External Hard Drive Backup

[GraemeJ]

I wish to automatically back up to an external hard drive and, in particular, back up *.vi files. Prior to purchasing a drive, in questioning a major manufacturer on the capability of their drive for different file extensions, the answer received was (quote):

“Unfortunately, [ *.vi] that is file protected by copyright; the same laws that protect its contents, forbids us from using it. You could try to backup it, but it is not guaranteed to work without issues.”

Has anyone any comments, or alternatively, suggestions of a currently available external hard drive that is OK for Labview files?

Regards, GraemeJ

[Guruthilak]

Hello GrameJ,

if my understanding is correct , then an external hard drive is some storage device that could be connected to the PC via USB....

If this is the case then why would be there any problem in taking up the backup of LabVIEW files? isnt it similar of taking backup of any other files (like mp3's)

[Daryl]

I wish to automatically back up to an external hard drive and, in particular, back up *.vi files. Prior to purchasing a drive, in questioning a major manufacturer on the capability of their drive for different file extensions, the answer received was (quote):

“Unfortunately, [ *.vi] that is file protected by copyright; the same laws that protect its contents, forbids us from using it. You could try to backup it, but it is not guaranteed to work without issues.”

Has anyone any comments, or alternatively, suggestions of a currently available external hard drive that is OK for Labview files?

Regards, GraemeJ

I back up my vi's on external hard drives, usb drives all the time without problem. I do not see why you should have an issue.

[bmoyer]

I wish to automatically back up to an external hard drive and, in particular, back up *.vi files. Prior to purchasing a drive, in questioning a major manufacturer on the capability of their drive for different file extensions, the answer received was (quote):

“Unfortunately, [ *.vi] that is file protected by copyright; the same laws that protect its contents, forbids us from using it. You could try to backup it, but it is not guaranteed to work without issues.”

Has anyone any comments, or alternatively, suggestions of a currently available external hard drive that is OK for Labview files?

Regards, GraemeJ

A drive doesn't care what file extensions you use. There are many other files protected by copyright besides VIs. Imagine if we had to determine the copyright of every filetype to see if it would work with a drive! It would be a nightmare!

Bruce

[PaulG.]

“Unfortunately, [ *.vi] that is file protected by copyright; the same laws that protect its contents, forbids us from using it. You could try to backup it, but it is not guaranteed to work without issues.”

This sounds like legal-ese. Maybe it's a standard response to a direct inquiry on a specific file type. If they had said "yea, sure, *.vi will store on our drives" then you had one of their drives crash and you lost VI's they might be afraid of liability.

[Gary Rubin]

It seems like a sad commentary that a backup system can't just blindly backup your data.

[crelf]

This sounds like legal-ese. Maybe it's a standard response to a direct inquiry on a specific file type. If they had said "yea, sure, *.vi will store on our drives" then you had one of their drives crash and you lost VI's they might be afraid of liability.

Yeah - I'm with PaulG. on this one - a vi is a binary file, just like many other binary files types, and a backup program worth it's salt doesn't have about the format of the contents, just as long as it's 1s and 0s. That said, there are some backup programs that do internal incremental (ie: only save the differences within the files between backups), but this has nothing to do with copyright IMHO.

[ASTDan]

I had my hard drive crash a year ago. I had all my data backed up on an external hard drive. I was able to restore my files including all my .vi files with no problems. I used the Windows backup utility to perform backups and also to restore my files.

Dan

I wish to automatically back up to an external hard drive and, in particular, back up *.vi files. Prior to purchasing a drive, in questioning a major manufacturer on the capability of their drive for different file extensions, the answer received was (quote):

“Unfortunately, [ *.vi] that is file protected by copyright; the same laws that protect its contents, forbids us from using it. You could try to backup it, but it is not guaranteed to work without issues.”

Has anyone any comments, or alternatively, suggestions of a currently available external hard drive that is OK for Labview files?

Regards, GraemeJ

[GraemeJ]

Thanks for all your replies. What should have been a straightforward exercise might be clouded by manufacturers backup software which is preloaded onto current external drives. My original question on the *.vi file extension was asked of (arguably) “the” major drive supplier. If it works as advertised, their backup software is a painless process for continuous and automatic backup. I guess it would be nice to have this but, if it becomes a problem, then the alternate is a bare-bones no-frills drive. Any comments?

Regards, GraemeJ

[crelf]

What should have been a straightforward exercise might be clouded by manufacturers backup software which is preloaded onto current external drives.

Ahhhh - now that's different. Because it sounds like an all-in-one solution, there might be something odd in there. That said, I'd still go for it. Surely it backs up binary files, right?

Okay, I'll stop calling you Shirley now.

[GraemeJ]

Ahhhh - now that's different. Because it sounds like an all-in-one solution, there might be something odd in there. That said, I'd still go for it. Surely it backs up binary files, right?

I have now found out that the manufacturers software can be by-passed so if the 'Bells and Whistles' version does not work, there is a fallback.

Regards,

GraemeJ

[crelf]

I have now found out that the manufacturers software can be by-passed so if the 'Bells and Whistles' version does not work, there is a fallback.

Yeah - just format the drive

[GraemeJ]

An update on my earlier post: I now have a current model external hard drive, complete with new “bells and whistles” user software. The good news is that this continuously and automatically backs up *.vi files, with up to 25 copies of earlier versions of the file. Setup was easy.

If members thought it appropriate, I could post the make and model.

Regards, GraemeJ