Do youself a favor and read this post
 

My computer died the other day, and I lost the HD. I hadnt made a back up in prolly close to a year. So I lost all my PT databases, gigs and gigs and gigs worth of dataminng, old emails, pictures, an incredible porn collection. All gone.

Do yourself a favor, dont be a dumbass like me, take a few minutes and back up your data.

End of PSA [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

Whats the best way to do this? And can I get a database off another computer? I've played on my buddy's computer lately and need my stats off of it!

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

And how do you backup 400GB data?

Just don't have your data on the same HD as your OS and you will be fine if you don't drop a magnet on the HD.

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

[ QUOTE ]
Just don't have your data on the same HD as your OS and you will be fine if you don't drop a magnet on the HD.

[/ QUOTE ]

Famous last words.

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

Even though the hard drive went bad they can usually reclaim the data stored on it. Of cours ethere is an $85 or so charge for this. Yea, backing up a good idea but in case a person hasn't and they have important data on there they may want to look into reclaiming it.

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

Another 400 gig HDD?

I'm thinking of getting an external HDD, for back-up and extra storage.

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

[ QUOTE ]
Even though the hard drive went bad they can usually reclaim the data stored on it. Of cours ethere is an $85 or so charge for this. Yea, backing up a good idea but in case a person hasn't and they have important data on there they may want to look into reclaiming it.

[/ QUOTE ]

$85? Maybe if its just a corrupt allocation file, mine at work crashed, physically, and it was $1800, after some bargaining. So yeah back up your stuff.

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

Pity about the porn.

My porn is backed up...
 

...everything else is hangin.

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

[ QUOTE ]
I'm thinking of getting an external HDD, for back-up and extra storage.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is too freaky, so I'm gonna go out and get one today.

Does anyone have any external HD recommendations? Would it be ok to get the cheapest one at Best Buy (Maxtor 80GB), or should more thought go into this?

This would stricly be for PT and My Money files, so I don't think I need anything huge.

Thanks

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

[ QUOTE ]
And how do you backup 400GB data?

Just don't have your data on the same HD as your OS and you will be fine if you don't drop a magnet on the HD.

[/ QUOTE ]

Like many people, however, I find that the dozens of magnets I keep in the computer room become a bit greasy over time. So your advice about not dropping magnets on one's hard drive is not as easy to implement as it would at first seem. So obviously, backing up your hardrive is a very important thing to do.


--Zetack

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

Buy magnet degreaser. Works like a champ. I highly recommend a reverse polarized brand if you have the money. If not, a polarized one should still do the trick.

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

[ QUOTE ]
And can I get a database off another computer?

[/ QUOTE ]

Buying a new computer soon. Is there any way for me to get my PT data from one to the other?

-Phoenix

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

network using crossover cable

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

what about these online services that offer daily file back-up for X $ for y space?

AOL just started offering this and i was going to check it out. anyone know if these are worth it? seems like i needed the $9.95/month package. $120/year seemed like alot so i did not do it. but when i read a post like this, the $120 seems cheapo.

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

a data/OS split has nothing to do with it. It's just as possible for a non-OS, data-only drive to crash as it is for any other drive.

There are two groups of computer users:

Those who've had a hard drive crash, and those who haven't had a hard drive crash yet.

How do you back up 400GB of data?

Well, you could go with a RAID array, which is expensive but would at least allow you to pull a dead drive and replace it without much hassle. You can compress files and burn them to DVD. For most of your data, this is probably a 1-time event (for example, you don't need to back up porn more than once, since it's static files).

You can probably parse through some of that data and decide it doesn't need to be backed up. You don't need to back up the OS proper, or any applications (though you would want to back up preferences and such). Music burned from CD doesn't NEED to be backed up, since you can re-rip it (sure, it's slow and time consuming, but if it means 50% fewer DVDs...)

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

Alobar, get in touch with these people:

http://www.actionfront.com/

They're very fast, and they do free estimates. All you're paying for is shipping. It may turn out to be a fairly cheap fix, at least to fix it long enough for you to transfer data to a new drive.

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

Or, if your database is small enough, just burn it to a DVD

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

[ QUOTE ]
Whats the best way to do this? And can I get a database off another computer? I've played on my buddy's computer lately and need my stats off of it!

[/ QUOTE ]

Buy an external HD.

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

[ QUOTE ]
Or, if your database is small enough, just burn it to a DVD

[/ QUOTE ]

This is what I do.

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

[ QUOTE ]
Alobar, get in touch with these people:

http://www.actionfront.com/

They're very fast, and they do free estimates. All you're paying for is shipping. It may turn out to be a fairly cheap fix, at least to fix it long enough for you to transfer data to a new drive.

[/ QUOTE ]
I've never known anyone who found this sort of data recovery from a failed hd to be a "cheap fix". It is usually very very expensive.

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

[ QUOTE ]
Or, if your database is small enough, just burn it to a DVD

[/ QUOTE ]

Now there's the kind of advice I wish I'd paid attention to before I spilled a cup of coffee on my laptop last week.

I'm having a lot of trouble recalling most of the 80,000 hands I had in there. And my pokergrapher. Oh, how I loved it so. I used to gaze adoringly at my graph for hours at a time. Now I'm reduced to spending my time talking to my girlfriend instead.

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

[ QUOTE ]
And how do you backup 400GB data?


[/ QUOTE ]

can you say RAID1? i can...

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

And how do you backup 400GB data?

You've 400GB data?
WOW

You know they sell HD where you can go up to x TB?

TIme is going fast, my pocket pc is faster than a Pentium 1. LOL It's 400 Mhz and I think it stinks because it's too slow. I can't image the time when we worked on 233Mhz...

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

NOT THE PORN!! THE PORN!! [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

[ QUOTE ]
NOT THE PR0N!! THE PR0N!! [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

FYP

WiteKnite

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

[ QUOTE ]
And how do you backup 400GB data?

[/ QUOTE ]

Back it up once, to a set of DVDs (or CDs if you don't have a DVD burner). It's painful, especially if you have to resort to CDs, but it's a one shot deal. Then do daily backups of files that have changed (or weekly, if you don't have a lot of files that changed); any decent backup software will allow you to do "incremental" backups. This is virtually painless, and you can even set it up to launch while you're sleeping; just leave a CD in the burner overnight.

Or, if you have the bucks, you can buy a RAID array, as others have suggested, and any time a single disk goes bad, you just replace it, and the data mirrored on the other drives will still be there.


[ QUOTE ]
Just don't have your data on the same HD as your OS and you will be fine if you don't drop a magnet on the HD.

[/ QUOTE ]

Totally untrue. It's not only the OS drives that crash. I'll let others elaborate. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

-Mike

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

Can you recommend some decent backup software?

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

I'm far from an expert and so shouldn't really be making recommendations--but here's my take. I want to back up not only my data, but all the software (shareware, pirated, a tiny bit even purchased) I installed too. if my HD ever fails, I want all my data, all my programs and config--and I want to be able to boot right into that. so what I went after was a bootable clone of my HD. you got your ghost and your acronis and your casper and all that. well most of that makes a back up that you have to extract onto a disk. so you still need some other way to boot, and then you have to do that extraction. most of those products can do clones, ie make an exact working copy of your disk--but in win xp they tend not to be bootable.

there is a solution. the maker of xxcopy, which is an advanced dos based utility made a new product specifically for what I want: XXCLONE. it makes a bootable clone of your win xp HD. all data, programs, and operating system. now, if my HD fails. I pull it out. toss it in the trash and boot from my second HD in the modular laptop bay without missing a beat (and I'll physically switch that one over to the primary HD bay). it's like $40. it specifially makes the clone bootable. and it does incremental back ups. (also, it doesn't clone sector by sector or whatever, it defrags the files.)

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

[ QUOTE ]
Just don't have your data on the same HD as your OS and you will be fine if you don't drop a magnet on the HD.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not a question of IF your hard drive will fail, it's a question of when! ALL hard drives WILL fail eventually.

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

Wow, that sounds like a great solution. I'll have to check it out. Thanks.

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

can you post how to do this step by step? or was that basically it?

i think there are MANY people that would be comforted with this backup. i have always said that losing the programs and configurations would suck just as bad. this seems to be the backup solution i have always wanted.

hell, let's start a business. can you do this for me on remote access? if this is easy, then i'll fund the company. i'll market it, you get a bunch of geekyboys ready to go.

wooo

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

[ QUOTE ]

And how do you backup 400GB data?

You've 400GB data?
WOW

You know they sell HD where you can go up to x TB?

TIme is going fast, my pocket pc is faster than a Pentium 1. LOL It's 400 Mhz and I think it stinks because it's too slow. I can't image the time when we worked on 233Mhz...

[/ QUOTE ]

My first computer was a 286. It had a text based Oregon Trail game, and Wordperfect 4.0. Text Based Oregon Trail was awesome!

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

[ QUOTE ]
I'm far from an expert and so shouldn't really be making recommendations--but here's my take. I want to back up not only my data, but all the software (shareware, pirated, a tiny bit even purchased) I installed too. if my HD ever fails, I want all my data, all my programs and config--and I want to be able to boot right into that. so what I went after was a bootable clone of my HD. you got your ghost and your acronis and your casper and all that. well most of that makes a back up that you have to extract onto a disk. so you still need some other way to boot, and then you have to do that extraction. most of those products can do clones, ie make an exact working copy of your disk--but in win xp they tend not to be bootable.

there is a solution. the maker of xxcopy, which is an advanced dos based utility made a new product specifically for what I want: XXCLONE. it makes a bootable clone of your win xp HD. all data, programs, and operating system. now, if my HD fails. I pull it out. toss it in the trash and boot from my second HD in the modular laptop bay without missing a beat (and I'll physically switch that one over to the primary HD bay). it's like $40. it specifially makes the clone bootable. and it does incremental back ups. (also, it doesn't clone sector by sector or whatever, it defrags the files.)

[/ QUOTE ]

by far the best way to do it is RAID1. buy a RAID controller, or many motherboards come with a RAID controller installed by default. just put two hard drives of equal size on a RAID 1 array and the two will be mirroring each other constantly. it's super easy to set up and by far the most secure way to backup your data.

p.s. here's an IDE controller: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815104214

and here's an SATA controller: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815104219

both $20 or under shipped.

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Even though the hard drive went bad they can usually reclaim the data stored on it. Of cours ethere is an $85 or so charge for this. Yea, backing up a good idea but in case a person hasn't and they have important data on there they may want to look into reclaiming it.

[/ QUOTE ]

$85? Maybe if its just a corrupt allocation file, mine at work crashed, physically, and it was $1800, after some bargaining. So yeah back up your stuff.

[/ QUOTE ]

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

someone recommends RAID and I don't really know how that works, but apparently it's better. all I'm doing is using the program sold at http://www.xxclone.com/ with a second internal hard drive on my laptop. I think it works equally well with a usb drive, firewire drive, or whatever else. RAID might be even simpler, but I didn't come across or learn about that system on teh way to my current solution.

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

[ QUOTE ]
Can you recommend some decent backup software?

[/ QUOTE ]

I use NTI Backup NOW! Deluxe; I picked it up a couple of years ago, but I like it. I think PC Magazine and/or PC World have done reviews of backup software relatively recently; you might be able to find some back copies at your local library.

-Mike

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Or, if your database is small enough, just burn it to a DVD

[/ QUOTE ]

Now there's the kind of advice I wish I'd paid attention to before I spilled a cup of coffee on my laptop last week.

I'm having a lot of trouble recalling most of the 80,000 hands I had in there. And my pokergrapher. Oh, how I loved it so. I used to gaze adoringly at my graph for hours at a time. Now I'm reduced to spending my time talking to my girlfriend instead.

[/ QUOTE ]

[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

my solution
 

Funny that you mention it Alobar, but my work computer died this week, and I decided to go with a serious backup solution on my (much more important) personal poker computers. My solution will cost about 100 bucks.

1. laptop drive is around 80gb
2. went to buy.com and bought a 120gb external USB drive for 79 after rebate
3. also bought norton ghost 9.0 for 20 bucks--i know norton gets panned, but it was super cheap with the rebate

Hopefully that will be enough for my laptop to make regular, daily backups after I go to sleep. (I also bought a 1gb flash key drive for the hell of it, as I sometimes like to transfer my Pt dB across multiple home computers.)

Re: Do youself a favor and read this post
 

Dude, I've used them several times through work. It's entirely possible that the MBR or "front" of the disk is bad, and that's fairly easy to fix (I've done it on my own).

It's probably 70/30 against being cheap, but for the price of shipping ( < $15) to find out, compared to the few hundred for a new drive (plus lost hours rebuilding), why not?