External Hard Drives

[dramaw]

Does anyone use an external hard drive to back up their designs...Do you think it's necessary to do that...

What about CD's ...would you back up to those also if you have the external?

[LizzieMaxine]

I keep all my designs and accounting files on an external hard drive. And as a backup to that I am planning to use a online backup service.

Putting designs on a CD/DVD will work but there are so many things that can go wrong with a CD/DVD and you won't know it until you need those designs and you can't access them. I learned recently that if you write on them with a marker pen it can corrupt your data. Always use a printed label on the container or, if your computer does this, use the printing option for your CD/DVD writing program.

[Deedles]

.... I learned recently that if you write on them with a marker pen it can corrupt your data. Always use a printed label on the container or, if your computer does this, use the printing option for your CD/DVD writing program.

Lizzie....can you elaborate on this? I've always been told it was perfectly safe to use permanent pens, like a Sharpie, to write on CD/DVD's.

[momma4anna]

I learned recently that if you write on them with a marker pen it can corrupt your data. Always use a printed label on the container or, if your computer does this, use the printing option for your CD/DVD writing program.

I heard that also, but from what I understand Sharpie markers are safe to use. I have one of those hand held label makers from Office Depot that I can slap a quick label on after I download a CD. Works really well and the label tape cartaridge works really well.

[Mabel]

I really need to back stuff up more often - I am always saying I will, and then never *doing* it.

[kurthco]

I have a jukebox external hard drive that is 20 Gig. I've had it for a while and I know now you can get like 500gig pretty cheap. Mine is the size of a tapeplayer walkman. Its nice to have a smaller one just in case you want to travel with your machine.
CD's are a good idea too. Just have to label them well enough so they don't get forgotten about.
I have 2 copies of each design cd just in case they get stepped on or something.

[fun2sew]

I keep all my pictures and Embroidery designs on my External Drive

[LizzieMaxine]

Lizzie....can you elaborate on this? I've always been told it was perfectly safe to use permanent pens, like a Sharpie, to write on CD/DVD's.


I heard about the permanent marker issues on another forum but didn't think about it again until my hubby opened a DVD of his fishing trip to Costa Rico and had problems. It had been a few months since he had last viewed the pictures on that DVD but the last time he had opened it everything was fine now all the pictures are gone. He had written on the DVD with a Sharpie. Fortunately the pictures were on the hard drive of his computer and backed up to my external hard drive.

About a month ago I was working on the picture roster for an organization I belong to. I needed to look at a CD with a previous version of the roster. There was a problem - nothing showed on the CD - it had been written on with a Sharpie.

[Yeffie]

I use cd's to back mine up, but I should probably put them on the server too, just to be safe.

[peachy3]

I have asked for an external hard drive for Christmas, just for backing up my files.

P3

[StitchinGrandma]

I was using an external hard drive myself for the past year and I also burn to DVD's since my designs and other sewing stuff outgrew CD's a long time ago. Yes, if you want to be doubly sure you aren't going to lose stuff, back up to the external and burn DVD's. Our server is back up and running now so that's my initial backup I do quite often. External hard drives fail the same as the one in your own computer. They are the exact same thing just that one is in a case by itself and the other inside your computer, otherwise they are identical and the same product.

As far as markers on CD's and DVD's ~ that's totally false. That is not going to hurt the quality of your cd/dvd at all. People have been burning music cd's for years and writing on them with markers and never had any problems. That's just one of those rumors that someone starts just to see how fast and how far it will go once they put it out on the internet. You're better off in fact, using a marker than a sticky label. If you aren't very careful with the labels they can pull up on a part of the label and stick to stuff inside your drive. My husband before the job he has now was a repair tech and all his cd's he has to do repairs have had marker written on them and he's never had a problem. Some of those are still useable for the older computers he repairs for people still that can't afford to upgrade and they are still working even though they are up to 10 yrs old.

Another thing you might want to think about doing and any insurance company will tell you to do this. Make a good backup on a cd/dvd and then store it away from your home. Replace that backup every once in awhile to keep it somewhat current. Why? If the worst happens and you have a fire or any other disaster in your home it won't matter where you've saved your backups at home because the chances are fairly good that the external drive, server, and any cd's and dvd's you have saved/burned backups to is going to be ruined. Having them off site will at least get you back up and running as of the date of that last backup which is better than nothing.

[peachy3]

I had thought of the storing one at another place. I made backups of all my personal files, including designs, photos of my kids and any other "important" things and have my mother store them in her safe at her home. That way, if the unthinkable ever does happen, I at least have some of them.

P3

[Bellathreadz]

Hi,
I back up mine and a flash drive. Has anyone had any problems using those?
Right now I can't afford a portable hard drive, so the flash (or thumb drive) I think is the next best thing.
Diane
Bellathreadz Embroidery

[Crafty Connie]

I was told to buy jimp drives to save my designs on. How many designs can fit onto a Jump Drive? Do I buy 2 or 20? I know some designs take up more memory than others, but in a ballpark range, how many? 30? 100?

[peachy3]

I sometimes use the jump/thumb drives to hold them for a while. The number of them you need will depend on what size drive you buy and how many designs you have. I have several 512 mb ones, 2-1 gig and 1-2gig. None of them will hold all my designs.

Plus, they are great for carrying designs with you or something like that, but they break easily. If you drop one, it is pretty much a gonner.

I think that every kind of storage/backup system has it's pluses and minuses. You just have to find what works best for you and use it regularly.

P3

[StitchinGrandma]

Plus, they are great for carrying designs with you or something like that, but they break easily. If you drop one, it is pretty much a gonner.

I think that every kind of storage/backup system has it's pluses and minuses. You just have to find what works best for you and use it regularly.

P3
That's the reason I would never use those to store my designs to be sure I don't lose them in a crash. There's a lot of possibility also in using those of losing them very easily because they are so small.

[brbtyler]

Thank you for the suggestions on protecting downloaded designs. The external back up is exactly what I should do.

[kidzbizz]

Thank you for the suggestions on protecting downloaded designs. The external back up is exactly what I should do.

Even if you use an external drive, back them up on CD's or dvd's. External hard drives can crash too.

Judie

[Cynelle]

Even if you use an external drive, back them up on CD's or dvd's. External hard drives can crash too.

Judie

Back up on both and just to play it safe make 2-3 copies on CD/DVD's. I personally have had (at separate times) main computer hard drive crash, external backup drive crash and with the help of kiddos - CD's destroyed by accident ( they got taken out while my son was looking for a game, ended up getting knocked over and either stepped on or sat on). So in otherwords prepare for the worst.

On a side note there are ways to recover data from a crashed hard drive even if the warranty guy says it can't be done. I was able to hire a guy off craigslist to retrieve the data off my computer - although you will lose your complete file structure. Not all files can be retrieved either but some is better then none.

Another thing to try to watch for is making sure your files stay organized however you have them when you backup. I had saved my files on CD in a big mess, then within hours of finally getting all of my embroidery designs filed perfectly the hard drive crashed and it was all gone.

:) So having the files on 2 hard drives plus CD's/DVD's (plus a set in fire safe) will protect you from losing everything. It might be overkill but I've had almost everything happen including a house fire. :p

[smokey]

You can buy them that are 8 gigs in size now and that will hold a huge pile of designs! I have thousands on my hard drive and I've only used 3 gigs. I just purchased one of the 8 gig sticks and I plan to download all my designs to that and use it for another backup. I also have a full set of designs off site to protect them. smokey

[Shanda]

I do keep mine on an external hard drive too. I never thought about putting them on a seperate one outside of the home though. Thanks for the advice StitchinGrandma. That is really a very safe idea.

Shanda

[StitchinGrandma]

I do keep mine on an external hard drive too. I never thought about putting them on a seperate one outside of the home though. Thanks for the advice StitchinGrandma. That is really a very safe idea.

Shanda

You're welcome. Also, don't forget an external hard drive is nothing more than exactly what is inside your computer but in a hard case rather than in your CPU. They fail just as any other drive can so you should always burn a DVD or CD with your designs just to be sure.