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Back up issues

Started by Alfonso_Frisk, November 16, 2011, 03:40:35 PM

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Alfonso_Frisk

This morning I got the blue screen of death on my lappy :'(
Turned it off and then back on and its been fine up to now.
However as a precaution I thought I should copy everything from it over to an external drive using the windows back up option.
After 4GB of data transfer I get a message saying not enough room on destination drive despite there being 812GB free and there is only 51GB to move across.
The error message also says something about 4GB being the max it can move as the destination drive is FAT32. ?????.???????
In the past I have moved across more than 4GB of pics but this was via the copy folders option in windows.
So now I'm confused, so any advice or explanation from you guys would be much appreciated.
(its xp version BTW)
RR
Alf
http://www.fluidr.com/photos/nosmo_king2007
http://www.seateamimages.com/search.php
Wine improves with age, The older I get the more I like it.

Hinfrance

I don't know why people like XP - imho it is the worst OS Microsoft have ever inflicted on us. Vista is miraculous in comparison.

Anyhoo, be that as it may, and not knowing why the xp windows backup is doing this to you (just one of the many features of XP that never worked for me, at all) why not try again with a free backup utility like Syncback

I use this for my daily backups on all the family PCs - does everything I need it to.
Howard  My CC Gallery
My Flickr
The theory seems to be that as long as a man is a failure he is one of God's children, but that as soon as he succeeds he is taken over by the Devil. H.L Mencken.

Markulous

Absolutely nothing to do with the O/S but is a FAT32 problem as the maximum possible size for a file on a FAT32 volume is 4 GB minus 1 byte - if you use NTFS then the maximum NTFS file size is 16 TB minus 64 kB. So a reformat of the external hard drive to NTFS will get around the problem

Vista was only exceeded by Windows Millennium for problems (mainly but not exclusively drivers) and was a resource hog - which is why the vast majority of businesses elected to stick with the excellent XP which used resources remarkably efficiently and leapfrog to Win7. One of the very best Windoze was v3.11, another highly efficient and effective O/S (especially networks)
Whatever and ever. Amen
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Mark @ Photobucket

picsfor

With regards to the back up option, what it is trying to do is recreate your entire laptop hard drive as  a mirrored option, which always take up more space than is actually needed. It's one of those areas where MS is still highly inefficient. Not a dig from an Apple owner, just a fact (i do still have a Tosh lappy with win 7  :'( )

If you were to just do a straight copy of files from the laptop to EHD via a copy from 1 window/ folder on your laptop, to another window/ folder on your EHD - it should work ok. It will be laborious, and time consuming - but it will work as long as the laptop lasts out. Don't forget to export e-mails as a pst file and your bookmarks for which ever browser you're using.

Hope that helps - if it works, we can discuss a more preventative back up solution afterwards  :tup:

As per Markulous comments re versions of Windows, i'm in agreement - though my favourite version was 2000, but then i studied and supported it to enterprise level and from the early beta versions (got some nice little logos i could put on my stationary, cv's and web site as well). Some lovely back end stuff MS took away in XP that was sooo useful to the IT Support bods - and even those custom building computers.

Alfonso_Frisk

Thanks guys
I have a vista 64 desktop and hate the system with a passion.

Sooo, reformat the ehd? 
I have 118GB of mostly pics on this drive so will I have to copy these over to some where prior to doing this ??
http://www.fluidr.com/photos/nosmo_king2007
http://www.seateamimages.com/search.php
Wine improves with age, The older I get the more I like it.

Markulous

Quote from: Alfonso_Frisk on November 16, 2011, 04:38:31 PM
Thanks guys
I have a vista 64 desktop and hate the system with a passion.

Sooo, reformat the ehd? 
I have 118GB of mostly pics on this drive so will I have to copy these over to some where prior to doing this ??

Or prevent the copy from attempting to copy a file bigger than 4GB - you could use SyncToy http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=15155 which, IIRC, will allow you to copy everything but certain files in certain folders (so you move the files temporarily). But if you need to copy all files, including those greater than 4GB then think you'll really need to ensure the Ext H/D is formatted as NTFS (N.B. Check that the Ext H/D will work as an NTFS formatted drive - some won't but will tell you what formats will work!)
Whatever and ever. Amen
http://smg.photobucket.com/home/Markulous/index
Mark @ Photobucket

Oldboy

Sorry folks, but I'm confused? If his laptop is WindowXP with Fat32 then, he wouldn't have a single file bigger than 4gb? Why not create a folder on the external hard drive called 'C Drive', then right click on the C drive in Windows Explorer, select copy, open the 'C Drive' folder on the external hard drive, right click and select paste. It should then copy over all of the C drive. Do the same for any other drives you have on your laptop.  :tup:

Alfonso_Frisk

Quote from: Oldboy on November 16, 2011, 07:54:20 PM
Sorry folks, but I'm confused? If his laptop is WindowXP with Fat32 then, he wouldn't have a single file bigger than 4gb? Why not create a folder on the external hard drive called 'C Drive', then right click on the C drive in Windows Explorer, select copy, open the 'C Drive' folder on the external hard drive, right click and select paste. It should then copy over all of the C drive. Do the same for any other drives you have on your laptop.  :tup:

OB, the xp lappy is NTFS and the ehd is fat32
any hows, I have downloaded something called paragon from the computer active web site and this is presently copying everything over as I type this from the vista machine.
Ive never been good at backing up my systems and its something I really should do and may need some advice on doing so.
I always back up/copy photo folders after each shoot though which I suppose is better than nothing.
http://www.fluidr.com/photos/nosmo_king2007
http://www.seateamimages.com/search.php
Wine improves with age, The older I get the more I like it.

picsfor

I think at this point, our concern should be about rescuing data.

But once sorted out, i would certainly look at getting a second EHD if you can find one for less than the price of a football players wages.
Variety of reasons, but 2 EHD's always offers the best value back up system.

The next question being, what software do you use to manage your pictures with?

Oldboy

Quote from: Alfonso_Frisk on November 16, 2011, 08:11:11 PM

OB, the xp lappy is NTFS and the ehd is fat32

Now I understand.  :uglystupid2:

Quote from: Alfonso_Frisk on November 16, 2011, 08:11:11 PM

any hows, I have downloaded something called paragon from the computer active web site and this is presently copying everything over as I type this from the vista machine.
Ive never been good at backing up my systems and its something I really should do and may need some advice on doing so.
I always back up/copy photo folders after each shoot though which I suppose is better than nothing.

I've hear of Paragon but have used PartitionMagic, which allows you to set partitions up without destroying data on the drive. You could set it up yourself using Dos but all data would be lost.  ???

I've never got on too well with backup software, as when I've done the backup it wouldn't allow me to restore the backups. Strange, as I could access any file within the backup and restore that, but not the full backup?  :doh:

Alfonso_Frisk

I do have another 2 EHD's. ! for the vista machine and another for a desktop XP machine.
They contain some game data and some stuff from when I was employed, plus some old photos.

Editing. I do very little editting apart from cropping, straightening horizons and adjust a bit of contrast. Reasons being are (a) I'm crap at it, and (b) I find it tedious and I dont have the patience.
I mainly use Irfanview, but I also have installed Elements 5, lightroom 2.7, and also Serif photoplus 8.
http://www.fluidr.com/photos/nosmo_king2007
http://www.seateamimages.com/search.php
Wine improves with age, The older I get the more I like it.

Jonathan

Sounds like the backup app is trying to create a sparse bundle.  I.e. fit an image of the whole computer into a single file.  That's always going to be tricky on FAT32.  It's also not a great idea for most backups unless you have some clever s/w.
It's Guest's round

picsfor

Quote from: Jonathan on November 17, 2011, 07:58:34 AM
Sounds like the backup app is trying to create a sparse bundle.  I.e. fit an image of the whole computer into a single file.  That's always going to be tricky on FAT32.  It's also not a great idea for most backups unless you have some clever s/w.

yeah - wouldn't happen with Apple  :tup: (go on, surely you didn't think we'd go the whole thread with some one throwing fruit around  ::)  )

Jonathan

Nope it would happen with Apple too assuming you'd formatted FAT32.  Time machine creates massive sparse bundles (that's what I meant by clever s/w).

FAT32 is a really bad choice for this task.
It's Guest's round

picsfor

I was referring to running with Mac OS Extended Journal as the format.

I only use fat32 with drives required to be used with MS Windows, otherwise they all Extended Journal...

Why buy Apple and use Windows file formats...

Not denying the size of the file Time Machine creates - just the ease with which it merrily backs up data and restores it - and all with very little fuss.
But in nearly 3 years i've only had to make space on my Time Machine drive once, and it is a like for like 1Tb drive that matches the 1Tb system drive.

For single desktop set ups with maybe iPad and iPhone - Time Machine is as good as any one needs. Add in a MBP and maybe a little more thought is needed - but not too much. We don't all run MP and other multiples of other devices  ::)

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