200 (baud speed) modems
405 line TVs
STD 8
Super 8
VHS
NHS
Why would "they" change "them"
Why not put your trust in things that can never change ...........................
"Trolleys" made out of pram wheels (recycling at it's most practical and enjoyable?)
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I certainly wouldn't recommend using a memory stick for anything other than temporary storage. They are nowhere near as reliable as an internal or external hard drive.
Hi Jim,
USB sticks and other forms of 'flash memory' are far more reliable than internal or external hard drives. The reason for this is that hard drives consist of many moving parts (A rotating platter of disks, a moving head which seeks portions of the disk to read/write data to). For this reason, hard drives fail at a much higher rate and a higher frequency than flash memory like USB sticks (which have no moving parts). Perhaps you had a bad experience with a cheap USB stick. Dont want to appear as a know it all but I thought it might be important to let you know in case you have all your data sitting on one external hard drive :/
From the wikip[edia article on Flash Memory:
"Flash memory does not have the mechanical limitations and latencies of hard drives, so a solid-state drive (SSD) is attractive when considering speed, noise, power consumption, and reliability"
Cheers
Tom
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Hi Jim,
USB sticks and other forms of 'flash memory' are far more reliable than internal or external hard drives. The reason for this is that hard drives consist of many moving parts (A rotating platter of disks, a moving head which seeks portions of the disk to read/write data to). For this reason, hard drives fail at a much higher rate and a higher frequency than flash memory like USB sticks (which have no moving parts). Perhaps you had a bad experience with a cheap USB stick. Dont want to appear as a know it all but I thought it might be important to let you know in case you have all your data sitting on one external hard drive :/
From the wikip[edia article on Flash Memory:
"Flash memory does not have the mechanical limitations and latencies of hard drives, so a solid-state drive (SSD) is attractive when considering speed, noise, power consumption, and reliability"
Cheers
Tom
Hi Tom
Thanks for your comments, but I'm still not convinced about the use of USB sticks for important backups. I am familiar with the operation of hard drives having used them for more than 20 years and during that time (professionally and personally) I have never had a failure. On the other hand I've had to bin 2 unreliable USB sticks, though in fairness I have to say that my current Maxell 16Gb stick has given me no problems at all. I know in theory flash memory should be more reliable and indeed more and more internal and external drives are now using solid state technology. However, I will quote part of a report from Lancaster University :-
"USB memory sticks (also known as pen drives) are extremely useful, a lot more reliable than floppy disks, and one of the best ways to move data around. It is best to use them for transport rather than long-term storage. They should not be used for the primary copy of your work or to make permanent backups."
I concur with that view if only for the fact that the sticks are more likely to be lost or stolen or damaged. I would never trust one with my backup. My primary backup is on a very reliable (fingers crossed) Seagate external drive with a secondary backup online with Microsoft SkyDrive, as I mentioned earlier in this thread. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree Tom but thanks all the same for your view.
Jim
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I'm interested in MS SkyDrive. Do you get 25GB free as part of your Windows license? At the moment I use Dropbox (2GB free online storage) and UbuntuOne (which comes free with the Linux Distribution I use and provides 5GB free). And I take your points about hard drives/usb sticks. It is down to personal experience.
Cheers
Tom
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I'm interested in MS SkyDrive. Do you get 25GB free as part of your Windows license? At the moment I use Dropbox (2GB free online storage) and UbuntuOne (which comes free with the Linux Distribution I use and provides 5GB free). And I take your points about hard drives/usb sticks. It is down to personal experience.
Cheers
Tom
Anyone can get onto SkyDrive which is part of Windows Live. If you go to the link I gave earlier (http://www.windowslive.co.uk/skydrive) and click on "Start using your SkyDrive" you will be taken to the Windows Live sign in page. If you don't already have a Windows Live id then click on "Sign up" to get one. Once you have the id you can start using SkyDrive ........ 25Gb of free online storage! Like I said before, Microsoft are unlikely to disappear overnight, unlike many of the others offering free online storage, usually only 5Gb or less.
Jim
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I have seen the Sky Drive facility when I use hotmail ,now might be a silly ? but can I use it to back up FTM 2005 which as all my family info on it , I have it on a USB stick at the moment .
Kind Regards
Mrs Griff.
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I certainly wouldn't recommend using a memory stick for anything other than temporary storage. They are nowhere near as reliable as an internal or external hard drive.
Hi Jim,
USB sticks and other forms of 'flash memory' are far more reliable than internal or external hard drives. The reason for this is that hard drives consist of many moving parts (A rotating platter of disks, a moving head which seeks portions of the disk to read/write data to). For this reason, hard drives fail at a much higher rate and a higher frequency than flash memory like USB sticks (which have no moving parts). Perhaps you had a bad experience with a cheap USB stick. Dont want to appear as a know it all but I thought it might be important to let you know in case you have all your data sitting on one external hard drive :/
From the wikip[edia article on Flash Memory:
"Flash memory does not have the mechanical limitations and latencies of hard drives, so a solid-state drive (SSD) is attractive when considering speed, noise, power consumption, and reliability"
Cheers
Tom
Flash memory used in SSD's can be written to about 1,000,000 times before it fails. And this is the 'best case' scenario, based on the latest technology. Flash devices used in cheap USB sticks have a much lower life expectancy. I would not recommend using cheap USB sticks as backup media, because (unlike mechanical drives), USB sticks often completely fail without any warning.
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I have seen the Sky Drive facility when I use hotmail ,now might be a silly ? but can I use it to back up FTM 2005 which as all my family info on it , I have it on a USB stick at the moment .
Kind Regards
Mrs Griff.
You can store anything you like on SkyDrive, up to a total of 25Gb. However, at present it does have the restriction that you can only upload files and not folders and even then there is a limit of 50Mb per file. What you can do though is to combine a number of files into a single zip file, up to that 50Mb limit. If you are not familiar with zip files then simply select all the files you require, right click anywhere in the highlighted area and then click "Send to compressed (zipped) folder". Although called a folder it is in fact a single file and can therefore be sent to your SkyDrive. If you do this for backup and need to restore the files, simply download that zip file from SkyDrive and double click it to restore the files.
If your family history collection is anything like mine then it probably amounts to a lot more than that 50Mb, particularly if you save census images etc like I do. In that case you will obviously need to create a number of these zip files. As I said earlier in this topic, my primary backup is on an external hard drive with a secondary backup on SkyDrive. If your only backup at present is on a memory stick then my advice to you is to move it somewhere else ASAP Mrs Griff. The thought of losing the results of many 100's of hours of research fills me with dread, as I'm sure it does you. That's why I believe in belt, braces and string! ;D
Jim
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Thanks Jim & Nick
I think I will get and external hard drive I think they are reasonably priced so it's time i did get to grips with one , as I have a lot of info on my FTM 2005 not sure about the SSD at the moment .
Kind Regards Mrs Griff
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On my desktop machine I have 2 DVD writers, simple enough to do a copy of external drive etc.
(4.7Gb of data maximum per disc)
Pass to a friend for safety (mum has a security safe for must have access - lives local)
Brian
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Thanks Brian,
I have that option on my desktop so will give it a go
Mrs Griff
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Something to be consider by all!
My youngest brother rang me in a panic.
His operating system had managed to be corrupt.
10 years worth of everthing photos/letters/banking/etc.
NO BACKUPS EXIST
So I am preparing to remove his hard drive and put it into a caddy on my system.
Hoping to transfer all his information onto a spare hard drive, reformat his drive then after sorting out his operating system, put his personal info back.
Be warned, even the lucky can get unlucky!
Brian
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It's important to think about adverse events other than drive failure.
If you are burgled, it's likely your PC and your external hard drive will be stolen. If you have a fire or a flood then both devices will be damaged. Insurance will replace your PC and hard drive, but can't replace your data.
So make sure that some back-up is off-site - for example Dropbox, Skydrive, BT Digital Vault, Flickr, whatever, or burned on to DVD and left at another address, or...... As stated earlier in this thread, don't rely 100% on the Cloud either as the company may fail and then your data evaporates!
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Your best bet is to burn multiple backups on to DVD's and leave them in secure places (at work, parents or siblings houses, your accountant, your best friend, etc).