Internet nerds wanted for help, this is your moment to SHINE!

[Bookworm]

Having once lost info through not backing up regularly enough and machine dying, I am tempted to invest into one of those online storage thingamajigs.

 

This one:

Storegate - Your Internet Harddrive. Backup and Storage Online.

 

Looks quite good, but is it? Does anyone know? Can anyone recommend better/cheaper?

 

In particular, I want to be able to store my precious photos and my documents (bank charges reclaiming ones in particular), not music, all in one place, so Photobucket is no good as it's pics, not .doc for example.

 

Any help/advice gratefully received (apart from "back up more often", I KNOW, ok? )

[Curlyben]

Save your money.

Now either go with flash drive/memory sticks, an external hard drive or a Gdrive account.

 

Gdrive uses a Gmail account to store your files.

GMail Drive - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Bookworm]

Hmmm, the problem is when I lost all my music was with an external HD (15 months old! ) and it has rather shaken my faith. Tout passe, tout lasse... tout casse, in this instance.

[ukaviator]

Do you still have that old drive Bookie?

 

A friend told me that putting a hard drive in a ziplock bag and leaving it in the freezer for 15 mins, will occasionally restore failed drive. It some how removed the memory cache stored in the chip when it failed. It will only restore it temporarily, if there is another fault causing the hard drive to crash, it will probably fail again. Maybe worth a try, you might get lucky and be able to copy your music.

[Bookworm]

Sadly no, it has gone to the great landfill site in the sky, as I did exchange it for a new one at PCW and they wouldn't let me keep the dodgy one even though I argued that it contained my data. "Apparently" it had to get returned to Toshiba.

[HSBCrusher]

Sadly no, it has gone to the great landfill site in the sky, .

BBC - Science & Nature - Space - Space Junk

[ukaviator]

Oh well, this freezing of the hard drive apparantly works. There are some instances of getting hard drives running again for a few hours at the most. Hard drive recovery companies freeze hard drives, and then plug them in whilst still in the freezer.

[GlasweJen]

My brother uses storegate and says it's good, he doesn't know of anything cheaper.

 

The freezer trick works for CDs with scratches as well, we've fixed many a CD in our freezer:D

[Bookworm]

Oh, but that I had known then what I know now.

[Guest Gertie100]

Does the freezer thing work on DVDs?

How long do you leave them in there?

[hagenuk]

BT have a service called "Digital Vault" and it's free for anyone for up to 1GB, free for BT Total Broadband customers with storage of 5GB and just £4.99 per month for 50GB. Storegate is almost four times more for the same storage space.

 

It does get mixed reviews however, so you may want to research this before using it.

[Curlyben]

Helllllloooooo

What about GDRIVE as mentioned earlier.

It's FREE !!!

and storage has just passed 6 GIG !!!

[Bookworm]

I had a look at Gdrive, if I understand it right, you have to load up by sending e-mails, is that right? That would make it a lengthy process, wouldn't it?

 

Thanks, Hagen, that BT one does sound like a good deal, I'll look into it. Much appreciated.

 

I also have d/loaded something called piWorx which is free, but in Beta version, as it seems to give something for nothing, I am a bit suspicious, but we'll see...

[Curlyben]

It can be accessed directly from My Coputer: viksoe.dk - GMail Drive shell extension and The Daily Download: Gspace, Gmail Drive, and those Gdrive rumors | Tips, news, and opinions from Download.com editors

 

And for the enlightened there is an excellent extension for Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1593

[JOSH_IOU]

Freezing works,,

 

Dose this mean there's moisture at work?

 

Hey bookie you said its a one for the nerds

[ukaviator]

I don't think it's moisture. It maybe a dry join in a circuit board that appears when the hard drive gets hot and expands. When the unit cools down, the connection is made again.

 

My collegue said he thought it was the memory chip cache being wipped when it got cold. I do remember years ago, that if you lost your radio code, put it in the freezer for an hour, and the previous code is gone. Radio is then unlocked when switched on, and can be used as normal.

[JOSH_IOU]

That's interesting because the hard drive is made up of disks to.

 

Yes there is a small amount of cache in there other wise theres no way you can store coding that fast.

[make them aktiv runners]

Give data to an online company, no way.

 

It is better to use a combination just in case:

 

1) Copy to a separate hard drive not linked to pc

2) Copy to disk

3) Copy to memory stick

4) Instal a separate hard drive in your pc

5) Fragment exististing hard drive and copy to more than one fragmented area.

[Bookworm]

BBC - Science & Nature - Space - Space Junk

Hey, I have just learned a new word today:

 

"geosynchronous"

 

 

[GlasweJen]

You freeze the CD/DVD for no more than 2 or 3 hours and that usually works. You should put it on the top shelf.

[HSBCrusher]

In the local shop they have memory "pens" 2 gig at £15.99.

Sounds like a good solution to me.

You can get 4 gig for £25... thats a lot of info.

[MilkTrayMan]

You freeze the CD/DVD for no more than 2 or 3 hours and that usually works. You should put it on the top shelf.

Do U have to turn it occasionally??...:?

 

 

...

[GlasweJen]

hee hee no, I recommend the top shelf because it you stick it in a drawer in the freezer it sometimes sticks to the bottom of the compartment. You should also have it label side down just in case this does happen.

[MilkTrayMan]

...I recommend the top shelf because it you stick it in a drawer in the freezer it sometimes sticks to the bottom of the compartment...

Your bottom drawer is frigid??...

...

[Bookworm]

MTM, behave! ;-)