OT: what do you folks use to prevent losing your docs/pictures/videos on your computer?

[jficquette]

Nostradamus,

I bought my step daughter a 190 gb external drive to transfer files off of her Dell computer. I thought I could just drag the entire c drive to the new drive and it would copy but no dice. I had to copy various folders over.

How do I just copy the entire drive over? Its only 30 gb.

Thanks

John

[nostradamus]

I would think it would let you do that, but if not just create a folder called “c” on the backup drive, then on your dell open up the c folder, select all (ctrl-A) then drag and drop those onto the c folder you created on the backup disk. It might complain about hidden files, just click OK.

BTW I use a mac pretty much exclusively now, although I do have a pc (acer) laptop.

[nostradamus]

I would think it would let you do that, but if not just create a folder called “c” on the backup drive, then on your dell open up the c folder, select all (ctrl-A) then drag and drop those onto the c folder you created on the backup disk. It might complain about hidden files, just click OK.

BTW I use a mac pretty much exclusively now, although I do have a pc (acer) laptop.

[nostradamus]

I would think it would let you do that, but if not just create a folder called “c” on the backup drive, then on your dell open up the c folder, select all (ctrl-A) then drag and drop those onto the c folder you created on the backup disk. It might complain about hidden files, just click OK.

BTW I use a mac pretty much exclusively now, although I do have a pc (acer) laptop.

[nostradamus]

I would think it would let you do that, but if not just create a folder called “c” on the backup drive, then on your dell open up the c folder, select all (ctrl-A) then drag and drop those onto the c folder you created on the backup disk. It might complain about hidden files, just click OK.

BTW I use a mac pretty much exclusively now, although I do have a pc (acer) laptop.

[nostradamus]

I would think it would let you do that, but if not just create a folder called “c” on the backup drive, then on your dell open up the c folder, select all (ctrl-A) then drag and drop those onto the c folder you created on the backup disk. It might complain about hidden files, just click OK.

BTW I use a mac pretty much exclusively now, although I do have a pc (acer) laptop.

[Hatfield]

John,

I’m pretty sure copying the whole C drive does not buy you much, except maybe some convenience. If the machine’s C drive fails and you replace the drive, you can’t just drag everything back and have Windows start working. Windows hides a bunch of files in places that dragging and dropping won’t save.

Norton Ghost can make an “image” of the entire C drive, and you can put that saved image on a backup drive. Now if the main drive fails, you can buy a new drive, install it, and boot Ghost off the CD drive and restore your backed up image onto the new replacement drive. The machine will be restored as if nothing ever happened… assuming that Ghost can read the image file. I got burned once because it couldn’t.

But the other thing to keep in mind is that over time, Windows machines get polluted with “registry turds” which slow the machines down. The Registry is probably the single worst-implemented thing in Windows. It slowly gets corrupted over time, and there’s really no good way to repair it. Once your machine is more than a few years old, a complete reinstall is maybe not such a bad thing.

Having been around this block several times, I think I’ve convinced myself that the best course of action is to be more disciplined about where you keep your personal data. I keep virtually all of my files in the My Documents tree. This makes it easy to back up, and I back that up religiously. (Now that I’m using SyncToy to automate this process, there’s a few other folders I save also.)

If my HD dies, I still have to re-install Windows and my applications. True, this is a pain in the ass, but at least when I’m done I get to start over with a fresh install and a clean Windows registry. Or if I end up deciding to buy a new PC, I just reinstall my apps.

The final step is to restore the My Documents tree and that’s just a drag-and-drop.

Just my $0.02 on the matter,

Dave

[Hatfield]

John,

I’m pretty sure copying the whole C drive does not buy you much, except maybe some convenience. If the machine’s C drive fails and you replace the drive, you can’t just drag everything back and have Windows start working. Windows hides a bunch of files in places that dragging and dropping won’t save.

Norton Ghost can make an “image” of the entire C drive, and you can put that saved image on a backup drive. Now if the main drive fails, you can buy a new drive, install it, and boot Ghost off the CD drive and restore your backed up image onto the new replacement drive. The machine will be restored as if nothing ever happened… assuming that Ghost can read the image file. I got burned once because it couldn’t.

But the other thing to keep in mind is that over time, Windows machines get polluted with “registry turds” which slow the machines down. The Registry is probably the single worst-implemented thing in Windows. It slowly gets corrupted over time, and there’s really no good way to repair it. Once your machine is more than a few years old, a complete reinstall is maybe not such a bad thing.

Having been around this block several times, I think I’ve convinced myself that the best course of action is to be more disciplined about where you keep your personal data. I keep virtually all of my files in the My Documents tree. This makes it easy to back up, and I back that up religiously. (Now that I’m using SyncToy to automate this process, there’s a few other folders I save also.)

If my HD dies, I still have to re-install Windows and my applications. True, this is a pain in the ass, but at least when I’m done I get to start over with a fresh install and a clean Windows registry. Or if I end up deciding to buy a new PC, I just reinstall my apps.

The final step is to restore the My Documents tree and that’s just a drag-and-drop.

Just my $0.02 on the matter,

Dave

[Hatfield]

John,

I’m pretty sure copying the whole C drive does not buy you much, except maybe some convenience. If the machine’s C drive fails and you replace the drive, you can’t just drag everything back and have Windows start working. Windows hides a bunch of files in places that dragging and dropping won’t save.

Norton Ghost can make an “image” of the entire C drive, and you can put that saved image on a backup drive. Now if the main drive fails, you can buy a new drive, install it, and boot Ghost off the CD drive and restore your backed up image onto the new replacement drive. The machine will be restored as if nothing ever happened… assuming that Ghost can read the image file. I got burned once because it couldn’t.

But the other thing to keep in mind is that over time, Windows machines get polluted with “registry turds” which slow the machines down. The Registry is probably the single worst-implemented thing in Windows. It slowly gets corrupted over time, and there’s really no good way to repair it. Once your machine is more than a few years old, a complete reinstall is maybe not such a bad thing.

Having been around this block several times, I think I’ve convinced myself that the best course of action is to be more disciplined about where you keep your personal data. I keep virtually all of my files in the My Documents tree. This makes it easy to back up, and I back that up religiously. (Now that I’m using SyncToy to automate this process, there’s a few other folders I save also.)

If my HD dies, I still have to re-install Windows and my applications. True, this is a pain in the ass, but at least when I’m done I get to start over with a fresh install and a clean Windows registry. Or if I end up deciding to buy a new PC, I just reinstall my apps.

The final step is to restore the My Documents tree and that’s just a drag-and-drop.

Just my $0.02 on the matter,

Dave

[Hatfield]

John,

I’m pretty sure copying the whole C drive does not buy you much, except maybe some convenience. If the machine’s C drive fails and you replace the drive, you can’t just drag everything back and have Windows start working. Windows hides a bunch of files in places that dragging and dropping won’t save.

Norton Ghost can make an “image” of the entire C drive, and you can put that saved image on a backup drive. Now if the main drive fails, you can buy a new drive, install it, and boot Ghost off the CD drive and restore your backed up image onto the new replacement drive. The machine will be restored as if nothing ever happened… assuming that Ghost can read the image file. I got burned once because it couldn’t.

But the other thing to keep in mind is that over time, Windows machines get polluted with “registry turds” which slow the machines down. The Registry is probably the single worst-implemented thing in Windows. It slowly gets corrupted over time, and there’s really no good way to repair it. Once your machine is more than a few years old, a complete reinstall is maybe not such a bad thing.

Having been around this block several times, I think I’ve convinced myself that the best course of action is to be more disciplined about where you keep your personal data. I keep virtually all of my files in the My Documents tree. This makes it easy to back up, and I back that up religiously. (Now that I’m using SyncToy to automate this process, there’s a few other folders I save also.)

If my HD dies, I still have to re-install Windows and my applications. True, this is a pain in the ass, but at least when I’m done I get to start over with a fresh install and a clean Windows registry. Or if I end up deciding to buy a new PC, I just reinstall my apps.

The final step is to restore the My Documents tree and that’s just a drag-and-drop.

Just my $0.02 on the matter,

Dave

[Hatfield]

John,

I’m pretty sure copying the whole C drive does not buy you much, except maybe some convenience. If the machine’s C drive fails and you replace the drive, you can’t just drag everything back and have Windows start working. Windows hides a bunch of files in places that dragging and dropping won’t save.

Norton Ghost can make an “image” of the entire C drive, and you can put that saved image on a backup drive. Now if the main drive fails, you can buy a new drive, install it, and boot Ghost off the CD drive and restore your backed up image onto the new replacement drive. The machine will be restored as if nothing ever happened… assuming that Ghost can read the image file. I got burned once because it couldn’t.

But the other thing to keep in mind is that over time, Windows machines get polluted with “registry turds” which slow the machines down. The Registry is probably the single worst-implemented thing in Windows. It slowly gets corrupted over time, and there’s really no good way to repair it. Once your machine is more than a few years old, a complete reinstall is maybe not such a bad thing.

Having been around this block several times, I think I’ve convinced myself that the best course of action is to be more disciplined about where you keep your personal data. I keep virtually all of my files in the My Documents tree. This makes it easy to back up, and I back that up religiously. (Now that I’m using SyncToy to automate this process, there’s a few other folders I save also.)

If my HD dies, I still have to re-install Windows and my applications. True, this is a pain in the ass, but at least when I’m done I get to start over with a fresh install and a clean Windows registry. Or if I end up deciding to buy a new PC, I just reinstall my apps.

The final step is to restore the My Documents tree and that’s just a drag-and-drop.

Just my $0.02 on the matter,

Dave

[Coronita]

[quote=jficquette]Nostradamus,

I bought my step daughter a 190 gb external drive to transfer files off of her Dell computer. I thought I could just drag the entire c drive to the new drive and it would copy but no dice. I had to copy various folders over.

How do I just copy the entire drive over? Its only 30 gb.

Thanks

John[/quote]

Don’t do it. There are hidden files that won’t work. C: usually has system files and applications.

Best thing to do is to use a program to transfer a disk to disk.

You can also use window’s backup and restore program.

1) Use the backup program to backup c:.
2) The restore the backup onto the new drive.

(I think that works.)

[Coronita]

[quote=jficquette]Nostradamus,

I bought my step daughter a 190 gb external drive to transfer files off of her Dell computer. I thought I could just drag the entire c drive to the new drive and it would copy but no dice. I had to copy various folders over.

How do I just copy the entire drive over? Its only 30 gb.

Thanks

John[/quote]

Don’t do it. There are hidden files that won’t work. C: usually has system files and applications.

Best thing to do is to use a program to transfer a disk to disk.

You can also use window’s backup and restore program.

1) Use the backup program to backup c:.
2) The restore the backup onto the new drive.

(I think that works.)

[Coronita]

[quote=jficquette]Nostradamus,

I bought my step daughter a 190 gb external drive to transfer files off of her Dell computer. I thought I could just drag the entire c drive to the new drive and it would copy but no dice. I had to copy various folders over.

How do I just copy the entire drive over? Its only 30 gb.

Thanks

John[/quote]

Don’t do it. There are hidden files that won’t work. C: usually has system files and applications.

Best thing to do is to use a program to transfer a disk to disk.

You can also use window’s backup and restore program.

1) Use the backup program to backup c:.
2) The restore the backup onto the new drive.

(I think that works.)

[Coronita]

[quote=jficquette]Nostradamus,

I bought my step daughter a 190 gb external drive to transfer files off of her Dell computer. I thought I could just drag the entire c drive to the new drive and it would copy but no dice. I had to copy various folders over.

How do I just copy the entire drive over? Its only 30 gb.

Thanks

John[/quote]

Don’t do it. There are hidden files that won’t work. C: usually has system files and applications.

Best thing to do is to use a program to transfer a disk to disk.

You can also use window’s backup and restore program.

1) Use the backup program to backup c:.
2) The restore the backup onto the new drive.

(I think that works.)

[Author]

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