The president, Jim Frego, opened the meeting at 0930 and asked if there were any announcements. Seeing none, he told us that he was going to talk about backing up your computer, showing us, basically, about Windows 7 and XP operating systems. He said that Vista OS started the back-up system with System Image that makes an exact copy of what's on your computer. (It's too bad that the companies didn't figure this out way backs when.) Jim said there was a program called "Ghost" that did the same thing, but cost about $50 back before this program came out.
Jim then showed us a comparison of the number of disks that you would need to copy your program onto, that would back up your OS and other programs on your computer. He started with the square (so-called) floppy disks that would hold 100 MBs; then to a CD that would hold 700 MBs; then to a DVD; and, then to USB external HD back-up systems, which provided us with ideas of the amount of back-up space that was permitted with each of these devices. The external HD would come in various sizes from 80 GB to 100 GB, to 500 GB, and now they're up to one, two, and even three TBs, which some people wonder whether you really need something that large. Here's a link that could give you some other info on all of this discussion.
click here
New computers have a recovery partition built into them, along with a number of other programs that you can download for free or pay for after a month's trial, like Microsoft Office which goes for about $300. Your choice there! Jim brought the idea that if you didn't have a back-up and your computer was getting older and older; that you contact your computer maker, like Dell, HP, Toshiba, etc. and ask them for a recovery disk (probably comes in several disks) for about twenty bucks. From here, he took us back to DOS and how things worked in recovery back then. Then, he hooked up the external HD and showed how easy it was working on the club's computer, on which he had downloaded his own computer, as well as his wife's, so…there's a lot to be said for having this piece of equipment. The price of an external drive is way down, now, compared to when they first came out.
There is a less expensive way to go and that is to do a computer back up on the D-drive. Jim took us into doing things with an XP to an external HD, including restoring, but he indicated that with XP OS, there are problems with it, whereas with Win. 7, he's not had a problem one with it on backing up. Jim suggested that if you were going to purchase a new computer, make sure it has a USB-3, which is the cat's meow for future things you can do with a computer.
Jim took a breath and before he went onto the next phase of his program, Helen asked if this would be a good time to have the 60/40 drawing, so Jim indicated that it would be. Renee was chosen to pull the winning ticket, which Fran had. Jim brought up the Win.7 on the screen. He took us through the different steps of saving a program, which seemed to go quite fast.
There we saw what took place, using the computer with Win. 7, with the direction being given to make a repair disk and showed us on how that phase of restoring would work out. It seemed to be quite easy to figure and work out, as Jim took us through the stages.
Then, Jim brought up Amazon and showed us the various USB external drives that one could purchase and the prices of such. And, there were all kinds of back-up programs that were shown, as well. Some of them were free even!
Then Jim asked if there were any questions, which a few people jumped into. Fred asked if there was a way of checking on the back-up to see if they were really backing things up. Further discussion went on with back-ups from others, with Crystal asking about the possibility of saving a back-up on a thumb drive. So…Jim pulled out one that he had in his pocket, showing that it held 16 GB, with a lot of his programs on it. Then, we jumped into discussing questions about IPads, etc. and this led into Jim telling us all about the problems that he's had with one and the printing problems; thus, leading us into an air printer-not a wireless printer, but an air printer-which was needed if you were going to print something from an portable Apple product, so Jim gave us his thoughts on why Steve Jobs put together his products, as he did.
With that, the meeting came to a close, with Jim getting a round of applause for a job well done. A number of people gathered up chairs and hung them on the rack, while others cleaned up coffee and spills on the rugs, so…please be careful if you're having cups of coffee, as we are responsible for having that taken care of.
Ernie Coffman
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