The Importance of Backups

[drawscore]

I went to one of the thumb/USB drives where I keep my collections, and discovered several images had become corrupted and un-readable by the computer. Fortunately, the drive had been backed up on another thumb/USB drive, and I was able to easily recover the corrupted images.

This is something that happens at times. All of my images are kept on separate, removable drives, and there's nothing on my computer/hard drive that I wouldn't want my grandmother to see, and there are two copies/back ups of each one. This is a procedure I would recommend to everyone. And check the back-ups for corruption occasionally, like 2-4 times a year.

Drawscore

[bondagefreak]

[mention]drawscore[/mention] I don't wish to antagonise you, but the problems you describe here are not at all normal. While there's nothing wrong with keeping backups, file corruption simply should not happen. When it does, it's due to improper use of the thumb/USB drive.

The issue is one that mostly plagues the generations that did not grow up with computers, but also the younger generations today that grew up mostly just with phones and gaming consoles, neither of which work even remotely like computers.

Since you've made a thread out of this issue and even recommended checking drives for corruption every few months, I assume this problem has plagued you more than once. You may find my advice very helpful.


Most of the non-tech-savvy types inadvertently destroy their own files via radical/physical disconnection of USB drives. My parents do that, my uncles and aunts do that, and so do quite a few other people I know. It's frustrating to see them do that, even more so when they lament the loss of files and photos via corruption. The process of physically removing a drive or USB key without first shutting down its processes & ejecting it electronically is what causes file corruption and eventually, drive corruption.

Corrupted files can almost always be repaired and recovered via "Command Prompt: Drive Disk Error Checks", but the best way to fix corrupted files is simply to prevent them from being corrupted in the first place. Radical/physical USB drive disconnections should never be performed before the drive has been electronically shut down and ejected.

I obviously don't know what sort of operating system you're using, but if you're using Windows, the tab you'll want to look for is at the bottom-right of your screen. One of the buttons you'll have access to is called "Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media". That is how you tell your computer to shut down the USB drive. Your computer will close down all running processes on it and then you'll get a pop up telling you when you can safely disconnect your USB drive. Wait for that pop up to appear. If you do it the good way, you should never have to worry about file corruption again.

[captured_prize]

[mention]bondagefreak[/mention] made some great points there. I'm an IT professional with the A+ certification (which means I know computers inside and out) and I can back up that these are good practices to abide by. Like Bondagefreak said, this amount of file corruption is not normal. I follow the pratices he mentioned and I have had zero issues with file corruption, even with files and usb drives that are over a decade old.

[bondagefreak]

[mention]captured_prize[/mention]
Hey man, glad you were able to confirm this.

I follow the practices he mentioned and I have had zero issues with file corruption, even with files and usb drives that are over a decade old.

Same here. My parents, grandparents and relatives, however, are constantly plagued with corrupted photos and unreadable files. They are very dismissive of repeat attempts to explain to them that they can't just disconnect a device/USB key like that, but very quick to curse the "worthless" technology and decry the loss of files when corruption inevitably occurs. Sorta frustrating, in a funny/sad type of way.