# External hard drives?



## Patriot (May 20, 2012)

Which external hard drives do you use to store your pictures? My WD passport just dies on me so I lost all of my pictures. The drive is running but it isnt sending a signal to the computer. I would like to get something more trust worthy.


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## borisnikon (May 21, 2012)

All hard drives can fail, make sure you buy two and make a backup!!


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## ZapoTeX (May 21, 2012)

WDs are good, but like every HD in the World, they are not perfect.

Btw: not all hopes are lost. If the magnetic storage is not physically damaged, I believe you can recover your data for few bucks (like 50 or so). No signal might mean that just the tiny & cheap circuits between the magnetic storage and the USB port of your external hard drive are broken. On the other hand, if the magnetic storage IS damaged, you'll likely need thousands of dollars and it might not be possible at all.

Ciao!


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## Patriot (May 21, 2012)

I dont think thats it damaged in anyway or form. I can hear it humming. It was working one night and a few hours late the computer couldnt recognize it. I tried updating the drivers and rebooting. Next I want to try changjng usb cables.


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## caveman (May 21, 2012)

I've always found WD reliable, like the others have said, none are infallible


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## KenC (May 21, 2012)

I've had good luck with WD also., I have two, but I only plug one of them in once a week at most to back up, and the other about once a month, and leave them off the rest of the time.  I figure it saves wear on the drives.  I've had the first one I bought (the once-a-week one) for about three years now with no problems.


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## TheBiles (May 21, 2012)

I use two WD drives that I sync every couple days. Haven't had a problem yet.


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## 12sndsgood (May 21, 2012)

yeah, definatly a lesson learned. always, always backup your photos.


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## vcustoms (May 23, 2012)

Try a raid setup. I use one that is a 5bay system and if a drive fails my data is still floating around on the other 4 drives. 

Would deff recommend a raid system that is hot swappable


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## Samerr9 (May 23, 2012)

I hear that Seagate is better than WD. So I am using them for 2 years now and luckily no problems at all..


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## HughGuessWho (May 23, 2012)

Samerr9 said:


> I hear that Seagate is better than WD. So I am using them for 2 years now and luckily no problems at all..


I have never know anyone who deals with hard drives for a living make that statement.


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## Trever1t (May 23, 2012)

I have 2 WD 2TB and 3 Seagate 500GB with only one failure in the last 2 years. The failure was on the Seagate, which they replaced. I back-up all my images on 3 drives pretty religiously.


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## Samerr9 (May 23, 2012)

Anyone thinking of using RAID?

I am thinking of investing in one.. I have two offers now:

1- i-omega 4TB (two drives of 2tb) for about $600
2- Seagate 4TB (two drives of 2tb) for about $800 with cloud access

Any ideas?


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## Samerr9 (May 23, 2012)

HughGuessWho said:


> Samerr9 said:
> 
> 
> > I hear that Seagate is better than WD. So I am using them for 2 years now and luckily no problems at all..
> ...



Why? 

I have two sets of 500GB Seagate as the main drive and I back it up on another identical one and on a WD. But the main is Seagte and no probs so far..


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## 480sparky (May 23, 2012)

Samerr9 said:


> HughGuessWho said:
> 
> 
> > Samerr9 said:
> ...



I've got 6 Seagates, some 6 years old... still purring along.





Samerr9 said:


> Anyone thinking of using RAID?
> ...........
> 
> Any ideas?



Fire, theft, flood, tornado, hurricane, power surge, lightning strike..........


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## Trever1t (May 23, 2012)

Samerr9 said:


> Anyone thinking of using RAID?
> 
> I am thinking of investing in one.. I have two offers now:
> 
> ...



I am and looking hard at the Drobo FS


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## Samerr9 (May 23, 2012)

Trever1t said:


> Samerr9 said:
> 
> 
> > Anyone thinking of using RAID?
> ...



Will have a look at it before deciding..


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## KmH (May 23, 2012)

So how did you have your WD Passport setting.

I make sure my external hard drives are setting to maximize airflow through them to keep them cool.

I have 2 - 1 TB WD My Book Essentials that are a couple of years old now (no failures).

I have them laying down, and I put 2 strips of foam door seal on the bottoms. The foam door strips provide vibration isolation, and allow air to flow completely around each drive.


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## Patriot (May 24, 2012)

I just got a new hard drive but when I tried formating the new drive the old one was formatted. I now just lost every picture I've taken. Is there anyway to recover them?


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## Samerr9 (May 24, 2012)

If you didn't put new data, most probably a computer expert will be able to retrieve the data.. but if you put new data then it is never recoverable..


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## Patriot (May 24, 2012)

I unplugged the drive as soon as it was formatted. I looking online for a data recover software. Im not touching it until I find an answer


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## pgriz (May 24, 2012)

With computer gear, it's a question of when it will fail, not if.  So everything important (well, at least of the digital variety) is redundantly backed up.  All my images are stored on three 1 TB drives and synchronized each time I upload.  I don't erase my memory cards until I can see the images on all three drives.  I have a fourth drive which I do a full copy onto, which is kept off-site and brought in once a week.  In addition to the images, it is a good idea to also burn your software onto a backup CD or DVD, because over the years, standards "drift", and you may not be able to access older media or images (yeah, I know everything is supposed to be backward-compatible... until it isn't).


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## pgriz (May 24, 2012)

Patriot said:


> I unplugged the drive as soon as it was formatted. I looking online for a data recover software. Im not touching it until I find an answer



OK, something here doesn't make sense.  If you formatted, that implies that there is nothing on that drive since formatting wipes out the prior content.  If you had both drives (old and new) connected to your computer, and formatted the NEW drive, you should be OK.  If you formatted the OLD drive, then, you're out of luck.   Assuming you did NOT format the old drive, you may have a connector failure or a controller failure, which means that the data still exists on the hard disk.  In the future, get into the habit of doing a software shut-down of your drives before turning them off or unplugging them - the software shutdown flushes the cache and parks the disk heads in a safe way.


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## Patriot (May 24, 2012)

I formatted the wrong drive by mistake. The wd drives came with formatting software on them. When I tried to format the new one the old was selected by mistake. So far the.web says that I can get them so as long as i dont write data on it.


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## pgriz (May 24, 2012)

So, get in touch with WD and see what they recommend.  I'm sure you're not the first one with that particular issue.  Good luck.  I suspect the data IS recoverable, but it will require you to spend some green making it so.  Whoever said that the best things in life are free, didn't have photography as a hobby.


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## IByte (May 24, 2012)

Patriot said:
			
		

> I just got a new hard drive but when I tried formating the new drive the old one was formatted. I now just lost every picture I've taken. Is there anyway to recover them?



You will need data recovery software, it will be a less expensive alternative than a computer technician.  Most software can dig deep even a on formatted drive.


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## Patriot (May 24, 2012)

Thats what I been looking for, but there is so many and I cant decide which is the right one. a free one or an highly expensive one. Im going to have to search reviews and youtube. I really dont know how many times I can try to recover them


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## slackercruster (May 24, 2012)

OP...If you want a reliable external HD, try 2 or 3 little netbooks. I've found computer HD's are pretty reliable. Always remember...two is one and one is none.

I BU on 3 - 4 computers, 3 external HD's, 2 brands of DVD's (One brand is commercial, one brand is gold archival) and store some DVD's off site if a fire hits. One external HD is the desk model next to the computer. The other two HD's are different brands that are portable and go in a fire safe.

I also don't erase the mem cards I use. I got 6 bodies, each has a card and the cards take a long time to fill up. When they get near full, I pop in an empty card. So there is BU overlap here as well.

Now, I don't go BU crazy with all my stuff. The only things that go on the DVD's are my very good digital work and all my older good work that was scanned from negs. I don't want to lose my scanned negs. It will take years to get that work done, so BU overkill is cheap insurance for it.


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## Trever1t (May 24, 2012)

Patriot said:


> Thats what I been looking for, but there is so many and I cant decide which is the right one. a free one or an highly expensive one. Im going to have to search reviews and youtube. I really dont know how many times I can try to recover them



I have had success retrieving data with Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download


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## IByte (May 24, 2012)

slackercruster said:
			
		

> OP...If you want a reliable external HD, try 2 or 3 little netbooks. I've found computer HD's are pretty reliable. Always remember...two is one and one is none.
> 
> I BU on 3 - 4 computers, 3 external HD's, 2 brands of DVD's (One brand is commercial, one brand is gold archival) and store some DVD's off site if a fire hits. One external HD is the desk model next to the computer. The other two HD's are different brands that are portable and go in a fire safe.
> 
> ...



If they were cost effective I would go for SSD.


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## TiltShift (May 24, 2012)

I've had a 500GB WD for some time now (about 3/4 years), and it still works perfectly! Used it loads.. I do have all my info backed up on another HD as well and all my most important on yet another!. 

If it's not saved in at least 3 places it doesn't exist


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## DanPower (May 24, 2012)

> I formatted the wrong drive by mistake. The wd drives came with formatting software on them. When I tried to format the new one the old was selected by mistake. So far the.web says that I can get them so as long as i dont write data on it.



This is correct. Formatting a drive does not delete the actual data, it resets the indexes which tell the computer where to find the data.  Your photos are still there, but the computer is now seeing empty space.  Unless you ran a multi-pass secure format (which actually replaces the physical data with zeros) your data should be intact, just don't write new data to the formatted space.



> I suspect the data IS recoverable, but it will require you to spend some green making it so. Whoever said that the best things in life are free, didn't have photography as a hobby.



The data is almost definitely recoverable, but there are thousands of open source software solutions for this problem that won't cost a thing.  If you have issues with the physical drive platters then you start spending money (hardcore data recovery on a 1tb drive can be upwards of $1000) but it sounds like the OP has just clicked the wrong button.


OP - good luck with it mate, all is not lost.... and hopefully you've learnt the lesson to run two synchronised external drives (or a redundant RAID setup) so you always have the data in multiple places


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## DanPower (May 24, 2012)

Free Data Recovery, File and Partition Recovery, Undelete and Unformat Utilities (thefreecountry.com) this page has an extensive list of open source software solutions for your problem.


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## Patriot (May 24, 2012)

I did learn my lesson for sure. My pictures are in the process of being pulled back now. thank you everyone with the help


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## Rosy (May 24, 2012)

Patriot said:


> Which external hard drives do you use to store your pictures? My WD passport just dies on me so I lost all of my pictures. The drive is running but it isnt sending a signal to the computer. I would like to get something more trust worthy.



i actually have 2 at home and one at work...you can never be tooo sure

sorry for your loss - but hey you still got your camera, go out and shoot!


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## vcustoms (May 25, 2012)

Samerr9 said:
			
		

> Anyone thinking of using RAID?
> 
> I am thinking of investing in one.. I have two offers now:
> 
> ...



Yea. I have one. It's USB 3.0 and made by cineraid. I got the setup with a 2tb WD drive for $250. Another drive is around $120-140 for a 2tb WD.

The problems I have with buying a raided system like the one you speak about is that if a drive fails your SOL and their expensive. 

I'm looking to invest in another one that I can place in a fireproof safe, a bank box or a storage unit. Incase of a fire or something crazy that destroys my computer and raid backup at home.


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## vcustoms (May 25, 2012)

Patriot said:
			
		

> I just got a new hard drive but when I tried formating the new drive the old one was formatted. I now just lost every picture I've taken. Is there anyway to recover them?



There are programs like data rescue but I would recommend a company like drive savers or some place that does high end data recovery


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## 480sparky (May 25, 2012)

vcustoms said:


> .................
> 
> I'm looking to invest in another one that I can place in a fireproof safe, a bank box or a storage unit. Incase of a fire or something crazy that destroys my computer and raid backup at home.



A fireproof safe is just that.......... FIREproof.  

If your house burns to the ground, your hard drives won't _burn_.   They'll just melt into a puddle of goo with miscellaneous electronic parts imbedded in it.

"Fireproof' means it prevents _combustion_, not the transfer of heat to the interior.


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## Patriot (May 25, 2012)

So I'm guessing when choosing a hard drive that it's best to get one with higher rpm and usb 3.0?


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## 480sparky (May 25, 2012)

Patriot said:


> So I'm guessing when choosing a hard drive that it's best to get one with higher rpm and usb 3.0?



My understanding is lower speed means higher write accuracy.


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## DanPower (May 25, 2012)

480sparky said:


> vcustoms said:
> 
> 
> > .................
> ...



And now we get into the argument of cloud storage.............. at the end of the day, you data is and never will be 100% safe.  50 years ago if your house burnt down you lost your slides/negs, now you lose your hard drive.  Technology is great but it hasn't helped us in these sorts of situations.

For the record, here's my setup:  photos are stored on my laptop (no desktop, I travel 10 months of the year so it's not practical) and backed up to two separate external drives, plus about once a month (uploads cost money for me most of the time) I upload everything to my web server which then syncs to a cloud server.  So in theory I have my images in 5 different places.  But if armageddon hits I could still lose all five of those and lose my ****....

This isn't a new problem, it's been around since the dawn of photography...


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## 480sparky (May 25, 2012)

DanPower said:


> And now we get into the argument of cloud storage.............. at the end of the day, you data is and never will be 100% safe.  50 years ago if your house burnt down you lost your slides/negs, now you lose your hard drive.  Technology is great but it hasn't helped us in these sorts of situations.
> 
> For the record, here's my setup:  photos are stored on my laptop (no desktop, I travel 10 months of the year so it's not practical) and backed up to two separate external drives, plus about once a month (uploads cost money for me most of the time) I upload everything to my web server which then syncs to a cloud server.  So in theory I have my images in 5 different places.  But if armageddon hits I could still lose all five of those and lose my ****....
> 
> This isn't a new problem, it's been around since the dawn of photography...



I don't bother with cloud storage........ it would take _years_ to upload all my images anyway.


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## DanPower (May 25, 2012)

> So I'm guessing when choosing a hard drive that it's best to get one with higher rpm and usb 3.0?




For *internal laptop drives* I believe you're better off with 5400rpm.  They draw significantly less power and the speed increase isn't worth it.  Ideally you want an SSD but not all of us are made of money....

For external use USB3 is the standard now, you won't get any benefit unless you have a USB3 capable port however even if you don't have that you might as well get a drive that supports it so that when you upgrade your computer you can take full advantage.  USB3 adds nothing to the price..

External drives don't usually benefit from higher RPM as you are usually copying large chunks of data, the RPM mainly helps the seek time but if you are copying large amounts of contiguous data then that doesn't matter so much.


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## DanPower (May 25, 2012)

480sparky said:


> I don't bother with cloud storage........ it would take _years_ to upload all my images anyway.



That's a shame, it must suck not having decent upload speeds.


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## 480sparky (May 25, 2012)

DanPower said:


> That's a shame, it must suck not having decent upload speeds.



I don't care how fast *your* 'speed' is........uploading all *my* images would take a looooooooooooong time, even at your speed.


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## KmH (May 25, 2012)

In my experience, the speed problem was at the cloud storage providers end, and I mean slower than a snails pace. It was ludicrous.


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## IByte (May 25, 2012)

SSD are more durable but also more expensive for less gbs .


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## DanPower (May 25, 2012)

480sparky said:


> DanPower said:
> 
> 
> > That's a shame, it must suck not having decent upload speeds.
> ...



Sure, you've got a lot of photos and they must be huge..... but it helps when you're literally sitting next to the server 

Simple version.... my core unit syncs with one of my externals which then syncs with the server, which then cloud syncs.  When I go travelling (which is 9 months of the year) it gets a little trickier, but it can be done and at the end of the day I have my photos backed up in 5 different locations so I'm pretty happy with that.


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## Skaperen (May 27, 2012)

All but 2 of my 12 external hard drives have died.  And the mode of failure suggests that if I bust them open and get the real hard drive out, I could make that work as an internal drive.  Just haven't done that because I never actually lost any data due to keeping multiple copies.  I'm now using 6 internal 2TB drives in drive swap bays for my backups.

These things are cheap and the circuits driving them even cheaper.


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## stingx (May 31, 2012)

The prices of HDDs are cheap - I bought 2x2tb drives for $150. Decent NAS enclosures are also cheap. Synology makes great stuff. You can have a great RAID solution for under $500. You'll have redundant disks and network access to your media. It's also not a bad idea to offload important data to 3rd party site. Many options exist for a low monthly fee to remotely sync and store your media. Very handy in the event of fire or theft.


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## sorinana (Jun 5, 2012)

I use WD external hard drive. i always think it is reliable. you should always remember to backup your file.


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## BlueMeanieTSi (Jun 5, 2012)

I back up to tape too.  I'm still stuck in the 90s


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## tommy517 (Jul 18, 2012)

I think you should recover images from external hard drives as soon as possible. if you have not recopy other photos in it.


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## Tee (Sep 28, 2012)

480-

Thanks for the video tute.  Clever and informative.

I am horrible with backing up my stuff.  I have Dropbox and iCloud which is hardly "backing up" and I only keep a fraction of images on those platforms.  This thread has given me pause and thought for being more proactive in backing up my files.


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## JohnTrav (Sep 28, 2012)

I have and the same WD external drive for 5 years now and it's still working fine. I also never move it so that probly helps. I have knocked it over a few times though. Still seems to work great. I gave all my pictures on it too. If it dies I am screwed. I think WD is reliable enough. But like everyone says. None of them are perfect. 

This is why all files should be backed up in multiple locations. I plan on buying another external to backup all my pictures. Seems like having two is worth the money.


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## Garbz (Sep 30, 2012)

To add to the anecdotes I have had a mixture of Seagate and wd harddisks for many years now. Probably killed about 3 of each brand. They are about as reliable as each other both internal and external. The common failure modes for external hdds are overheating and death of the horrendously cheap usb controllers, the latter is fixable for all drives except one **** seagate i had which had a case assembled with pentalobe screws and was subsequently disassembled with an anglegrinder killing the drive.


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## Psytrox (Oct 15, 2012)

DanPower said:


> 480sparky said:
> 
> 
> > vcustoms said:
> ...


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## digital flower (Oct 15, 2012)

Even though I have several externals ( couple have failed over the years) I still back up on DVD


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## ghache (Oct 15, 2012)

if its running without any clicking sound but your pc is not detecting in, its most likely the USB controller of the external casing failed. break it in half, get the drive out and plug it directly into your PC. the drive inside is nothing else than a regular drive.


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## jwbryson1 (Oct 15, 2012)

I use this in the 2T version which is no longer made.  But, same manufacturer.  A bit of an initial investment, but when you consider losing your photographs, the initial cost seems trivial....

Hot swappable array drive.  Great so far....

G-Technology 4TB G-SPEED Q External Hard Drive Array 0G01792 B&H


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## Tee (Oct 19, 2012)

I have a really stupid question to ask regarding backing up files externally.  This thread motivated me to get a 1TB portable hard drive.  I'm backing up as we speak.  I have several thousand images on my computer and it's taking a loooong time.  My question is: when I go to back up each week, does it re-copy all these files or does it detect the files already there and only add the new ones?


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## Derrel (Oct 19, 2012)

Well...do you have "back-up software" to do this? Or is this a simple drag-and-drop process where good ole' Tee is in charge??? How the backup is made can be set up under all backup software that I have ever used. For example, you can set it to back up ALL files, and overwrite. Or set it up to back up only NEW files made since the last date of backup, and so on. Mac? Windows? What app? Tee or S/W?


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## Tee (Oct 19, 2012)

Windows based.  My weekly computer generated reminder popped up to back-up.  This time I actually listened to it and the reminder gave me a choice between discs or external hard drive so I connected my hard drive and off it went doing it's thing.  The status window did have some custom settings but I didn't see anything like overwrite or new files only.  It gave me a list of things I could choose to back-up.  I'll have to dig deeper on this.  When it comes to actual computer stuff, I'm pretty elementary...but I can google like a mofo (which I probably should've done ).


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