and here's an interview. She is actually a really good singer and piano player!
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We’ve all heard the horror stories, a laptop dying and all your data being lost right before an essay deadline or exams.
Why does it happen?
A hard drive is made up of a spinning disk with the data on it and a head reading data off it. The distance between the disk and the head is the size of one smoke particle. If the head crashes into the disc, your data can be lost. This can happen if something hits your hard drive, or someone (who loves pies) drops it. Viruses can cause data to be lost, or can lock you out of your own files. And of course there’s the kid who gets at your computer, starts playing with the keyboard and ends up formatting your hard drive. Formatting the disc prepares it for new data, wiping everything, so don’t try this at home unless you know what you are doing.
How to prevent loosing files
To avoid loosing your files, you need to do a few things. First, keep everything organized in folders. Know where everything is. Then, every week, copy them to a disk, online service or another computer.
The easiest way to back up files is with a flash drive. With storage of usually 1 or 2 GB, they are really cheap and sometimes even free. You can put a lot of documents on them, but if you start storing photos and music, they can start to fill up.
An external hard drive usually has more space. These come in sizes from 320 GB up to 1 Terabyte 1000 GB, and are priced accordingly. Be careful though! A flash drive has no moving parts, so you can carry it around with you and give it SOME abuse and it will be ok. The external hard drive on the other hand, has moving parts, and if someone drops it, YOU WILL LOOSE YOUR DATA! So an external hard drive should be left at home, somewhere safe where it won’t be moved.
If you can’t afford flash drives or external drives, GMail gives you 6GB of FREE online storage. Just make a new zip folder, copy your files into it and attach it in an email to yourself. There is an upload limit, so maybe you will need to upload a few files.
If you are a minds member, you get 2GB storage space as well. Just login to minds.nuim.ie, click on file storage and upload your files.
Yet another option is to use Windows Live SkyDrive. This service gives you an amazing 25GB of free online space. If you are on MSN, then you already have a live ID, and if not then just register for one. Go to www.live.com/skydrive to use the service.
In SkyDrive documents are organized into folders. When creating a folder you can make it private, open to all your friends, open to specific people or public. So not only can you use SkyDrive to backup your files, but you can use it to share files for projects.
How much can 1 GB hold?
1GB(gigabyte) will store about 50 high quality photos or anything up to 1500 lower quality photos. It could hold 250 music files. Documents are usually smaller, unless they have pictures, about a tenth of the size of pictures. It is really hard to work this out as files vary in size, especially documents. To see how big a file or folder is, in Windows, either click view à details, or right click on a file or folder go to properties.
However having a back-up plan is pointless if you don’t use it! Back up EVERY week!
Backup day is Thursday the 23rd. Keep an eye out for Facebook and bebo announcements and posters.
Don’t forget to join the bebo and Facebook groups, read past DecTechs at www.deathstick.org and email me questions at declan.p.meenagh@nuim.ie.
Happy Back-up Day!
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This is a new experiment. Give me some interesting files. Anyone can upload anything, so be careful.
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This blog is written by Declan Meenagh
dmeenagh at gmail dot com
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