Tip for the day 01/05/2023

[jenel]

I have answered 4 emails and messages just this morning with requests for some shares that were lost due to "computer crashes".

What I did was I got a 4TB external drive (Passport) and I have all my folders on it. It cost me $100 but that is a little bit of money for the priceless peace of mind and heartache when your computer goes down, you don't lose your shares. Also I can use it with my laptop and PC so I don't have everything saved 2 times, Lord knows that the laptop does not have that much space to store everything!

 

[skooter]

That's what I did as well, but it was years ago, and unfortunately the technology has decided it didn't want to cooperate with the drive. I was able to find a bunch of my old shares, but not all of them. I'm still hoping and working on them tho!!!

 

[latitude]

Same here. Have backups of everything on a few external drives. Waaay back in the beginning when I first joined WC I read where someone had their computer crash and a few days later their external with their backup fried. I have 4 externals and an old laptop with all my stuff. Nothing like being paranoid lol.

 

[roberta]

That's not paranoid, that's playing it safe.

A few years ago my desktop crashed, a couple days later my external hard drive crashed, but I thought I was still safe because I had another backup on CD. Well guess what, yup you guessed it, while trying to read the CD to put things back onto my new computer, the CD became unreadable. Hubby couldn't even read it in his laptop or desktop either. So I got screwed.

Now I have my desktop, an external hard drive backup, a CD backup, a thumb drive backup, and a DVD backup. Hopefully one of them will work if/when the time comes. Now Donna, who's being paranoid? LOL.

Jenel, thank you so much for the tip.

 

[wishfulthinker]

I have to admit, I save nothing on computer. They are saved directly onto the external hard drive. I have to admit to one fault though and one that may be costly. I do not unplug the external hard drive, so if anything happens to computer it will be fingers crossed UNLESS I make it a new years resolution to take it out every night! DONT do what I do, think first!

 

[jenel]

I have to admit, I save nothing on computer. They are saved directly onto the external hard drive. I have to admit to one fault though and one that may be costly. I do not unplug the external hard drive, so if anything happens to computer it will be fingers crossed UNLESS I make it a new years resolution to take it out every night! DONT do what I do, think first!

Yes... when I shut down the computer I always unplug the external drive.... good point on mentioning that @wishfulthinker

 

[debron]

While I agree you should have a back-up, I am not a fan of external hard drives. I have had 3 fail on me-different brands, not dropped or jostled, just failed. I use the cloud and a second internal drive right now

 

[wishfulthinker]

The few that follow me have realized I have lots of licensed graphics & many, many, many years of working with them.
They are most important to me for the last several years, as doing "designs" is the only thing I am able to do.
(I am certainly not as good as I once was, but blessed to be doing them)

Needless to say storage is always a big issue, and at least some backup is always needed.
Since my recent 'unplanned move', I had to inventory my files.

JUST GRAPHICS & GRAPHIC FILES.

Cloud Storage - 2TB
Cloud Storage - 1.1TB
2 - 4TB Ext. Drives
1 - 2TB Ext. Drive
1- 1TB Ext. Drive
3- 500GB Ext. Drives
2 - 320GB Ext. Drives
1- 250GB Ext. Drive
More than 100 CDs/DVDs

I have been lucky to have never had a hard drive go bad. - You should really 'EJECT' any external drives when not in use, and especially when you restart or shut down your computer. (there some programs that can repair a 'grrr-ed' drive but avoiding 'grr-ing' it is more calming)
Of the too many to count thumbdrives - I have had some of them die.

I have 2 Main computers I use. The newest has SSD drive which is really fast, but I don't trust the longevity of SSD's. But I only have programs on the SSD computer, NO files.
So many programs I use, but mainly Photoshop & Illustrator.

So, I guess the point is, protect your graphics & personnel files that you don't want to really loose as best you can.
Be thankful to those who acknowledge your creations.

@Christine - that is a lot of files! And I, for one, love your designs and although you do not always see my finished designs (used mainly for family and friends) they are used. Thank you Chris.
I removed my external hard drive yesterday (first time for ages) and will try and remember to do it every day.
Not even sure I would know how to use cloud for storage, but maybe one day I will try.