Back up help
 

I think that my PC might be getting ready to die. What is the best way to quickly backup the content of my hard drive, including emails, email addresses and folders on my desktop?

What makes you think the computer is ready to die? What is going wrong with it? Need a little more detail as to just what is going on. Is it a Windows based PC or an Apple? What operating system (XP, Windows 7 or Windows 8)? Desktop or lap top? How big is the hard drive?

There are many things that may be going on with the computer in general but all in all it may not be dieing and just needs to be cleaned up a bit.

VG

Sorry to hear about the bad news.. I'm assuming that you are already planning on purchasing a new PC, right? If your preparing to make a switch soon, a very easy way to do it, is install a Service called Carbonite on your current PC. Carbonite offers a free, no risk 30 day trial, and is extremely affordable even if you decide to continue to use it... It will backup all your data to the 'cloud', then, If your computer crashes, is stolen, or just dies, you'll simply log in to Carbonite.com from your new computer and click "Restore". You’ll be taken step by step through the process of putting your files back where they belong.

The best part is... if you do this within your first 30 days, it won't cost you a penny!

As a side note, and a little plug.. We are a local computer company based out of Leesburg. If, for some reason, you need professional help doing any of this, we can help you by scheduling a home visit, and/or Remotely logging into your PC and doing it for you. We also build custom computers, which tend to cost about 10% less than the national brands, with LOCAL technical support included! Just a little FYI. :-)

Good Luck!

Thanks for the responses. I may have overstated the “dying” part of my computer, but at the time I wrote the post, I was pretty concerned about losing data. I’m sure whatever is going can probably be fixed.

It’s an approx 4 year old PC running Windows 7. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that in the morning (I leave the computer on all the time) the monitor would have a black screen and the power light on the monitor would be flashing, as if the computer were shut down or the monitor cable was disconnected. However the computer was on and I checked all of the cable connections. I would have to do a cold boot to bring the computer back up. Everything would be fine until the next morning, then I’d find it in the same state. It didn’t always happen everyday, but it started happening more frequently.

The night I wrote the post, it was suddenly going into that “state” every hour or so, even while I was actively using the computer. I checked all of the “sleep/idle mode” type settings and they were all off. I feel like the computer is getting plenty of air flow and externally, it’s dust free. I think my next step will be to take the case cover off and clean it up inside, just in case it’s overheating.

I shut it down two nights ago and didn’t bring it back up until this morning, and so far everything is fine. I'm bad about backing up data, and I think I need to get a back-up done and then I won't be so paranoid about it.

Hopefully my earlier post will help you Skybo.

Thanks CflGeek. Yes, it did help and I’ll look into Carbonite. And I’ve saved your number in case I need to call you. Thanks!

Carbonite or CrashPlan can be extremely slow to copy your entire hard drive. With DSL my projected backup could take 2 weeks. Purchasing an external hard drive with a USB po for well under $100 would be faster. It might take just a few hours to backup. In Windows 7>Control panel> System and security> Backup and restore.

Go to the village computer club ,,, there are folks there that will help you and will be very understanding in explaining what is going on with ur machine,,, they have guys there that live here in TV that where IT guys and have small side business that sidelight ,, I have made some great friends with a couple of these guys. They are very honest.

I've been using Carbonite for years and used it once for a planed restore. Works great and very simple to use