PC Community Main Meeting
7:30 - 10 pm October 3, 2014
Calvary Baptist Church 28924 Ruus Road, Hayward California
The meeting was called to order at 7:38 pm by President Chuck Horner. See the ticket table for raffle tickets, door prize tickets, and 3" x 5" cards to write questions for discussion/answers at the end of the Meeting. Get at least one $5 raffle ticket for this month's raffle prize: a 32 GB Lexar flash drive, model S73, up to 45 Mb/sec.
Presentation: Elliott Stern, of Maestro Computing, Skyped a presentation from a new perspective on backing up your computer.
Although March 31 is World Backup Day, you shouldn't wait until the day before April Fools Day to protect your data.
There are two basic kinds of backup: file backup and image (whole computer) backup. Remember to back up digital downloads and include keys and serial numbers. Once the backup is complete, remove the backup medium/drive. Unplug it from possible contamination from the system, physical damage, theft, etc. Store it somewhere else.
Review your backups to be sure they are working. Periodically run a test Restore; get comfortable with the Restore procedure for the software you have chosen before you need it.
Maestro Elliott recommends EaseUS, Novastor, or FolderClone for backup software. There are also cloud-based backup services, but they do not back up your entire system.
Mozbackup is a 3rd party program for Firefox and Thunderbird. Using the built-in backup for programs such as Quicken and Quickbooks will help Tech Support for those products, should the need arise, recognize the native backup file format for the problem file. These proprietary backup file formats can be included in your general backup.
Routers should also be backed up. Each has its own way of doing things. You'll need your IP address.
Emergency Room CPR: Virus, dead hard drive, etc. If you have to wipe out your computer and start over you'll be glad you have all your Restore data on separate media. A separate partition on your hard drive will not be much help here.
There is no single best backup solution, but pay attention to the stability and reliability of a company. Use backup software from a company that focuses on backup, not software from someplace whose attention is really on another product. .
If you have questions contact Elliott at:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
310-880-9891.
Member Bud Gallagher noted that he has discovered Time Machine For Windows and so far likes it a lot. It creates incremental backups in the background without noticeable slowing. Bud also mentioned using a NAS backup drive.
A differential backup backs up everything since the last full backup; an incremental backup only backs up files that have changed since the last back up.
Member Andrew Tews backs up to a RAID system every month right after the Microsoft updates. This captures fixes.
Elliott would like to add to the discussion that the online backup service Carbonite does not offer unlimited backup for all your computers. It is unlimited capacity per computer. iDrive offers 1TB of backup space.
Door Prizes
O'Reilly ebook download--Bud Gallagher
iwork book--Sally Holt
Office 2013 book--Andrew Tews
indows 10 32 bit CD (Courtesy of Bud Gallagher)-- Bayle Emlein
Windows 10 64 bit (Courtesy of Bud Gallagher)--Michael Wong
Windows 7 the Definintive Manual (Courtesy of Bud Gallagher)-- Robert Rofen
Trouble Shooting Windows 7 (Courtesy of Bud Gallagher)--Bill Houston
Windows 7 and Vista (Courtesy of Bud Gallagher)--Joy Somerville
Plextor Solar flashlight(Courtesy of Bud Gallagher)--Chuck Horner
Raffle Prize
Lexar 32 GB 3.0 flash drive Bayle Emlein
The meeting was adjourned at 8:58 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Bayle Emlein
