Comments on: 8 Tips for Surviving PC Failure

By: lionbit

lionbit — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:38:07 +0000

I already have this problem. I usualy do backup manualy( copy folders and files to a external hard drive.
I do it in this way so i can use de information on the external device in any pc.
Last time that hapens i havent´s done backup since three moths…. Lost three months of my work!:(

Now i am tring to backup weeckly. the problem is after reparing pc or hard drive i have to install all again…..

good bits!

By: xxparanormalxx

xxparanormalxx — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 20:43:01 +0000

macbook/pc, hardware failure is hardware failure. although i love macs because its unix backend. i’m a command line junkie at heart still.

i guess having an IT background is good. this is what i recommend. although seemingly complex, it’s really not that bad. just draw some pictures and it all makes sense…kinda like how wireframes are so great for web development. =]

but here’s my setup.

-blend cloud computing (gmail/dropbox) with local network accessible via VPN. many routers these days support it. You can also use remote desktop/logmein to connect to your local computer. i do this all the time. dropbox to share critical things like pw database (still skeptical and considering setting up my down dropbox server at home. not aware of anything free so i would have to develop my own.).
-personal computer running RAID 1 (because i hope that that single drive won’t fail right after i do my critical backups. if one fails, i simply replace it another harddrive. mirror rebuilds automatically. life continues on).
-file server running RAID 1 – again mirror your disks for redundancy!!! it’s so cheap these days. (this isn’t quintessential if you’ve got RAID 1 running on your primary. i however share data between 4 PC’s, 3 laptops, and a few Virtual Machines.. yes i run them all and pay a hefty electricity bill.)
-UPS!!!! can’t state this enough times. keeping computers running free of power surges/spikes is vital to increasing longevity. my computer is 4 years old and is still a beast.
-Clean your computers! Open it up and dust it out. poor ventilation leads to dust build up which ultimately leads to heating issues. this equates to decreased machine longevity.
-OS partition separated from data partition in case you ever need to re-Ghost. However I never get viruses because I just use a separate computer for any “dangerous” surfing I might do (you can also do this in a VM).

Sure it seems a bit difficult and seemingly expensive but I come from an IT background gone web developer madness. i’ve had the same setup for over 4 years so i’m not spending all that much as opposed to upgrading pc’s every year or two.

By: AppBeacon

AppBeacon — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 03:03:22 +0000

@Samuel Linde : I’ve got Macs. I still use DropBox.

@ khuramyz – Really? CDs? You will probably do it for about 2 weeks. A month at the most. Then, they will be out of date. Use DropBox. I year of “pro” is $99 for 50GB. Use DropBox as your “My Documents” or Documents folder on a Mac. Then, DropBox automatically copies all the files to the cloud and also to your other computers that have DropBox installed.

I used DropBox to backup my work PC to the cloud and to my Macs. Then, my password programs are accessible on Mac or PC.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:46:26 +0000

Life is great, but keep a backup for yourself, you never know when this will happen. Computers live in a different world than us, one small step either side of the knife edge and they go tumbling

By: lukemeister

lukemeister — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:50:22 +0000

Ya know, this really got me thinking about how I’ve moved away from keeping a lot of vital stuff on a specific computer. Between BaseCamp/Backpack/Google Docs/Google Calendar/Gmail/etc I really can work from pretty much any PC which is cool and a lot better than life in the 90’s. Last time a computer crashed, all I really had to reinstall to get back to work was Firefox, Filezilla, UltraEdit and Photoshop. That was kinda refreshing for a change!

By: essexboyracer

essexboyracer — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:19:46 +0000

Another take – have handy a linux distro on bootable cd-rom (or dual-boot from HD), that way if you have O/S failure at least you can boot into something to get access to files/internet/email. Remember to keep files on a FAT partition as NTFS write is flaky in linux

By: Craig Buckler

Craig Buckler — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:04:58 +0000

There appear to be a number of Mac aficionados, but are Macs any less prone to failure than PCs? Apple controls much the hardware and software which should make the OS more reliable. However, Macs still use standard components from major manufacturers – surely they are just as likely to break down?

By: Craig Buckler

Craig Buckler — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:57:01 +0000

i could also use a tip for a good tool to make a image backu

You could try the (confusingly named) DriveImage XML. It is free for home users.

By: Craig Buckler

Craig Buckler — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:55:02 +0000

Using recordable CDs are fine, but it takes discipline to back up regularly. Automate the process to a USB drive and you can forget all about it until PC doomsday.

By: khuramyz

khuramyz — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:06:11 +0000

Great Tips. I am gonna write my work on CDs for backup.