OneDrive backup

AnnieS · July 27, 2024, 05:26:18 AM

I doubt anything on the cloud or anywhere online is safe long term. Just my hunch. I'm thinking of printing out the files I really need.

klondike · July 27, 2024, 08:50:14 AM

Depends what you mean by safe. Certainly not 100% private unless encrypted.

I use DropBox which duplicates stuff on your hard drive and is duplicated across a couple of local machines too.

Bigger long term stuff I prefer to keep on a network RAID device which provides some protection against hard drive failure.

I mostly only use google drive for shared stuff and temporary saves which I can get to on any of my devices.

Films and the like I store of USB drives as they can always be downloaded again if lost.

JBR · July 27, 2024, 11:22:08 AM

I keep a list of my passwords on my computer.

Relax! They are not listed as the true words/numbers. They are described in a way that only I know and can interpret.

dextrous63 · July 27, 2024, 12:44:36 PM

I've decided that I might as well download a copy of the files back onto my PC and transfer them across to D drive from there.

Trouble is that my PC keeps telling me that I haven't got much space left (dunno why, there's not much on it🤷🏻�♂️), so I can only do a few files at a time.

Once I've done that then I might be able to do more drastic optimisation of my C drive, safe in the knowledge that I'm only a £hundred or so from getting a replacement mini PC if it goes awry.

JBR · July 27, 2024, 02:49:47 PM

Quote from: dextrous63 on July 27, 2024, 12:44:36 PMI've decided that I might as well download a copy of the files back onto my PC and transfer them across to D drive from there.

Trouble is that my PC keeps telling me that I haven't got much space left (dunno why, there's not much on it🤷🏻�♂️), so I can only do a few files at a time.

Once I've done that then I might be able to do more drastic optimisation of my C drive, safe in the knowledge that I'm only a £hundred or so from getting a replacement mini PC if it goes awry.

Buy cheap, buy twice! 🤣

dextrous63 · July 28, 2024, 09:10:25 PM

Quote from: JBR on July 27, 2024, 02:49:47 PMBuy cheap, buy twice! 🤣

True. I've had this mini pc since 2020, and it's been fine until now. God knows why it's giving me out of space warnings as I've hardly added anything in terms of software since getting it and have in fact removed many files and obsolete apps. Guess it's down to those lovely updates the get installed without invitation.

Anyway, have just ordered another cheapo one. Hopefully I'll get another 4-5 years out of it before it starts playing silly buggers too.

I'll put it down as tax deductable as an expense for my private tuitions, which is what it'll mostly be used for anyway. Every penny helps.

JBR · July 28, 2024, 10:16:21 PM

Quote from: dextrous63 on July 28, 2024, 09:10:25 PMTrue. I've had this mini pc since 2020, and it's been fine until now. God knows why it's giving me out of space warnings as I've hardly added anything in terms of software since getting it and have in fact removed many files and obsolete apps. Guess it's down to those lovely updates the get installed without invitation.

Anyway, have just ordered another cheapo one. Hopefully I'll get another 4-5 years out of it before it starts playing silly buggers too.

I'll put it down as tax deductable as an expense for my private tuitions, which is what it'll mostly be used for anyway. Every penny helps.

If it is only a problem of storing files and information on your computer, and nevertheless it does the work you want to do on it, perhaps you could buy an external hard drive (about £50) on which to store your files.
If you keep it connected to your computer, it is just as quick to save files there as it is on the computer itself.

Actually, I'd buy two (as I did) in case of any losses due to failure. Having said that, mine have been use for several years and have (touch wood) let me down.

klondike · July 28, 2024, 10:44:45 PM

Alternately just buy a bigger SSD hard drive, clone the existing drive to the new one then replace the original with the new one. As a bonus buy a USB 3 drive caddy and put the original drive into that. How to do these things is all available and easily found using google.

Before you do any of that though install tree size and you'll likely find where all the space went.

https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free

You may not need to buy anything. Just delete that artistic movie you downloaded while drunk and promptly forgot.

There is even software provided with windows that ypu can use to delete junk you don't need and didn;t know you had

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/disk-cleanup-in-windows-8a96ff42-5751-39ad-23d6-434b4d5b9a68

dextrous63 · July 29, 2024, 07:08:41 AM

Thanks fellas. I opened up the case yesterday to look into upgrading the ssd, but it seems to be integrated into the motherboard as there was no obvious removable one.

As for using an external drive, I did get one a few days ago for the purposes you suggested JB (plus to back up my OneDrive files).

Trouble is that there are hardly any files at all kept on the pc. The only software on it is Windows 10, office, acrobat, dymo label printer driver and chrome. Even so, I only had 2-3 Gb spare capacity (on the 64 Gb drive).

I had tried as many things as possible to remove unnecessary files and apps/programs. But it seems that windows had expanded itself over the upgrade years to require 40gig of the drive.

Anyway, all of this is irrelevant now. As I can't upgrade the ssd and clearly 64gig is tiny for modern needs, the simple solution of getting a new PC to last a few years seemed sensible.

But thanks again.

klondike · July 29, 2024, 08:25:22 AM

Quote from: dextrous63 on July 29, 2024, 07:08:41 AMI opened up the case yesterday to look into upgrading the ssd, but it seems to be integrated into the motherboard as there was no obvious removable one.

That really is a cheapskate box. I think JBR got it right with buy cheap buy twice although whatever price you pay it would eventually become obsolete. That said there are plenty of decent yet cheap mini PCs around these days. I bought one as a media player after I get fed up with dodgy Android boxes not all that long ago. That had space for a second SSD so I bunged one in rather than use USB drives.

dextrous63 · July 29, 2024, 09:02:36 AM

I was as surprised as well. Having said that, it's lasted 4 years and would have lasted more had windows not expanded its needs. My old one died completely and I needed one in a hurry. Never got round to retrieving the ssd from that one, which I might do at some stage and get an external carrier for it as another drive to back things up onto.

klondike · July 29, 2024, 09:20:44 AM

They used to produce machines like that with older versions of Windows, 32GB drives and poor performing Intel Atom processors. SSD drives have become so cheap they can even cope with the inefficient Microsoft developers. At least for now.

Still worth checking if drive cleanup of system files can sort it out. At least for a while. Updates can leave gigabytes of unnecessary crap laying around for ages before tidying up its mess.

dextrous63 · July 29, 2024, 10:14:08 AM

I will clean it up and probably use it indoors (attached to a tv...easier to get old photo's up than faffing around with SD cards, amongst other useful things).

dextrous63 · July 30, 2024, 06:31:20 PM

New PC up and running. So simple a process nowadays.

Found my original mini PC that died completely a few years ago. Opened it up and no surprises, no SSD that could be removed. So, since I've not needed anything from there over the last 5 years, I decided to decommission the thing fully. Unplugged the battery, and it's amazing how quickly components fall off when given a quick blast with a propane blowtorch.