Had to call in the GEEK squad today!..

[BrianG]

Yeah, I was the Ops Manager at a datacenter for a few years and they used RAID10 for real-time data and then used DAT tapes to store backups off-site. I never liked DAT because you need the hardware to read them, a SCSI adaptor, and the tapes seemed to degrade after about 6 months.

So, I thought I would borrow that method, but address the weak points. I felt external drives work best because they are cheap for the capacity (compared to tape), easily replaceable, and can be read by pretty much anything. Even if the USB part didn't work, I can always disassemble the case and hook up the raw drive. And for things that change frequently, off-site via FTP is the way to go provided the data and the destination is secure.

One important note: If you are running an NT-based OS (Windows 2000, XP, Vista, etc) do NOT encrypt the data prior to backup. Encrypting is pretty secure, but is tied to your login id. If you have a catastrophic failure and need to restore, you will not be able to use/access those files even though you set up an account with the same username. Even though the names are the same, the associated login identifier is different. So, just don't encrypt the files. If security is a concern, encrypt the backup using a password-protected archive tool (WinRAR, WinZIP, etc) and use a strong password: over 10 characters with a mix of letters, numbers, and special characters; don't use dictionary words; and don't use any part of your name, SSN, birthdate, etc.

[rootar]

you guys have me thinking about getting an external hardrive. my poor old laptop (over 7 years) is MAXED out, when i want to use PS CS2 or Sony vegas6 i have to install/uninstall each other because my cp wont run with them both, it doesnt help that i have over 3,000 7mp pictures, and all sorts of programs.... i havent been using virus protection for the last 5 years or so (after the original 2yr program ranout), i dunno how it still works so good, i dont get popups, viruses, still not getting any error with programs and i usually never turn it off (stays on and lit about 18 hours a day)

i dont download crap, and i dont get on any "questionable" sites.....my mom has managed to go through 3 laptops in 6 years

[BrianG]

I think you might be surprised about the virus thing. Not all viruses wipe your harddrive or do other destructive things; some are actually trojans that will let other programs in to track your internet use, or use your computer to help mass-email spam, etc; you never know.

There are free programs out there that offer basic protection, so there is no excuse NOT to use something. I use AVG for antivirus, Zonealarm for firewall, and Spybot/Adaware for spyware.

[rawfuls]

Very great tips...

I use partitions... Since this new computer I just built only has one IDE port.. And I'm too poor to pick up a SATA 500GB HD.

I have a hard drive just based for pictures, movies, and music....
Apparently, that hard drive is going down the drain, so I have to recover the stuff from there.

I've found that instead of using a internal HD, put the internal in this:
http://search.ebay.com/search/search...fsoo%3D2&fgtp=

Unless you want to boot off the internal like you listed.

What you stated are very good tips, might use em myself... Maybe...

I don't physically separate, as I'm just too poor, and lack of ports.

I used D for my programs ONLY... No music, and whatnot, made that mistake quite a long time ago.

You can just delete the C partition, and reload XP onto the C Partition, than the D partition, but you will need to re-install programs, as the registries are changed..

I have a question for Mr. IT Guy

I have a C/D Drive, 120GB that's crashed, I put it in a external enclosure..
When I try to access my desktop files, it says "Access Denied"... What gives? I think it might just be because since I had a password on my C drive, I guess I should just plug it in via internal IDE?

Thanks in advance!

Originally Posted by Gee

This is a bit long winded I tried condensing it a bit, but wanted to try and explain it so even my Grandma that doesn’t use a pc could find it helpful

Here’s a tip to save you some $$, hours of frustration, and more importantly your time. There are many other ways out there to reach the same goal. This is not the way, just an alternative to the machine. It could take me a couple of hours to have my pc exactly where it was after a virus and a reformat. That’s if it took me an half an hour to find a screw driver to take the PC case off. Went to the grocery store for milk and ran one of my RC for 15 minute. Yeah about 2 hour then.

Little background
There are a few reasons a HD fail. One is due to a physical error of the HD itself. Nothing can be done about that. It can and will die just like you and I. There are signs that are it coming. Some start making more noise or you get Read/Write failure errors from it. There is also some scanning software that also checks for physical errors on the hard drive. The more common and potentially destructive is a virus. It attacks the operating system of you PC. As you know, screwing things up, slowing things down or just plain making your PC useless. Some virus can be removed without a lot off problems. Once a reboot is done on you PC the fight is usually over and the virus has won. That only leaves one alternative. Reformat and reinstall. Virus don’t attack data drives. They go after the operating system. Never have I had a virus destroy the data on any data (slave) drive at home or at work. Got over twenty years under the belt providing IT support at my work place. I will deny knowing anything about pcs to anyone and everyone outside of work, which includes friends or family. Some of you know exactly what I mean. Close to having a little hanging over the belt, but that’s a different battle.

How to get around storing anything on you C: drive.
An external HD is nothing more then and internal HD with a case around it. You can find used internal HDs for only a few dollars. Befriend one of the Geeks, he has access to old pc’s with plenty of HD lying around. There are a lot of different HD connectors like the one I have linked at the bottom. These let you plug a HD, CD/DVD, etc into a USB port. Use the HD and adapter to create backups of data or for just some more HD space. You can have as many of these connected as you have available 2.0 USB ports. They use external power so they are not going to create a problem with you internal power supply. Here’s how I use them and my recover process from a crashed or virus infected operation system.

I have HDs that are attached through the USB adapters that have just one reason to be there. To store information and data files that I want to keep. I use a different HD to store different files. This is how I have it setup.

C: Operation system and installed programs
D: DVD/CDROM R/W

E: DVDs, Videos (mpg, avi, etc)
F: Music
G: Pictures, Documents, Spreadsheets, User Manuals, PDF
H: Downloaded or CD Installation files for programs, CD-Keys, etc

I also have HDs that are not attached but I hook up via USB port to backup the data stored on the slave drives above. In case the hard drive should get a physical error on it and die right now with out warning. Takes just one HD for a backup up F: G: and part of H: Don’t need to backup the program installation files that I have already the original cd for.

Get a plan
I have a small 120 GB HD that I took the time and installed it in my PC as the c: drive. I installed XP on it and got it up and running to the point that I had internet access and all the PC hardware devices worked properly. That HD now is setting on a shelf. If my current 120 GB hd with the operating system gets infected to the point that a reformat is the only cure or it just stops working. I have an operation system HD that will get me up and running on the net in maybe the 10 minute it takes to put in into the PC case. That’s 10 minutes if I reattach it with screws, less if it’s just left to dangle from the connectors.

I have a HD (H:) with all the reinstall programs files on it. Copies of the original cds and programs I have downloaded and installed onto the C: drive. I’m from the days when the cd rom (4x) drive was really slow compared to reading from the HD. It doesn’t take long to reinstall any new programs that I didn’t have or installed at the time I built the backup. I just run them all from my H: drive.

All my data is stored on separate drive then the operation system. It takes a couple minutes to plug the infected drive in as a slave through the adapter and make a quick scan to see if there was anything I inadvertently saved to it. After a couple of weeks (in case I need to recover a cd-key or copy right info from an installed program) I format that drive and place the basic XP operating system on it like the one I just put in and it takes it turn waiting on the shelf.

There is nothing to restore, no 750gb of music, DVD movies, avi files, pictures, documents, etc. It takes a lot of time to copy all that stuff back onto a hard drive. Even more intolerable it would be from the hundreds of DVD data CD that would be needed to back all that up. All of my data is still there when I put the other HD in and started up the pc. It comes up and read the connected drives that I have connected as slaves. Outside of work I have never experienced a virus that has attacked anything other then the operating systems hard drive.


There all kinds of these adapter available. One of these and couple used hd for probably less the 60 buck total and you got a plan .
http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-2-0-to-IDE-S...QQcmdZViewItem

There are jumpers on HD that are used to tell the BIOS of the PC and the Hard Drive itself if it is a Slave or A Master. Master is your C: drive, slave is everything else. The CD/DVD connections can also have a Master and slave configuration.

It’s defiantly worth just getting something additional to store everything on. If your PC came with a 650gb hard drive, You should really consider buying a smaller hard drive for cheap. Install it as your c: drive with the operating system. The 650mb hard drive is much better put to use storing all you valuable data.

Again a virus will attack and disable your operating system. In short separate the data you want to keep from your operation system. Physically separate not create two partitions on the same drive.

Have to post this, the more I removed from it to shorten it up the more I add. See there I go again.

[_paralyzed_]

Any suggestions/reccomendations for someone who's thought about getting an IT degree and has a lot of time on their hands? (It's for a friend)

[rawfuls]

Originally Posted by rawfuls

Very great tips...

I use partitions... Since this new computer I just built only has one IDE port.. And I'm too poor to pick up a SATA 500GB HD.

I have a hard drive just based for pictures, movies, and music....
Apparently, that hard drive is going down the drain, so I have to recover the stuff from there.

I've found that instead of using a internal HD, put the internal in this:
http://search.ebay.com/search/search...fsoo%3D2&fgtp=

Unless you want to boot off the internal like you listed.

What you stated are very good tips, might use em myself... Maybe...

I don't physically separate, as I'm just too poor, and lack of ports.

I used D for my programs ONLY... No music, and whatnot, made that mistake quite a long time ago.

You can just delete the C partition, and reload XP onto the C Partition, than the D partition, but you will need to re-install programs, as the registries are changed..

I have a question for Mr. IT Guy

I have a C/D Drive, 120GB that's crashed, I put it in a external enclosure..
When I try to access my desktop files, it says "Access Denied"... What gives? I think it might just be because since I had a password on my C drive, I guess I should just plug it in via internal IDE?

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: I think that jumpers are overrated! No one uses Master/Slave jumpers anymore. All about cable setting

[_paralyzed_]

Originally Posted by _paralyzed_

Any suggestions/reccomendations for someone who's thought about getting an IT degree and has a lot of time on their hands? (It's for a friend)

[BrianG]

Originally Posted by rawfuls

Very great tips...

I use partitions... Since this new computer I just built only has one IDE port.. And I'm too poor to pick up a SATA 500GB HD.

I have a hard drive just based for pictures, movies, and music....
Apparently, that hard drive is going down the drain, so I have to recover the stuff from there.

I've found that instead of using a internal HD, put the internal in this:
http://search.ebay.com/search/search...fsoo%3D2&fgtp=

Unless you want to boot off the internal like you listed.

What you stated are very good tips, might use em myself... Maybe...

I don't physically separate, as I'm just too poor, and lack of ports.

I used D for my programs ONLY... No music, and whatnot, made that mistake quite a long time ago.

You can just delete the C partition, and reload XP onto the C Partition, than the D partition, but you will need to re-install programs, as the registries are changed..

I have a question for Mr. IT Guy

I have a C/D Drive, 120GB that's crashed, I put it in a external enclosure..
When I try to access my desktop files, it says "Access Denied"... What gives? I think it might just be because since I had a password on my C drive, I guess I should just plug it in via internal IDE?

Thanks in advance!

Partitioning really has no use other than organization. If the drive fails, all partitions go with it. And you get no performance boost either since it's the same physical drive.

If you want true redundant/mirrored system, go RAID1 (min of 2 HDD).
If you want high performance, go RAID0 (min of 2 HDD).
If you want both, go RAID 5 (min of 3 HDD) or RAID10 (min of 4 HDD)

Those options need a specific type of controller (either built into the mobo, or an add-in card).

If you want basic redundancy, get another internal drive. Use that as a backup (make a copy of your stuff). The idea is to have multiple copies of the same thing in different places. However, if you get a virus, or a power surge, everything in your computer will be affected. Best/easiest method is to go external HDD to solve both of these issues.

As to your "access denied" issue: Have someone with Administrator priveledges log in, and using NT permissions, change the owner of those files to you (or change it to the Administrator and then grant access to the "Everyone" user group). If that doesn't fix it, then you/someone probably encrypted the drive. Have fun getting your stuff back if that's the case. Most likely, it's a permissions thing. Easy fix.

[BrianG]

Originally Posted by _paralyzed_

Any suggestions/reccomendations for someone who's thought about getting an IT degree and has a lot of time on their hands? (It's for a friend)

The only thing I can say about IT: Tell your friend to be prepared to be always learning. IT is constantly changing and it can be a PITA to keep up with the advances in technology. Any special area; programming, networking, helpdesk, customer service tech, analyst, operations, etc? No matter what, there is a lot of competition out there in any IT field unless you are REALLY REALLY good. Don't expect a 6 figure income otherwise. If your friend wants a more consistent job that will ALWAYS be around, suggest mortitian; there will always be dead people and how to handle that never changes.

[rawfuls]

I only have one user and that's me.
So I should just log in as Administrator? And how would I go about changing the NT permissions?

[_paralyzed_]

Originally Posted by BrianG

The only thing I can say about IT: Tell your friend to be prepared to be always learning. IT is constantly changing and it can be a PITA to keep up with the advances in technology. Any special area; programming, networking, helpdesk, customer service tech, analyst, operations, etc? No matter what, there is a lot of competition out there in any IT field unless you are REALLY REALLY good. Don't expect a 6 figure income otherwise. If your friend wants a more consistent job that will ALWAYS be around, suggest mortitian; there will always be dead people and how to handle that never changes.

easiest to do from a wheelchair and get a 6 figure income? ()

[BrianG]

Well, if you only have one user on that PC, then you are most likely an Administrator. Changing permissions can be tricky, but it's easy once you do it:

> Right-click the folder/file you want to modify, and select "Properties".
> Go to the "Security" tab.
> Make sure your name is listed at the top as one of the names. If not (and you are in fact an administrator), add it (Use "Add" button).
Assuming your name is there:
> Click on that user (to highlight it), and look at the list of permissions at the bottom of the window. Make sure "Full Control" is checked.
> Click "Apply" and see if that worked.

If that doesn't work, go back to the "Security" tab.
> Click the "Advanced" button.
> Click the "Owner" tab.
> Change the owner to your name.
> Click "Ok"
> See if that worked.

If not, or you get any errors, helping you would be beyond what I could do on a forum.

[BrianG]

Originally Posted by _paralyzed_

easiest to do from a wheelchair and get a 6 figure income? ()

Well, the 6 figure income is most likely gonna come from the analyst, programming, etc - the harder/more skilled areas of IT. I had a friend who worked in Operations and was in a wheelchair. Of course, he only made like $14 an hour...

[rawfuls]

There is no Security tab at all...
I guess my only hope would be connecting by IDE...

[BrianG]

What OS are you running?