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lizj
2Ps Digital Creative Team
PeaNut 242,431
January 2006
Posts: 9,895
Layouts: 539
Loc: Los Angeles
 |  Posted: 11/12/2012 11:48:13 AM
I am the queen of back-up. I have online backup through Crashplan and an EHD for my PC. I have Time Machine and a second EHD for my Mac. I religiously back up my PC PSE catalog and my Mac ACDSee catalog. And even with all that caution, I failed to back up my flash drive. Guess where I was storing my 2013 calendar projects? The flash drive. Guess what I accidentally wiped clean on Sunday? The flash drive. Arghhh! I know better and it still happened to me.
Then I upgraded my iPhone to the new operating system and all my passwords were wiped off. Sometimes technology is not my friend.
Anyone else care to share their technology nightmare and make me feel better? I'll just keep working on re-creating all of my calendar pages while I read your responses. Arghhh! |
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stefdesign
PhotoshoPEAholic
PeaNut 307,816
April 2007
Posts: 11,990
Layouts: 861
Loc: So Cal Gal Living in NJ
 |  Posted: 11/12/2012 12:03:58 PM
I hear ya! I am pretty careful myself, but recently lost about 3 months worth of photos on iPhoto... which for me was pretty much a disaster. I bought a new EHD, and decided, since I had so many iPhoto libraries & photos on my current library, to take them all off my laptop & put them on my new EHD. (two or three of the libraries are on other EHDs). When DH and I were traveling cross country in September, I decided that would be the perfect opportunity to make the transfer. It took hours, but when the transfer was complete, I double checked each library to make sure it was 'there', on the EHD, before deleting it from my laptop. Everything checked out AOK. Delete delete delete.
Turns out, what transferred were 3 small libraries, and what appeared to be the main 2012 library. But what actually transferred were just the thumbnails. So, it looked right, but when I went to open up the actual photos, they were not there.
Fortunately, I was able to retreive photos from January to the first of June, when I had made my last TimeMachine back up. (That's another story, error message & misinformation let me neglect this regular backup).
Soooo, all of my photos June-September were gone. Anniversary trip, Utah trips, my son's wedding, half of my cross-country trip. (sigh) At least I have the thumbnails, and some photos that I had used on my blog & layouts.
So my problem wasn't a FAILURE of my technology, but a failure to use it properly. Lesson sadly learned!
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lizj
2Ps Digital Creative Team
PeaNut 242,431
January 2006
Posts: 9,895
Layouts: 539
Loc: Los Angeles
| Posted: 11/12/2012 12:30:38 PM
Oh Stef, I feel your pain. |
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ShanB
PeaAddict
PeaNut 187,882
January 2005
Posts: 1,441
Layouts: 198
Loc: southern ontario
 | Posted: 11/12/2012 1:08:40 PM
i managed to lose every contact in my address book one time, that was fun since it was personal and both dh and my business stuff... |
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lizziej
PeaNut
PeaNut 91,198
June 2003
Posts: 85
Layouts: 2
Loc: Texas
 | Posted: 11/12/2012 1:18:08 PM
UGH!! I'm so sorry to read your horror stories, Liz, Stef and ShanB. A couple of months ago, I thought I lost my home email inbox. I had photos from my siblings and FIL, flyers from my son's school activities, etc. I had compressed the emails and nothing ever happened, but this time for some reason it deleted the inbox. It ended up in my recycle bin, so my DH was able to restore it. Lesson learned: my inbox is actually pretty big, so I need to sort out all the emails into separate folders. |
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lizj
2Ps Digital Creative Team
PeaNut 242,431
January 2006
Posts: 9,895
Layouts: 539
Loc: Los Angeles
| Posted: 11/12/2012 1:24:48 PM
I am in good company, I see! That recycle bin: I really thought my missing folders would be there. Everyhing's else I had dumped was there, but not my calendar folders. Sigh.
I am shuddering at whole contact lists and email inboxes disappearing. Ugh! |
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emily a
2Ps Digital Designer
PeaNut 339,859
October 2007
Posts: 1,741
Layouts: 27
Loc: tennessee
 | Posted: 11/13/2012 7:48:22 AM
LIZ! oh no! i am so sorry.
i have a question for you mac genius'. why do my ehd's disconnect themselves when i don't even touch them. then, i get the death warning about files could be erased because i did not eject properly. my very first ehd did this all the time, and it finally made good on the promise and erased the folder i was working in...everything i had added that week was gone.
why does this happen? i have a brand new one that does it out of the blue...i don't even have to be touching the macbook. it is crazy. i have been backing up like a crazy person. i now have three ehd's that i backup to each other, just to be safe. ugh. i work from the ehd, none of my files are on my mac, so it is connected all the time.
is this just me, or does this happen to you as well? |
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lizj
2Ps Digital Creative Team
PeaNut 242,431
January 2006
Posts: 9,895
Layouts: 539
Loc: Los Angeles
| Posted: 11/13/2012 8:35:40 AM
Emily, I have had my ehd not "recognized" when I plug it into the Mac once in a while, so I just wiggle the plug and that seems to be the issue, that it wasn't a solid connection. But, what you're describing sounds different -- ack! Do you use Time Machine? I really love Time Machine, it was well worth the price (which was basically like the cost of a good-sized EHD). I've had to restore things I lost from Time Machine, and it's very easy.
Unfortunately, my flash drive was not magically backed up to Time Machine, so bleh, lost it all. |
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debikins
Dabbling in Digi
PeaNut 65,255
January 2003
Posts: 9,905
Layouts: 1,280
Loc: Behind a laptop in the Pacific Northwest
 | Posted: 11/13/2012 11:18:22 AM
As much as I hate to jump in here I too have a horror story..About 2 years ago I decided to clean up all the photo files, LO files, digisupplies on my various computers, disks what have you and put them on an EHD then copy that EHD onto a 2nd one. I was almost done with cleaning them up on the EHD when the laptop it was connected to crashed taking out the entire EHD too. I lost nearly 11 years of photos (most which I no longer had any backup to) and several years of digisupplies (no biggie given I've gathered tons since) and over 100 LOs which I only have low resolution copies online. I've not been able to recover my files from the EHD although I now have someone willing to try. Crossing my fingers.
Ok you techy scrappers, help a girl out. I'm sitting here just waiting for another disaster to happen as ALL my photos, supplies and LOs are on my internal harddrive of my laptop. I need to know where and how to start a good backup system. I have PC.
WHERE DO I START?
1. Do I use the windows backup utility to backup my files onto an EHD or do I drag and drop to the EHD? (I'd like to get all my files off my laptop at some point)
2. Then do I copy that EHD to a 2nd or 3rd? SO now I'd have 2 EHDs with the same info.
3. What about online storage? Any backup EHDs? And if so, do you need to keep your EHD plugged in all the time? I have 2 250GB EHDs and 1T EHD I can use currently. If I delete something from my EHD I suspect it also gets deleted from the online storage. What's the differences between Crashplan, Carbonite, justcloud...etc?
4. SHould I take the time to upload LOs and photos to a photohosting site like Photobucket or persnickity prints?
I really don't know where to start but I know I need to do something...can you help?
Debi
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***KERRY STEWART/Kerry'd Away Designs creative team***
***EDELINE MARTA DESIGNS creative team***
***POLKA DOT PIXELS creative team***
***JEN MARTAKIS guest CT (OCT 2010) ***
I have commitment issues; I edit everything after I post.
Live, Love, Laugh, Learn and Leave a Legacy
I scrap, therefore you know you've been seen.
My Blog: Debi's Dabblings and My Gallery
2012: 103 pages/ 320 photos (Updated 6/30/2012)
2011: 320 pages/1078 photos
2010: 132 pages/ 434 photos
2009: 337 pages/1220 photos
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emily a
2Ps Digital Designer
PeaNut 339,859
October 2007
Posts: 1,741
Layouts: 27
Loc: tennessee
| Posted: 11/13/2012 11:19:25 AM
oh no! yes, i have time machine but you will be ashamed of me. i use it manually. so it is not running all the time automatically. i just turn it on every other week to do a full backup. then i manually backup every ehd onto the big one. LOL. i know, it is supposed to be easy. but time machine does not do my ehd's...or if it does, i have not figured that out yet.  |
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lizj
2Ps Digital Creative Team
PeaNut 242,431
January 2006
Posts: 9,895
Layouts: 539
Loc: Los Angeles
| Posted: 11/13/2012 11:41:19 AM
Debi, I have on EHD for the PC that I have automatically scheduled to back up once a week. And I do leave it plugged in all the time. I used to have 2 EHDs connected to the PC but the computer was not smart enough to realize they were separate drives, and even with Seagate's help I could not get separate back-ups so I only use one now. I use Crashplan as online storage and I highly recommend that you do that right away, since you asked for opinions. I have a friend who lost thousands of photos in hurricane Sandy last week, and I was reminded of how critical it is to store your photos and digital stuff off-site. Crashplan is the only storage service (to my knowedge) that will back up through an EHD. I back up my PSE Organizer to the EHD so I wanted Crashplan to target the EHD. Also, Crashplan will send you a "seed" EHD (I have no idea why it's called that) so you can back up to an EHD and mail it in to them for the initial back up. If you try to do an initial back up of your whole stash online it takes weeks, literally. So this seed EHD is a great solution for the initial back up, and again, I am not aware of another company that offers that. IMO one EHD and online storage is plenty.
Em, I don't think Time Machine backs up EHDs, or, like you, I don't know how to set that. I run a separate back up between 2 EHDs for anything not on the Mac hard drive. |
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ShanB
PeaAddict
PeaNut 187,882
January 2005
Posts: 1,441
Layouts: 198
Loc: southern ontario
| Posted: 11/13/2012 1:30:26 PM
my time machine backs up daily, I have all my finished LO uploaded online so they are safe and a copy of all my photos in a fire safe box at my moms house. I really try to be prepared. I have never had luck with EHD though, too any have bit the dust on me, I won't trust them again....
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emily a
2Ps Digital Designer
PeaNut 339,859
October 2007
Posts: 1,741
Layouts: 27
Loc: tennessee
| Posted: 11/13/2012 6:42:18 PM
crashplan? i am going to check that out right now. thank you liz!! |
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