back yourself up!

[Exene]

Hey guys,
I had a really really close call with my computer: the whole thing crashed and burned, a couple of circuits shorted out, and it had to spend a couple of days under the knife in the repair shop. Fortunately, my hard drive was all right, but I just wanted to remind everyone in Pre-Allo (especially those of us without acceptances yet) to make backup floppies with all your relevant docs on them: wouldn't it suck if you had to reapply next year (knock wood) but couldn't recycle any of the essays you wrote during your first application? Back it up! Now!

-Ex

PS:

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[14931]

thanks exene, my computer just froze and didnt save all the presentations i was working on darn freaking technology

anyway thanks!

 

[Adcadet]

Originally posted by Exene
Hey guys,
I had a really really close call with my computer: the whole thing crashed and burned, a couple of circuits shorted out, and it had to spend a couple of days under the knife in the repair shop. Fortunately, my hard drive was all right, but I just wanted to remind everyone in Pre-Allo (especially those of us without acceptances yet) to make backup floppies with all your relevant docs on them: wouldn't it suck if you had to reapply next year (knock wood) but couldn't recycle any of the essays you wrote during your first application? Back it up! Now!

-Ex

PS:

Backing up data is very very important! Good post. But...

Floppies are perhaps the most unreliable method of data storage currently in use, next to scribbling on the back of your hand. Zip disks are slighly better, but also very prone to failure. Tape is generally very good, but expensive and rare these days. Hard drives are pretty decent. The best, IMO, are CD-Rs, or CD-RWs if you feel the need to update your backed up material often (though CD-RWs are a bit more prone to failure than CD-Rs). Off-site storage is best, though often inconvenient.



I personally like to email important documents to friends with a note for them to simply hang onto them for a while, and ask for them to email me back a confirmation when they get them. That way the data is even stored off-site (assuming you don't email them to your roommate). The only prob is when you need to back up multi-MB files and you run into long upload/download times on dialup, and when your ISP thinks your email messages are too large.

 

[Tweetie_bird]

A while ago, I had made up a yahoo and hotmail email and stored stuff online. That way, I can get access to it whenever I need it and even if I don't have my laptop on me. That's another idea.

My fiance taught me a lot of computers stuff, and he showed me how to use a CD-RW so you can reformat the disc each time you have to back up. that way, you are not wasting hardware, AND, you get to keep a copy of your documents where ever you go.

(all this is assuming you have a CD rewriter)

 

[poloace]

exene-
youz a big fine woman, won't you back that thing up..

 

[DW]

Originally posted by poloace
exene-
youz a big fine woman, won't you back that thing up..

i've been trying so hard not to post this joke

 

[Street Philosopher]

me too

 

[Exene]

YOu know, the only reason I didn't post that joke my damn self is that this the pre-allo forum! Freakin' lounge lizards. For shame, for shame.

 

[14931]

ignore them exene, boys will be boys

 

[Exene]

Originally posted by Adcadet
Backing up data is very very important! Good post. But...

Floppies are perhaps the most unreliable method of data storage currently in use, next to scribbling on the back of your hand. Zip disks are slighly better, but also very prone to failure. Tape is generally very good, but expensive and rare these days. Hard drives are pretty decent. The best, IMO, are CD-Rs, or CD-RWs if you feel the need to update your backed up material often (though CD-RWs are a bit more prone to failure than CD-Rs). Off-site storage is best, though often inconvenient.

I personally like to email important documents to friends with a note for them to simply hang onto them for a while, and ask for them to email me back a confirmation when they get them. That way the data is even stored off-site (assuming you don't email them to your roommate). The only prob is when you need to back up multi-MB files and you run into long upload/download times on dialup, and when your ISP thinks your email messages are too large.

Adcadet, I only wish I wasn't too inept to employ those methods above that I can actually identify. What do you mean by off-site storage? Does that mean a Hotmail/Yahoo account? That's a good idea, but my regular hotmail account can't hold enough all at once (I have to hang on to many emails all semester to refer back to them), and if you make a new account you have to check it every thirty days or you lose everything because they shut down your account.

And, I need some more Type-A friends...if I stored my docs on the email accounts of my current posse, it probably wouldn't be 24 hours before my emails were deleted to make room for more forwarded porn jpegs...

One more thing: what is the problem with floppies?? What makes them fail? It almost makes me sick to my stomach to think about losing my secondary essays from schools where I haven't interviewed yet: what if my floppy disk and hard drive fail for some reason, I get invited to an interview at a school but can't review the essays I wrote on their secondary app and I completely forget I had made up a huge lie on the secondary about how I invented this vaccine for an obscure disease, they ask me about it in the interview, I have no idea what they're talking about (or remember too late), they reject me, and I have to become a Subway Sandwich Artist instead of a doctor? Stupid floppy disks. This is all your fault.

 

[Adcadet]

Originally posted by Exene
Adcadet, I only wish I wasn't too inept to employ those methods above that I can actually identify. What do you mean by off-site storage? Does that mean a Hotmail/Yahoo account? That's a good idea, but my regular hotmail account can't hold enough all at once (I have to hang on to many emails all semester to refer back to them), and if you make a new account you have to check it every thirty days or you lose everything because they shut down your account.

And, I need some more Type-A friends...if I stored my docs on the email accounts of my current posse, it probably wouldn't be 24 hours before my emails were deleted to make room for more forwarded porn jpegs...

One more thing: what is the problem with floppies?? What makes them fail? It almost makes me sick to my stomach to think about losing my secondary essays from schools where I haven't interviewed yet: what if my floppy disk and hard drive fail for some reason, I get invited to an interview at a school but can't review the essays I wrote on their secondary app and I completely forget I had made up a huge lie on the secondary about how I invented this vaccine for an obscure disease, they ask me about it in the interview, I have no idea what they're talking about (or remember too late), they reject me, and I have to become a Subway Sandwich Artist instead of a doctor? Stupid floppy disks. This is all your fault.

Off-site storage is keeping a backup off your normal "site" - so for a business, this would be keeping backup of the records at a different office. Rumor has it that some companies that had offices in both of the World Trade Center towers were sending daily backups to the other office in the other tower. So when I email a copy of an essay to my roommate, that's not really "off-site."

Floppies are unreliable for a number of reasons. They employ no error checking or correcting features like CDs do (well, CDs have error checking only, but I believe they do parity checking and keep multiple FAT tables). Also, the media itself seems to be fairly prone to physical damage.

 

[coredump]

For those of you that are still attending school (undergrad or grad), most institutions give their students ~5-10 MB of disk space with their email accounts. You can easily store (via email, FTP, etc.) your papers on these accounts. I used this to backup just about all my papers throughout college (5MB can hold a lot of papers). You can ask your school's IT Helpdesk for more information about this service.

When I finally did run out, I used by girlfriend's email account - bad idea. After we broke up, she proceeded to delete all of my files.

poloace- that was a hilarious post.

 

[kito]

get a mac

 

[Gleevec]

Originally posted by ankitovich
get a mac

Macs are the WORST computers. I have to use them at work. Not only are they all about looking good and not functioning properly, but their hardware fails more than on PCs and the replacement is much more expensive and difficult due to the horrid design of the iMac casings.

There is no software on the Mac that there isnt a better PC equivalent for, but the opposite doesnt hold true (why do so many Mac users have to buy VirtualPC for almost $400 to run PC software when you can get a solid PC for $600 [sans monitor]). Macs manage memory poorly (until OsX).

The fact is, Windows XP killed the Mac because WinXP doesnt suck like its predecessors did (Windows 2000 was the first good OS MS ever made, before that I was constantly looking for alternatives that werent crash-prone).

So I guess if you are ridiculously rich, dont want functionality but a good looking computer, and want to buy a new computer every time your comp gets messed up or old, definitely get a Mac.

 

[Adcadet]

a great website for discussing computer and storage-related topics is www.storageforum.net. Their forum tends to be pretty good...see here:http://www.storageforum.net/phpBB2/

Tell 'em Adcadet sent ya.

Disclaimer: I helped start StorageForum.net

 

[CD]

I make back up copies AND hard copies. Heaven forbid anything should happen but at the very least I'd have a written copy I could retype.