Thinking it might be time for a backup

[moonshadow]

I've noticed the hard drive on the computer is starting to make that chattery, buzzy like noise that hard drives on my former computers made just before they died.

I've been told that those 25MB Nikon RAW files I've been loading on it by the hundreds may be really taxing the drive. One co-worker said he's going to give a solid state drive a try. Anyone have any experience with these? Are they more reliable? Do they necessary last longer?

Time to dig out the old back up USB drive and update all of my documents. I haven't done a back up in like six months now. I'm really slacking.

If it does crash, I have every intention of just replacing the hard drive and reloading my original operating system disk.

Then again, this could be a prime opportunity to give Linux a try, if I've got to start from scratch anyway.

[Gregg1100]

I installed a 120 GB SSD in my pc in October. I also have my old h/d drive in there too- set up to receive Docs, Pics and Music. The SSD is the one with Win 10 on it.
I have got to transfer a lot of phone rooting files/videos from SSD to h/d drive as ssd is filling up . With Win 10 and the SSD, the start up is very quick- very pleased. Will get a larger capacity SSD when funds allow.

[crfriend]

I've noticed the hard drive on the computer is starting to make that chattery, buzzy like noise that hard drives on my former computers made just before they died.

I've been told that those 25MB Nikon RAW files I've been loading on it by the hundreds may be really taxing the drive. One co-worker said he's going to give a solid state drive a try. Anyone have any experience with these? Are they more reliable? Do they necessary last longer?

SSDs have come a way since their early incarnations, and so long as you don't page-thrash (exceed your physical memory (RAM) constraints so things start "paging" to disk) they're now quite good, but not up to the absolute storage capacity of "rotating disks". You may also get a boost in speed from an SSD as there's no time to seek the heads from cylinder to cylinder.

The above having been said, rotating disks still have a place, although at the capacities they now claim to support it's only a matter of time before bit-rot begins to erode the already statistically-tenuous retention period/bit-error-rate numbers. Here, only next-generation file-systems and aggressive "scrubbing" of an array of said drives can save one's bacon in the long term. NTFS (Mica/Windows) isn't one of those, although Microsoft are probably playing catch-up; Linux has BTRFS and ZFS, both of which have per-block checksums that can catch -- and repair, in the case of an array -- blocks that have rotted bits on them.

I've been using ZFS on Solaris for years now, and am very happy with the results. To sum up: back up that cranky disk *now* before it's too late, shove an SSD into the system and reload the OS onto that, and for your multi-megabyte images, put those on a separate system with a next-generation filesystem for long-term storage. And keep copies/backups -- elsewhere. For key bits, I have computers in three separate locations, and data is replicated between those (including a backup of the SkirtCafe database) frequently. If something is worth creating, then it's likely worth keeping backup copies of. Plan for this.

Joking aside, putting data onto a disk does not "stress it". The way the modulation techniques work, a zero weighs precisely the same as one so there's not going to be any possible "out-of-balance" condition to wear out the bearings. Old age does that just fine, and modern drives are not intended to have the life-spans of older ones anyway, so *expect* to have to replace them every couple of years. Gone are the days when a satchel full of ones weighed much more than one full of zeroes.

[moonshadow]

Along this line, I had thought of a few questions I'd like to pose for those who may know the answer.

Should the HD crash and require a fresh OS reload, if one were to install Linux on the system, I wonder what type of issues I might be having getting hardware to work. For instance, I'm sure I can go to compaq's website and the device drivers for my machine, but those drivers are meant for the Windows Vista operation system it was shipped with. I'm going to assume those drivers wont work on a Linux installation. And I don't want to have a monitor stuck on 640X480 res, and no sound card.

Also, I had loaded a free version of Linux on a system many years ago, and found that it lacked support to play an mp3 file due to licensing issues.

Remember, I'm not a programming expert, or hacker so this needs to be a pretty straight forward installation without a lot of headache.

Is there some type of support to run exe files? Perhaps some type of emulator or something of that nature? I'm wondering how many programs I run would not run on a Linux machine.

I've got to have my simcity. A computer to me isn't worth having if it won't run my all time favorite game. I've also gotten pretty used to running the Nikon software that came with my camera.

I could always simply reload my original operating system disk. I did this once before when I upgraded the drive years ago, and it was quite seamless. I put the disk in, and it worked for about an hour, and when it was done, all drivers were installed, and it was like it was they day I brought it home. But MAN I hate to have to wait for eight years of Vista updates to download and install all over again!

I also look for Microsoft to stop offering support and updates for Vista very soon, and thought I'd get ahead of that by just changing over to a different OS here and now while I'm already in the process.

[Uncle Al]

I'm running Win-7 Pro and love it. I will have to change some settings as
M.S. is soon to start forcing anyone with Win-7, 8, 8.1, etc., into Win-10.
Yes, the Win-10 'upgrade' is currently free, BUT, my computer geek has
found a loop-hole in 10 that will allow M.S. to get into your machine, and
'spy' on you. I don't plan on going to Win-10. Also, I don't want "The Cloud"
to be my only source of program/disk storage.

OK - That's my $0.02 worth

Uncle Al


P.S. - Vista is long gone from the support site

[Judah14]

Along this line, I had thought of a few questions I'd like to pose for those who may know the answer.

Should the HD crash and require a fresh OS reload, if one were to install Linux on the system, I wonder what type of issues I might be having getting hardware to work. For instance, I'm sure I can go to compaq's website and the device drivers for my machine, but those drivers are meant for the Windows Vista operation system it was shipped with. I'm going to assume those drivers wont work on a Linux installation. And I don't want to have a monitor stuck on 640X480 res, and no sound card.

Also, I had loaded a free version of Linux on a system many years ago, and found that it lacked support to play an mp3 file due to licensing issues.

Remember, I'm not a programming expert, or hacker so this needs to be a pretty straight forward installation without a lot of headache.

Is there some type of support to run exe files? Perhaps some type of emulator or something of that nature? I'm wondering how many programs I run would not run on a Linux machine.

I've got to have my simcity. A computer to me isn't worth having if it won't run my all time favorite game. I've also gotten pretty used to running the Nikon software that came with my camera.

I could always simply reload my original operating system disk. I did this once before when I upgraded the drive years ago, and it was quite seamless. I put the disk in, and it worked for about an hour, and when it was done, all drivers were installed, and it was like it was they day I brought it home. But MAN I hate to have to wait for eight years of Vista updates to download and install all over again!

I also look for Microsoft to stop offering support and updates for Vista very soon, and thought I'd get ahead of that by just changing over to a different OS here and now while I'm already in the process.

GNU/Linux goes with drivers for most devices out of the box, so that would only be a problem when you are using uncommon hardware. Also, you can run (most) Windows programs using the Wine compatibility layer. As for MP3 files, you could install VLC media player. GNU/Linux distributions go with a package management system (read: app store) where you could install software from, for free.

[Elisabetta]

Sometimes I wonder if I'm reading a book when it comes to responses on this forum lol

[moonshadow]

Also, I don't want "The Cloud"
to be my only source of program/disk storage.

Are you saying "they" are doing away with traditional storage (hard drives)?

Oh God no... that sounds like a horrible idea, and plays right into my argument on the "establishment wants me to upgrade" thread!

This is where it starts.... before you know it I'll have to sit through an advertisement just to access my documents... pay a monthly "service fee" to maintain the software, and lest we forget, any slick talker with a badge can shake whatever private information they want out of my system without a warrant.

Just shy of 80,000 files transferring, ETA six hours from now.... not going to stay up for that... will let it do it's thing while I sleep. Of course, 2,000 files into the transfer it's going to get hung on a prompt until I wake up and tell it to "copy and replace". Uagghh...

Now I remember why I procrastinate backups..... So far gone are the days when your digital life fit neatly in a little box of diskettes.....

[crfriend]

Should the HD crash and require a fresh OS reload, if one were to install Linux on the system, I wonder what type of issues I might be having getting hardware to work. For instance, I'm sure I can go to compaq's website and the device drivers for my machine, but those drivers are meant for the Windows Vista operation system it was shipped with. I'm going to assume those drivers wont work on a Linux installation. And I don't want to have a monitor stuck on 640X480 res, and no sound card.

Linux has come a long way since its inception, and when the disk in my work-issue laptop died a year or so ago -- and the license key on the bottom of my machine wouldn't allow me to reload the work-issue Windows 7 -- I opted for CentOS 6 instead and it works very well indeed. The video is good, uses the full resolution of the screen, and the audio is also very nice and it all worked without he having to hack on it.

The issue with MP3 files is, indeed patent/licensing problems with the Fraunhofer Institute out of Germany, likely via prodding by the RIAA/MPAA (the "Hollywood Mafia") -- and you probably don't want MP3 files anyway because of the lossy compression they use which throws quite a lot of audible information away. I converted mostly to FLAC ("Free Lossless Audio Codec") a couple of years ago and while the files are larger than MP3s sound a LOT better.

Is there some type of support to run exe files? Perhaps some type of emulator or something of that nature? I'm wondering how many programs I run would not run on a Linux machine.

Look into Wine (Windows Emulator) if you need to run Windows programs. That said, most functionality that one gets with Windows can be had on Linux. Another option would be to dual-boot your machine if your new "disk" is big enough.

I also look for Microsoft to stop offering support and updates for Vista very soon, and thought I'd get ahead of that by just changing over to a different OS here and now while I'm already in the process.

Microsoft are pushing Windows 10 like demons at the moment, mainly because the new EULA allows them unfettered access into your machine any time they want it -- along with anybody else who strong-arms MS. I'd avoid Windows 10 like the plague.

On using the "cloud" for anything -- Ask first if there is anything even remotely sensitive in what you want to put "up there". Anything that you wouldn't want to see on YouTube, or Slashdot? Anything that might have personal data in it (like passwords)? Any "pirated" audio content (even if you own the physical object)? Then ask, second, whether you trust the "provider" with unfettered access to what you're putting up there. And, third, read any sort of "agreement" very carefully -- and then read it again, with the help of a lawyer if need be. Then build a small array and keep stuff on it with another backup at a pal's place.

[Big and Bashful]

I have upgraded one machine to Win 10 64 bit running off an SSD, It starts like lightning and runs as well or better than Win 7 did. The only prooblems I had were for a few software packages which were designed to store config files or game status files in the Program Files (x86) directories. They wouldn't work because Win 10 will not let them write to those directories, I just dragged them elsewhere and everything was suddenly tickety, and in a wider sense, boo.
As for Linux, I have recently been playing with an older pc and linux, I tried linux mint and then Ubuntu linux. One of those had native mp3 support, I think Ubuntu was the one. Mint had a much better and useable desktop, I found Ubuntu seemed to be very good at hiding menus etc. I really struggled with it.
Both of those flavours of linux can be installed to a USB flashdrive by using a little utility (can't remember the name but a google will find it) and you can try them out on the flashdrive before going for an install.
I don't remember either of them offering me a multi-boot setup, however I was happy to just install with the default options, maybe that's why.
BEWARE; Once you install linux to a hard drive it is an absolute bugger to get rid of if you decide to revert to Windows. It does something to the boot sectors and partition tables which Windows doesn't like and can't cope with. You can get back to Microsoft land but it isn't straightforward.
I got that machine back to running XP after a bit of a battle, however it isn't much use because I can't even get SP2 to install to it, so I can't update the browser, software updates don't seem to be accessable on it. Good job I was only playing with an old machine and not one in everyday use.
I was ever so chuffed to see that someone has brought out "Wobbly windows" for windows, I loved the wobble on linux, now I can wobble my windows on windows quite happily.
Oh and SSD drives, incredibly quick, unlimited reads but only good for so many write cycles, so best for programme disks (drive C:), for data mechanical drives give much higher capacity for your buck. But always have your data backed up somewhere.
And from recent experience, do not rely on external USB drives for back-up, the internal SATA interface cards are junk and die pretty quickly, all or most manufacturers seem to use the same garbage, See this video on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cTZBMi-XwQ Just watch the first few minutes because it is very repetative. As a result of this (he is right!) I now have another t2 terrabytes installed in my main pc.

Enough already!

[Gregg1100]

Forgot to say that I have a 1.5 Tb external hard drive on which I keep my backups. And phone nandroid backups kept on pc and memory sticks.
I also have an old pc with Xp on it. I keep this for the programs now laid to waste by later MS versions. It will not be going online so no virus worries.

[Judah14]

And if you like the looks of Windows better than those of GNU/Linux, you could install themes such as the Windows 10 Transformation Pack.