If it happened to me it can happen to you (Page 2): What type of computer do you have? You could probably pull the harddrive from your failing computer, attach it to a working...

AirWalter Loc: Tipp City, Ohio

boberic wrote:

MyComputer is dying. the only way I can log on is with great difficulty. Fortunately all my pics are backed up, by Carbonite and all my other site or apps can be recovered. So beware, there are gremlins. Back up

What type of computer do you have? You could probably pull the harddrive from your failing computer, attach it to a working computer, and back all your photos up to another backup drive before they are all lost or mistakenly deleted.

Photocraig

jerryc41 wrote:

Speak of the devil. My computer just rebooted itself. : )

Jerry, yo even called "IT" by the right name (initials NOT coincidental).
C

Bipod

Longshadow wrote:

Yea, unfortunately you cannot "copy" the software, it has to be installed. I really hate changing computers. Can't do an image restore on a new box since the guts will be different.
I finally made a list of all software packages that I have on each computer to make it easier for me.

With the right software, it's possible to copy an entire hard disk, sector by sector, to another hard disk.
(But some operating systems make it quite difficult to produce a bootable disk this way.)

It's surprising that more people don't have two hard disks and do this.

Bipod

boberic wrote:

MyComputer is dying. the only way I can log on is with great difficulty. Fortunately all my pics are backed up, by Carbonite and all my other site or apps can be recovered. So beware, there are gremlins. Back up

What's making it hard to log on? If you care to describe the precise symptom, someome might
be able to take a guess at what's gone wrong.

When did it start doing this? Have you made any changes recently?

rcarol

Longshadow wrote:

Yea, unfortunately you cannot "copy" the software, it has to be installed. I really hate changing computers. Can't do an image restore on a new box since the guts will be different.
I finally made a list of all software packages that I have on each computer to make it easier for me.

You state that you can't make a copy of your software, it has to be installed. There are backup programs that allow you to image your entire hard drive to another drive so that you can restore it in the event of a catastrophic failure.

AirWalter Loc: Tipp City, Ohio

rcarol wrote:

You state that you can't make a copy of your software, it has to be installed. There are backup programs that allow you to image your entire hard drive to another drive so that you can restore it in the event of a catastrophic failure.

You didn't read the rest of what He said.

ORpilot Loc: Prineville, Or

AirWalter wrote:

What type of computer do you have? You could probably pull the harddrive from your failing computer, attach it to a working computer, and back all your photos up to another backup drive before they are all lost or mistakenly deleted.

I back up too. I too have taken the old hard drives out of dead computers and used them for back up. You can find the external cases on eBay or NewEgg. They are cheep, anywhere from $5 to $20 depending on the brand. I also have a multi function dock station that handles both laptop size and desk top size hard drives.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

Long before Micrsoft added sub-folders in the "Users" folder for data, I created 2 folders (or directories) at the root of my hard drive. I called one "Download" for install files I downloaded, and "Paul" for ALL my data. Naturally, there are many sub-folders in my "Paul" directory for the different types of data. More recently, I created a "Media" folder at the root for all media other than my photos, such as ripped copies of my CDs and DVDs. This allows me to setbackup instructions for media that are different than other data.

I backup those 3 directories regularly using SyncBack.

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

Took about 5 days to transfer.Turned off the automatic sleep and let it run continuously. You can use the computer normally for other things, as the down load is in the background and not taking a lot of juice. Downloading the new programs is easy and quick and they hook up with the data pretty much automatically. For me it was Microsoft office, Lightroom Classic CC and Photoshop CCs plus a few others. In short, It is somewhat of a chore, but works well and is not complicated. Let me know how you fare with this.

FiddleMaker wrote:

sodapop, when you say it took a while, are you talking several hours - for example 10 hours or more? Is it possible to backup the entire computer (take image) onto an external hard drive then restore the backup image of entire computer to a new clean computer with nothing on it except the operating system? ~FiddleMaker

rcarol

AirWalter wrote:

You didn't read the rest of what He said.

I did read it. I have been successful in restoring an image on different hardware. Windows 10 will find the new hardware. It will be necessary to install the OS and the backup/restore software before restoring the image but that is trivial compared to installing all of the applications.

FiddleMaker Loc: Merrimac, MA

rcarol wrote:

You state that you can't make a copy of your software, it has to be installed. There are backup programs that allow you to image your entire hard drive to another drive so that you can restore it in the event of a catastrophic failure.

rcarol, you answered my earlier question to a fellow hogger about this topic of a complete backup to an external drive. I have 2 external drives but my very old 1TB Seagate is for photos and photo-related software only. Most of the other stuff gets backed up on my 2TB Toshiba. I have no idea how to backup my internet favorites (favorite bookmarks) or my emails. I'm not very bright when it comes to computer stuff so I need something that a dumb-ass like myself can do. I know there is Carbonite but I would rather not get involved in another subscription. Perhaps I should make a short trip to the Microsoft store in Salem, NH and get some advice from the techie goo-roos. If I should have a catastrophic failure now, I would be up Schitz Creek without a paddle.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

boberic wrote:

MyComputer is dying. the only way I can log on is with great difficulty. Fortunately all my pics are backed up, by Carbonite and all my other site or apps can be recovered. So beware, there are gremlins. Back up

It won't happen to me. I backup regularly, and stay on top of things - scheduled replacement vs use it till it dies. About 5-6 yrs is good for a hard drive, and if your computer is properly vented and fan cooled, the cpu should last just as long if not longer. Keeping hard drives at no more than 70% of stated capacity helps reduce wear and tear.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

AirWalter wrote:

What type of computer do you have? You could probably pull the harddrive from your failing computer, attach it to a working computer, and back all your photos up to another backup drive before they are all lost or mistakenly deleted.

It's an HP and the new one will be a Dell. We are lucky to have a good "pro"shop in town. Theyhave helped me before on this machine. So i'll just bring both in and have them do yhe transfer

aellman Loc: Boston MA

boberic wrote:

MyComputer is dying. the only way I can log on is with great difficulty. Fortunately all my pics are backed up, by Carbonite and all my other site or apps can be recovered. So beware, there are gremlins. Back up

Computers and hard drives die. It is not a question of "if." It's only a question of "when." Carbonite rocks!

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

aellman wrote:

Computers and hard drives die. It is not a question of "if." It's only a question of "when." Carbonite rocks!