I literally f*cked up my family's computer! D:

[Lacius]

Windows Vista can be suck sometimes. I need Windows 10 as replacement

The steps I outlined above might help you out.

 

[Joe88]

Let this be a lesson to back up your files and not on a main pc drive

 

[evandixon]

BTW you might want to rethink your use of the word "literally".

 

[civickm]

Get a copy of Windows 7 SP1 then do the free upgrade to Windows 10. You have till July 29, 2016!

 

[the_randomizer]

Free file-backup services like Google Drive typically suffice.

Those don't have that much space to backup, and would take forever for huge quantities of files methinks.

 

[Lacius]

Those don't have that much space to backup, and would take forever for huge quantities of files methinks.

Google Drive offers 15 GB for free, which I've found to be enough for most people. When someone needs more space than that, excluding his or her pirated movies and TV shows usually suffices.

 

[the_randomizer]

Google Drive offers 15 GB for free, which I've found to be enough for most people. When someone needs more space than that, excluding his or her pirated movies and TV shows usually suffices.

Still, uploading that much would take forever.

 

[garbanzox]

This reminds me of my childhood. I learned to be pretty fast how to work with DOS and Windows 3.1 by messing up the computer playing around with stuff and having to get it fixed before dad comes home

 

[Lacius]

Still, uploading that much would take forever.

At 4 megabits, it would only take about 7 or 8 hours to backup 15 GB of data to the cloud.

 

[the_randomizer]

At 4 megabits, it would only take about 7 or 8 hours to backup 15 GB of data to the cloud.

Still, but yeah, not too shabby I suppose, I get about that for upload on my end.

 

[tbb043]

There's nothing wrong with VIsta. Only reason I'm not using it anymore is because of a hardware problem (AC port on the laptop went to shit).

 

[Lacius]

There's nothing wrong with VIsta. Only reason I'm not using it anymore is because of a hardware problem (AC port on the laptop went to shit).

Many third parties like Adobe and Google have already dropped support for it, so you can't use a safe version of Chrome, and Microsoft is going to stop supporting it with security updates in less than a year.

 

[amoulton]

There's nothing wrong with VIsta. Only reason I'm not using it anymore is because of a hardware problem (AC port on the laptop went to shit).

Just because *you* didn't have any issues with Vista, doesn't mean there aren't many (well documented) innate flaws.

 

[RandomUser]

Personally, I don't recommend using cloud services for backup. I would prefer a local backups, as I know that to gain access to data, one would have to physically be there to get the backup drive and not have to worry about some random person or group of people deciding to hack the cloud based server to access the data from wherever they are. Also backing up 2TB+ data to cloud is just not feasible, as I have multiple OS images for RAM booting.
Another thing I want to point out that backing up 15GB of data will takes just mere minutes to backup to another local destination as apposed to hours to the cloud.

 

[Lacius]

Personally, I don't recommend using cloud services for backup. I would prefer a local backups, as I know that to gain access to data, one would have to physically be there to get the backup drive and not have to worry about some random person or group of people deciding to hack the cloud based server to access the data from wherever they are. Also backing up 2TB+ data to cloud is just not feasible, as I have multiple OS images for RAM booting.
Another thing I want to point out that backing up 15GB of data will takes just mere minutes to backup to another local destination as apposed to hours to the cloud.

If privacy is a concern, just encrypt your files before uploading them to the cloud.

Edit: Also, using automatic cloud backup will sync any changes you make to your data as you do it.

 

[Deleted User]

I have ASUS WebStorage, which I use unlimited storage Plan for a year and has an option to Backup up to one PC. I don't think it would be a good idea to do that right now as an expiration would break up my files alot.......
And I cannot afford money to buy either 1TB or 5TB /year

 

[RandomUser]

If privacy is a concern, just encrypt your files before uploading them to the cloud.

Edit: Also, using automatic cloud backup will sync any changes you make to your data as you do it.

This seems like another layer that could go wrong, for example losing the encryption key and extra time to encrypt every files. Also local backup can do just like you have mentioned, however I prefer 1:1, basically sector by sector copy to another hard drive or two. I think it's more convenience for to do 1:1 copy because if Windows is really borked to a point of no return, just simply restore from backup and presto, it's almost like it never happened. Although my Windows install borking chances is real low if non existence due to RAM booting. Also 1:1 copies all of your partitions, especially Linux users, whom most likely have multiple partitions. If you partition were to get corrupt, well, you know the rest.
Then there's that time required to re-install Windows and more times required to download all the files off the cloud. Where local backup can be done in minutes and is one shot restore no need to reinstall Windows or any other OS for that matter.
I don't know if some ISP set download allowance or not, but I do know satellite internet they do, and downloading 15GB of data would definitely eat all that allowance. Local backup, you need not to worry about your ISP bandwidth.
I see that cloud storage does have some strong points, like being able to have access to your file anywhere, just like local backup have their pros and cons.

I have ASUS WebStorage, which I use unlimited storage Plan for a year and has an option to Backup up to one PC. I don't think it would be a good idea to do that right now as an expiration would break up my files alot.......
And I cannot afford money to buy either 1TB or 5TB /year

Another reason to go local, buy one or two hard drives, heck three if you want, and never have to worry about monthly fees ever. The backup drive should outlive your primary drive, but in case it doesn't, you should have a second backup drive as auxiliary backup and that should outlive the primary drive. However if you want updated backup syncing, then the lifespan could be questionable, but if you do sector by sector copy every so often, then your backup drive should not need to be powered on as often as your primary drive.

 

[Lacius]

This seems like another layer that could go wrong, for example losing the encryption key and extra time to encrypt every files. Also local backup can do just like you have mentioned, however I prefer 1:1, basically sector by sector copy to another hard drive or two. I think it's more convenience for to do 1:1 copy because if Windows is really borked to a point of no return, just simply restore from backup and presto, it's almost like it never happened. Although my Windows install borking chances is real low if non existence due to RAM booting. Also 1:1 copies all of your partitions, especially Linux users, whom most likely have multiple partitions. If you partition were to get corrupt, well, you know the rest.
Then there's that time required to re-install Windows and more times required to download all the files off the cloud. Where local backup can be done in minutes and is one shot restore no need to reinstall Windows or any other OS for that matter.
I don't know if some ISP set download allowance or not, but I do know satellite internet they do, and downloading 15GB of data would definitely eat all that allowance. Local backup, you need not to worry about your ISP bandwidth.
I see that cloud storage does have some strong points, like being able to have access to your file anywhere, just like local backup have their pros and cons.

I recommend simultaneously using both local backup and cloud backup, but bandwidth caps aside, I see no reason not to at least use some free cloud backup.

 

[amoulton]

you should have a second backup drive as auxiliary backup and that should outlive the primary drive. However if you want updated backup syncing, then the lifespan could be questionable

or just use a service that does all the backend redundancy for you, and you can access your files anywhere without having to remember what drives contain what.

 

[Deleted User]

This seems like another layer that could go wrong, for example losing the encryption key and extra time to encrypt every files. Also local backup can do just like you have mentioned, however I prefer 1:1, basically sector by sector copy to another hard drive or two. I think it's more convenience for to do 1:1 copy because if Windows is really borked to a point of no return, just simply restore from backup and presto, it's almost like it never happened. Although my Windows install borking chances is real low if non existence due to RAM booting. Also 1:1 copies all of your partitions, especially Linux users, whom most likely have multiple partitions. If you partition were to get corrupt, well, you know the rest.
Then there's that time required to re-install Windows and more times required to download all the files off the cloud. Where local backup can be done in minutes and is one shot restore no need to reinstall Windows or any other OS for that matter.
I don't know if some ISP set download allowance or not, but I do know satellite internet they do, and downloading 15GB of data would definitely eat all that allowance. Local backup, you need not to worry about your ISP bandwidth.
I see that cloud storage does have some strong points, like being able to have access to your file anywhere, just like local backup have their pros and cons.


Another reason to go local, buy one or two hard drives, heck three if you want, and never have to worry about monthly fees ever. The backup drive should outlive your primary drive, but in case it doesn't, you should have a second backup drive as auxiliary backup and that should outlive the primary drive. However if you want updated backup syncing, then the lifespan could be questionable, but if you do sector by sector copy every so often, then your backup drive should not need to be powered on as often as your primary drive.

I have two Hard Drives (SATA and IDE) from dead laptops, but it wouldn't fit into 250 GB or 60 GB (310GB total) drive with about 340 GB from a computer, though.
Oh well, there's a System Image Backup feature, I didn't care about backing up before doing major changes, so I'm totally stupid. xD