I've read stories about how some friends had computer problems and lost a lot of important stuff. That was enough for me. I've started my backup program and will make a set of everything in my Poser folder. My installation is light this time. It's only 10GB, and will take 12 CD's. My CD burner is older and slower, so this is an all-day affair. I'm using my wife's computer to write this message. In many cases you could probably get by fine just to backup everything in the Runtime folder. But I think some things were installed outside of the Runtime folder, so I'll be safe. If anything goes wrong, I can just restore from CD's. It sure beats having to reinstall everything, or having a heart attack because I can't find the originals. I'm thinking of buying a 3rd hard drive so I could just backup everyting to that drive. The backup would surely be faster. CD's seem to be a more permanent and reassuring method of backup... I just bought 100 CD's, so I'm set. I'm going downstairs to watch Lara Croft, Tomb Raider. I bought it yesterday. Have fun. Ron

enjoy the film. :) Lara Croft/Angelina Jolie hmmmmmm what a babe. Rob

Yes, a second or third hd is really the best.With norton ghost it takes about half a hour to backup a partition of 10 gig size(and to restore it in the same time) and its compressed to about 7 gig.

I have Norton Ghost. It wouldn't work with my CD Writer. I tried it for 2 weeks.. But yes, backing up to or ghosting to a hard drive is a breeze. Now let's see if the wife is indulgent. I already got a DAZ - Renderosity shopping spree, and some new clothes. Maybe I should quit while ahead.

Only 12 cd's? You lightweight!!!

I've had 30+ GB before. It's turning out to be an all-day affair. I can barely stay awake, but need to be around to swap cd's. Remember, I'm using a backup program which compresses as it works.

Well...maybe safe... I have all my Poser downloaded and purchased files on CD.. Reinstalled Poser after a reformat...the CD with Mike 1/2 and associated stuff would not read.... Luckily, DAZ was kind enough to look up my account and reset the downloads... So, it pays to be safe, but how redundant do we have to be ???

I have been considering one of those USB external hard drives. That seems to be the very best option, fast and once the drive is disconnected, completely safe from viruses. Also migrating to another computer would be fast and easy. Anybody have any experience with this, or tips to share? I tend to mistrust cd's as when I write them all seems fine. I later discover that I can't read them, which is upsetting putting it mildly.

Roy, I've been using a couple of parallel port external HDs for some time now & I'm fairly pleased with the performance. They aren't as fast as the USB models but I can plug any old drive I have laying around into them and the units only cost about $25.00 The only disadvantage I've found is that they aren't hot swappable so if I want to go from one spare to the other I'll have to disconnect & reboot.

Thanks Cooler, as a matter of fact I do have some old hard drives that are big enough to do what I want. Shutting down long enough to plug a drive in would not be so bad at all. The way I do it now is by replacing the cd player temporarily with an old hard drive. Your way is much easier.

Hey number 7 reply "Dragonlady" who are you ????? and how come you are using my identity???? Ive been Dragonlady on this place for many years now didnt think it was possible for someone else to get the same identity

Hey number 7 reply "Dragonlady" who are you ????? and how come you are using my identity???? Ive been Dragonlady on this place for many years now didnt think it was possible for someone else to get the same identity I really would like an answer about this?????

Hey number 7 reply "Dragonlady" who are you ????? and how come you are using my identity???? Ive been Dragonlady on this place for many years now didnt think it was possible for someone else to get the same identity I really would like an answer about this?????

I'm going to seriously rethink this backup to CD strategy. I have an old CD burner that is very slow. It took about 12 hours to backup my entire Poser installation, and 7 CD's in the end. I've backed up lots of stuff onto CD, and haven't had much trouble for the most part. I do have some redundancy here. I sometimes go through and reorganize stuff. I never throw away the original CDs.. It's saved my butt a few times.

WhO aM i?

Hey, yeah. The USB hard drives work like a charm. I have been using one for backups for two years, and it was a breeze to load Poser when I bought a new system. Between this and the software serial numbers freshly tatooed onto my person, I have no worries. Except if the electricity goes.... Hmmm. How much are generators?

Cage, Actually a decent UPS (uninterruptable power supply) is relatively inexpensive. About 5 years ago my house was hit by lightning twice in a four day period & I lost a system board (among other things :-) Now I run 2 UPS (1 for the monitor & the other for the CPU) and I can stay up & running for almost an hour if the power goes down. Oh & make sure whatever protection system you use allows you to plug the phone lines into it. In the incident I described above everything except the phone was protected by surge supressors but the surge came down the phone lines & blew a hole right thru the board.

I have a really nice IBM Office Professional UPS. We probably paid $130 for it because we wanted a few extras. We have a cable modem, and I even have the feedin from the cable modem going through a surge suppressor. We have a small house with old wiring. Sometimes my wife turns on the coffee maker and the microwave at the same time. It flips the circuit breaker, and our office electricity goes out. We need to protect ourselves.