My wife just got a new 'puter, and we've networked it with my shop unit. The older one has no CD burner or zip drive--- the new one has a CD burner built in. I'd like to back up my Signlab (.CDL) files, but nothing else. How does one computer-illiterate go about this?
Thanx in advance.
-------------------- Bill Preston Fly Creek, N.Y. USA
Posts: 943 | From: Fly Creek, N.Y. USA | Registered: Jan 2000
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posted
most cd burners have programs that are drag and drop...like saving to a floppy..very easy..also if you change files or add to them be shure to make multiple copys!
-------------------- "We have been making house calls since 1992"
Chris Lovelady Vital Signs
NOW WITH 2 LOCATIONS! Tallahassee, Florida Thomasville, Ga.
posted
My Laptop is not my main graphics system but it is my main bookwork and estimating station. I back those up every night, BUT all those digital photos.
Man I wish I never bought a digital camera.
-------------------- Bob Rochon Creative Signworks Millbury, MA 508-865-7330
"Life is Like an Echo, what you put out, comes back to you."
Posts: 5149 | From: Millbury, Mass. U.S. | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
A good friend of mine just lost all his data due to a virus that destroyed the fat tables on his hard drive, over a years work gone,.... he learned this lesson the hard way,....
-------------------- fly low...timi/NC is, Tim Barrow Barrow Art Signs Winston-Salem,NC Posts: 2224 | From: Winston-Salem,NC,USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
One way to help safeguard files is to havew a 2nd hard drive as a "slave"....programs on the main H/D and all your files on the 2nd H/D. 1. computer will run faster 2. a virus will usually not get to the 2nd H/D
If by cance, you do get a virus, you can format and reinstall from your disks, and nothing will be lost, except lots of time!
Werked fer me!
-------------------- Si Allen #562 La Mirada, CA. USA
(714) 521-4810
si.allen on Skype
siallen@dslextreme.com
"SignPainters do It with Longer Strokes!"
Never mess with your profile while in a drunken stupor!!!
Brushasaurus on Chat
Posts: 8831 | From: La Mirada, CA, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
I no longer keep any designs on my harddrive. They are all backed-up on a zip drive. I have lost everything to many times. I also back-up my font folder once and a while on CD. If you lose your system it is a bitch remembering where you got all those fonts from. BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!
-------------------- Rob Larkham Rob Larkham Signs & Lettering 21 Middlefield Road Chester, MA. 01011
413-354-0287 Posts: 517 | From: Chester, MA | Registered: May 2001
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posted
I'm happy to report that I generally am pretty good about backing things up.
And computers do melt down... as mine did three weeks ago.
In all I lost one letter. And I had a hard copy of that.
With CD burners being so cheap and the disks likewise there is no excuse.
Do it folks. Stuff happens. Especially to me.
-dan
-------------------- Dan Sawatzky Imagination Corporation Yarrow, British Columbia dan@imaginationcorporation.com http://www.imaginationcorporation.com
Being a grampa is one of the the most wonderful things in the world!!!
posted
We have a tape back up on our server. The program backs up the entire hard drive every night at 11:30 pm. I switch tapes every morinig FIRST THING. I take the previous backup home every night. I have always backed up and taken the tape or disk (s) home. Kinda makes me feel important like I have the nuclear football.
Posts: 121 | From: Indianapolis, IN | Registered: Feb 2001
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In backing up through a network you might find it a little slow for data trnsfer to keep up with the CD Burner. I have had that problem before, I use 10/100 ethernet cards. They have faster ones.
I usually copy my jobs folder completely by right clicking on it and selecting copy. Then I minimize that window. go to the network neighborhood icon on your desktop anddouble click it, you should see the 2 computers on your network listed. Double click on the computer that has the CD burner find the c drive, then the windows folder, then the desktop. Click the right mouse button and select paste. That will take some time but you'll be copying all your CDL files onto the desktop of the second PC. When you go to burn hte files onto a CD you should not encounter any buffer underruns because it will be reading of the hard drive of the same PC.
You don't have to paste it to the desktop, you can use any folder as long as you remember where you put them. I use the desktop that way I don't forget to delete them after.
I do this only once in a while because it is a little time consuming. maybe someone else will have a better idea.
Have fun
-------------------- Bob Rochon Creative Signworks Millbury, MA 508-865-7330
"Life is Like an Echo, what you put out, comes back to you."
Posts: 5149 | From: Millbury, Mass. U.S. | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
For those of us not familiar with the process of backing up....(like me) and therefor have put it off since it sounds complicated and technical.....
Can someone here do a step by step on that for us?
I have a CD burner, but others may have to use a zip drive or floppys.
A little tutorial would be apprieciated, I'm sure!
posted
I have a tape backup system. There's a tape for each day of the week. This way, if I delete something, I know I can go back 1 week and still find that particular file.
I've been lazy lately in not backing up every day since being homebased, but rather about 2x a week. Thanks for the heads up. Done today once again.
posted
For those that are disciplined to do backups and use some type of back up program (not just copying files to an alternative location) how often do you VERIFY that the backup is valid and CAN BE RESTORED? It doesn’t happen as often as it use to, but in the past I would be called upon to go “fix” system problems, go to restore the backup data, and come to screeching HALT; NO GO! Backups were done incorrectly or media was damaged or non readable.
Just a friendly reminder that doing the backups is only half of the equation. If they are needed, the other half comes into play; RESTORATION. If they are needed, this is not the time to find out there is a problem in that arena.
-------------------- Bob Gilliland InKnowVative Communications Harrisburg PA, USA
"The U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself." Benjamin Franklin
Posts: 642 | From: Harrisburg, PA, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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If you use a tape backup like Donna, then you select which folders or files you want to back up and you can leave the tape in and at a predefined time it will back up the system, also with many tape backups you can back up the whole system as well.
I have not had much luck restoring from my tape back ups over the years, like Bob G. I too have had restore failures. Tape is also very sensitive and can be damaged easily. Also tapes work on compression so if you were to copy say your Quickbooks file which is compressed already, it would compress it more and possibly damage it.
Floppies can only hold 1.44 meg so if want you want to back up is more than that, you can span multiple floppies but a program like Microsoft backup which is part of windows must be used so as to use all the space on the disks and it will split files onto another floppy seamlessly. As with tapes they too can be damaged easily.
CD Burners in my opinion offer the best security and or flexibility. I use cdrw for the most part, that way I can write and rewrite file onto it. The software works the same as tape and floppy, but a CD is supposed to last 10-15 years and can transfered to another computer if the main one dies. It can only handle around 650 meg but it is fast.
It doesn't matter which method you use, the important thing to know is where your important files reside and in what folder. I don't waste my time backing up programs but rather just the data I created.
In Omega the jobs I create are .plt files and reside in my jobs folder. But using the edge, a lot of .plt files have a reference bitmap or .jpg or .tiff file for printing if I don't back those up as well then the .plt file is useless.
Tape drives if they are big enough are by far the easiest to use and are for the most part unattended and thoughtless back up.
What ever you use, just do it. I need to hear this over and over agin. And if you use digital cameras don't leave those pictures just laying in your hard drive, it takes 2 minutes with most cd burners to archive them. I spent about 4 hours retrieveing what I could of my photos yesterday and archived them onto a cd in about 2 minutes.
Go figure
[ January 26, 2002: Message edited by: Bob Rochon ]
-------------------- Bob Rochon Creative Signworks Millbury, MA 508-865-7330
"Life is Like an Echo, what you put out, comes back to you." Posts: 5149 | From: Millbury, Mass. U.S. | Registered: Nov 1998
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backing up your files in a second format that is generic is not a bad idea either.
I recently had my dongle key puke out on me and found myself dead in the water for a day because I could not even ACCESS my Inspire files in any other of my programs.
Right now I'm in the process of making EPS copies of all my files(even using the utility they provide, its very time consuming doing this to 9 years worth of files)
The good news part of this is that they overnighted me, not one but TWO dongle keys because that particular key was running both Inspire and Flexi.
Take a good look through your files and delete all thoses that are duplicates of the final product.
Before you burn to CD remember to use CD-RW disc only as you can add more info to them later.
Once burnt to the disk, that is it you cannot delete the file title. But you can add a upgrade title name of the project. Label all CD's with a Sharpie so you don't misplace or loose it. IE (Project files (DEC-JAN) (JAN-MAR) (MAR-APR)2002 For $2.00 bucks a pop for the CD's it is well worth the trouble of redrawing your image again.
Depending on the file size you can store up to 2000 files in around 75-100ks per. The larger the format file the less you will be able to fit. Your CD burn software will tell you when you are very close to the limit of that disk anyway.
POP the next one in and continue on....
-------------------- Stephen Deveau RavenGraphics Insinx Digital Displays
Letting Your Imagination Run Wild!
Posts: 4327 | From: Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia, Canada | Registered: Jan 2000
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posted
In the area of computer questions-- I have one more. Is there a limit on folder size? In other words-- should only so many jobs or layouts or whatever go into a particular-named folder, and what is the limiting factor? Is that determined by, say, the number of megabytes of data stored within a folder?
Sorry, but density is found in Fly Creek, too.
Thanx in advance.
-------------------- Bill Preston Fly Creek, N.Y. USA
Posts: 943 | From: Fly Creek, N.Y. USA | Registered: Jan 2000
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posted
Adrienne, what you bought were CD-R disks which are great for making copies of stuff. You can store your files on those, no prob, but you can't erase and reuse them, whereas on CD-RW(re-write), you can. And those are about $2.00 each in bulk.
-------------------- Mike"Spud"Kelly zipperhead design Westminster, MA Posts: 367 | From: Westminster, MA | Registered: Mar 2001
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posted
Since day one we have "backed up" our files by downloading them once or twice a month (even that will be considered risky by some) but what it does for us is it creates a clone file to our work orders and invoices.Each month and year is created as a paper sheet 8.5 x 11 and kept in our "catalogue morgue" if a customer calls and refers to a month and / or year we did the work we can locate it in about a minute. If we have to look it up thru our file system it may take 5 minutes. But we can always find it (what ever "it" might be).
Hoping one day soon tho for a cd burner so we can replace all our floppys (approx 150 over the last 12 years) with one or two disks. (Technology is definately getting out of hand).
-------------------- "Werks fer me...it'll werk fer you"
Monte Jumper SIGNLanguage/Norman.Okla. jumpers@itlnet.net
My CD burner doesn't rewrite, but I think it let's me add stuff to it...
No biggie...I don't have the volume of biz most of you have, but if it's a matter of just copying my design files to a disk every so often, that's easy enuf!
I thought you ment to copy everything on my computer, programmes and all....DOI!
posted
I see now that Usb 2.0 external hard drives are out and that is the way I am going. A 60 gig harddrive can be had for under $200, more than enough to copy all my files from both computers and then some. Or you can ghost image the whole drive for immediate restoration. USB 2.0 is 40 times faster that the current and all it takes is adding another card to be 2.0 compliant. These drives will work with the older usb standard, only slower transfer times. Seems the way to go.
-------------------- Wright Signs Wyandotte, Michigan Posts: 2786 | From: Wyandotte, MI USA | Registered: Jan 1999
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