I need to send my HP laptop in to be serviced. I am told that HP may send me back a laptop without any of my files on it. I use a My Book Essential with the Smartware software to back up my files. I have never restored any data from it. I use the default settings that the product shipped with when I got it earlier this year.
In the event that my computer is wiped, I expect to have to reinstall my programs and not have any of their settings saved. But I do expect to have all of my documents. I was wondering if you on this forum had any stories or tips or things that you had wished you had done before you were in the position of restoring via Smartware?
I would not use Smartware it only backs up certain file types. People often don’t find that out until time to restore. Check out some of the free software from Paragon and Easuse. If the laptop is Windows 7 the built in backup might also work.
I would add one other thing: don’t just backup your crucial data to just one drive. I would put my data on at least 2 drives, or on a drive and dvd’s (if there isn’t that much to store). I seen too many people come here complaining that they thought they had the data all on one drive and it wasn’t there. it’s worth the time it takes to copy and paste to another drive as well. and safer.
