A big help, please?

blunomore

blunomore

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I am giving some background on functions I performed on my PC and then I will get to my question:

1. As suggested by some posters here I downloaded Dropbox for use on my hard drive and managed to use it to share files. Thanks for the advice.

2. About a day after that, I attempted to perform a back-up of my C Drive to an external hard drive. It took a few hours as I have a lot of documents on the drive. Once it was done, however, I got a message saying back-up UNsuccessful.

3. I had a look on the external hard drive to see if anything was transferred, and I can also see a new folder created on the drive and it is called USER-PC. When I try to open it, it says "Choose an option for the selected backup: Restore my files from this backup OR Restore files for all users of this computer OR Manage space used by this backup." What on earth does this mean? Was a backup done? Should I choose one of these options? Or what?

4. Finally, back to Dropbox, after I have downloaded and installed Dropbox, it now looks like Dropbox is syncing (this I see from the small Dropbox in the bottom right hand side of the screen) and is attempting to import docs, photos, etc from my external hard drive! Why is it doing that? I never prompted it to do that. What the heck???! Also, is it possible that in this process, data is being used? I am asking because I bought 2GB of pre-paid data yesterday and it seems to have been exhausted. I can only presume it was because of the Dropbox syncing??

Thanks
 
blunomore said:
I am giving some background on functions I performed on my PC and then I will get to my question:

1. As suggested by some posters here I downloaded Dropbox for use on my hard drive and managed to use it to share files. Thanks for the advice.

2. About a day after that, I attempted to perform a back-up of my C Drive to an external hard drive. It took a few hours as I have a lot of documents on the drive. Once it was done, however, I got a message saying back-up UNsuccessful.

3. I had a look on the external hard drive to see if anything was transferred, and I can also see a new folder created on the drive and it is called USER-PC. When I try to open it, it says "Choose an option for the selected backup: Restore my files from this backup OR Restore files for all users of this computer OR Manage space used by this backup." What on earth does this mean? Was a backup done? Should I choose one of these options? Or what?

4. Finally, back to Dropbox, after I have downloaded and installed Dropbox, it now looks like Dropbox is syncing (this I see from the small Dropbox in the bottom right hand side of the screen) and is attempting to import docs, photos, etc from my external hard drive! Why is it doing that? I never prompted it to do that. What the heck???! Also, is it possible that in this process, data is being used? I am asking because I bought 2GB of pre-paid data yesterday and it seems to have been exhausted. I can only presume it was because of the Dropbox syncing??

Thanks
Click to expand...

No offense, but hire someone competent - your data is worth more, than your inexperience will cost.
 
A bit off topic but a suggestion.

When making use of a backup program look for one that will store the backup in a simple zip format or similar so that you will be able to access the contents of the file with other applications as well.

I have seen people make backups with one or other software and later when they want to restore they no longer have the software and or the versions changed and do not support the older backup file formats etc...

I personally make use of Cobian backup which backups and stores all my files on an external drive in zip files so I can easily access these files with a multitude of other applications should I ever need to.
 
I would suggest 2 things:- 1) You don't mention what you are using for backups. Have you always used the same backup program? I would recommend you use something simple that doesn't require a backup/restore process etc. A program like Cobian is great, copies the files to where you need them automatically and also allows use of shadow copy (can take snapshot and backup of files while you're using them)

2) With dropbox, the issue you describe doesn't make any sense. I would suggest you remove/re-install app and try again. Or try something else like Skydrive, 25GB free if I remember correctly. I have been using it for a while with no issues

Good luck, hope the above helps
 
Blu, I don't use any backup programs, as it's such a mission to do a file/folder/system restore.

Instead, I just sync my local hard drive files to my external hard drive, which makes it easy if I need the file/s - I have two places to copy it from.

The application I use, Microsoft SyncToy, was actually designed by Microsoft, but for legal reasons, they do not officially support it.

You can find it here : http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=15155
 
Irrespective of whether you think a backup might have been done, do it again. It said unsuccessful, so don't risk it.

With regards to backups, I don't see the point in software. I simply use Windows File History which is awesome. You can backup all of your data and have all versions of the files saved so you can restore a whole host of different versions with different changes if need be. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-za/windows-8/set-drive-file-history

As for DropBox, yes that's probably the massive data hogger, but there should be a setting in the app that lets you decide which folders to backup. Actually, there is - there certainly will be. There might also be a setting to auto-backup connected drives. Just look in the settings...
 
Q 3) Not sure how you are accessing your external drive, if you want to see what is in the backup folder use, right click on it and select open from the "My Computer" Option, what Windows version are you using? You can also right clickthe back up folder to see the proper / size of the folder - to see if the size increased

Q 4) I had the same problem with Dropbox, I found out after installation, it seems as if sync is default on, I change it to sync only when need.

I also do not use backup software which copy everything into a file - rather make use or get program that sync your information - you can see what was transferred.
 
blunomore said:
See point 3 and point 4.
Click to expand...

Ah. But you said... Nah, let's move along, put 5 bob and try again:

blunomore said:
2. About a day after that, I attempted to perform a back-up of my C Drive to an external hard drive. It took a few hours as I have a lot of documents on the drive. Once it was done, however, I got a message saying back-up UNsuccessful.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you tried to backup your entire "C:\" drive with some sort of program, yes?

blunomore said:
3. I had a look on the external hard drive to see if anything was transferred, and I can also see a new folder created on the drive and it is called USER-PC. When I try to open it, it says "Choose an option for the selected backup: Restore my files from this backup OR Restore files for all users of this computer OR Manage space used by this backup." What on earth does this mean? Was a backup done? Should I choose one of these options? Or what?
Click to expand...

No, don't choose any of those options. Personally I do not use backup programs - I just copy, paste and then in future sync the important documents to/from wherever my backup destination is. Maybe decide first where you want to backup your data to i.e. to a cloud service and/or an external harddrive on your desk. Then identify what exactly you want to backup i.e. you want to backup "C:\Users\blunomore\Documents\ImportantStuffs" and not entire "C:\" which includes the OS etc. and probably the reason why your backup was unsuccessful.

blunomore said:
4. Finally, back to Dropbox, after I have downloaded and installed Dropbox, it now looks like Dropbox is syncing (this I see from the small Dropbox in the bottom right hand side of the screen) and is attempting to import docs, photos, etc from my external hard drive! Why is it doing that? I never prompted it to do that. What the heck???! Also, is it possible that in this process, data is being used? I am asking because I bought 2GB of pre-paid data yesterday and it seems to have been exhausted. I can only presume it was because of the Dropbox syncing??

Thanks
Click to expand...

Check your Dropbox settings? You can sync *whatever* you want with Dropbox. No need to sync everything just because you can.
 
Well? Do I win the help blunomore prize? Yay! but can I rather have the whiskey? Beer makes me feel bloated and lazy.
 
You are all very helpful guys. I will read through all the posts properly tonight and try to make sense.

For the record, I am using a FreeAgent external hard drive so I have now resorted to manually copying and pasting important folders onto there just to have some measure of backup until I can sort the problem out.
 
Don't backup your dropbox folder. You should only have one folder connected to dropbox on your pc, duplicating (by copying it onto your backup) will confuse things.
 
Last edited:
blunomore said:
You are all very helpful guys. I will read through all the posts properly tonight and try to make sense.

For the record, I am using a FreeAgent external hard drive so I have now resorted to manually copying and pasting important folders onto there just to have some measure of backup until I can sort the problem out.
Click to expand...

I had one customer who also told me he will do it tonight, then the next night....and then his hard drive crashed.

Dropbox doesn't need a backup, as it's syncing the files from your computer to the cloud.
 
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