External hard drive

[grumpy]

I have recently purchased a Seagate external hard drive (EHD) for back up purposes. I have noted a number of opinions

from both forum members and from surfing the web on how best to operate these devices. Apparently you can operate

the device both manually i.e. drag and drop or just let the device do it's own thing and back up automatically. At the moment

the EHD is turned off because I am not sure which way to go, even though my inclination is to let it work automatically.

Can anyone please fill me in on which is the best way to go and why.

[Anne in Carlisle]

I have an external hard disc for backup purposes. Because I am a control freak (!!!) I like to do the backups manually so I know exactly what's going on.

I plug the hard disc USB into the computer and have its window on the right. I have the My Documents window on the left and I just drag and drop onto the hard disc. I have a folder with a date on there for each backup I do. I delete the backup from about 4 times ago each time I do a new one. I do it about once a month. In the meantime I use a USB memory stick for the documents I am working on, backing up every day.

Also about 2 or 3 times a year I put my most important things onto a DVD and take them to my son's house in Yorkshire .... in case our house burns down or something!

I am well aware that I could set the hard disc up to automatically back up! I just prefer this way.

Anne

[Margaret N]

Nudge - To keep information with my threads.

[Elaine ..Spain]

I do a bit of both. I execute the back ups manually but use a program to actually do them, so I don't have to drag and drop.

The program I use is SyncToy, a freebie download.
Basically what it does is that you set up a series of matching folders on your PC and external hard drive, e.g.

My Documents (computer) --> My Documents (external hard drive)
My Photos (computer) --> My Photos (external hard drive)
My family tree website backup (computer) --> My family tree website backup (external hard drive)

etc.. as many as you want - so in effect you can divide your data pairs up to suit whatever you have on your computer. I have a separate section for charity work that I do, as well as another website that I administer.

You then have three options to choose from - your back up can either copy exactly what you have on your computer over to the matching folder on the EHD, or you can just update the folder on the EHD with anything new you have done on the computer - and the other option I can't quite remember!!!!

I choose the update option. So when I want to do a back up I tell SyncToy which of my folder pairs I want to back up, you can choose one or all, or any number in between! So for example, if I know I haven't added any new photos to the My Photos folder on my computer, then I don't bother selecting that one for backup. I then leave it to run, so I don't have to physically sit there doing a drag and drop.

Every month OH and I swap external hard drives and do a back up on each other's .. then swap them back again - so that if one external hard drive fails we still have another backup on the other, albeit anything up to a month old!

It sounds complicated but it really is very easy once you have set it up ... and it's free!

[grumpy]

Elaine,
Looks like a good idea, so far I just let memo do all the hard work, but I am not

sure whether this is the right approach. Have printed out your reply and will see how it

goes further down the track.