After trying many of the potential solutions to my computer problems that I could find on the internet, I finally found one that works for me. It isn’t perfect, but it meets my requirements for the present.
I have opted for a combination of 512GB USB flash drives to save the files I am currently working on as well as the files that I want to be able to access on my laptop. In addition, I will have a backup on a removable hard drive. I am also going to reactivate my old desktop PC as it has a 1Tb hard drive that I can use as an additional device on which to save files.
Eventually I would like to store my backup files on OneDrive (or something similar), but rather than try to do it in a rush, I want to take my time and get it right.
Thanks to everyone who gave me advice and support. I am now able to move forward … and I already have several wargaming topics that I want to write blog posts about.
According to THE GUARDIAN newspaper, the phrase 'Back to Square One' originates from the 1920s and 1930s when football fans regularly listened radio commentaries of matches. To help listeners follow play, the pitch was divided up into a grid of imaginary squares, with Square One being one of the nearest to a goalmouth.
The pitch plan published in the press for radio listeners of the match that took place at Crystal Palace Football Ground (Selhurst Park) on Saturday 29th January 1927. The Corinthians (a non-League team) played Newcastle United in the Fourth Round of F.A. Cup, and Newcastle United won 3-1. This was the first football commentary of an F.A. Cup match broadcast over the radio by the BBC, and took place a week after they had broadcast the first commentary of a First Division match. This had been between Arsenal and Sheffield United and the result was a 1-1 draw.
The phrase may also have originated with games like ‘Snakes and Ladders’ where players can end up sliding down a Snake to the start of the game’s track (i.e. square one).
Hi Bob,
ReplyDeleteI have been using Google Drive for the last year and a half to save all my files. I have nothing but praise for it. Perhaps a good alternative to OneDrive?
Steve
Steve (Steve),
DeleteI'd not considered Google Drive as an alternative to One Drive. Thanks for bringing it to my notice. I will investigate further!
All the best,
Bob
I've been using One Drive as part of my MS subscription for years now. I've found it easy to use. It just looks like an extra drive on your PC, with the added advantage that you can access it on any other of your devices linked to your account. The main downside for you is that if you want access whilst cruising you'll need wifi. However, having lost backups when standalone hard drives have crashed I won't be going back to them.
ReplyDeleteTrebian,
DeleteI have been trying to upload my files to OneDrive but I keep getting messages to reinstall Office 365 Personal. When I try, my computer then sends me error messages to the effect that there is no room left on my C-drive to complete the installation.
Until I can find a solution to this problem, I will have to rely on removable hard drives and USB flash drives as well as my old desktops integral hard drive.
All the best,
Bob
Whatever your backup solution is Bob I find you need another backup, just in case! I currently have two external hard drives!
ReplyDeleteI always assumed it was a boardgame reference - the football pitch is news to me!
Maudlin Jack Tar,
DeleteI am a great believer in solutions that comply with the 'belt and braces' principle and I am looking at ending up with multiple backups.
As to 'Back to Square One' ... well, the football derivation is the oft quoted one, but I suspect that it much older. Perhaps the Romans had their equivalent when that were playing some of their games!
All the best,
Bob
I'm glad your finally getting things sorted out.
ReplyDeleteMark Cordone,
DeleteI am getting somewhere at last ... but its still not a perfect solution. It does, however, seem to work!
All the best,
Bob
After dealing with the frustrations of losing files to computer mishaps and upgrades I've decided to go with a 1TB SD card. Now I keep everything I want to keep on that and keep my hard drive reserved for installing programs, apps and works in progress.
ReplyDeleteMy plan has the bonuses of freeing up HD space so said programs run better which is great for gaming and I don't have to worry about cyber attacks rendering could storage inaccessible.
The next time you have computer troubles you'll be glad you can just pop out the SD card and know everything is safe
Mr. Pavone,
DeleteI have SD slots on my various computers, but to date I’ve only ever used them as an interface for the SD cards in our cameras. I wasn’t aware that you could buy 1Tb SD cards, but it would certainly be a solution, and not one I’d considered using.
Thanks for the very helpful suggestion. I will look into it as a possible way forward for me.
All the best,
Bob
My mistake, I have a 512Gb SD card.
DeleteIt's still a lot of storage.
Mr. Pavone,
Delete512Gb would probably be big enough, although I have found quite a few 1Tb SD cards on sale on Amazon.
All the best,
Bob
Bob,
ReplyDeleteI’m glad to hear that you have a solution, even though it is not what you want in the long term.
I can back up Steve’s recommendation of Google Drive. I’ve used it for years (lately alongside OneDrive). Of course, the 15Gb free storage is not a huge amount, even if one doesn’t have a Gmail account taking up some of the space – so it is not going to cope with a large collection of music, pictures, videos and the like – but I’ve found that it is fine for all my financial spreadsheets, years of bank and credit card statements, etc., none of which require large amounts of memory. It’s also very good for sharing data with others, especially when the files are too large to attach to an email.
I remain puzzled by your OneDrive problem as this is an integral part of Windows and should run even if you are not subscribed to Office 365 (or if you are subscribed but have not chosen to install Office on the PC in question). Given that you said you’d recently had a Windows update and that this was presumably to W11 24H2 which is reported to have a lot of bugs (though I’ve not experienced them) I blame Microsoft.
You spoke of possibly getting a new desktop PC. If you do so I would be interested in learning which machine you select as I need to decide on a replacement for my wife’s 12+ year old device before support for W10 ends. I’m currently considering mini PCs, mainly because I am attracted to the idea of something that is smaller than 5”x5”x2” so freeing up almost all the desktop space her current tower occupies,
All the best,
Mike
Mike, some years ago I bought my wife a Chromebook when she needed a new computer. It has proved a fantastic buy, and I worry much less about security and updates etc. Depends what your wife does on the computer of course.
DeleteSteve
Mike Hall (Mike),
DeleteI have both Google Drive and Dropbox accounts, but I’ve not used either for storing files that I’m not sharing with others. It’s yet another thing for me to think about.
My problem with OneDrive is that although I can connect to it, but I cannot upload all my files to it. I keep getting messages to reinstall Office 365 Personal … and I’ve done that so many times that my laptop’s hard drive is full and will not accept any more re-installations. I seem to be suffering from what I understand is called ‘program bloat’ and what I am going to have to do is to delete the unwanted detritus that I have uploaded … and then I can start again.
In the meantime, I am bringing my old desktop out of retirement to act as a backup for the backup! I had already removed its hard drive, but it took less than five minutes to re-install it and all I need now is a monitor … which I hope to buy from eBay or our local second-hand computer shop.
I am not sure what my longterm solution will be, but if I do go down the desktop route, it will be one that doesn’t take up as much room as my old tower system.
All the best,
Bob
Steve,
DeleteI looked at buying a Chromebook but the reviews I read were not very encouraging. Perhaps I ought to look at them again as part of my longterm solution.
All the best,
Bob
Steve,
DeleteI've actually considered installing Chromium on my wife's PC but she really want's to minimise the changes from the system she is currently using and the only way I can see to do this is to stick to Windows (and W11 can easily be made to operate close enough to W10, at least for her usage),
All the best Mike
Mike Hall (Mike),
DeleteI can understand why someone who is used to using Windows 10 would be reluctant to try something that isn't like it.
All the best,
Bob
I'm glad youve come up with something which will work. I'm. Mightily puzzled by your OneDrive problem as it is built into the operating system and just appears as an extra disk drive. The trouble with fiddling with all this stuff at home is that you only get one shot at it, we don't have the luxury of a professional IT environment with sandboxes, test systems etc. As. I said before, I use a combination of One drive and Google drive.
ReplyDeleteMartin Rapier,
DeleteAs I wrote in answer to Mike Hall’s comment, I can connect to it, but I cannot upload all my files to it. I am getting repeated messages to reinstall Office 365 Personal … and I’ve done that at least five times and my laptop’s hard drive is now full and will not accept any more re-installations. I think that my laptop is suffering from what is called ‘program bloat’ and what I am going to have to do is to go ‘Back to Square One’ and start again.
All the best,
Bob
Bob,
DeleteThat's really weird. I presume that when you talk about "connecting to OneDrive" you can see the directory in File Manager but that you cannot simply drag and drop files/directories into it? It might be worth resetting OneDrive by opening the Run box and typing
%localappdata%\Microsoft\OneDrive\onedrive.exe /reset
though I suspect that this solving the problem is wishful thinking on my part.
As for the "program bloat ", you could try running the Disk Cleanup program from Windows Tools or one of the many free software programs that claim to do this better (though these typically won't unistall programs you no longer want/need).
Mike Hall (Mike),
DeleteI had a long had look at the programs on my computer's C drive ... and discovered that I have two copies of Office 365 installed on it in separate file folders! I have no idea how this has happened and it has filled up my C drive!
I have tried dragging and dropping ... but I am still getting error messages. I suspect that I am going to have to reset the whole thing to cure this situation ... but first I want to secure all my files.
All the best,
Bob