Friday, July 18, 2008
Lessons learned
OK, so let's see if I can get through this. My wrists are so sore from typing and using the mouse...
See, the computer is back up and running but, like I said, it's a clean slate. I got nada on this thing.
I was thankfully able to save my old files with the help of an enclosure kit... You basically take your hard drive out of your computer and put it in the enclosure device, which basically turns it into an external hard drive you can access from another computer.
So beyond the software I have to install, I also decided I should organize my files as I move them over. OH MY GOD: Big job! #1. I have something like 30G of pictures. !!! I've been really working at paring it down. I've deleted at least 8,000 pictures. #2. 11G of music, but that's AFTER I deleted lots and lots of stuff. I was ruthless.
But I really learned my lesson about backing files up. I don't want a repeat of this.
And I found this great, great tool called Allway Sync. See, I figured if I had this thing BACK UP my files, it would take FOREVER to do so each week or whatever. A little googling and I found Allway Sync instead. Instead of backing EVERYTHING up, you can have it sync your folders. For example, I have it syncing my Pictures folder onto a Pictures Backup folder on my exernal hard drive. Every time I plug my external hard drive in, Allway Sync will do a search on the pictures folder to figure out what I've added or deleted, then sync up the files. So I don't have to wait for it to back up everything; I only have to wait for it to sync whatever I've changed since the last sync. Cool, eh? I am having it sync my pictures, music, favorites, documents, Photoshop actions, etc.
With this thing, I can have two copies of all my files (one on the laptop and one on the external hard drive) without having to back up my entire C: drive, which would take a lot more space.
If anyone has any other tips for me, please share. I have spent all the past two days on my computer, but that is to hopefully prevent me from having to spend ANY time doing unpleasant stuff in the future. :) ¶ 2:37 PM
See, the computer is back up and running but, like I said, it's a clean slate. I got nada on this thing.
I was thankfully able to save my old files with the help of an enclosure kit... You basically take your hard drive out of your computer and put it in the enclosure device, which basically turns it into an external hard drive you can access from another computer.
So beyond the software I have to install, I also decided I should organize my files as I move them over. OH MY GOD: Big job! #1. I have something like 30G of pictures. !!! I've been really working at paring it down. I've deleted at least 8,000 pictures. #2. 11G of music, but that's AFTER I deleted lots and lots of stuff. I was ruthless.
But I really learned my lesson about backing files up. I don't want a repeat of this.
And I found this great, great tool called Allway Sync. See, I figured if I had this thing BACK UP my files, it would take FOREVER to do so each week or whatever. A little googling and I found Allway Sync instead. Instead of backing EVERYTHING up, you can have it sync your folders. For example, I have it syncing my Pictures folder onto a Pictures Backup folder on my exernal hard drive. Every time I plug my external hard drive in, Allway Sync will do a search on the pictures folder to figure out what I've added or deleted, then sync up the files. So I don't have to wait for it to back up everything; I only have to wait for it to sync whatever I've changed since the last sync. Cool, eh? I am having it sync my pictures, music, favorites, documents, Photoshop actions, etc.
With this thing, I can have two copies of all my files (one on the laptop and one on the external hard drive) without having to back up my entire C: drive, which would take a lot more space.
If anyone has any other tips for me, please share. I have spent all the past two days on my computer, but that is to hopefully prevent me from having to spend ANY time doing unpleasant stuff in the future. :) ¶ 2:37 PM
