OK,
, in reverse order
8. no problem
7. that could be a problem, but we'll try
6. what's backed up? it's potentally anything but what YOU need is a simple backup of everything.
You already have backup software on XP. Have a look, you don't need to finish the procedure andstart it running but open it up and work through as far as the select backup destination screens, just hit cancel and drop out of it when you get there or if its scary
.
I just had a look on our XP Pro laptop, you should find it here:
Start>All Programs>accessories>system tools>backup.
You'll find it defaults to the simple "wizard" mode and gives you simple options, about 3rd screen in gives you the opportunity to backup the complete PC or various bits of the PC.
You can switch to advanced mode on the first screen and it gives you lots of detailed options.
Have a look
5. "I want a usb external drive/s (a backup drive for photos too) to add my photos to so that it does not clog up my master C drive"
I'm not sure that is 100% the best solution. A few things to consider:
- Your existing internal hard drive still has a significant capacity available
IF the unused D: partition can be reclaimed as C:, or alternatively you can move some of the existing stored data to D:.
However, I doubt it will last long. There's a better way, keep reading . . .
- Just be sure, what sort of data are you storing? XP itself takes up about 8 GB max, plus the same for a reasonable selection of application software, say 20GB total for all the bits that do the work.
A quick check: are you also storing masses of junk: multiple copies of teh same stuff, temporary files, unused software and trials, downloads for multiple upgrades, games, saved games, 1001 exciting fonts free with this months PCmag, general downloaded rubbish, millions of emails with funny/dodgy attachments ?
Lots of clutter can build up on a PC, (quite quickly with internet) and a little bit here and there soon adds up. Would a spring clean help? however . . .
- If you really have filled 120GB with photos in 18 months then there is a simple answer, you need BIG storage, it won't get smaller and storage is cheap now.
- Keeping working data and the backup of it on the same physical drive is really bad practice. It needs to be on 2 separate devices.
The most likely disasters are accidental erasing, hard drive failure (the one most often considered and quite possible with very little warning), theft, or fire/flood.
Other than accidental erasing, if you store the backup on the same drive you are stuffed. Disaster recovery backups should be placed somewhere safe well away from the working copy of the data (eg. keep the backup at a friend or relative's house).
You need a separate backup, and a USB drive is the way to do that.
It needs to be sized to match your working storage capacity.
- when you say "clogging up" do you just mean "full" or is the system too "slow"?
- USB hard drives are a lot slower than internal hard drives, this will affect loading of photos into editing software. Maximum data rate on SATA is 3000Mb/s, on USB2.0 it is 480Mb/s (plus a more convoluted path through the system on shared data routes)
4. "Can I repartition the drive so I do not have a d drive and the space is then put back ontop C drive, whilst not losing any data."
Yes, you can adjust the partition sizes, it should work fine, but messing around with hard drives at this level is a risk to the data. You really really should do a backup first, and you should be keeping a backup anyway. I have a better solution, keep reading . . .
3 & 2. free space available is getting tight and not where you can use it. You've started worrying while there is still a little time to sort it
1. got the message . . MORE . . its the how thats the tricky bit.
I just had a quick look at your links if that's your website and the alamy link,
is that your work?
, you need to get your PC system and data storage structured properly, I'd hate to hear you'd lost your work due to a PC glitch.
If you are struggling with a lack of techy ability on PCs then I think that most of the fixes that the tech savvy folks would use are going to be too daunting and/or too risky. That rules out most of the cheapo and "you just need to do this" fiddly solutions as they invariably make things messy, which makes errors more likely if you dont know what is happening and don't get the software looking in the right bits, and all the automated recovery stuff fails when you need it.
So, for you, I think simple to use and maintain is important.
Instead of splitting data onto a separate USB drive
consider getting the existing hard drive in your system replaced with a 1TB system drive. That way you keep all your working data in its default locations and you don't have to worry about using complicated backup software that needs to be told what to select, and you can stick with simple one button does everything backup solutions.
I suspect you would need to trust a hard drive upgrade like this to your local PC repair shop, they should be able to directly transfer everything onto the new drive (they need to be clearly told to transfer everything, NOT to do a clean install of just XP!) and they should also make sure xp runs OK as they may need to re-activate the XP license, not a big issue if its got the licence sticker on the PC. They should be able to do it at a reasonable price, about £100 would be my guess, maybe £120 tops? (1TB hard drive = £50, and its not going take much time, they may even be able to take the old drive in part payment
, although you probably want to keep it to stop them knicking all your photos off it
)
BEFORE giving them the PC, in fact before anything, go ASAP and get a 1TB USB drive. Just do it.
Then follow the instrctions in the XP backup wizard that I've mentioned and do a full system backup, don't forget you'll need a floppy disk too.
is that simple enough?
I think but somehow it now has a (D) 62gb, free space 58gb, drive which I think was/is for backups, this appeared after a friend put norton ghost on my PC but i no longer use it.
