Best backup practices and recovering lost data.
Backup and Recovery
How can I securely wipe my hard drive?
Episode 1510
Andrew fromAndrew misses FDisk in MSDOS. He liked typing from the command line. Leo says that FDisk still exists in Windows, and when he deletes a partition with it, the data isn't lost, it just loses the structure of partition information. If he wants to erase all the data, Leo recommends Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN). It erases the data, overwrites the hard drive, erases it and overwrites it again. Seven times. So there's no way the data can be recovered.
Why can't I backup with the software I want?
Episode 1509
Paula fromPaula was trying to backup her desktop with Carbonite, and now she's finding that Dell and Microsoft OneDrive are overlaying their own versions of backup, fighting for her attention. How can she disable those? Leo says she can disable Dell Backup in the system tray. That's pretty simple. But it will probably restart when she turns the computer back on. So she'll have to remove it from the startup options. Leo says having both local and off site backup is a wise idea. She'll want three copies of everything at all times. As for OneDrive, it's very good, but she'll have to pay for it.
Why do I have to reauthorize my Synology backup with Time Machine?
Episode 1508
Tim fromTim uses Time Machine for his backup, but the backup fails intermittently. His Synology NAS is citing improper credentials as the cause. Leo says that encryption certificates need to be renewed from time to time, and if he's encrypting his data on backup, that could be the issue.
There is a post on Synology forums about this: Time Machine, Making it Work. Learn from my Suffering. There are some steps that can help.
Why am I backing up two copies of everything?
Episode 1508
Paul fromPaul had a Dell XPS computer, then he got an iMac running Boot Camp. He hasn't been backing up since December. He changed the file structure when he moved to the new computer, and now his backups are duplicates instead of a select backup folder. Leo says he can tell his operating system where his home folder is in the partition. Once he's done that, he can delete the duplicates.
Should I reformat my hard drive to speed it up?
Episode 1493
Dana fromDana wants to know if he should reformat his iMac hard drive to make it run faster. Leo says often that's the best thing to do. Since Dave has a bootable image from Super Duper, he can do it and be back up in minutes. He should just boot from the image, then copy the image to his hard drive and he'll be back up. Sometimes it just takes a little spring cleaning. Better yet — he can get an SSD and use the hard drive as his data drive. His computer will be a lot faster with that.
How can I copy my hard drive to an external drive?
Episode 1491
Mark fromMark would like to copy his macOS hard drive to a backup external drive. He did a drag and drop and it's taking forever. Is there a better way? Leo says that his favorite tool is SuperDuper. There's also Carbon Copy Cloner.
How can I backup full quality images from my phone?
Episode 1489
Manny fromManny wants to store his photos in the cloud, but he wants to have a better quality image stored locally. Leo says that iCloud always keeps the higher quality image in the cloud. In Google Photos, he can turn off "optimize photos" and it will keep the higher quality locally as well. But Leo says he really won't see the difference.
What's an easy cloud backup alternative?
Episode 1486
Carol fromCarol had an offline cloud storage service but it crashed her computer. She'd like to know if there's alternatives out there that are fairly simple to use. BackBlaze is an option for $5 a month, but Leo says it's really not that easy to use. Carbonite is a sponsor and it's pretty easy to use. It's $72 a year, which is only $6 a month. Microsoft OneDrive is probably the simplest solution for Carol, though.
Can I fix my crashed hard drive?
Episode 1486
Chip fromChip has a failed hard drive and doesn't really want to spend over $500 to repair it. Is there a way to do it himself? Leo says that a hard drive dying can mean a lot of things. It could be a hardware failure or it could be a software failure. It could be a corrupt sector on the boot record. Software failures are easy to fix and inexpensive. Hardware failures will cost a lot. Drivesavers charge a lot because they have a clean room with all the parts, and can replace bad parts and recover the data.
What happened to my files on my external hard drive?
Episoide 1473
Bonnie fromBonnie bought a new computer and when she plugged in her external hard drive, it said it was empty. Leo says that if she still has the old system, she should plug the hard drive back in and see if the files are there. If not, then something went wrong and she didn't back up her data as she thought. That's why it's always a good idea to keep the old system around for awhile until she's moved everything over. Windows 10 should be able to see the files from that XP drive no problem.
