[jaj523]

I want to add an external backup system to do a daily backup of my system. Also, I have Skype on my computer, but the cord on the camera is not long enough to reach the computer. Need a longer cord. Am looking for someone I can hire to accomplish these things. Is there someone who comes to the customer's home to work on computers? I do not want to send my computer out as I had a terrible experience last time I did that. I know it's even harder now with social distancing to get someone to come to one's home, but I will follow any guidelines the servicer requires.

[Bill32]

I use "Carbonite" offsite backup service. Not terribly expensive, go to their website and download the program, simple set up and your backup files are safely stored on their servers. Take your camera to Best buy and explain your problem, they will most likely have a solution...

[villagetinker]

There are several off the shelf solutions for the local backup, most consist of a USB based external hard drive that you simply plug in, a backup program is downloaded and you are set, or if you are using windows, you can use windows backup. As for the camera, you should be able to go to Best Buy with your camera and tell them you need extension cable(s).
If you do not want to plug in the local drive, then you are probably looking at adding a networked hard drive off your existing modem/network. this is more complicated and will probably need someone to come to your house. I have been using the plug in drive backup for several years, very easy to plug in once a week.

[Pinball wizard]

Just to help a little more...

Specifically, you need to ask for a USB extension cable for your camera.

For backup, here is an example of an inexpensive backup solution which includes and external hard drive and software.

Staples

[photo1902]

Originally Posted by jaj523

I want to add an external backup system to do a daily backup of my system. Also, I have Skype on my computer, but the cord on the camera is not long enough to reach the computer. Need a longer cord. Am looking for someone I can hire to accomplish these things. Is there someone who comes to the customer's home to work on computers? I do not want to send my computer out as I had a terrible experience last time I did that. I know it's even harder now with social distancing to get someone to come to one's home, but I will follow any guidelines the servicer requires.

You didn't mention if you wanted a wireless backup or not. Either way, there are many choices for an external harddrive. Search Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba. Prices are cheap, and you can get 8 tb of storage for $130. You might not need this much harddrive space, but it never hurts to have more. In addition, these companies have software you install which performs automatic or manual backups of your computer. The software is super easy to install and set up. The one thing I might add is that network hard drives take a little longer to perform backups than the wired version, however once you do the initial back up, subsequent backups are significantly shorter.

As far as your camera is concerned, it should be safe to assume its a USB connection, so you will only need a USB extension cable (you determine how many feet you need) and this extension cable will have a male and a female end.

[retiredguy123]

A lot depends on how much data you need to back up. I don't like commercial backup services because they copy everything into a compressed backup file, and then use a recover program to uncompress the data. I would rather do my own back up by selecting and copying my important data to an external drive. Very few people have more than 1TB of data, and most have far less than that. I like the pocket sized external drives, but you can also buy a tiny flash drive (thumb drive) that will hold up to 1TB of data. Data storage devices are incredibly inexpensive today. Also, if you have less than 15 GB of data, you can use the Google drive, which is a free service, very user friendly, and you can access the data from any device connected to the internet. I have all of my scanned legal documents, tax returns, etc. on my Google drive, and I haven't even used 1GB of the 15GB of free storage available.

[champion6]

Originally Posted by jaj523

I want to add an external backup system to do a daily backup of my system. Also, I have Skype on my computer, but the cord on the camera is not long enough to reach the computer. Need a longer cord. Am looking for someone I can hire to accomplish these things. Is there someone who comes to the customer's home to work on computers? I do not want to send my computer out as I had a terrible experience last time I did that. I know it's even harder now with social distancing to get someone to come to one's home, but I will follow any guidelines the servicer requires.

You should try calling Best Buy. Their Geek Squad makes house calls - (352) 674-2039

[jaj523]

Thanks to everyone who responded. Great advice.

[ctmurray]

Macs come with Time Machine application for making backups to USB attached external hard drives. I use this, I make a backup about every 10 days

But I also pay for a cloud based backup called BackBlaze. I saw another post recommending Carbonite, a similar service and both are good. These backup all the time and would have the most recent copies of things. Just in case my external drives which are in my house, get damaged by fire for example.

Others have suggested going to Best Buy for the camera cable, or have them visit you. I suspect there independent people around the Villages you could hire.

[jaj523]

How do I find those independent people?