:rant Portable hard drives

[raised by monkeys]

Half the issue is that computers and syncing drives and folders and back ups, has gone against everything I think they were set out to achieve - be time and energy efficient. I don't want to spend my days backing up and setting up firewalls and syncs.

I mean, 5 computers... I just want to get on my laptop, type something up, look up AFF, use ebay etc etc. I don't want to revolve the idea of using a computer and purchasing safety software, worry about things breaking down. For equipment we rely so much on, we spend more time maintaining and protecting ourselves than the time it would take to hand write my assignments.

[tranquilized]

Originally Posted by raised by monkeys

Half the issue is that computers and syncing drives and folders and back ups, has gone against everything I think they were set out to achieve - be time and energy efficient. I don't want to spend my days backing up and setting up firewalls and syncs.

I mean, 5 computers... I just want to get on my laptop, type something up, look up AFF, use ebay etc etc. I don't want to revolve the idea of using a computer and purchasing safety software, worry about things breaking down. For equipment we rely so much on, we spend more time maintaining and protecting ourselves than the time it would take to hand write my assignments.

I know what you mean, and that's why I don't bother with external drive backups anymore, just dropbox.

The 5 computer aspect of my setup is just because I happen to have access to 5 computers - two at work, one at home, my laptop, my partners laptop. The beauty of dropbox (and no doubt other cloud storage services) is that every computer is automatically synced. So if I'm working on a word doc on one comp - save it - within a few seconds the latest version of that document is on any other computer I have that particular folder synced on, as well as on the cloud. So you just sync every computer you have not so much for the backup aspect but so you can access the latest files at anytime, anywhere.



**I'm not affiliated with Dropbox in any way, but they really should have me on commission...

[raised by monkeys]

So not sure if I mentioned it earlier but my laptops been having ongoin issues.
Partner and I are looking at buying a new one and interested to know thoughts on MAC vs Microsoft - no more fist fights though please haha.

A few mates are pushing the MAC

[99AUXR]

Depends what you are using for. For most people especially laptops I would say Mac...

[raised by monkeys]

Web browsing, downloading and word documents

[Junkyard-Dog]

Originally Posted by raised by monkeys

Web browsing, downloading and word documents

It does seem like a Mac would be a good fit for your requirements.

[Mercury Bullet]

Far too expensive for a job that any smartphone can do today.

I would be buying the cheapest little laptop I could find for that sort of work.

My 2c.

[raised by monkeys]

Just ordered a MacBook Pro based on 90% recommendations from mates and this forum.

[DBourne]

Good man. You'll love it.

[Junkyard-Dog]

I hope you enjoy your purchase. It will do what you want it to do.

[MattSAU2XR8]

You just need two back up drives that you alternate each week, or each month, depending on how much data you are happy to loose.

[MattSAU2XR8]

Btw, imo macs are an unnecessary pita. Most workplaces and indeed homes use pcs, and for the end user the only real difference seems to be that all the icons have been moved sround a bit and some of the commans that you would expect to work don't work. Not saying pc is better than mac so much as more common and familiar and no great loss associated with using them. Kind of like a bmw might be good to own in Germany but not so good in Oz... Interested to hear sny alternative viewpoints though....

[Junkyard-Dog]

Well I am not really that interested in debating OS vs. OS but for starters you're much less likely to suffer from viruses/malware with a Mac compared to a pc with a Windows OS.

[Nanoraptor]

Count me in as another Mac user.

Apart from that though, I heard once back in the 1990s after a particularly nasty hardware failure, that there are two types of people in the world:

Those who have lost all their data, and those who are yet to - as in, it'll happen to everyone and nobody sets up good backups until they've lost it all. I lost more than a decade of mail, artwork, saved chats, all kinds of documents in about 1999. At the time it was barely 1GB but it was everything I had. Luckily I had some space on a server online that I'd dumped a few important things when I moved them from one machine to another - but that was by luck, not design.

Now I have automated backups everywhere. Tablet/Phone backed up to desktop wirelessly. Desktop and laptop HDs automatically backed up to an 8TB NAS, and the NAS also as primary external storage for less important data. The NAS itself is backed up to rotating archival HDs that go to work with me from time to time.

Really important stuff is in that cascading path *and* online. All the effort it takes on my part is to judge the importance of what I'm saving and place it in the right place, and to swap HDs over every few days.

If my entire city was nuked, I'd lose no more than a few days of relatively low-importance data, and that would be the least of my problems

Oh also, when you set up backups CHECK THEM REGULARLY! No use setting up automatic backups, losing a HD, then finding the last time the backup actually worked was two years ago.

[Junkyard-Dog]

Yeah I lost some of my music scores/demos years ago when a HDD failed. Now I am paranoid about it and back up to 7 different drives and also upload to "the cloud".

[pauljh74]

Originally Posted by DBourne

I didn't want to bite, but I just can't resist.. I've had my MacBook pro for 5 years, and it still works perfectly. Granted I actually know what I'm doing on a computer, so that would help, but even I've never had a PC that works just as good on day dot as it does 5 years down the track.

So yes Apple products cost a premium, but they certainly earn it as far as I'm concerned..

My self built PC is still working fine 5 years later - overclocked to 4.6GHz.
Fitted with quality components and still came in cheaper than a Mac