Backup Scheme for a New Laptop

My neighbor has decided to buy a new laptop. She is new to the idea of
making backups and is not computer literate. What backup scheme do you
think I should set up for her? She will have an external HD.

Thanks.

On 11/07/2016 18:25, Alek wrote:
My neighbor has decided to buy a new laptop. She is new to the idea of
making backups and is not computer literate. What backup scheme do you
think I should set up for her? She will have an external HD.

Thanks.

what applications is she using? If she is using Microsoft Office then
she should start using Microsoft One Drive for her documents. These
documents are safe and can be accessed on any device. Also, if the
machine dies or gets stolen then her documents are still safe on line.
All she needs to do is to change the password for online Microsoft Account.

I mentioned Microsoft OneDrive but there is also Google Drive and that
also works almost identically to Microsoft OneDrive.

If she is sceptic of using Microsoft drives or Google drives then she
should make the habit of saving everything on an external drive. You
could setup her machine to do this by default and tell her to keep her
external drive connected to her machine 24/7.

With email, tell her to use IMAP configuration so that emails are kept
online on ISP's servers. This acts as a backup.

Apart from this I can't think of doing anything. I don't bother with
creating an image of the OS because it is a complete and utter waste of
time. You could create it first time using the free version of Macrium
but don't make a habit of doing it every week or every month. You or
she would be tired of doing it and might even mess everything up.

Good luck.

--
With over 350 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

On Mon, 11 Jul 2016 13:25:26 -0400, Alek
wrote:

My neighbor has decided to buy a new laptop. She is new to the idea of
making backups and is not computer literate. What backup scheme do you
think I should set up for her? She will have an external HD.


The fact that it's a laptop rather than a desktop is largely
irrelevant, except that if she travels with it, it's more likely to
get stolen, so the backup is more likely to be needed..

First of all, almost everyone should be backing up regularly. It is
always possible that a hard drive crash, user error, nearby lightning
strike, virus attack, even theft of the computer, can cause the loss
of everything on your drive. As has often been said, it's not a matter
of whether you will have such a problem, but when.

Essentially you should back up what you can't afford to lose--what you
can't readily recreate. What that is depends on how you use your
computer and what you use it for.

It takes time and effort to backup, but it also takes time and effort
to recreate lost data. If you back up daily, you should never have to
recreate more than one day's worth of lost data. If weekly, there's
potentially a lot more to recreate. You should assess how much pain
and trouble you would have if you lost x days of data, and then choose
a backup frequency that doesn't involve more pain and trouble than
that you would have if you had to recreate what was lost.

Some things (photographs, for instance) can never be recreated, and
more frequent backup may be wanted for them.
At one extreme is the professional user who would likely go out of
business if his data was lost. He probably needs to back up at least
daily. At the other extreme is the kid who doesn't use his computer
except to play games. He probably needs no backup at all, since worst
case he can easily reinstall his games.
Most of us fall somewhere between those extremes, but nobody can tell
you where you fall; you need to determine that for yourself.

Should you back up Windows? Should you back up your applications? Most
people will tell you no, since you can always reinstall these easily
from the original media. But I don't think the answer is so clear-cut.
Many people have substantial time and effort invested in customizing
Windows and configuring their applications to work the way they want
to. Putting all of that back the way it was can be a difficult,
time-consuming effort. Whether you should backup up Windows and
applications depends, once again, on you.

How to backup? What software to use? There are many choices, including
the Windows-supplied backup program. Which choice is best for you
depends at least in part on the answers to some of the questions
above.

Finally what backup media should you choose, and how should it be
stored? There are many choices, including CDs, DVDs, thumb drives,
second hard drives, and online backup services.

I don't recommend backup to a second non-removable hard drive because
it leaves you susceptible to simultaneous loss of the original and
backup to many of the most common dangers: severe power glitches,
nearby lightning strikes, virus attacks, even theft of the computer.

In my view, secure backup needs to be on removable media, and not kept
in the computer. For really secure backup (needed, for example, if the
life of your business depends on your data) you should have multiple
generations of backup, and at least one of those generations should be
stored off-site.

My computer isn't used for business, but my personal backup scheme
uses two identical removable hard drives, I alternate between the two,
and make a complete copy of the primary drive.

I also use a pair of 16GB thumb drives for making more frequent
backups of my most critical data (like financial information). For
that I just drag and drop.

In article , , Alek
says...

My neighbor has decided to buy a new laptop. She is new to the idea of
making backups and is not computer literate. What backup scheme do you
think I should set up for her? She will have an external HD.

Thanks.

Use the Windows 10 backup to take hourly backups (the default) for user
data.

And use the included Windows 7 backup, to do image backups (you choose
the schedule - weekly?)

--
Duncan.

On Mon, 11 Jul 2016 14:28:36 -0400, Wolf K
wrote:

On 2016-07-11 13:43, Ken Blake wrote:
[...]
Some things (photographs, for instance) can never be recreated, and
more frequent backup may be wanted for them.
[...]

Right, which is why we never re-use the cameras' memory cards. That
makes the full memory card the primary back up. I bought a small pile of
cards on sale, so we have enough for the foreseeable future.


That's a great suggestion (if you can get the cards cheaply enough),
and one that I've never thought of before!

What kind of cards did you buy? SD? SDHC? What size? How many did you
buy? How much did you pay for them?

I would want 16B SDHC cards. The cheapest I see them for on Amazon.com
is $5.99 for SanDisk 16GB Class 4 SDHC Memory Card, Frustration-Free
Packaging (SDSDB-016G-AFFP) or $5.96 for Transcend 16GB SDHC Class 10
Flash Memory Card Up to 30MB/s (TS16GSDHC10E). Did you do better than
that price? I'd want about 20 of them (I'm 78 and hoping that I'll
live another 20 years, and one a year should be enough).

That's $100. Do you have a source for a better price?

On Tue, 12 Jul 2016 07:06:26 +1200, Dave Doe wrote:

And use the included Windows 7 backup, to do image backups (you choose
the schedule - weekly?)

Question: Can these images be accessed by a file explorer?

--
s|b

In article , lid, s|b
says...

On Tue, 12 Jul 2016 07:06:26 +1200, Dave Doe wrote:

And use the included Windows 7 backup, to do image backups (you choose
the schedule - weekly?)

Question: Can these images be accessed by a file explorer?

Yep. You can mount the vhd image files. The easy way (there maybe
others) is to right-click Start, go into Disk Management, and then in
the Action menu, Attach VHD. It will create a virtual drive.

--
Duncan.

On 7/11/2016 1:25 PM, Alek wrote:
My neighbor has decided to buy a new laptop. She is new to the idea of
making backups and is not computer literate. What backup scheme do you
think I should set up for her? She will have an external HD.

Thanks.

The easiest back up for Windows 10 is the built in back up program File
History. Control Panel, System Security, File History.

It is quite easy to set up, just click Turn On and specify the drive you
want the back up to be placed. Whenever that drive is connected the
program will copy all new and revised files to the disk. (The back up
disk should be connected periodically, and the computer connected long
enough for the back up to be completed.)

Windows 10 File History will create its own system of folders on the
back up disk. As you add or modify files the new/revised file will be
added to the back up with the date appended to the file name.

You can access the back up using File Explorer as you do any other
folder on a hard drive. As said above the original file will be
present followed with the file with the date appended to the original
file name. Using File Explorer you can scroll through the backups of
the file and select the date of the file you want to open.

I use File History on my desktop and sync my laptop to my desktop with a
third party program. I can easily retrieve all of the revision of all
files on the back up disk.

Keith Nuttle wrote on 7/11/2016 4:19 PM:
On 7/11/2016 1:25 PM, Alek wrote:
My neighbor has decided to buy a new laptop. She is new to the idea of
making backups and is not computer literate. What backup scheme do you
think I should set up for her? She will have an external HD.

Thanks.

The easiest back up for Windows 10 is the built in back up program File
History. Control Panel, System Security, File History.

It is quite easy to set up, just click Turn On and specify the drive you
want the back up to be placed. Whenever that drive is connected the
program will copy all new and revised files to the disk. (The back up
disk should be connected periodically, and the computer connected long
enough for the back up to be completed.)

Windows 10 File History will create its own system of folders on the
back up disk. As you add or modify files the new/revised file will be
added to the back up with the date appended to the file name.

You can access the back up using File Explorer as you do any other
folder on a hard drive. As said above the original file will be
present followed with the file with the date appended to the original
file name. Using File Explorer you can scroll through the backups of
the file and select the date of the file you want to open.

I use File History on my desktop and sync my laptop to my desktop with a
third party program. I can easily retrieve all of the revision of all
files on the back up disk.


Thank you!

On Mon, 11 Jul 2016 19:52:59 -0400, Wolf K
wrote:

On 2016-07-11 15:22, Ken Blake wrote:
On Mon, 11 Jul 2016 14:28:36 -0400, Wolf
wrote:

On 2016-07-11 13:43, Ken Blake wrote:
[...]
Some things (photographs, for instance) can never be recreated, and
more frequent backup may be wanted for them.
[...]

Right, which is why we never re-use the cameras' memory cards. That
makes the full memory card the primary back up. I bought a small pile of
cards on sale, so we have enough for the foreseeable future.

That's a great suggestion (if you can get the cards cheaply enough),
and one that I've never thought of before!

What kind of cards did you buy? SD? SDHC? What size? How many did you
buy? How much did you pay for them?

SDHC 8GB, $6 Canadian each. This size is no longer easily available.
i bought 10.



Amazon has that size. And your price is about the same as what Amazon
wants for the 16GB.

I'll think about doing it.

Ken Blake wrote:
On Mon, 11 Jul 2016 14:28:36 -0400, Wolf K
wrote:

On 2016-07-11 13:43, Ken Blake wrote:
[...]
Some things (photographs, for instance) can never be recreated, and
more frequent backup may be wanted for them.
[...]

Right, which is why we never re-use the cameras' memory cards. That
makes the full memory card the primary back up. I bought a small pile of
cards on sale, so we have enough for the foreseeable future.


That's a great suggestion (if you can get the cards cheaply enough),
and one that I've never thought of before!

What kind of cards did you buy? SD? SDHC? What size? How many did you
buy? How much did you pay for them?

I checked the receipt on mine, and I bought a
32GB Class 10 SD for $37 CDN a few years ago,
and basically never erase it. Just keep shooting
and adding to the SD. I download after shooting,
so nothing is going to get lost.

There are two issues with flash.

1) Write cycles per location. Maybe 3000 times with TLC.
Not a problem in this application.
2) Archival life. In the old days, NOR flash had around
a quoted 10 year charge retention time. There is no
reason for that time constant to be all that much
better today. Today all the flash is NAND flash,
but the physics of a cell remain the same.

On an SSD, (2) can be solved by re-writing the data
occasionally (via the internal triple-core processor).
An SD card does not have that luxury. Powered-up time
is short, the power envelope is not as generous
as on an SSD drive. In a camera application, where
the user never erases a 32GB SD card, chances are
bitrot will get it (somehow), before wear life does.
Don't leave your only copy of a photo on there!
The first picture you shot and stored on the SD
in 2016, could be unreadable in 2026. Because the
SD controller is not going to be re-writing stuff
as a background maintenance routine.

Paul

In message , Alek
writes
My neighbor has decided to buy a new laptop. She is new to the idea of
making backups and is not computer literate. What backup scheme do you
think I should set up for her? She will have an external HD.

She should take your advice, possibly based on what has been written
here. She should be warned about advice from dealers.

Somewhere online I documented my experience recovering a machine for a
friend. Just out of warranty it failed to boot, and standard recovery
procedures didn't work. I got it going but only after about 2 weeks of
solid effort.

She had bought the machine from a "business" department of the main
British computer chain, and they had sold her additional fairly
expensive "fully automated" branded cloud backup. They had never
mentioned taking an image of the whole machine and refused to accept any
responsibility or assistance.
Their cloud backup did cover the obvious basics, but none of the data in
her slightly obscure specialist business programs, for example her
personal accounts, and, of course, none of the actual installed
programs.

Full re-installation from scratch was impossible without serious cost
because the supplier had sold her a machine that was originally Windows
8, re-installed as Windows 7, and neither the recovery partition nor the
inbuilt COA matched the OS.

Maybe Windows 10's registration system would have helped, but the
machine had to match her office systems.

--
Bill

On 11/07/16 18:25, Alek wrote:
My neighbor has decided to buy a new laptop. She is new to the idea of
making backups and is not computer literate. What backup scheme do you
think I should set up for her? She will have an external HD.

Dropbox


--
Adrian C

Adrian Caspersz wrote on 7/12/2016 5:27 AM:
On 11/07/16 18:25, Alek wrote:
My neighbor has decided to buy a new laptop. She is new to the idea of
making backups and is not computer literate. What backup scheme do you
think I should set up for her? She will have an external HD.

Dropbox

Dropbox is not a scheme in itself. :-)

What backup scheme do you
think I should set up for her? She will have an external HD.

I do a complete image after each 'patch Tuesday' and back up data files to
an NAS drive and an external USB drive whenever they are changed. I also
copy the data to a secondary USB drive which gets ejected from the PC after
the backup and stored elsewhere each night.

A complete disk image is a very useful thing to have, because if the Hard
disk fails or gets corrupted it can be up and running in pretty short order,
instead of spending several days getting it back to the state it was in
before the problems.