Hi Lissa, also, I don't know if anyone else has mentioned it, but the continuous backup offered by the Carbonite service is worth looking at. It's really cheap when you look at what it does. It's $59 a year, for unlimited backup space, and it runs automatically in the background to constantly back up your computer every day without any fussing around. It's very secure as they double encrypt all your data so even if someone hacks into them or into your connection as it's uploading the hacker isn't going to be able to view or use any of your files. You need a high speed internet connection and it will work on Windows XP and Windows 7 (as well as on mac systems). If you want to try it for free, and get two extra months of it if you decide to keep it, here's a link to a special offer on it: http://www.carbonite.com/lp/media/kim-komando.aspx
One other thought, on the external hard drives. Instead of buying a regular one, I bought portable external hard drives from Iomega. I agree totally with everything that was said here about the problems with external hard drives! However, the portable external drive from Iomega that I have uses a metal case to radiate heat and that seems to work great. In addition, because I can't grip stuff well, I'm always dropping things, which is disastrous for a hard drive. This little drive has an internal gel cushion and other nifty technology inside it designed originally for what are called ruggedized computers. Those are the laptop computers that our military take into battle zones, and those laptops need to take a huge amount of abuse and still keep running. With that technology built into it, the Iomega portable hard drives are guaranteed to take a drop onto a concrete floor from something like 4 or 5 feet. It doesn't require external power either, it draws everything from the USB port. If you do get an external hard drive as one of your backup options, that's a possibility.
Judy s. On 8/18/2012 8:29 PM, Estelnalissi wrote:
Dear Ann, Chris, Roger, Christine, Lori, Duane, and Booksharian Friends,Why the guys I hired for computer help were unable to get my brand new, out of the box external hard drive to work mystifies me, too. One said that the Norton I had at the time was interfering and that Norton was backing up my files, though he couldn't retrieve them. I paid those techs the going rate, but they didn't seem to have enough gu in their ru. I got their names from ads in the phone book. If I could have told them how to make it work, I wouldn't have had to rely on them in the first place. One of these times I'll hit on a techie who has all or most of the answers, and believe me, I'll appreciate him and hope to be able to call on him again when problems arise.Duane, I've got ways of enlarging what is on the screen. My difficulty is finding a screen which doesn't get blurry or dark when I get close enough to see it. CTR screens don't distort when I get near them, but the two flat panel kinds get a band of shadow in which the contrast is lessened because the background is darker. Luckily, I rely on JAWS for most of my computer work.Not losing my files is very important to me. My take on the general consensus is that hard drives are fragile, run hot, and can fail, which the first back up hard drive I bought did. Also that getting files from a crashed drive costs hugely. I conclude that a double back up is best, and that at least one should be stored safely away where it won't overheat and be damaged. My brother says our chances of loosing important hard copy paper, books, music and pictures by flood or fire are far less likely than loosing their electronic counterparts due to various kinds of mechanical failure. I am definitely taking all of your cautions to heart.It is truly gratifying that so many people take the trouble to help. If you don't hear from me for a while it'll mean I'm making a transition to new equipment, purchased with all of your advice in mind.Always with love, LissiTo unsubscribe from this list, send a blank Email to bookshare-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the Subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
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