bloody computer

[shrek48]

bought a new laptop (not a cheap one) to avoid any loss of work especially degree stuff
yep u guessed it windows 7 would not let me log on
tried everything in the end had to ask packard bell and i had to re configure and start again. all the stuff from last week about 15 hours work (not backed up yet ) gone. was going to buy an external hard drive this weekend now really need to now way behind with degree work and lost all my contacts and sites
one big bugger from me oh and bugger and bugger. there feel better for that

ps any suggestions for a good external hard drive please let me no about £50 please.x.x

[les_taxi]

Back up,back up,back up.
A small flash drive from asda would have worked,or you could have burnt to cd.
Shrek we could maybe have helped you on here to get back into pc,always worth a shot as there are a lot of knowledgeable pc guys on here (inc me)
The tech guys can't be arsed and would prob just get you to format or restore to previous settings.
Lots of £50 ext hard drives available as long as well know brand you won't go far wrong.

[JimOttley]

I hope you didn't get caught out by something simple like NumLock being on :(

Caps Lock gets reported when you are trying to sign in but if numlock is on your keyboard is not entering what you think into the password field.

If everything else was working ok then there is no reason for it to stop you logging in suddenly.

As Les says you should have asked here, there are many professional IT folks on here!

[joebloggs]

bought a new laptop (not a cheap one) to avoid any loss of work especially degree stuff
yep u guessed it windows 7 would not let me log on
tried everything in the end had to ask packard bell and i had to re configure and start again. all the stuff from last week about 15 hours work (not backed up yet ) gone. was going to buy an external hard drive this weekend now really need to now way behind with degree work and lost all my contacts and sites
one big bugger from me oh and bugger and bugger. there feel better for that

ps any suggestions for a good external hard drive please let me no about £50 please.x.x

did you wipe the drive b4 you reinstalled win7 ? or just reinstall, have you searched for your files ?

you could have used something like hirens boot cd and reset the password or got access to your hard disk and copied your files off

a double ash

[les_taxi]

We all make mistakes,I remember someone asking where "press any key to continue was"!!!,Someone asked if they could download some hardware

I guess it was going to pop out of his cd drive like magic

[joebloggs]

We all make mistakes,I remember someone asking where "press any key to continue was"!!!,Someone asked if they could download some hardware

I guess it was going to pop out of his cd drive like magic

true les, but having a simple boot cd and a bit of knowledge or even a friend could have saved his 15hrs of uni work

[Dedworth]

Bad news but I suppose Shrek didn't have the advantage of a comp to contact the experts here. I think I'm soon going to buy an external HD but I make sure my critical stuff is both mirrored on another comp and/or backed up almost daily onto DVD or usb stick

[KeithD]

One of these would be good enough http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/32GB-USB-Pen-D...item3361bda2f0

[les_taxi]

If it's mainly docs a 4gb would do.
Oh and always use the safely remove hardware icon, i have messed up a couple of flash drives by just pullin em out when i thought they were ok

[Englishman2010]

One way of ensuring that documents and spreadsheets are always backed up is to do them in Google Documents (if you have a gmail account). The advantage of this is that it's a web based application and the data is held on Google's servers, so you will always have a permanent back up even if your computer completely fails. It also backs up the document every time you change it and allows you to roll it back to a previously stored version.

[Notavirusalso]

Ash mate,,... you have my No. should have called so remember that next time that's what we are here for

[Englishman2010]

The other preventative measure I would consider is Drop Box www.dropbox.com I haven't used it myself yet, but my IT guy at work is always on about it. I believe it is another web based application that automatically backs up (via the web) any files you are working on

[somebody]

The other preventative measure I would consider is Drop Box www.dropbox.com I haven't used it myself yet, but my IT guy at work is always on about it. I believe it is another web based application that automatically backs up (via the web) any files you are working on

Just user friendly Cloud Storage another name is Evernote which is handy for small file and syncing on multiple devices and stored in the Cloud.

Have several backups, plenty people have backed up to a HDD which sits next to the PC and gets shoved about etc. Ie just as likely to get damaged as the PC and if a flood or a Fire if in the same place most likely both toast.

Worth if a large amount of data especially text is compressed if something like text files will compress dramtically and often be much easier to back up of course make sure its compressed in a format that is easy to uncompress in the future

[JimOttley]

Another option Windows Live Essentials, Live Mesh http://explore.live.com/windows-live-mesh?os=other

It includes 5GB online sync storage for free.

[Dedworth]

Thanks above posters re Google Docs, Dropbox, Evernote (got it on my Blackberry Phone), Win Live - I'll explore these as sounds like a good free failsafe measure

[JimOttley]

Always remember that sync solutions are not complete backup solutions.

They protect against a local machine failure or theft of a laptop for example but if something wipes the contents of a file then the wiping of the file will be copied from the machine to the cloud sync storage.

Of course the other problem is that a unsecured laptop using a sync solution is vulnerable to a thief deleting your files before you realise that your laptop has been stolen.

Really important files should be properly backed up and services like Cryptoheaven provide a good secure solution for this http://www.cryptoheaven.com only problem with them is that if you lose your password even they can't get your data back

[shrek48]

hi all many thanks and yes i should of asked here first. my drop box was full and i have ordered a new external hard drive, one that down loads from my wi fi 1tgb ! but not here in time. thankfully i have saved my previous stuff in drop box and have now got that back. think we should go back to slate and chalk

[Arthur Little]

think we should go back to slate and chalk

... not such a bad idea ... more reliable in many ways!!!

[somebody]

Always remember that sync solutions are not complete backup solutions.

They protect against a local machine failure or theft of a laptop for example but if something wipes the contents of a file then the wiping of the file will be copied from the machine to the cloud sync storage.

Of course the other problem is that a unsecured laptop using a sync solution is vulnerable to a thief deleting your files before you realise that your laptop has been stolen.

Really important files should be properly backed up and services like Cryptoheaven provide a good secure solution for this http://www.cryptoheaven.com only problem with them is that if you lose your password even they can't get your data back

Thats a good point and why i prefer to switch off Sync and manually sync when i wish to rather than all the time.


As you say make sure there is a https involved when your loging in and data is being transferred.

Of course one way of syncing is to simply use 7zip or another free compression service many of which can encrypt and password protect the file s as well and say gmail. Simply email them to your self for indivudal smaller files its a cheap and cost effective way of keeping them somewhere with gmail you get 7 gigs plus of storage..

Be careful some services like ovi and others have ceased to work with realtively short amount of warning time and fanfare. Could be a big issue if you upload and simply forget to keep an eye on the account but need the data..

Apart from your interweb connection being up the creak or lack of device capable of browsing dont forget services can go off line sometimes for long periods even the big boys like google it has happened to..

Another point if you do archive data make sure you label and index it well. Like many on here i have loads of Cd/dvds.floppies/usb pens and drives all with stacks of data but some of the older ones i struggle to remeber what i saved on them


Dont forget to make sure the data is in a format which is likely to be readable in 5-10 years plus look how so many formats regularly used are now very hard to get hold of readers or the software to read correctly..


Seen so many reports where companies have massive difficulties gaining access to archives from the last 30 years or so (when ever they went electronic) but can where paper or microfiche still read from further back

[purple]

The other preventative measure I would consider is Drop Box www.dropbox.com I haven't used it myself yet, but my IT guy at work is always on about it. I believe it is another web based application that automatically backs up (via the web) any files you are working on

I use dropbox... its wonderful. Everything is backed up, specially if you have a different computer. Everything is there already I love dropbox.