PC probs..Knoppix Time...cheapest Windows 7??

[vossy]

Re: PC probs..Knoppix Time...cheapest Windows 7??

You could even just scan whole pages if it is a ring album, save messing about

[PlanB]

Re: PC probs..Knoppix Time...cheapest Windows 7??

Given the dates mentioned, I suspect PB must be talking about scanning hard copies rather than digital files!

Oh yes these are all on glossy Kodak paper with white borders In my day you took photos on your Box Brownie and then took the role of film to the chemist to be developed, and came home with all sorts of rubbish with fingers in front of the lens. None of this fancy digital stuff where you can see what you're doing in real time and keep going until you get the shot you want

These are all in albums so scanning one at a time (I have a scanner) would be a nightmare - but maybe I could take digital photos (I have a digital camera) of the whole pages and scan those into my laptop quicker I'm not fussed about quality I only want to preserve my ancestry in case of a fire or make duplicates for my daughter and her children if/when she has them

[vossy]

Re: PC probs..Knoppix Time...cheapest Windows 7??

A pain I know but a flatbed scanner and scan more than one picture at a time, if you fill the bed then scan you can edit each part of the file you need (copy>paste)to whatever folder, quicker than one by one - I know, I have done the same

[philnicandamy]

Re: PC probs..Knoppix Time...cheapest Windows 7??

Yep another +1 for scanning yourself...mum had a pretty large steamer type chest, I spent many many happy hours sifting through and scanning with a flatbed one by one

sure it can take some time...but memories are worth it!

[SXGuy]

Re: PC probs..Knoppix Time...cheapest Windows 7??

hmm, i dont know, but im sure there are programs out there that can scan HDD's for known file types and then make a backup of them, couldnt say off hand which, but it must have been thought of before!

that way you just scan for all pic extensions, i.e *.jpg, *.jpeg, *.bmp etc etc

FP, im not sure about HDD's using firewire being detected at bios, im guessing it depends on your bios version, and type, in regards to external HDD's again, depends on Bios version, most will detect external HDD's on boot, because they can be used as system drives, usually the bios will need to have usb support at boot turned on, sometimes called legacy i think.

EaseUS also lets you clone HDD's or paritions, or backup multiple paritions, all you need to do is make sure the backup HDD is the same size or larger than all paritions your backuping up.

But that being said, as its all over the place, you prob best using cloud or something.

[PlanB]

Re: PC probs..Knoppix Time...cheapest Windows 7??

Hmm thats the thing with me..3 external drives one nas drive and i'm still looking at so much crap I should really delete

Photos and family stuff I usually burn to 25GB blu rays and store online as weell..just in case!

Is there an affordable service where I can get all my family photos copied to 'something' to store on my computer or will I have to scan them one at a time. I have dozens of albums going back to the 1950s when I was born And glorious ones in sepia of my parents which I want to pass to my grandchildren.

[philnicandamy]

Re: PC probs..Knoppix Time...cheapest Windows 7??

Hmm thats the thing with me..3 external drives one nas drive and i'm still looking at so much crap I should really delete

Photos and family stuff I usually burn to 25GB blu rays and store online as weell..just in case!

[SXGuy]

Re: PC probs..Knoppix Time...cheapest Windows 7??

personally, if you want to be extra extra safe with backing stuff up, your only option is cloud space or a massive USB stick.

Reason being these dont have moving parts, they are less likely to fail, i know usb sticks can fail, but ive never had one that has!

in regards to HDD's, all of them have about a 5 years lifespan, some last longer, and some, such as the bog standard in house PC World specials, last 2 to 3 years if lucky.

If you remember to swap them every so many years you shouldnt have any issues.

But that all being said, what i do, is have two internal HDD's, one is my system drive, the other is a backup drive.

I just use EaseUS to backup one HDD to the other.

It runs diferential backups everyday, therefore limits space required for each backup and only backups any files that have changed since last time.

See no other reason why a more lengthy backup is needed, if one HDD fails, you have the other to restore, if the backup HDD fails, you just run a full backup on a new HDD

Simples.

and 9 times out of 10, if a HDD fails, but is still showing in the bios, you can recover all its data, but standard recovery tools might not work, you really need to ship it off to speciailists, who actually take the HDD apart if need be, but generally use very low level receovery software, i managed to recover a work HDD a few years back this way, as you can imagine, i was shitting bricks waiting for it to come back lol

[PlanB]

Re: PC probs..Knoppix Time...cheapest Windows 7??

I print out almost everything including all my emails and store the paper files in fire-proof boxes. I've never trusted or understood computers

[vossy]

Re: PC probs..Knoppix Time...cheapest Windows 7??

I have a couple of external drives to back stuff up/store things.

It's still the case that if I pare it down to a minimum of the stuff that I couldn't bear to lose, then I can fit it all on one DVD. With space to spare.

Perhaps I'm unusual for nowadays.

Not at all, I have loads of DVD's with stuff on that I never wish to lose, but also my current machine has 3 drives, 1 x system drive, 2nd is my data drive and 3rd holds a backup of both, plus I use a cloud and an external HD, then I go mad sometimes and copy stuff to dvd's Mrs Vossy thinks I'm nuts!!

Oh and I have a 64GB pen drive that I use - just in case, no I'm not paranoid - who said that? Oh it was me!!

[Undercover Elsa]

Re: PC probs..Knoppix Time...cheapest Windows 7??

I have around 250GB to back up.

Presently it's both on PC and external drive, with crucial stuff of around 5GB on a big USB drive. The external drive is around 4 years old so I'm getting twitchy...

Mind you there are a lot of duplicates in nested folders so I'm also researching a good free dupe finder.



I've really got into something sorting this damn pc out.....I feel as if I've washed a mark off the wall and ended up having to decorate the whole house..

[Riz]

Re: PC probs..Knoppix Time...cheapest Windows 7??

I have a couple of external drives to back stuff up/store things.

It's still the case that if I pare it down to a minimum of the stuff that I couldn't bear to lose, then I can fit it all on one DVD. With space to spare.

Perhaps I'm unusual for nowadays.

[philnicandamy]

Re: PC probs..Knoppix Time...cheapest Windows 7??

I've 3 external drives....paranoid me?

and a 2tb NAS setup as well...

...oh and a 1.5tb drive in the bedroom with all my ripped DVD's on playing through a media server

was nice once to have spare cash to do this!!!

[vossy]

Re: PC probs..Knoppix Time...cheapest Windows 7??

Microsoft Sky Drive is the one I use, 25GB for free and integrates well if you use MS Office, no fancy stuff but it works well for me, the only downside is that the max file size is 100mb.

You can't beat a good external hard drive also, I got me a 1tb drive for £60 and back it up daily.

[philnicandamy]

Re: PC probs..Knoppix Time...cheapest Windows 7??

How much data are we talking?

Windows Livedrive..7GB free (or 25gb if you were an exsisting user)

Dropbox...2GB free then 500mb for each referral

box.net 2GB (or 50GB if you had a sony ericsson mobile deal now ended though I believe)

Google Drive (5GB free..)