Have pix and do not use the cloud and have files on the computer that should be backed up or copied. Sort of a complete computer back up. Do I need to go the a computer store to buy something to do this. Looking for some help to do this and know next to nothing about doing it. Help a brother out plz. Thank you.

How much data do you have?
No, you don't have to buy a program but will need another device aka drive to back up to.

What you probably want is to buy an external hard drive for each of your computers. You have your choice of mechanical HDs or the newer solid state drives. They should be at least twice the capacity of your internal storage drives.

Use your operating system's existing back up program, or a good third party app. Set to automatically back up all your files, including your photos.

If don't have any type of backup at this moment, go buy an external hard drive like one of the below and hook it up to your computers and copy your "picture" and/or documents folders.

This is pretty much the easiest to get started, then going forward, you probably should get another drive to alternate backups and then start using a more formal backup process - using specific backup software.


2Tb Western Digital:
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/w...6513.p?skuId=6406513

8TB Western Digital:
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/w...5302.p?skuId=6425302

When it comes to computer backups: One is None, Two is One, Three is Two.

FWIW, both Microsoft (OneDrive) and Google (Drive) offer free online syncing of docs, pics albeit not a lot of storage but that can be increased for not a lot of money.
That is good for document storage but not good for whole system backup which is better to keep local or on disk.
Microsoft has a built-in program but one I like and have used for a lot of my IT clients that is also free is Veeam Agent for Microsoft and work extremely well.

Ok guys, thank you. This is very helpful. I really appreciate it.

Smschultz not sure. Probably 4-500 pix on each device. Maybe less. Some video as well.

I am not sure on files and data amounts on PC.

This drive posted by IKDR should be plenty from the sound of it and hits the sweet spot for cheap.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/w...6513.p?skuId=6406513

Plug it into the computer. Drag and drop the files to make a copy onto the drive.

Then, for good measure, use the built in Windows backup to create a whole copy of your computer, called an "image".

Now you have two backup copies of your data: a manual collection of loose files that you can access by plugging the drive into any other computers; and, a whole image of your computer in case the whole thing goes tits up. The image is less useful most of the time, but if you have the extra space available on your new drive, it can be handyb on rate occasions.

 
I just bought an external drive case, and select my own 3.5" multi-terabyte drive. I also use a Plugable USB dock that accepts any SATA drive for making my rotating off-site disks, again using 3.5" drives. I have some anti-static hard plastic cases for the off-site drives that go in my safe deposit box, rotated monthly. I also keep a semi-annual backup drive locally. All of the backup drives are bootable.

Id reccomend a good external hard drive. I would not use SSD for long term storage based on what I have read about them. True archiving will need some sort of solid media, like a DVD or Bluray.

For HD, either Lacie you can pick up at Best Buy or Transcend from Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078YGB7DJ

There are good backup programs, Macrium Reflect or Carbon Copy Cloner. I use both at work.

This way it backs up automatically every day on your scheduled, say at night.

If you have multiple computers to backup, get a NAS. An inexpensive Synology DS220j will allow you to use their excellent and free Active Backup for Business. You can do a cold iron restore with this setup from a USB startup flash drive. It could also backup your phones and tablets.

If you gat a model a bit more powerful, like a DS220+, you have even more options, like running a Plex server. This makes it way easy to view all those photos on a tv from anywhere in the world.

I have been using external hard drives for years, without any fancy 'auto-backup' programs. I copy them over manually.

I have a 1TB laptop, and a 1TB backup drive. It's getting full, but is still plenty big for my purposes. Now, I don't even know if they make/sell them smaller than 2TB.

I limit the number of folders on my C Drive to make it easier. ALL my personal stuff is in 5 folders - my stuff, my wife's stuff, pictures, videos, and music/sounds. At least once a month, I go in and back up all 5 of them (depending if I added new files or not).

When I download photos, either off my phone or digital camera, I make sure they are saved in at least two locations before I delete them off the camera. I lost over 100 photos once when I failed to do this. I also duplicate my files on my wife's laptop, and on my spare laptop. So, for any particular file, I should have it stored in at least 4 separate locations.

I also frequently E-mail myself really important files, such as my Master's Thesis I'm working on right now. I don't want to write 20 pages, only to lose it when the one computer I'm working on decides to have an aneurism. . .

It may be overkill, but it's better than underkill.

Believe me, it only takes ONE computer failure where you lose all or at least a LOT of your files to convince you of the usefulness of a backup drive (I know this from personal experience). . .

I use an external hard drive to back up everything.

One additional level of protection, I disconnect that hard drive when backups are complete.

Hackers have a ploy where they encrypt all the files on your system and hold them ransom for the key. Hackers can't cross an air gap so the backup should be fine. You can reinstall windows and restore from the backup drive and tell the hackers to um, get lost.

You can buy external hard drives with 2 terabytes of storage for about $65 from Best Buy, probably less if you shop around. Western Digital or Seagate are the names.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
Ok guys, thank you. This is very helpful. I really appreciate it.

Smschulz not sure. Probably 4-500 pix on each device. Maybe less. Some video as well.

I am not sure on files and data amounts on PC.

That may not be a terribly large amount.
In the short run just get a Flash drive or two.
You don't have to do a backup process ~ just COPY the files on to it.
Highlight the folder they are in and {right-click} > PROPERITES to get the file size.
Then buy the appropriate Flash Drive ~ I imagine a 64 to 128 GB should cover it.
You can also run a backup program to all of this regularly in the background but depending on how volatile the content aka how much you change or add pics and docs then a copy process will work too.

The idea of using solid media (i.e. discs) is a good one. Those are non-volatile, so is a good idea if you're wanting to preserve your photos for future generations. Everything else is technically more vulnerable for really long-term preservation.

But you should still be actively backing up your computers, so adding XHDs is still mandated. Do both, and then you'll have two layers of protection.

You aren't dealing with a particularly large collection of photos, so should be able to get them all on about 10 discs or so. Easy peasy.

If you're going to back up something mission critical, at least put it on a RAID-1 box. It's super easy to set up. Sure, it's more expensive than a few flash drives, but

TerraMaster D2-310 USB Type C External Hard Drive RAID Enclosure USB3.1 and a couple 4TB drives that are designed for backup.

That gives you essentially three copies of your data. 1 on your local hard drive, and 2 copies on the RAID-1 mirror.

Once you set it up it just mounts like any other drive volume. You can drag/drop to it, or set up an rsync job, or whatever backup software you like.

I use a batch file kept on my desktop that uses robocopy commands to back up files to a QNAP NAS - 4 drives, RAID 6. I run it just before powering off for the day.