Testimonial!
I was a cybersinner, too self-centered to understand the salvation that comes from the one true backup. And then the day came when the dreaded blue screen of death made me wish for the respite that one drop of the cool water of backup would provide. But it was too late! Too late, my friends, to know the peace and balm of walking with backups, of talking with backups, and of knowing that backup was with me in my time of trial, in my hour of need.
That was years ago.
I am a changed human because of that experience. I believe in backup! Glory hallelujah, I know backups' bits and bytes, they comfort me, even if my stacks overfloweth.
Several weeks ago it was another of my many many sins that fried my external hard drive, which was for backups -- I knocked over a glass of wine. Replacing the dead drive was easy enough, but the proprietary software for my dead backup drive did not see the new backup drive that was made by a different manufacturer. Cheapskate Ferengi that I am, I spent weeks trying and rejecting different programs that either backed up in some alien file format, or took over my desktop, or backed up fine but could not be coaxed into a test restoration.
Ten days ago I found NovaStor. Not too expensive, with a 15 day free trial. The software saw my external hard drive. It backed up what I told it to backup, at the time I scheduled it. It did a diffferential backup the next day, on schedule. I tested the restore feature, and it worked. So I took advantage of their unexpected mothers' day sale to buy a year-long license. Backup salvation on the cheap! Can I get an Amen?
Yesterday my warhorse desktop computer shuffled off this mortal coil and joined the choir invisibule. Bereft of function, it now has changed its purpose; its new relationship to the divine is to serve as a door stop or a paperweight. I threatened to drag it out to the backyard and shoot it, but it's already dead.
Fortunately, I own a recent vintage laptop, although of a different faith -- uh, I mean, different operating system. Would I be able to restore backups from OS1 to a machine with OS2? Would my belief in backups save my sorry butt?
I'd hate for the suspense to make anyone uncomfortable, so the answer is YES. Hallelujah, Saint Backup has rescued me from the cybervoid.
In a moment of luck I had thought to park copies of the NovaStor exe files -- and the confirmation email that included the license passcode -- on the backup drive, even though I actually ran the program from my late lamented hard drive. I was able to copy those exe files to the laptop disc drive and install the program, and restore the license. Then I said a prayer to Saint Backup and ran the restore program, leaving out the backed up OS files that might have caused a schism had they been copied to the machine using OS2.
Saint Backup has been berry berry good to me. I lost one directory (internet receipts to document purchases made on line) that I stupidly hadn't backed up. And I lost only one document file. Of course it was a rewrite of a chapter in The Rothschild Jewels. I spent much of this morning doing a fresh rewrite. Life is good. Anybody need a paperweight?
Today's lesson, my friend, is to give due respect to Saint Backup, who will rescue you from wine spills, power failures, and the dreaded blue screen of death. When your hard drive dies -- and it will, as surely as you and I will -- only a fresh backup will rescue you from the hell of cybersin. Take backups. Believe this poor old sinner who now rocks in the bosom of Saint Backup. Tomorrow will be too late, but today is time enough.
I was a cybersinner, too self-centered to understand the salvation that comes from the one true backup. And then the day came when the dreaded blue screen of death made me wish for the respite that one drop of the cool water of backup would provide. But it was too late! Too late, my friends, to know the peace and balm of walking with backups, of talking with backups, and of knowing that backup was with me in my time of trial, in my hour of need.
That was years ago.
I am a changed human because of that experience. I believe in backup! Glory hallelujah, I know backups' bits and bytes, they comfort me, even if my stacks overfloweth.
Several weeks ago it was another of my many many sins that fried my external hard drive, which was for backups -- I knocked over a glass of wine. Replacing the dead drive was easy enough, but the proprietary software for my dead backup drive did not see the new backup drive that was made by a different manufacturer. Cheapskate Ferengi that I am, I spent weeks trying and rejecting different programs that either backed up in some alien file format, or took over my desktop, or backed up fine but could not be coaxed into a test restoration.
Ten days ago I found NovaStor. Not too expensive, with a 15 day free trial. The software saw my external hard drive. It backed up what I told it to backup, at the time I scheduled it. It did a diffferential backup the next day, on schedule. I tested the restore feature, and it worked. So I took advantage of their unexpected mothers' day sale to buy a year-long license. Backup salvation on the cheap! Can I get an Amen?
Yesterday my warhorse desktop computer shuffled off this mortal coil and joined the choir invisibule. Bereft of function, it now has changed its purpose; its new relationship to the divine is to serve as a door stop or a paperweight. I threatened to drag it out to the backyard and shoot it, but it's already dead.
Fortunately, I own a recent vintage laptop, although of a different faith -- uh, I mean, different operating system. Would I be able to restore backups from OS1 to a machine with OS2? Would my belief in backups save my sorry butt?
I'd hate for the suspense to make anyone uncomfortable, so the answer is YES. Hallelujah, Saint Backup has rescued me from the cybervoid.
In a moment of luck I had thought to park copies of the NovaStor exe files -- and the confirmation email that included the license passcode -- on the backup drive, even though I actually ran the program from my late lamented hard drive. I was able to copy those exe files to the laptop disc drive and install the program, and restore the license. Then I said a prayer to Saint Backup and ran the restore program, leaving out the backed up OS files that might have caused a schism had they been copied to the machine using OS2.
Saint Backup has been berry berry good to me. I lost one directory (internet receipts to document purchases made on line) that I stupidly hadn't backed up. And I lost only one document file. Of course it was a rewrite of a chapter in The Rothschild Jewels. I spent much of this morning doing a fresh rewrite. Life is good. Anybody need a paperweight?
Today's lesson, my friend, is to give due respect to Saint Backup, who will rescue you from wine spills, power failures, and the dreaded blue screen of death. When your hard drive dies -- and it will, as surely as you and I will -- only a fresh backup will rescue you from the hell of cybersin. Take backups. Believe this poor old sinner who now rocks in the bosom of Saint Backup. Tomorrow will be too late, but today is time enough.