Hard drives
Sep. 25th, 2012 12:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pacificpikachuThe other day, I was struck with probably justified paranoia that my hard drive will fail and take my invaluable data with it, so I started seeking out solutions.
Mom managed to return the external hard drive that failed on me to Costco (thankfully, because I only used it once, it wasn't like there was anything on it that wasn't still on my internal hard drive), even though it had been about a year since we bought it. Should have done that sooner! Thank you, Costco, for being such an easy corporation to deal with.
I tried Carbonite for a day or two but didn't like that it wanted me to manually add video files to my back-up, and wouldn't back up music unless I purchased the service. Videos, music, and pictures are primarily what comprises my hard drive, so that doesn't work for me! Manually adding all of my videos, even though I can do it a folder at a time? That's too much trouble for me.
I'm trying out CrashPlan and so far I like it, and I might start paying for it. $5 a month would be worth some peace of mind. The only thing is that, with almost 500 GB of stuff, it's going to take it a loooong time to do the initial back-up. I've had it up for the majority of the past few days and it's only finished 13 GB so far. But, it seems like a good service nonetheless if I can get past the transfer speeds.
I'm going to purchase another external hard drive, possibly today, but reading the reviews of these damn things is enough to make my head spin. It seems like the basic rule is: All of them have fairly high failure rates within the first few months, and no matter what you do your hard drive is going to crash sometime. I know that it would crash eventually, I don't expect technology to be eternal because that would just be foolish, but I just want one that would last me a few years. Three years? I'd be totally content with that. That doesn't seem like too much to ask, but hard drives are wonky. Isn't it great that the most vital part of your computer (your data) is stored in what seems to be the most unreliable part?
Oh, and also, it seems like the majority of external hard drives are not at all hardy to being bumped, dropped, or anything like that, and with Tosca around and me being rather clumsy myself, that might make things challenging. I think it would help if I can get one that's not upright, though--upright external hard drives just seem like an accident waiting to happen.
I have another external hard drive from a few years ago that bit the dust, and I need to get that data restored at some point. More importantly, I also have my internal hard drive from my previous laptop and I also need to get that data restored. (On my previous laptop's hard drive, there was nothing actually wrong with the hard drive, the motherboard just shorted out, but then I screwed up a part of the hard drive trying to connect it, derp, so hopefully that didn't invalidate being able to get the data off of it.) I'm just a bit scared of how much it'll cost once I get to doing that, but I would like to have that data.
I've had nothing but annoying experiences with external hard drives, so I'm hoping that my next experience will be a positive one. That said, with what I've been reading, I'm leery.
Please, gods of technology, bring us a fast, reliable, accident-proof way to store tons of data! Preferably sooner rather than later. For now, though, if CrashPlan backs up all my stuff and if I can find a working external hard drive, I'll be fine with that.
I'm thinking it would be a good idea to add a second internal hard drive, too, because I have the space in my laptop, but we'll see. Depends on money and all that.
Mom managed to return the external hard drive that failed on me to Costco (thankfully, because I only used it once, it wasn't like there was anything on it that wasn't still on my internal hard drive), even though it had been about a year since we bought it. Should have done that sooner! Thank you, Costco, for being such an easy corporation to deal with.
I tried Carbonite for a day or two but didn't like that it wanted me to manually add video files to my back-up, and wouldn't back up music unless I purchased the service. Videos, music, and pictures are primarily what comprises my hard drive, so that doesn't work for me! Manually adding all of my videos, even though I can do it a folder at a time? That's too much trouble for me.
I'm trying out CrashPlan and so far I like it, and I might start paying for it. $5 a month would be worth some peace of mind. The only thing is that, with almost 500 GB of stuff, it's going to take it a loooong time to do the initial back-up. I've had it up for the majority of the past few days and it's only finished 13 GB so far. But, it seems like a good service nonetheless if I can get past the transfer speeds.
I'm going to purchase another external hard drive, possibly today, but reading the reviews of these damn things is enough to make my head spin. It seems like the basic rule is: All of them have fairly high failure rates within the first few months, and no matter what you do your hard drive is going to crash sometime. I know that it would crash eventually, I don't expect technology to be eternal because that would just be foolish, but I just want one that would last me a few years. Three years? I'd be totally content with that. That doesn't seem like too much to ask, but hard drives are wonky. Isn't it great that the most vital part of your computer (your data) is stored in what seems to be the most unreliable part?
Oh, and also, it seems like the majority of external hard drives are not at all hardy to being bumped, dropped, or anything like that, and with Tosca around and me being rather clumsy myself, that might make things challenging. I think it would help if I can get one that's not upright, though--upright external hard drives just seem like an accident waiting to happen.
I have another external hard drive from a few years ago that bit the dust, and I need to get that data restored at some point. More importantly, I also have my internal hard drive from my previous laptop and I also need to get that data restored. (On my previous laptop's hard drive, there was nothing actually wrong with the hard drive, the motherboard just shorted out, but then I screwed up a part of the hard drive trying to connect it, derp, so hopefully that didn't invalidate being able to get the data off of it.) I'm just a bit scared of how much it'll cost once I get to doing that, but I would like to have that data.
I've had nothing but annoying experiences with external hard drives, so I'm hoping that my next experience will be a positive one. That said, with what I've been reading, I'm leery.
Please, gods of technology, bring us a fast, reliable, accident-proof way to store tons of data! Preferably sooner rather than later. For now, though, if CrashPlan backs up all my stuff and if I can find a working external hard drive, I'll be fine with that.
I'm thinking it would be a good idea to add a second internal hard drive, too, because I have the space in my laptop, but we'll see. Depends on money and all that.
