Backing up..

[geordie_aaron]

So i think my 3 year old HP laptop is giving up the ghost and it's had a bloody good run i say being used daily for minimum 6 hours and the battery is still holding charge for over 2hours but the last 2/3 days it's needed the startup wizard/restore or SEVERAL attempts to boot up (blue and black screen of death)

 

Now i'm wanting to pick up all my pictures/videos of friends & family but from what i remember Nero just backs up the WHOLE harddrive? is there a program that seeks file types out opposed to me dragging and dropping before burning to cd? just their raw files not compressed incase of corruption and what not?>!

[Stu]

You can manually create a data disc in Nero and drag'n'drop the files you want to backup into it. Another option is to backup the files to an online backup host, but the speed of your internet connection and data volume you wish to backup will most likely dictate how practical that'd be.

[geordie_aaron]

ideally i dont want to drag and drop because i'm tidy and put stuff where it belongs.....but she's an idiot and doesn't. so i'm hoping theres a program i can set out to backup certain file types? backing up online is out the question too :-(

[smithyandco]

drag and drop your neat stuff... once you KNOW it's safe on another media. Delete your neat stuff on the laptop.

Delete from your recycle bin.

 

Then search the hdd by filetype (Right click>Search on your HDD in Explorer). Simply type search terms like *.jpg which will show all remaining files with the extention JPG. Do this for any other types of you may have like AVI, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PSD, MPG, MP4 etc etc and drag and drop these on to another media.

 

Job Done!

 

Or if your feeling clever, whip up a lengthy batch which will search for folders (Excluding Windows, Program File etc) containing certain file types and copy the whole folder including folder structure.

 

Failing that, try looking for Freeware.

 

I've used this at work... http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?loca...000f5ee0a0aRCRD

 

It came free with external HDDs we are using for backups. Only used it once before writing a batch which could do a better job!

[geordie_aaron]

writing.....batch..........Cheesecake? LOL

 

doign a search didn't even cross my mind! niceone!

[Stu]

If you want to copy all files of a particular type to another location (eg a temp directory which you can then burn to CD, or an external usb hd (good idea), then you can use something like the following at the command prompt:

 

for /f %a in ('dir c:\*.jpg /s /b') do @copy %a c:\temp

 

Where "c:\*.jpg" is the drive letter and type of file you want to copy and "c:\temp" is where the copied files will end up. of course you'll need the space on the disk to duplicate the files.

[geordie_aaron]

:-) that's wicked.... BUT, i have vista home (balls version) and when i hit in CMD or COMMAND in run it doesn't find anything....

 

next idea?!

[Stu]

It must have a command prompt..

 

start > all programs > accessories > command prompt ?

 

 

I've never used Vista Home.. but... see if it's there!

[geordie_aaron]

whoops

http://www.luisescobarblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/computer-stupid.jpg

[Stu]

Not at all, it should have worked by just typing 'cmd' into the run box.