Solved: Problems Backing Up to Flash Drive

[frauleink]

I am using Windows Vista. I bought a 32 GB Transcend brand Flash Drive to back up my document, music and picture files. The document and picture files don't amount to much, but there are quite a few songs in the ITunes Library. But I think 32 GB should handle it. However, when I use the backup wizard, it fails in the process and says the backup failed because "The system cannot find the file specified 0x80070002." I have no idea what they're referring to and no idea how to get it to work. This flash drive was not inexpensive, so I'd really like to figure out how to make it work. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[etaf]

as a backup medium, a flash drive is not a good source- its ok for transferring files around - but i would not use as a reliable permanent backup device

i would run chkdsk on the drive and see if that is an issue

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/67612-check-disk-chkdsk.html

 

[frauleink]

Okay. I'm wondering if I would be better served if I simply bought an external hard drive to use as a backup. I see there are some on Amazon for between $65 and $85. Would that be a good alternative? I really am only concerned with backing up the ITunes, a few documents and some photos.

 

[etaf]

Yes, that would be better and you really need to have two devices if really important data,as harddrives can fail.
And of course , one needs to be offsite , just depends on the importance of the data , and if you want to go to that amount of trouble , but remember if the harddrive is accidently dropped or just goes wrong the data will be lost - also if the house catches fire or burgled and the drive damaged or stolen - then lost

Also with the backup - if using a backup software - make sure it will restore the data - I prefer to copy the files as they are , rather than use software which compresses the data all into one file - For example some software used for backup on XP is nolonger compatible with windows 8 and so you have to purchase new backup software to recover the data , and hope it works OK
just my own opinion though

 

[frauleink]

Wow, this is all so complicated. I'm really not that "tekky." I just want to have a back up copy of the Itunes files and some documents, photos, etc. in case my hard drive crashes. I was thinking I would put it in my fireproof box and back it up about once a month or so. If I use the "backup" feature in Windows, does that compress it so it's not easily restored?

 

[raybro]

etaf has provided you with the usual options generally championed here on TSG and well stated.

However, I get from your last post you would prefer a more simplistic approach, so here is what I recommend.

Get yourself an external hard drive that connects to your computer via USB. Create a partition on the drive for backups, then simply drag and drop copy the files you wish to backup to the external drive. I suggest the complete My Documents folder. Later if you wish to update a file, folder or whatever, you just repeat the drag and drop process. Your computer will tell you the file or folder already exists and do you want to replace with the new one. Just click OK and the new file will overwrite the old file thereby updating it. This will also work for folders, except it will ask you about each file within the folder unless you click the "Yes to All" button.

Don't bother with any kind of backup software unless you want to backup your entire hard drive (as many recommend, including me). Just remember that any file must have the program that created it installed on the computer in order to open it. I say this in case you wanted to access some given file on your external drive using another computer.

 

[frauleink]

Thank you so much for your help. You have given me the info and tools I need to resolve my problem. I'll go ahead and order the external hard drive and follow your instructions. Thanks to you, I can now mark my problem as "solved."