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Post by JesusNinja on Apr 14, 2021 23:51:54 GMT
I understand the poverty budget line too. I built my pc from mostly used parts off of EBay. Got maybe $400 maybe $500 counting the case. Overtime also bought backup parts and stored away just in case.And to add about backing up. I have my two drives on PC. One system and the other one is a backup of the system drive and all software and documents. Then an external drive that has backups of both of the earlier drives and also some games, music, docs, etc. I do backups of backups.
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Post by BlueAndGold on Apr 15, 2021 0:02:55 GMT
CCleaner from Piriform is an excellent free tool for cleaning things up too. Very customizable and very intuitive. Highly recommend!
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Apr 15, 2021 0:07:18 GMT
I understand the poverty budget line too. I built my pc from mostly used parts off of EBay. Got maybe $400 maybe $500 counting the case. Overtime also bought backup parts and stored away just in case.And to add about backing up. I have my two drives on PC. One system and the other one is a backup of the system drive and all software and documents. Then an external drive that has backups of both of the earlier drives and also some games, music, docs, etc. I do backups of backups. Once we get a few things taken care of [like a large water tank to increase water pressure so we can take a shower] we'll be getting better computers so we can do multiple drives, better backup drives, and so on.
I keep the main backup drive in a box because our three-year-old is kind of rough on everything.
Where we live we do a lot of surge protectors, especially living on part of a ridge.
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Post by BlueAndGold on Apr 15, 2021 0:12:18 GMT
By the way, thumb drives cost only a few dollars these days, and the capacity is getting greater every month it seems. You can pick up 2-gigabyte ones for only $1 now. You can get a 2-terabyte drive for your key ring for only $40.
Mechanical drives are so... 20th century.
Moving parts (hard drives) are expensive to make and pretty much obsolete. I doubt they will be manufactured very many more years.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2021 3:11:38 GMT
simple USB flash drive thunderguyActually I think the USB flash drive, not a disc, is what my son used. Well at least I have my art files stored away.. (I've stopped doing art now. I just do the occasional drawing or cartoon.) However I should back up my writing files because my computer is below par. Thanks thunderguy.
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Post by Ken on Apr 15, 2021 6:21:16 GMT
Mechanical drives are so... 20th century. Moving parts (hard drives) are expensive to make and pretty much obsolete. I doubt they will be manufactured very many more years. oh dear. No paper tape, no mag tape, no teleprinters, no core stores.  |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2021 7:20:51 GMT
By the way, thumb drives cost only a few dollars these days, and the capacity is getting greater every month it seems. You can pick up 2-gigabyte ones for only $1 now. You can get a 2-terabyte drive for your key ring for only $40. Mechanical drives are so... 20th century. Moving parts (hard drives) are expensive to make and pretty much obsolete. I doubt they will be manufactured very many more years. I had a 4 Terabyte external drive, very costly. It fell sideways-- onto my desk, not far, and it died. Hundreds of files went with it. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2021 7:21:15 GMT
CCleaner from Piriform is an excellent free tool for cleaning things up too. Very customizable and very intuitive. Highly recommend! Highly recommend too. |
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Post by BlueAndGold on Apr 15, 2021 12:16:00 GMT
By the way, thumb drives cost only a few dollars these days, and the capacity is getting greater every month it seems. You can pick up 2-gigabyte ones for only $1 now. You can get a 2-terabyte drive for your key ring for only $40. Mechanical drives are so... 20th century. Moving parts (hard drives) are expensive to make and pretty much obsolete. I doubt they will be manufactured very many more years. I had a 4 Terabyte external drive, very costly. It fell sideways-- onto my desk, not far, and it died. Hundreds of files went with it. Yes, mechanical drives are sensitive to mechanical forces. Owwwch!
Solid state drives (like a thumb drive) are pretty immune to that, other than a hammer blow. Probably the worst you can do to one is immerse it in salt water; but even then, if you flush it out and dry it well it will be fine (though you should copy the files out of it to be safe. Water and electronics don't mix well and eventually the traces and solder connections will corrode).
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Post by Ken on Apr 15, 2021 13:47:09 GMT
Yes, mechanical drives are sensitive to mechanical forces. Owwwch! Examples of precise mechanical engineering with fine tolerances. Not a bit like big red automobiles.  |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2021 14:47:32 GMT
What you have to watch out for with thumb drives, and to some extent SD and micro-SD cards, is that quite a lot of them are fake, and some of them can be dangerous.
The vast majority of these dodgy devices come from the Far East, available through online sites like Wish, Alibaba, Aliexpress and of course eBay. The fakery may be in the case of simple copying and branding of an existing reliable name but will more likely be in the faking of the memory size. This is not just mislabelling and selling it as larger than it really is but manufacturing SD card and thumb drives that deliberately misrepresent their actual size. You plug in a 256GB micro-SD card you bought for peanuts, your computer will tell you it's 256GB, you write 256GB of data to it and you can list all the files you've just written. BUT what you have is in fact a 16GB card that has been manufactured to report itself as being 256GB and 240GB of data you think you've written isn't there, even though the card is telling you it is. I've seen several of these.
As for dangerous, sometimes whoever makes these cards doesn't do that good a job. Two week ago I was asked if I could get the data off a micro-SD card that wasn't readable so I plugged it in and tried a few things with no luck. When I took the card out it was hot, something internally was sending voltage where it shouldn't and it was heating up quickly. I was reading it via a USB adapter so I had something between me and the computer but I wouldn't like to think what could have happened if it was installed in a phone or device that was always on.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2021 15:06:59 GMT
I had a 4 Terabyte external drive, very costly. It fell sideways-- onto my desk, not far, and it died. Hundreds of files went with it. Yes, mechanical drives are sensitive to mechanical forces. Owwwch!
Solid state drives (like a thumb drive) are pretty immune to that, other than a hammer blow. Probably the worst you can do to one is immerse it in salt water; but even then, if you flush it out and dry it well it will be fine (though you should copy the files out of it to be safe. Water and electronics don't mix well and eventually the traces and solder connections will corrode).
I'm going to give it a try. |
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Post by Ken on Apr 15, 2021 15:21:51 GMT
Caution. Perhaps not quite as good as at first suggested. As the name indicates, thumb drives are tiny and portable and come with enclosed in plastic or aluminum cases that make them to be affected by shocks and pressure and will degrade with age. There are multiple thumb drives on the market, but only a few of them are durable.
And using them is not always a case of just plugging them in. For instance, you may need to format or partition the drive before putting it into use with the use of a partition manager.
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Post by markcbrown on Apr 15, 2021 15:26:07 GMT
Well, I'm back! Everything is up and running. What a task that was. All files are backed up on Thumb drives, books and art restored. Just waiting on a new keyboard but in the mean time, here is my set up. Thanks again everyone.  |
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Post by Ken on Apr 15, 2021 15:32:03 GMT
Well done
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