Backing Things Up and Copying to CD

[Ladyzekke]

My PC is acting slow and funny. I really think the hard drive is going bad. I know very little about computers so not sure what to do, other than copy all my stuff to a CD so if/when the hard drive dies, I've got some backup. Well, my PC is so messed up it refuses to copy anything. I guess my CD copying drive, which I've NEVER used btw LOL, is also messed up. I've got a ton of pictures (recap pics, avatars, sigs, just all kinds of gifs and jpegs I've gathered over the years) that I would rather not lose. I just want to get the dang things on a CD. But I can't seem to do it, I've tried to burn a CD in Media Player, Windows Media, my Kodak (have a digital camera) and even downloaded this Express Burn program, all to no avail - halfway through the burn it errors out. Again my hard drive isn't acting well and is probably the culprit.

So at this point I don't know what to do. I've copied some pics as attachments on my own forum, and tomorrow I'm going to try and see if the PC at my work can burn em (I'll just copy them to the C: drive then try to burn em on a CD). Not sure if that will work or not cause the PC at my work is kinda old.

Then I get to thinking, maybe a backup device would be the best thing. Like, instead of everything copied to a disc (IF I can even get that to a reality), I just have this backup device which contains the same info. Thing is, I am very inexperienced to backup devices. How do they work? I'd definitely want the easiest one to use.

Anyone have any advice on backup systems? An easy one I could figure out and maybe be able to get all my stuff copied to another place apart from my going-bad hard drive?

It's just so very frustrating not being able to copy anything onto a disc! And of course I worry about everything I may lose on my PC if it decides to die. The PC I got a few years ago came with Windows, but no CD! So...like...does that mean if the hard drive goes bad, and I have to get a new one, will I have to then just go ahead and buy Windows because I'll need a disc to install it on the new PC? Would a backup system backup Windows as well?

Gawd I feel so stupid not knowing this information, but I've never had to really save anything on my PC before. Now though I have some things worth keeping and I've never burned a CD in my life LOL. But I know how to now after trying over and over again so many times, and with so many programs. MY hard drive just can't function regarding burning I guess. My D: drive is probably screwed. Ha. Funny cause I've never used it before! So it's not dead from overuse that's for sure.

Any ideas would be welcome as to what I should do. I've go almost 2,000 pics I'd like to save somewhere...somewhere apart from my bad hard drive.

This sucks cause the timing is so bad. I just had to pay almost 900 bucks on a stupid car part cause my car was randomly cutting off while I was driving! Ignition coils are expensive I learned. It's like, my car's going down, my PC's going down, my 82 year old boss isn't feeling well and been off for a week now... No doubt when it rains it pours. And truly I'm at my wits end now because of all of it all together going bad. Sheesh, Serenity Now!

[T-D-C]

get yourself a portable HDD, I have a 300GB Maxtor one, just plug it into the USB Port and Boom it should work. Then just copy all your data across.

[Bungleau]

I'll second what TDC said. You can get an external hard drive pretty cheap... Tigerdirect has a 500GB Western Digital drive for $150, and an 80GB WD drive for $90. I'd go with the larger one (if your car left you any money!), since you'll be able to use it much further into the future.

You can also go the low-rent way Get a thumb drive and transfer the data in smaller increments. You can get a 1 or 2GB thumb drive from Tigerdirect for less than $20. Larger ones are around $35-50, and if you're there, you might as well get the 80GB WD drive.

[Ladyzekke]

Maxtor, Tigerdirect...thanks TDC and Bungleau! I'll be looking out for them and need to know brand names and such. Guess I'll try BestBuy first. I like the idea of just plugging it in and it's good to go, cause I'm dumb LOL. Bungleau, is the Tigerdirect the same way re plug and go? Oh, and again, would this also copy my version of Windows that came with the PC (Sony Vaio)?

[Bungleau]

Sorry, LadyZ... "Tigerdirect" is tigerdirect.com, a web-based seller of computer and technical stuff. I generally get very fast shipping from them, and their prices are reasonable. Usually more reasonable than Best Buy or any other retailer.

If you want to back up the whole thing, you'll also need a copy of Norton Ghost (right, TDC? ). It's the best way I've found to back up entire hard drives, including the OS.

The only "downside" is that you'll need to install ghost on hard drive 1 to make an image of hard drive 2 to hard drive 3. To restore, connect to hard drive 4, run Ghost from hard drive 1, and tell it to put the image from HD 3 onto HD4.

This means HD1 has to have Windows on it. If you're replacing HD1 with HD4, you will need a copy of Windows on HD4 (the new HD1).

Confusing? Then let's not talk about the partitions...

[T-D-C]

Norton Ghost or Norton Save & restore, Both will do it for you.

But if your HDD is acting up then I would grab the HDD. Backup what you can first (documents photo's etc) then try and do the image of the OS.

I think the Maxtor drives come with some type of imaging solution but I've never used it.

[robertthebard]

The Western Digital drives come with a little program that will copy the full harddrive over to the new one. At least the internal ones do. I've saved a system load of stuff that way before. The problem is, if it's some kind of adware/spyware causing the problem, it gets copied too. It's a bit time consuming, copying an 80 gig harddrive took about 6 hours, but it had 79.99 gig of stuff on it.

[Ilander]

Depending on how much space you need, www.mozy.com backs up 2 GB for free, and gives you unlimited backups for $5 per month. I presume the computer is the one you're browsing IW with, LZ? If so, you can use it.

Hope I'm not too late.
https://mozy.com/registration/free

EDIT: makes me feel a little like a salesperson with those links :S I'm trying this out, soon, so I'll let you know how it turns out for me. Might still be better off with that external hard drive.

EDIT 2: Oh, flash drives are cheap these days, too, and non-volatile (can't be easily erased). If you picked up a few of the cheap 1-2Gb versions, that might be enough for you.

[Ladyzekke]

Yeah Bungleau? Nevermind! Sounds complicated and out of my brain zone

Thanks TDC, I may check that out, although I have Zone Alarm, so not sure if that would conflict with a Norton product?

Ilander, your Mozy sounds good! I may check it out if all ends up that way, there is just no tellin what my PC will do, how it will continue to mess up, etc. in it's own unique way. yee haw! :p

Maybe just another hard drive is the best choice if all else fails.

Until then, I'm continuing to just copy all my gifs and jpegs to a disc at work, since the old ass PC at my work can copy things to a disc.

You know, when going to places like Best Buy and all that, lately? You don't see any Sony computers anymore. At least in my area. Ha. I'm starting to guess why. Blah!!

I'll continue to post here and let yall know the progress of my ongoing PC saga. I managed to copy 100 or so pics from my home PC and post them on my forum, so tomorrow, at work, I can snag them and stick em on a CD. It's the only way I can attempt to save things right now given my situation. I can't really afford to spend a lot right now. My car may or may not be truly fixed.

It's crazy yo!

[T-D-C]

Just FYI thos products will work fine with Zonealarm.