Thursday 17 January 2013

I am getting anxious about

this "new computer" bit. My brother assures me that all my files can be transferred to the new computer. My brother-in-law keeps telling me that some of my programmes will not work on the new computer.
There are files it would be disastrous to lose. I have them backed up but should I do a back up of the back up. What if the Drop Box site crashed irretrievably? (Okay I backed that up too...after all those novels I have endeavoured to write are in there as well and losing all that would be a disaster.)
The programmes are a little more awkward. Will the Sweater Wizard work? It is very useful. The Sock Wizard and the Mitten and Glove Wizard are useful too... I could not have made mittens for a friend without some ideas from that last programme.
I think I will lose all the Kindle files. They won't be able to be transferred. I hope I can get another copy of Nicola Morgan's excellent WAGS (Write a Great Synopsis).  I have entire books as Adobe Files - I hope they can be copied. I can download some again but others I would have to buy again and that, to put it mildly, would annoy me.
Then there are all my passwords and my favourites and - well many other things.
All my professional material is backed up elsewhere. There are other ways of getting to it. It does not appear on here - for security reasons - but will anything go wrong? It should not.
This is the problem with computers. I am tempted to make hard copies - which is, I suspect, what other people do. It is why I still do not have a paperless office - and why I may never have one.

3 comments:

Miriam Drori said...

Programs can be problematic, but files usually transfer all right. It's always good to have backups, though.

Jennifer said...

Having had two computers die in the last three years, I can tell you that my favorites transferred from my backups without issue.

I don't think I backed up the right things for passwords to transfer.

You should be able to download the kindle things again but if you're backing them up, you should be fine.

I've never lost a pdf unless I just didn't back it up. However, while I rarely back up programs (figuring I can reload from disk), I DO back up my adobe reader program because I have old pdf files that cannot be read by current day readers so I have copies of V3, V4 and on up just in case though I think V4 was the only one I've had to actually use.

Not backing up programs has occasionally caused a problem. Sometimes the new operating system would not be able to run the install file for some obscure (to me) reason but it had no problem running the program if I had it backed up. Other times that wouldn't work either because there would be bits hidden somewhere deep in the file system that I hadn't backed up.

On the other hand, when I had to move from XP to Win7 after the first crash, we had to get a new printer and scanner because there were no drivers for those printers for Win7. Now that printer cannot talk to my new Win7 because it's 64-bit instead of 32-bit. Argh!!

From what I've been hearing Win8 is going to be far worse for backwards compatibility.

Good luck! (And keep backing up!)

Ruby Badcoe said...

After losing all my personal files, I’ve been anxious about keeping my files secured. I feel that an extra hard drives isn’t enough, so I also send a copy of my documents to my email. Aside from that, I have acquired online backup services too. Others may think of it as going overboard, but my files are extremely important to me. In your case, I think you’re doing well, so you don’t have to worry. As long as you have an extra copy of them, you’re files are in safe hands! :)