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

[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

[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

[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!

[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.

[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.

[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!

[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

[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??

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

[philnicandamy]

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

Indeed...I still have my old bronica & hassleblad bodies tucked away in a box at mum's house must get round to seeing how the old girls are one day..something ALWAYS seems to get in the way

did use a slide scanner attatchment once on the pc..terrible results

[vossy]

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

Indeed...I still have my old bronica & hassleblad bodies tucked away in a box at mum's house must get round to seeing how the old girls are one day..something ALWAYS seems to get in the way

did use a slide scanner attatchment once on the pc..terrible results

Yeah you do need good equipment to scan slides or negs, I had one with a HP scanner for business, that was good but it didn't half make a dent in the wallet when I brought it, I have always tried to get a scanner with the highest resolution but for decent results scanning at 300dpi is okay.

[vossy]

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

We seem to have drifted off course here and hijacked Shep's thread - maybe we should start a new photo scanning thread.

Nah - not interested anymore

[Never-In-Doubt]

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

I've removed a couple of posts that weren't appropriate for this section.

Please remember, any smut/innuendo or tasteless comments should only be posted in the anything goes section of the forums as this is restricted to registered users. In these open threads, anyone can view the content (including minors) so smutty remarks need to be toned down a wee bit.

Thanks for your cooperation

[vossy]

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

I've removed a couple of posts that weren't appropriate for this section.

Please remember, any smut/innuendo or tasteless comments should only be posted in the anything goes section of the forums as this is restricted to registered users. In these open threads, anyone can view the content (including minors) so smutty remarks need to be toned down a wee bit.

Thanks for your cooperation

Apologies

[Never-In-Doubt]

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

Apologies

I never said names

Thanks though. Appreciated. Just try and keep it in the adult section