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Quote: Edit -- This somehow got posted to the wrong thread. Please ignore this.
I will second Griff's AOMEI Backupper. It's easy to use and the free version is fairly feature rich. The paid version unlocks some additional features but I've never needed them for the backups I do.
I chose it based on a past recommendation from Griff so my vote should probably only count for half. 
modified 9-Mar-23 15:03pm.
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(Wrong thread.)
Griff's vote is his 1 to the power of how many people followed his advice.
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I'm not sure if I should feel flattered of scared that ChatGPT knows who I am
And how I write, right down to my punctuation style ... It's not how I would answer the question, but it has the "right feel".
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Next it will learn Welsh. Or start drinking.
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ChatGTP does not condone drinking so Welsh it is... 
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Why does that make me think of Philip K. Dick's less popular sequel, "Do Welsh AIs interfere with electric sheep?" 
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Cross Check...
Me: Answer a question like OriginalGriff
CGPT: Sure, I'll do my best to emulate OriginalGriff's writing style. What question would you like me to answer?
Me: How do I do my programming homework
CGPT: Ah, programming homework - a classic question! Here's my attempt at an OriginalGriff-style answer:
Right then, buckle up and let's talk about how to approach your programming homework, shall we?
First things first, you need to understand the problem you're trying to solve. Make sure you've read the assignment instructions thoroughly and understand what you're being asked to do. If you're not sure about something, don't be afraid to ask your teacher or professor for clarification.
Next, start breaking the problem down into smaller, more manageable parts. This is what we programmers call "decomposition" - you're essentially breaking down a complex problem into smaller, more easily solvable sub-problems. You can do this by creating a list of requirements or steps that need to be taken to solve the problem.
Once you've got your decomposition done, it's time to start writing some code! Now, I can't tell you exactly what to do here - every problem is different, after all. But what I can tell you is that you should take a step-by-step approach to writing your code. Start with the basics, get them working, and then move on to more complex parts of the problem.
When you're writing your code, make sure to use good coding practices. Write clean, readable code with good variable names and comments to explain what you're doing. And don't forget to test your code as you go - it's much easier to catch and fix problems early on in the development process than it is to try and fix them later.
Finally, if you get stuck, don't be afraid to ask for help! There are plenty of resources available online - forums, Q&A sites, and programming communities - where you can ask questions and get help from more experienced programmers.
So there you have it - a rough guide to approaching your programming homework. Just remember to take it one step at a time, and don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it. Good luck!
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'teh' is missing, however.
"In testa che avete, Signor di Ceprano?"
-- Rigoletto
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Kenneth Haugland wrote: and I must say it's not bad at all
Hmmm...no terse comments about that one should do their own homework though and not ask for others to do it though.
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Just did a quick search.
Six or seven years ago, I think, I got good advice here about backups.
And So...
Hoping for two in a row.
I'm currently looking at...
- Western Digital External Hard Drives
- Acronis Software
I searched, found these, and yawned; pay money and import complexity to your domestic life...
Has anyone seen this list of free software ?...
Advice and thoughts from folks with more knowledge than I have (easy claim to make at this moment) are welcome and will be read with interest at or above the prevailing Federal Funds Rate.
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I still use AOMEI Backupper - and it continues to get better with each release.
The latest version includes live file syncing, and outlook email backups (as they come in, I think - it's updating as I type).
The WD externals should be good, I have a bunch of Seagate external 4TB USB jobbies, and they are fine. But when I replace them, it'll probably be SSD's to improve backup speed, and probably SATA.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I will second Griff's AOMEI Backupper. The free version is easy to use and fairly feature rich. It also has a paid version that unlocks some additional features but I've not found the need for them for the backups that I do.
I chose it based on Griff's past recommendation so my vote should probably only count for half.
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Myself when I find some free software that I find useful over time I always make it a point to buy the paid version (if not overly expensive) since it of course keeps the original author(s) encouraged to keep working on it. Even if it is nothing more than making sure it works on newer OS versions.
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I save everything that is important to me in my "c:\Hogan" directory on my PC. When I need to backup my machine (which I do weekly), I back up this folder with a command line script and send the file to my NAS for safe keeping. Its a little bit manual. But this puts me in control. If my machine crashes or I get a new one, all I have to do is restore the c:\Hogan folder from backup and install apps. Then I'm good to go. Its worked with every version of Windows
Hogan
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I've used Acronis for years and every version I say I'm switching to something else, because they keep getting crappier. And now they've gone to a subscription model and I refuse to give them any more money so when I switch I'm thinking of going to Backup & Recovery Community Edition | Paragon Software Group[^]. Hmm just noticed the community edition is free...downloading!
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I used to use Acronis. It seemed like every release they removed features that you had before and tried charging you extra for them to get a higher tiered product version... Man, I really do miss being able to remotely install a service and create backups on command though. 
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I have been using Macrium Reflect the last years and I am happy with it.
It is less "non techie" friendly than AOMEI, but people here should have no problems at all using it.
It has a free version that does the basic staff. It allows you to make a bootable CD / DVD. Images are not bigger than other software...
EDIT:
I use it for imaging my System Partition (very few to none private data in it).
For my private data I use a custom directory structure, a couple of batches and robocopy.
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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I recommend using a Synology NAS (instead of WD external drives) with their Active Backup software (this is free). We used them for 10 years and so far we had no issues. Among other things they can upload/sync NAS content to various cloud providers (Microsoft, Google, Amazon, etc) so you backups are kept safe in 2 places.
If you go this way, make sure you get a NAS with an Intel processor and at least 2 drive bays, so you can put 2 drives in RAID mode. You can start with a single drive and add a second one later.
The initial cost might be a bit higher than WD external drives but the long term benefits compensate this.
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The problems I have with this (and I have a 16TB QNAP NAS in RAID 5) is that the NAS is almost certainly not air gapped, and is a single point of failure.
If backup drives aren't routinely air gapped then they are vulnerable to Ransomware at the same time as the computer(s) they are connected to - and most Ransomware does scan for network attached drives as well as local HDD and USB / External SATA devices.
And if it's plugged in, it's vulnerable to disaster: fire, theft, even lightning strike. Decades ago, the office where I was working got hit by a ground strike - the earth connection went to several million volts for a brief time. That blew out the telephone exchange and the disk controllers (in those days, IDE drive controllers weren't built into the M/B) on every plugged in computer, regardless of it's powered-on status.*
But our backups were air gapped anyway - and stored offsite - so even if all the computers has physically melted, we would at worst have lost a few days work.
A NAS is not a backup device! 
* We were lucky: new IDE cards and exchange, we were up and running in 24 hours. The company just down the road has a VAX connected to a big UPS, which exploded and sprayed the computer with battery acid.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I agree it is not a true backup device. But it is better than an external drive. And you can set it to backup itself to multiple cloud providers. The probability to have all backup locations hit by ransomware at the same time is almost zero.
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It's not better than external drives, it's more convenient!
All it takes is the one PC with access to it to get ransomware and that's your backups encrypted (if you are lucky, some just overwrite with random data). Which makes it a lot more hassle to get the company back up and running ... 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I'm going to Plus One on using a NAS.
I have just had a friend ask me if I can do anything with his unresponsive WD external USB drive. Normally I would have removed the drive, put it in a cradle and tried to recover what I could - no way! WD drives now have the USB interface as part of the drive electronics.
As mentioned below a NAS is a single point of failure and could be stolen. However I have been using NASs for 20 years or more and have never lost any data, despite several disk failures. Their seamless integration with cloud backup services means that in the event of the worst, you lose at most maybe a day's worth of data.
Having been victim of a fire at the office I was confronted with the loss of 4 months enterprise data due to someone having forgotten to take tape cartridges off-site.
Try to find a NAS that can pull data from your computers, no need to install software on each one.
I use Duplicati on Linux and Macrium Reflect for 'whole machine' PC backups and pull user folders (Documents etc.) via a Robocopy script that runs on a PC that is always on.
So old that I did my first coding in octal via switches on a DEC PDP 8
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I don't bother with backing up individual files locally; only entire partitions/drives.
-Macrium Reflect to an external USB every day. (free, once you have the drive)
-Backblaze subscription ($94/year for the 1 year retention plan) for the event of malware. Above Macrium images get backed up with it.
The Macrium images can be mounted as normal drives for restoring indvidual files if necessary.
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