Best backup practices and recovering lost data.
Backup and Recovery
How Can I Get Data Off an Old External Drive?
Episode 1703
Gustavo fromGustavo has a 20-year-old Powerbook Mac that he hasn't turned on in years. He plugged in an external hard drive, and somehow the Powerbook now views the hard drive as empty. Can he recover it? Leo suspects that the age of the drive caused the drive to fail. Or the cable may have failed. Or even the external box itself. Leo recommends taking it out and connecting it to a more modern computer.
Why can't I connect to my NAS?
Episode 1698
Scott fromScott is having issues with his Synology NAS. He can't access it remotely. Leo says it sounds like a settings issue and he recommends going into the router settings and see if the router can see it. Then reserve the DNS number that's listed for that Synology. If it doesn't, there could be a problem with your router or with a power surge that fried your board. But that's unlikely.
What is the Best Way to Back Up Photos?
Episode 1695
Jerry fromJerry is a photographer and wants to know more about backing up his photos. Leo says it's best to adopt a 3-2-1 backup strategy. Three backups, two different formats, one off-site or in the cloud. Check out DPBestflow.org for details.
How Do I Recover Data Off an Old Drive?
Episode 1695
Michael fromMichael changed his laptop to a 2TB hard drive, but as he tries to move his data over to the old drive, it can't be read. Leo says the best way is to get a $35 USB dongle that turns your old hard drive into a USB external drive. But Michael says that he gets a message requiring it to format. Leo says the drive may have corrupted and died. He recommends trying to use Recuva to recover the lost data, but it may be a mixed bag as to what it can recover and what it can't.
Are SSDs Reliable Nowadays?
Episode 1687
John fromJohn has spinning hard drives to back up data, and wonders if SSDs are more reliable nowadays. Leo says that SSDs have a feature called wear-leveling that takes care of the limited read/write cycle issue they used to have. Whenever Leo buys new drives, it's a Solid-State.
How Do I Easily Back Up Google Photos Files Onto a Hard Drive?
Episode 1687
Rob fromRob uses Google Photos to back up his phone's photos. He wants to get those Google Photos pics onto a hard drive. Leo recommends Google Takeout, which allows users to download data from their Google features (including Photos). It allows users to download in a variety of formats and helps to avoid disaster if they get locked out of their account.
Can I open email from an old iMac into a new client?
Episode 1686
Joe fromJoe has a 2009 iMac with a bunch of emails on it, dating back to 2003. He wants to know how to open them in another email program, along with the contacts as well? Leo says it varies according to the email program you use. Leo says that since Apple Mail exports to MBox, you can open that format into just about any other email client. You can even open them in a text editor to see what's in it. Apple Mail will import them easily, and Thunderbird should be able to as well. Leo also recommends using SuperDuper to back them up.
How Do I Move My Pics From My Hard Drive to Another Drive?
Episode 1685
Stacy fromStacy's hard drive is filling up after scanning a ton of photos. Her computer only has two USB ports. Does she need a hub in order to connect a USB thumb drive with an external hard drive? Leo says no. She should be able to plug them both in, and then drag from one to the other. But remember, if she deletes those images off the thumb drive, she still only has one copy. She should have three. Use Google Photos to upload them. Flickr gives 1000 photos for free. Shutterfly is free. And if she is an Amazon Prime user, she gets free photo backup as well.
Is Personal Vault on One Drive secure and easy to use?
Episode 1678
Joe fromJoe wants to know if the personal vault feature of OneDrive is easier to use. He's copied and pasted folders into it and finds now that there are duplicates. Leo says that Microsoft apps save things to backup by default. Also, personal vault is encrypted for your security. It won't automatically sync from multiple places, just that my documents folder. Plus, you'd have to unlock it every time you need access.
Can iCloud work with iDrive?
Episode 1674
Terry fromTerry edits 4K video with his iPhone 11 Pro Max. But when he makes changes, the upload to his iMac is very slow. Leo says that no online backup is going to use all the bandwidth you have to backup. And your upload speed is always drastically lower than your download speed. Leo says that Apple does offer iCloud backup on your mobile phone, but it's only 5GB for free, and the data isn't private. You can buy extra bandwidth, however. Leo recommends also backing up directly to your Mac.