Stephen A. Lawrence wrote:
If you've got personal data you care about on the machine, you might also consider getting a USB drive and copying it off, just in case. They are astonishingly easy to set up (remove from box, remove cable from the little plastic bag it comes in, figure out which end fits in the socket, turn drive on, *done*).
I highly recommend these things. I have 5, with backups from two computers. I copy files directly with a program called "Backer" and in compressed format with "Acronis True Image." This works fine for recovering the occasional lost file. HOWEVER, I have discovered that when a computer crashes seriously and cannot be booted, it is better to have an Acronis True Image copy available on a second hard disk inside the computer. You can always boot up the Acronis recovery disk, and it will always find a second hard disk, but sometimes it does not find a USB hard disk.
Small hard disks cost practically nothing these days, so adding a small second drive for an internal backup is economical. It is also works faster than a USB add on disk. I have seen a new kind of SATA board that extends outside the computer, allowing a direct connection to an external hard disk. I think it is called eSATA. This should be faster than a USB and perhaps cheaper.
- Jed
