PSA: Back up your data !!! (aka Avoiding Data Recovery - Any Questions?)

[slow]

I have a 4tb drive and a 1tb drive in my laptop. The laptop came with the 1tb and I added the 4tb for games. All the games were downloaded on the 4tb.
Im looking to change out the 1tb for another 4tb but am wondering if that would affect the games or saves on the 4tb somehow.
(I know that when I was gaming using a external HD, if the letter designation of the drive changed it messed everything up)
Would anyone know how these things work? (Im specifically concerned about games from the Epic game store)

[Darth1]

Is there an app that can backup any new photos taken on an iPhone to my PC? To my 'Pixel'? (I have an 'old Pixel' that I use to back up all my photos and videos to google photos for free.)
I am not looking for a cloud service to store them. I am using google photos and my pc hard drive for that.

[Yo ssi]

I have an 'old Pixel' that I use to back up all my photos and videos to google photos for free.

Regular quality or original full quality?

[Darth1]

Regular quality or original full quality?

It depends which Pixel I barrow 

[Yo ssi]

Seems like only pixel 1 offers that.

[Darth1]

Seems like only pixel 1 offers that.

pixel 1 offers full. The others offer regular. Either way its just an easy manager to find all of my photos. My main photos are backed  up on my pc.

I am just looking for an app to streamline my backup process in real time as apposed to manually putting on my pc then onto the pixel to have my multiple backups.

[Yo ssi]

Unfortunately don't have any pixel 1s in my phone collection

It's a huge difference for me.


Anyway Google it, lots of people are doing it

[CamMitchell]

pixel 1 offers full. The others offer regular. Either way its just an easy manager to find all of my photos. My main photos are backed  up on my pc.

I am just looking for an app to streamline my backup process in real time as apposed to manually putting on my pc then onto the pixel to have my multiple backups.

There is syncthing-fork and Resilio Sync. 

I personally use Resilio Sync as I found issues with syncthing-fork when disabling global discovery and it was chewing through battery.

But when Syncthing-fork works it's great.

With Resilio is you want a one way back up you need to setup the folder as a 'backup' / 'read-only' folder - https://help.resilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/204762339-How-to-Back-up-data-Android-only this is essentially one-way sync, so if you make changes they won't come back down to your main device. Mainly deleting files on your OG Pixel once they been uploaded to Photos because of the limited space on them.  Always good to use a test folder to get your head around the functionality of things.

My backup strategy using Resilio is this. 

Main device ----> OG Pixel XL ----> Google Photos
||
||
||
Unraid server ----> rclone to Hetzner storage box & S3 glacier

Unfortunately don't have any pixel 1s in my phone collection

It's a huge difference for me.

Anyway Google it, lots of people are doing it

Just have a look on eBay?  I picked up a couple of cheap ones for this exact reason after Google changed the backup criteria.

Though they do run very hot some times, probably just need to replace the batteries. 

[Yo ssi]

Just have a look on eBay?  I picked up a couple of cheap ones for this exact reason after Google changed the backup criteria.

BH of amassed quite a decent phone collection and it's mostly phones I've used or other people donated.

I don't have the specific issue of low storage, although it would be cool to set up for the hack of it.

[mevinyavin]

This harks back to my first post on this thread.
https://www.neowin.net/news/windows-11-users-reportedly-losing-data-due-to-microsofts-forced-bitlocker-encryption/

After seeing multiple users lose all their data because of BitLocker after Windows 11 system changes, I wanted to discuss this:

Microsoft now automatically enables BitLocker during onboarding when signing into a Microsoft Account.

Lose access to your MS account = lose your data forever. No warnings, no second chances. Many people learn about BitLocker the first time it locks them out.

...

I'd argue that for the average user, Availability of their data matters far more than confidentiality. Losing access to family photos and documents because of inavailability is far more painful than any confidentiality concerns.

Without mandatory, redundant key backups, BitLocker isn't securing anything — it's just silently setting users up for catastrophic failure. I've seen this happen too often now.

Microsoft's "secure by default" approach has become the biggest risk to personal data on Windows 11, completely overlooking the real needs of everyday users.

+4 (The number of times this has come back to bite someone who I was trying to help.)

[LNS]

This harks back to my first post on this thread.
https://www.neowin.net/news/windows-11-users-reportedly-losing-data-due-to-microsofts-forced-bitlocker-encryption/
+4 (The number of times this has come back to bite someone who I was trying to help.)

any way to disable?

[mevinyavin]

any way to disable?

1. By never once logging into your Microsoft account (see my posts on the Interesting Tech Articles - Microsoft REALLY wants you to use one). They know enough to not encrypt the computer without at least giving you a chance at recovery via their website.
2. Even if it was enabled because you logged into a Microsoft account sometime in ancient history, you can turn it off. Search for Data Encryption in system settings (it's under Device Security these days but keeps moving around) - Manage Device Encryption opens Device Encryption in User Account Settings, and there's a toggle to switch off. At that point, your computer will work hard decrypting your data in the background.