How to back up laptop before it dies?

[Charles McKinley]

Hi All,

My wife's laptop has a 4 gig hard drive and it is starting to make noise occasionally. The machine is about 5 years old and will be replaced but I need something to get us through until we can afford to replace it. We have about 3 years of pictures on it we really don't want to lose.

What is our best option: external HD, external CD or DVD burner, other?

It is a Gateway Solo 2500, 300 meghertz. It has the original style USB ports.

Thanks for your help.

[Jim Becker]

An external USB Zip drive or CD/DVD burner is a good investment for this, but you'll need to be sure it's backward compatible with USB 1.x...AND that the software will work with whatever OS you are running on it. The ZIP is the safest and a good product for routine important file backup. I use mine several times a week for things like backing up Quicken data files, etc.

[Chuck Wintle]

If you could connect to a network then it would be easy to transfer all important files to another computer. Barring that i would go for a USB memory stick and transfer the files to it and then to another computer

[Charles McKinley]

Thanks Jim,

The OS is Windows 98.

[Jim Becker]

The OS is Windows 98.
I believe you need Win98SE plus drivers for USB capability...but it's been years since I ran that OS.

[Dennis Peacock]

You wife's laptop and all your pictures have been running on "borrowed time" for a long time now. Get you a Parallel External Zip Drive and get that stuff off that drive. If you need those files back AFTER the drive craps out, you will spend some SERIOUS $$$$ to get any of that data back and without guarantee...!!!!!

[Rob Russell]

I bought an external USB hard drive for backing up our laptop. It's an 80 gig drive, so I can backup at least 3 copies of the data on the hard drive (way more than that, actually). I feel the chances of both failing at once are way slim. For fire protection, a burn of important files to CD is adequate for me. The nice thing about the eternal HD, is that it's faster than the other drive types. I create a new directory and simply copy the directories over. When the exernal drive starts to get full, delete old backup directories.

[Dan Mages]

I did the same thing a few days back. I also have a Gateway 2500SE laptop. I just upgraded to a 20 gig hard drive. Do you have a second computer? You could work on networking the two computers together and transfer the files over that way. Another option would be online storage, like Yahoo, if you have only a few options. The final option is a ghosting system. It is available from CDW for around $50. http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=411470.
I also reccomend looking for a hard drive that is 5400 rpm. You will appreciate the extra speed. They start around $90
Best of luck

Dan

[Waymon Campbell]

I believe you need Win98SE plus drivers for USB capability...but it's been years since I ran that OS.

Win95 SR2 was the first Windows OS to support USB, so your OS will be USB capable. If you go with an external USB HD make sure it is USB1 compatible.

[Jim DeLaney]

I use a Maxtor "One Touch" external HD. USB compatible.

Mine is a 160 Gigabyte that I paid about $160 for at Costco, several months ago.

Once you've got the laptop backedup/copied over to it, you can then use it for daily/weekly backups on whatever your 'main' computer is, too.

The 'One Touch' feature is just that - whenever you want to back up your system, just touch the button on the front of the drive. Mine will back up my 15 gigs or so of data in under two minutes. I use it just about every day...

[Charles McKinley]

Thanks Guys!

This is a great community! I think I'll go the external harddrive route. Unfortunately this is our main computer.

Thank again for all the great info.

[Rich Konopka]

I use a Maxtor "One Touch" external HD. USB compatible.

Mine is a 160 Gigabyte that I paid about $160 for at Costco, several months ago.

Once you've got the laptop backedup/copied over to it, you can then use it for daily/weekly backups on whatever your 'main' computer is, too.

The 'One Touch' feature is just that - whenever you want to back up your system, just touch the button on the front of the drive. Mine will back up my 15 gigs or so of data in under two minutes. I use it just about every day...
Jim:

FWIW, I had a Maxtor 1 touch and the drive failed within 6 months. Maxtor acknowledged a problem and replaced it. It didn't leave me feeling comfortable. I ended up losing some data I had archived on it.

[Tim Morton]

You say you are going to go the external HD route...which will run what? $150-$250 bucks? For my money you can get a dell system for $499 including the monitor I think. Just a thought....and its never bad to have 2 computers..of c course if it where me it would be 2 macs!!! :cool: