System backup

[Pat-inCO]

It has been quite a while since I reminded everyone about system backups.

I had a situation back about fifteen years ago when I was with Earthlink, running
winderz. They "had" to do some maintenance on my system, that required me to
have my firewall down, for them to accomplish it. I was not happy, but took my
firewall down for them to do their work. - - - Long story short, I lost a significant
amount of data, AND it took over two full days to get most of what went away, back.

After that, and for the next ten years, I did VERY regular full system backups.
For any of you running winderz, I FIRMLY recommend backups at regular intervals.

I have been running Linux for almost fourteen years now and still do NOT run a
firewall. (knock on my wooden head) I have had zero problems. YMMV!

For EVERYONE running winderz, PLEASE do regular backups.
The volatility of your data will dictate the frequency (low volume with little change,
six months. High volume, critical data = at least once per month)

The latest data I've seen says that over 97% of virus' attack winderz machines.
My guess would be over 99% go after winderz.

Your machine,
your data,
your choice. :wink:

 

[Kevin]

I believe you and yes backups are important. I'm sure you are right about the 97% Virus rate attacking Windows based computer systems. Largely because there are more of them than Linux or Apple OS. Isn't Apple OS just a form of Linux anyway?

I like the external hard drives for backups. Then when I'm not backing something up I can physically remove them from the computer. I'm also a fan of cloud storage. I know that isn't very popular with non computer people, but I like the cloud storage because if God forbid my house burns down, I won't lose anything. Plus, I can access my data from multiple devices.

 

[Pat-inCO]

Plus, I can access my data from multiple devices.

As can hackers.

Although Linux is not as user-friendly as the popular Microsoft Windows
and Mac OS operating systems, it is an efficient and reliable system that rarely
crashes. Combined with Apache, an open-source Web server, Linux accounts for
most of the servers used on the Internet. Because it is open-source, and thus
modifiable for different uses, Linux is popular for systems as diverse as cellular
telephones and supercomputers. Android, Google’s operating system for mobile
devices, has at its core a modified Linux kernel, and Chrome OS, Google’s
operating system that uses the Chrome browser, is also Linux-based. The addition
of user-friendly desktop environments, office suites, Web browsers, and even
games helped to increase Linux’s popularity and make it more suitable for home
and office desktops. New distributions (packages of Linux software) have been
created since the 1990s. Some of the more well-known distributions include
MX Linux, Manjaro, Linux Mint, and Ubuntu.

 

[gramps]

I am retired, nothing on my computer is that worthwhile anymore. I use it maybe every 3-6 months. Trying to use it to watch my trail cam videos. So far it has taken 2days to sort through the updating! And still going!!! Sheesh!!!
gramps

 

[Pat-inCO]

So far it has taken 2days to sort through the updating!
And still going!!!
Sheesh!!!

That's one of the items with Linux: Updates.
They are sometimes daily, but most often once per week, to once every
two or three weeks. The good part about that is the . . . LARGE . . . updates take
five to ten minutes from start to completion. The smaller ones can finish in a tad
over one minute.

One feature of the updates is you can turn on "Detail" and watch what is going on
(understand it or not), much like the older main-frames had "blinking lights". :wink:

 

[WendyZXZ]

Us using Macs we do the Time Machine backup each week as well as saving the most important documents with multiple saves on other external drives and we have also set up bootable external drives that get recreated a few times a year which have come in handy a time or two over the years. Just plus it in and during the booting of the PC go into recovery and direct the external drive as the boot drive and up it comes and words just like the internal hard drive and we test them randomly.

 

[Pat-inCO]

... we test them randomly.

 

[Pat-inCO]

Speaking of backups . . . . and "upgrades to win11":

For those of you that are into Ham Radio and get QST, Page 47 of the Dec,2021
issue details a "few" gotchas for Win 11.
1) If the motherboard on your computer was manufactured before 2016 there is a
good(?) chance you will not be able to install 11.
2) If you ARE able to install 11, you may NOT be able to convert to Linux, or any
other non winderz operating system.

Turns out that 11 REQUIRES a little thing known as TPM (Trusted Platform Module)
that restricts which software is allowed to be installed on your computer. With it you
can install 11 without it, you can not.

That means that those with computers more than about five years old are "stuck"
with what ever you have now. 8)

Ain't winderz fun? :roll:


P.S. TPM is yet another "finger in the dike" to stop the ongoing security problems
with winderz.

 

[blammer]

My response to previous posts:

Yes. Regular backups: at least your personal files, making sure you make a Rescue Disk for operating system. It is also a good idea to keep a few versions of the backups in case one version gets corrupted somehow. Windows backup will do this for you.

Like any insurance, you'll have to pay to get it and get it before you need it. If you don't pay for backup insurance by investing money for extra backup hardware and taking time to do it, when something corrupts your drive you'll be starting from scratch.

If you don't think you need a backup, take this test. Can you do everything you want to do only using a browser and an email client? If not, then you are probably using files siting on your machine. Even if you pass that test, if you lose your hard drive and restore the operating system from scratch, you will lose any personal preference settings, cookies, email server credentials. You might not even know these things are there, making your life easier.

Regular, scheduled backups are not written too often and rarely read. Normally the speed of the backup is not a huge factor, so you can use a larger, cheaper spinning hard drive instead of a Solid State Drive as the backup drive.

Windows 10 has an automatic scheduled backup feature to do your files. Can use any mounted drive for backups, but works most automatically and a little safer if backup is to a physical drive separate from the hard drive Windows is on. If you can't have a permanent hard drive (like laptops), use a USB-attached drive. You can use the Windows Rescue to get back Windows to a reformatted drive if needed then put back your personal/saved files.

Wife has a MAC laptop and uses time machine to a USB-enclosed external hard drive. Really nice because all she has to do is plug in the external USB and backup happens automatically. Not sure if windows can be set up to do that.

Yes to backing up to detached hard drives that you can store unconnected to power or internet someplace as far from its computer as you can. You can get pretty inexpensive USB enclosures to house them and plug them in to computer when it is time to back up. Get fastest interface you can USB 3.0: not sure what MAC version of their firewire would be.

If you do backup to permanently mounted hard drive, you should probably copy at least one backup version to an external device every once in a while in case the permanent hard drive gets corrupted.

Yes to storing the detached hard drive somewhere safe and unconnected to a computer. I stick mine in a small fireproof safe.

Linux is great as it is free and fast and at least the operating system is less likely to get hacked. It's not usually a target of hackers because it's on a smaller number of user machines. Not sure about files outside the OS or ransomware attack chances.

If you are really paranoid about computer recoverability, then at least occasionally (like twice a year or more) do a full disk bit-by-bit backup. You will need to have backup disk space at least as large as the drive you are backing up, though some compression may be done.

There are probably still Windows full-drive backups available, most for purchase IIRC. But if you want something for free, then try open-source Clonezilla. It's pretty 'geeky' and takes some study in Linux drive naming convention (/dev/sdx format) and some study on Clonezilla but it's free and fairly fast.