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Re: Friam Digest, Vol 154, Issue 18

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Jack Stafurik-2

Re: Friam Digest, Vol 154, Issue 18

Nick

Actually, this is simple. I've done it several times. You need a drive dock
(I have one) and the right software. I've used Acronis software, which costs
about $20 - 40, but there may be free stuff available to do this on the web.
You plug the drive dock with your new drive into a USB port, start the
software, and a few hours later replace your old drive with your new one.
All your software, files, and probably viruses and malware are right there,
ready to go. However this may also transfer over any errors, etc. You can
run CHKDSK to find out if there are any disk errors you need worry about.
Also, there are free or trial versions of disk checking software you can get
to test. I've used Hard Disk Sentinel.

Alternatively, if you have your OS disks you can (maybe, with some
manufacturers) do a clean install on the new drive, download the OS
upgrades, copy over the files you want and reinstall the applications you
want. This is a pain, but gives you a cleaner, faster system without worries
about errors, malware, etc.

Good luck. I can lend you my drive dock if you want, and help you with the
transfer.

Jack

-----Original Message-----
From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
[hidden email]
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2016 10:00 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Friam Digest, Vol 154, Issue 18

Send Friam mailing list submissions to
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To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
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When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Friam digest..."

Today's Topics:

1. Sober, clear advice needed (Nick Thompson)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2016 12:17:38 -0600
From: "Nick Thompson" <[hidden email]>
To: "Friam" <[hidden email]>
Subject: [FRIAM] Sober, clear advice needed
Message-ID: <008a01d19f1e$c09090b0$41b1b210$@earthlink.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Hi, everybody,

A substantial family calamity occurred in Massachusetts on Friday, on the
same day that a technician who replaced my motherboard here warned me that
my hard drive is on its last legs. I have a new hard drive sitting on my
desk from HP and HP will come install it, but under my circumstances I
cannot afford any break in my communication with My People in Massachusetts.

Here is where I need your advice. I keep being told that it is possible to
make an "image" of one's hard drive. I imagine this means, I pay a hundred
bucks for a black box, I plug the black box into my computer, I let it whir
for a night, and then there is a copy of my hard drive on the black box.
Then, when my present hard drive dies, I have HP replace it, I plug the
black box into the computer again, let it whir for another night, and when I
wake up in the morning, resume my life exactly as it was.

Is such a thing possible? Could it be done by a "citizen" (as Owen calls us)
who is much distracted by other things. Can you recommend a particular black
box. One problem that DotFoil has suggested is that my old hard drive may
have errors on it, and that transferring an "image" (if such a thing is
possible) will transfer those errors, with possibly fatal consequences.
Should I perhaps run error correction software somewhere in that process.

Please advise,

Nick

P.S. Everybody's safe.

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

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Michael Stevens

Re: Friam Digest, Vol 154, Issue 18

Nick,

If you wanted to transfer only “files,” like the text of a paper, photographs, a spreadsheet, etc. there are plenty of ways to do that. (You probably know this, I’m not trying to insult your intelligence!) However, if software is involved, e.g. Word, Excel, etc., I think it’s much more complicated. What you have heard about an image is correct, but I wouldn’t recommend that as a do-it-yourself project, particularly in a distracted state of mind with family troubles. There are just too many little things that could go wrong. My advice is to hire someone. Price range would most likely be $100 - $150, but that’s only a guess.

Best of luck,

Mike Stevens

Berkeley

On Apr 26, 2016, at 9:00 AM, [hidden email] wrote:

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Today's Topics:

1. Sober, clear advice needed (Nick Thompson)

From: "Nick Thompson" <[hidden email]>
Subject: [FRIAM] Sober, clear advice needed
Date: April 25, 2016 at 11:17:38 AM PDT
To: "Friam" <[hidden email]>

Hi, everybody,

A substantial family calamity occurred in Massachusetts on Friday, on the same day that a technician who replaced my motherboard here warned me that my hard drive is on its last legs. I have a new hard drive sitting on my desk from HP and HP will come install it, but under my circumstances I cannot afford any break in my communication with My People in Massachusetts.

Here is where I need your advice. I keep being told that it is possible to make an “image” of one’s hard drive. I imagine this means, I pay a hundred bucks for a black box, I plug the black box into my computer, I let it whir for a night, and then there is a copy of my hard drive on the black box. Then, when my present hard drive dies, I have HP replace it, I plug the black box into the computer again, let it whir for another night, and when I wake up in the morning, resume my life exactly as it was.

Is such a thing possible? Could it be done by a “citizen” (as Owen calls us) who is much distracted by other things. Can you recommend a particular black box. One problem that DotFoil has suggested is that my old hard drive may have errors on it, and that transferring an “image” (if such a thing is possible) will transfer those errors, with possibly fatal consequences. Should I perhaps run error correction software somewhere in that process.

Please advise,

Nick

P.S. Everybody’s safe.

Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

_______________________________________________
Friam mailing list
[hidden email]
http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

============================================================
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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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Gillian Densmore

Re: Friam Digest, Vol 154, Issue 18

In reply to this post by Jack Stafurik-2

ForWhatIt'sWorth

Nick I don't know if you're still following this thread or found a fix:

ForWhatItWorth:

There's a few shareware things that can do something like Arconis wich says to the hard drive that has issues lets makea photocoppy to start fresh.

The anoying news is Windows(up to 10) is reely bad about not having a baked in back up and fresh clean start system I have no idea why.

The Good news though is that I have used two: There's Macron(however it's spelled) reflect Xclone and a few others that work

There's a article about shareware Windows Back Up and freshstarty kind of stuff at places like life hacker.com:
http://lifehacker.com/5839753/the-best-disk-cloning-app-for-windows

ForWhatIt'sWorth CaspersTimeMachine is free and works pretty well

I've used hdclone one my (infamously problative Del)

You can get it here I thought it was so cool that it was shareware with a free give this a tree hit go and have a backup kind of thing:
https://www.miray.de/products/sat.hdclone.html

It's free version while slow was good enough to make sure I didn't loose stuff (art, articles etc)

I thought XMLDrive was a little awkward to use but worked and as far as I know you can use Hdclone and Macriums Reflect while using the the computer wich is handy.

On Tue, Apr 26, 2016 at 10:46 AM, Jack Stafurik <[hidden email]> wrote:

Nick

Actually, this is simple. I've done it several times. You need a drive dock
(I have one) and the right software. I've used Acronis software, which costs
about $20 - 40, but there may be free stuff available to do this on the web.
You plug the drive dock with your new drive into a USB port, start the
software, and a few hours later replace your old drive with your new one.
All your software, files, and probably viruses and malware are right there,
ready to go. However this may also transfer over any errors, etc. You can
run CHKDSK to find out if there are any disk errors you need worry about.
Also, there are free or trial versions of disk checking software you can get
to test. I've used Hard Disk Sentinel.

Alternatively, if you have your OS disks you can (maybe, with some
manufacturers) do a clean install on the new drive, download the OS
upgrades, copy over the files you want and reinstall the applications you
want. This is a pain, but gives you a cleaner, faster system without worries
about errors, malware, etc.

Good luck. I can lend you my drive dock if you want, and help you with the
transfer.

Jack

-----Original Message-----
From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
[hidden email]
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2016 10:00 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Friam Digest, Vol 154, Issue 18

Send Friam mailing list submissions to
[hidden email]

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
[hidden email]

You can reach the person managing the list at
[hidden email]

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Friam digest..."

Today's Topics:

1. Sober, clear advice needed (Nick Thompson)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2016 12:17:38 -0600
From: "Nick Thompson" <[hidden email]>
To: "Friam" <[hidden email]>
Subject: [FRIAM] Sober, clear advice needed
Message-ID: <008a01d19f1e$c09090b0$41b1b210$@earthlink.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Hi, everybody,

A substantial family calamity occurred in Massachusetts on Friday, on the
same day that a technician who replaced my motherboard here warned me that
my hard drive is on its last legs. I have a new hard drive sitting on my
desk from HP and HP will come install it, but under my circumstances I
cannot afford any break in my communication with My People in Massachusetts.

Here is where I need your advice. I keep being told that it is possible to
make an "image" of one's hard drive. I imagine this means, I pay a hundred
bucks for a black box, I plug the black box into my computer, I let it whir
for a night, and then there is a copy of my hard drive on the black box.
Then, when my present hard drive dies, I have HP replace it, I plug the
black box into the computer again, let it whir for another night, and when I
wake up in the morning, resume my life exactly as it was.

Is such a thing possible? Could it be done by a "citizen" (as Owen calls us)
who is much distracted by other things. Can you recommend a particular black
box. One problem that DotFoil has suggested is that my old hard drive may
have errors on it, and that transferring an "image" (if such a thing is
possible) will transfer those errors, with possibly fatal consequences.
Should I perhaps run error correction software somewhere in that process.

Please advise,

Nick

P.S. Everybody's safe.

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

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**************************************

-----
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Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2016.0.7539 / Virus Database: 4563/12108 - Release Date: 04/26/16

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

Gillian Densmore

Re: Friam Digest, Vol 154, Issue 18

As to citizen lol yeah Pa is smart and has opinions. He also helped practially invent the modern computer so that's also why I suspect he thinks the rest of us are mere mortals.

The fancy Word thing though is That a Image is basically realy reely reeely small coppy of you hard drive. It's basically ment to take kind of a snapshot of the hard drive. and does so to save space. (Arconis for instance does this)

Where as Hdclone as far as I know tries to make copy of the harddrive. So as that what ever is there you get onto the new disk. It seems pretty good at helping with freshstarts (awsome) and quite usable. It doesn't bother trying to save space though. I've used a few times and couldn't get a usb-drive to boot from what it created, but as far as I can tell all the stuff was there.

As to Error I have no idea that's honestly more of an opinion kind of thing possibly ie I don't know if it's your hard disks motovitator unit etc.

I hope that made things a more like clear as green tea rather than clearer as mud.

On Tue, Apr 26, 2016 at 1:04 PM, Gillian Densmore <[hidden email]> wrote:

ForWhatIt'sWorth
Nick I don't know if you're still following this thread or found a fix:

ForWhatItWorth:
There's a few shareware things that can do something like Arconis wich says to the hard drive that has issues lets makea photocoppy to start fresh.
The anoying news is Windows(up to 10) is reely bad about not having a baked in back up and fresh clean start system I have no idea why.

The Good news though is that I have used two: There's Macron(however it's spelled) reflect Xclone and a few others that work
There's a article about shareware Windows Back Up and freshstarty kind of stuff at places like life hacker.com:
http://lifehacker.com/5839753/the-best-disk-cloning-app-for-windows

ForWhatIt'sWorth CaspersTimeMachine is free and works pretty well
I've used hdclone one my (infamously problative Del)
You can get it here I thought it was so cool that it was shareware with a free give this a tree hit go and have a backup kind of thing:
https://www.miray.de/products/sat.hdclone.html
It's free version while slow was good enough to make sure I didn't loose stuff (art, articles etc)

I thought XMLDrive was a little awkward to use but worked and as far as I know you can use Hdclone and Macriums Reflect while using the the computer wich is handy.

On Tue, Apr 26, 2016 at 10:46 AM, Jack Stafurik <[hidden email]> wrote:
Nick

Actually, this is simple. I've done it several times. You need a drive dock
(I have one) and the right software. I've used Acronis software, which costs
about $20 - 40, but there may be free stuff available to do this on the web.
You plug the drive dock with your new drive into a USB port, start the
software, and a few hours later replace your old drive with your new one.
All your software, files, and probably viruses and malware are right there,
ready to go. However this may also transfer over any errors, etc. You can
run CHKDSK to find out if there are any disk errors you need worry about.
Also, there are free or trial versions of disk checking software you can get
to test. I've used Hard Disk Sentinel.

Alternatively, if you have your OS disks you can (maybe, with some
manufacturers) do a clean install on the new drive, download the OS
upgrades, copy over the files you want and reinstall the applications you
want. This is a pain, but gives you a cleaner, faster system without worries
about errors, malware, etc.

Good luck. I can lend you my drive dock if you want, and help you with the
transfer.

Jack

-----Original Message-----
From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
[hidden email]
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2016 10:00 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Friam Digest, Vol 154, Issue 18

Send Friam mailing list submissions to
[hidden email]

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
[hidden email]

You can reach the person managing the list at
[hidden email]

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Friam digest..."

Today's Topics:

1. Sober, clear advice needed (Nick Thompson)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2016 12:17:38 -0600
From: "Nick Thompson" <[hidden email]>
To: "Friam" <[hidden email]>
Subject: [FRIAM] Sober, clear advice needed
Message-ID: <008a01d19f1e$c09090b0$41b1b210$@earthlink.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Hi, everybody,

A substantial family calamity occurred in Massachusetts on Friday, on the
same day that a technician who replaced my motherboard here warned me that
my hard drive is on its last legs. I have a new hard drive sitting on my
desk from HP and HP will come install it, but under my circumstances I
cannot afford any break in my communication with My People in Massachusetts.

Here is where I need your advice. I keep being told that it is possible to
make an "image" of one's hard drive. I imagine this means, I pay a hundred
bucks for a black box, I plug the black box into my computer, I let it whir
for a night, and then there is a copy of my hard drive on the black box.
Then, when my present hard drive dies, I have HP replace it, I plug the
black box into the computer again, let it whir for another night, and when I
wake up in the morning, resume my life exactly as it was.

Is such a thing possible? Could it be done by a "citizen" (as Owen calls us)
who is much distracted by other things. Can you recommend a particular black
box. One problem that DotFoil has suggested is that my old hard drive may
have errors on it, and that transferring an "image" (if such a thing is
possible) will transfer those errors, with possibly fatal consequences.
Should I perhaps run error correction software somewhere in that process.

Please advise,

Nick

P.S. Everybody's safe.

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

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------------------------------

End of Friam Digest, Vol 154, Issue 18
**************************************

-----
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2016.0.7539 / Virus Database: 4563/12108 - Release Date: 04/26/16

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

Nick Thompson

Re: Friam Digest, Vol 154, Issue 18

In reply to this post by Michael Stevens

Hi, Michael, and others,

I would happily spend the money to have somebody do it for me, but I cannot give up my machine under the current circumstances for the 3 or 4 days that the services require. I am thinking that if I follow Jack’s instructions, I can swap out the new hard drive and see if it works. If it doesn’t, I am no worse off. The transfer of files could be done overnight.

All my data is up on Carbonite, but the last time I had to do this, it took two days to download over an Ethernet connection.

Nick

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Michael Stevens
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2016 10:48 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Friam Digest, Vol 154, Issue 18

Nick,

Best of luck,

Mike Stevens

Berkeley

On Apr 26, 2016, at 9:00 AM, [hidden email] wrote:

Send Friam mailing list submissions to
                [hidden email]

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
                http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
                [hidden email]

You can reach the person managing the list at
                [hidden email]

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Friam digest..."
Today's Topics:

  1. Sober, clear advice needed (Nick Thompson)
From: "Nick Thompson" <[hidden email]>
Subject: [FRIAM] Sober, clear advice needed
Date: April 25, 2016 at 11:17:38 AM PDT
To: "Friam" <[hidden email]>

Hi, everybody,

A substantial family calamity occurred in Massachusetts on Friday, on the same day that a technician who replaced my motherboard here warned me that my hard drive is on its last legs. I have a new hard drive sitting on my desk from HP and HP will come install it, but under my circumstances I cannot afford any break in my communication with My People in Massachusetts.

Here is where I need your advice. I keep being told that it is possible to make an “image” of one’s hard drive. I imagine this means, I pay a hundred bucks for a black box, I plug the black box into my computer, I let it whir for a night, and then there is a copy of my hard drive on the black box. Then, when my present hard drive dies, I have HP replace it, I plug the black box into the computer again, let it whir for another night, and when I wake up in the morning, resume my life exactly as it was.

Is such a thing possible? Could it be done by a “citizen” (as Owen calls us) who is much distracted by other things. Can you recommend a particular black box. One problem that DotFoil has suggested is that my old hard drive may have errors on it, and that transferring an “image” (if such a thing is possible) will transfer those errors, with possibly fatal consequences. Should I perhaps run error correction software somewhere in that process.

Please advise,

Nick

P.S. Everybody’s safe.

Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

_______________________________________________
Friam mailing list
[hidden email]
http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

Robert Wall

Re: Friam Digest, Vol 154, Issue 18

Nick,

I have worried about the loss of my data as well and have searched for an economical solution. For me, losing a device (e.g., by a crash or by theft) is not nearly as critical a loss as losing my data. Hardware can be replaced. Lost data, likely, cannot. But losing a hard drive also means the loss of your applications (not just data), which would have to be reinstalled unless you have a reinstallable image of your hard disk, including the operating system. I have lots of applications, some of which are just downloads with not associated physical media, which is fairly typical now.

My solution, after doing the trade-offs and comparing reviews, was to go with NovaStor's NovaBackup (a new startup I think) for an introductory price of about $50 for the software, but including a year's worth of technical support. What I liked especially is that they will help you set up a schedule of backups as part of the service over the internet--this support takes less than an hour. This service is not like Carbonite or CrashPlan where your data (not apps) gets backed up to the cloud, though that would be just another layer of protection. This solution is just the software to back everything up to wherever even Dropbox, software you will own forever (i.e., a one-time cost). I chose to back up my data and my hard disk image to a USB-connected 2 TB hard disk that I purchased from Amazon for $75. NovaStor will even help you create a boot "disk" on a flash drive if your hard disk actually crashes. Everyone should have a boot disk to recover from a corrupted operating system.

However, even in this seemingly robust set up you will still be vulnerable to the so-called ransomware attacks--which are on the rise--where everything (apps and data) local or connected by a network or by USB--gets encrypted. The survival strategy for this kind of attack is to have an image stored offline [unconnected]. For this, NovaStor will show you how to save an image on a flash drive away from the attackers. High-capacity flash drives are quite cheap these days. I back up a new image to my USB-connected hard disk every week. I roll off another image backup to the offline flash drive every so often, just to be sure.

In order to have NovaStor continue with support after the first year, I suspect I would have to shell out another $50, but I am not sure that I will need this. This solution is just backup software. But if it works and you have your backup schedules set up, what more needs to be done? The updates would need to be fantastic!

Hope this addresses your question. Be assured that I receive no compensation from NovaStor for this review. 😊 This solution just seems to "answer the mail" for me at least.

Cheers,

Robert

On Tue, Apr 26, 2016 at 9:31 PM, Nick Thompson <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi, Michael, and others,

I would happily spend the money to have somebody do it for me, but I cannot give up my machine under the current circumstances for the 3 or 4 days that the services require. I am thinking that if I follow Jack’s instructions, I can swap out the new hard drive and see if it works. If it doesn’t, I am no worse off. The transfer of files could be done overnight.

All my data is up on Carbonite, but the last time I had to do this, it took two days to download over an Ethernet connection.

Nick

Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Michael Stevens
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2016 10:48 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Friam Digest, Vol 154, Issue 18

Nick,
If you wanted to transfer only “files,” like the text of a paper, photographs, a spreadsheet, etc. there are plenty of ways to do that. (You probably know this, I’m not trying to insult your intelligence!) However, if software is involved, e.g. Word, Excel, etc., I think it’s much more complicated. What you have heard about an image is correct, but I wouldn’t recommend that as a do-it-yourself project, particularly in a distracted state of mind with family troubles. There are just too many little things that could go wrong. My advice is to hire someone. Price range would most likely be $100 - $150, but that’s only a guess.
Best of luck,
Mike Stevens
Berkeley
On Apr 26, 2016, at 9:00 AM, [hidden email] wrote:

Send Friam mailing list submissions to
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To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
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or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
                [hidden email]

You can reach the person managing the list at
                [hidden email]

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Friam digest..."
Today's Topics:

  1. Sober, clear advice needed (Nick Thompson)
From: "Nick Thompson" <[hidden email]>
Subject: [FRIAM] Sober, clear advice needed
Date: April 25, 2016 at 11:17:38 AM PDT
To: "Friam" <[hidden email]>

Hi, everybody,

A substantial family calamity occurred in Massachusetts on Friday, on the same day that a technician who replaced my motherboard here warned me that my hard drive is on its last legs. I have a new hard drive sitting on my desk from HP and HP will come install it, but under my circumstances I cannot afford any break in my communication with My People in Massachusetts.

Here is where I need your advice. I keep being told that it is possible to make an “image” of one’s hard drive. I imagine this means, I pay a hundred bucks for a black box, I plug the black box into my computer, I let it whir for a night, and then there is a copy of my hard drive on the black box. Then, when my present hard drive dies, I have HP replace it, I plug the black box into the computer again, let it whir for another night, and when I wake up in the morning, resume my life exactly as it was.

Is such a thing possible? Could it be done by a “citizen” (as Owen calls us) who is much distracted by other things. Can you recommend a particular black box. One problem that DotFoil has suggested is that my old hard drive may have errors on it, and that transferring an “image” (if such a thing is possible) will transfer those errors, with possibly fatal consequences. Should I perhaps run error correction software somewhere in that process.

Please advise,

Nick

P.S. Everybody’s safe.

Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

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Gillian Densmore

Re: Friam Digest, Vol 154, Issue 18

@Nick Or do more than one kind of backup.

If you use Amazon they have (had?) a bit of free space for there cloud stuff. Dropbox rocks for just files/pictures etc (only 2gigs though) SkyDrive is a bit bigger(8-10gigs). Also pretty cool for just files.
Pretty much anything internet and cloud related will be slow. A backup over USB is faster if you have one at your house.
Your right that crashplan has a rep for being slow. Nova might be faster.

A couple of other choices to consider:

Rackspace:
https://www.rackspace.com/en-us/cloud/backup.

They have a rep for cloud backup that's super fast. Add used to even offer to send a helper wherever you were. Though I don't see that now.

And I used CloudHQ Once ages ago. Basecamp was pretty cool when I used it. Canbackup to all kinds of places and was(is? ) free
https://www.cloudhq.net/backup-basecamp

Looking around for a userfriendly amazon cloud drive doodad. So as you can start backing up. and I so I don't overwhelm you with choices.
CloudDrive I used once- worked but a little fickle and slow:
http://download.cnet.com/Amazon-Cloud-Drive/3000-18500_4-75711094.html

RainbowDrive might also be a start because speaks the binary language of moister vaperators and profeciant in over 9M forms of back up:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/rainbowdrive/9wzdncrfj2c6

When I last used RainbowDrive it was a back-up-to anyplace kind of doodad and free. At the time was super fun and easy to use.

Hopefully one of these options works out for you. My biased to shareware and free stuff is mostly so you can use whatever you already have while deeling with fam problems just to get started.

Force be with you and yours!

On Tue, Apr 26, 2016 at 11:57 PM, Robert Wall <[hidden email]> wrote:

Nick,

I have worried about the loss of my data as well and have searched for an economical solution. For me, losing a device (e.g., by a crash or by theft) is not nearly as critical a loss as losing my data. Hardware can be replaced. Lost data, likely, cannot. But losing a hard drive also means the loss of your applications (not just data), which would have to be reinstalled unless you have a reinstallable image of your hard disk, including the operating system. I have lots of applications, some of which are just downloads with not associated physical media, which is fairly typical now.

My solution, after doing the trade-offs and comparing reviews, was to go with NovaStor's NovaBackup (a new startup I think) for an introductory price of about $50 for the software, but including a year's worth of technical support. What I liked especially is that they will help you set up a schedule of backups as part of the service over the internet--this support takes less than an hour. This service is not like Carbonite or CrashPlan where your data (not apps) gets backed up to the cloud, though that would be just another layer of protection. This solution is just the software to back everything up to wherever even Dropbox, software you will own forever (i.e., a one-time cost). I chose to back up my data and my hard disk image to a USB-connected 2 TB hard disk that I purchased from Amazon for $75. NovaStor will even help you create a boot "disk" on a flash drive if your hard disk actually crashes. Everyone should have a boot disk to recover from a corrupted operating system.

However, even in this seemingly robust set up you will still be vulnerable to the so-called ransomware attacks--which are on the rise--where everything (apps and data) local or connected by a network or by USB--gets encrypted. The survival strategy for this kind of attack is to have an image stored offline [unconnected]. For this, NovaStor will show you how to save an image on a flash drive away from the attackers. High-capacity flash drives are quite cheap these days. I back up a new image to my USB-connected hard disk every week. I roll off another image backup to the offline flash drive every so often, just to be sure.

In order to have NovaStor continue with support after the first year, I suspect I would have to shell out another $50, but I am not sure that I will need this. This solution is just backup software. But if it works and you have your backup schedules set up, what more needs to be done? The updates would need to be fantastic!

Hope this addresses your question. Be assured that I receive no compensation from NovaStor for this review. 😊 This solution just seems to "answer the mail" for me at least.

Cheers,

Robert

On Tue, Apr 26, 2016 at 9:31 PM, Nick Thompson <[hidden email]> wrote:
Hi, Michael, and others,

I would happily spend the money to have somebody do it for me, but I cannot give up my machine under the current circumstances for the 3 or 4 days that the services require. I am thinking that if I follow Jack’s instructions, I can swap out the new hard drive and see if it works. If it doesn’t, I am no worse off. The transfer of files could be done overnight.

All my data is up on Carbonite, but the last time I had to do this, it took two days to download over an Ethernet connection.

Nick

Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Michael Stevens
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2016 10:48 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Friam Digest, Vol 154, Issue 18

Nick,
If you wanted to transfer only “files,” like the text of a paper, photographs, a spreadsheet, etc. there are plenty of ways to do that. (You probably know this, I’m not trying to insult your intelligence!) However, if software is involved, e.g. Word, Excel, etc., I think it’s much more complicated. What you have heard about an image is correct, but I wouldn’t recommend that as a do-it-yourself project, particularly in a distracted state of mind with family troubles. There are just too many little things that could go wrong. My advice is to hire someone. Price range would most likely be $100 - $150, but that’s only a guess.
Best of luck,
Mike Stevens
Berkeley
On Apr 26, 2016, at 9:00 AM, [hidden email] wrote:

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Today's Topics:

  1. Sober, clear advice needed (Nick Thompson)
From: "Nick Thompson" <[hidden email]>
Subject: [FRIAM] Sober, clear advice needed
Date: April 25, 2016 at 11:17:38 AM PDT
To: "Friam" <[hidden email]>

Hi, everybody,

A substantial family calamity occurred in Massachusetts on Friday, on the same day that a technician who replaced my motherboard here warned me that my hard drive is on its last legs. I have a new hard drive sitting on my desk from HP and HP will come install it, but under my circumstances I cannot afford any break in my communication with My People in Massachusetts.

Here is where I need your advice. I keep being told that it is possible to make an “image” of one’s hard drive. I imagine this means, I pay a hundred bucks for a black box, I plug the black box into my computer, I let it whir for a night, and then there is a copy of my hard drive on the black box. Then, when my present hard drive dies, I have HP replace it, I plug the black box into the computer again, let it whir for another night, and when I wake up in the morning, resume my life exactly as it was.

Is such a thing possible? Could it be done by a “citizen” (as Owen calls us) who is much distracted by other things. Can you recommend a particular black box. One problem that DotFoil has suggested is that my old hard drive may have errors on it, and that transferring an “image” (if such a thing is possible) will transfer those errors, with possibly fatal consequences. Should I perhaps run error correction software somewhere in that process.

Please advise,

Nick

P.S. Everybody’s safe.

Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

_______________________________________________
Friam mailing list
[hidden email]
http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

Nick Thompson

Re: Friam Digest, Vol 154, Issue 18

In reply to this post by Robert Wall

Robert,

Thanks for your response. Having been one of the initiators of this discussion, I am chagrined that I have not been able to participate in it.

I hope show up on Friday, ready to listen to what others have to say. My intuition is that, like waves and particles, systems-energy-flux thinking and natural selection/evolution/phylogenetic thinking are different ways of organizing our thinking about organisms, and neither should be neglected. Nor do I think that either will dissolve the other.

Nick

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Robert Wall
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2016 11:58 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Friam Digest, Vol 154, Issue 18

Nick,

Hope this addresses your question. Be assured that I receive no compensation from NovaStor for this review. 😊 This solution just seems to "answer the mail" for me at least.

Cheers,

Robert

On Tue, Apr 26, 2016 at 9:31 PM, Nick Thompson <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi, Michael, and others,

I would happily spend the money to have somebody do it for me, but I cannot give up my machine under the current circumstances for the 3 or 4 days that the services require. I am thinking that if I follow Jack’s instructions, I can swap out the new hard drive and see if it works. If it doesn’t, I am no worse off. The transfer of files could be done overnight.

All my data is up on Carbonite, but the last time I had to do this, it took two days to download over an Ethernet connection.

Nick

Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Michael Stevens
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2016 10:48 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Friam Digest, Vol 154, Issue 18

Nick,
If you wanted to transfer only “files,” like the text of a paper, photographs, a spreadsheet, etc. there are plenty of ways to do that. (You probably know this, I’m not trying to insult your intelligence!) However, if software is involved, e.g. Word, Excel, etc., I think it’s much more complicated. What you have heard about an image is correct, but I wouldn’t recommend that as a do-it-yourself project, particularly in a distracted state of mind with family troubles. There are just too many little things that could go wrong. My advice is to hire someone. Price range would most likely be $100 - $150, but that’s only a guess.
Best of luck,
Mike Stevens
Berkeley
On Apr 26, 2016, at 9:00 AM, [hidden email] wrote:

Send Friam mailing list submissions to
                [hidden email]

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
                http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
                [hidden email]

You can reach the person managing the list at
                [hidden email]

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Friam digest..."
Today's Topics:

  1. Sober, clear advice needed (Nick Thompson)
From: "Nick Thompson" <[hidden email]>
Subject: [FRIAM] Sober, clear advice needed
Date: April 25, 2016 at 11:17:38 AM PDT
To: "Friam" <[hidden email]>

Hi, everybody,

A substantial family calamity occurred in Massachusetts on Friday, on the same day that a technician who replaced my motherboard here warned me that my hard drive is on its last legs. I have a new hard drive sitting on my desk from HP and HP will come install it, but under my circumstances I cannot afford any break in my communication with My People in Massachusetts.

Here is where I need your advice. I keep being told that it is possible to make an “image” of one’s hard drive. I imagine this means, I pay a hundred bucks for a black box, I plug the black box into my computer, I let it whir for a night, and then there is a copy of my hard drive on the black box. Then, when my present hard drive dies, I have HP replace it, I plug the black box into the computer again, let it whir for another night, and when I wake up in the morning, resume my life exactly as it was.

Is such a thing possible? Could it be done by a “citizen” (as Owen calls us) who is much distracted by other things. Can you recommend a particular black box. One problem that DotFoil has suggested is that my old hard drive may have errors on it, and that transferring an “image” (if such a thing is possible) will transfer those errors, with possibly fatal consequences. Should I perhaps run error correction software somewhere in that process.

Please advise,

Nick

P.S. Everybody’s safe.

Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

_______________________________________________
Friam mailing list
[hidden email]
http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com