• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

My work laptop is dying -- what's the best way to back up my data QUICKLY?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Dilbert

Member
The disk drive in my work laptop started making funny noises at the end of the day yesterday, and I got two BSODs in less than an hour. When I booted it after the first crash, it was up and stable for about 15-20 minutes before going down again. (The error was a kernel page fault of some kind...any ideas on what might be failing?)

I brought it home with me so I can pull as much data off of it as possible before it REALLY dies. Fortunately, most of my data is kept in a single folder, and I know where to find my Lotus Notes user ID. My strong preference is to copy stuff onto my home PC so I can burn CDs/DVDs at my leisure and then do a multiple-times erase once I've verified the data is readable off the optical media. However, I do have a couple of questions about the best way to get the data transferred:

1) My laptop is running Win2k with a "local user" account (no workgroup), and I'm running WinXP Pro at home. Since (AFAIK) Win2k's user accounts are tied to the domain, I don't think that I can change my laptop's settings to match my home network easily...and I'm also trying to minimize the number of reboots for obvious reasons. What are my options for setting up a connection between the computers? My initial idea was to allow FTP connections on the home machine from internal IP addresses, plug the wireless G card into the laptop, and FTP as much stuff as I could. Will that work? Is there a better way to go?

2) I use Firefox for everything at work, except for those internal sites which specifically mandate the use of IE. One of those sites required that I get a unique digital certificate which authenticates my access, and I need that cert to access a proposal server this weekend. Where are certificates kept in IE's directory structure? Is replicating them as easy as copy/paste, or is it a real pain in the ass to move them from machine to machine?

Thanks for your help. I want to have everything set up in advance so that when I turn the machine on, I can maximize the uptime to get as much copied as possible before disaster strikes...
 

Blimblim

The Inside Track
I think you can export your certificates, then import them on your other computer. It should be in the Internet Options / Content / Certificates.
Don't you have an ipod or usb drive where you could just copy your files ? That would be a very simple and fast solution.
 

Dilbert

Member
Blimblim said:
I think you can export your certificates, then import them on your other computer. It should be in the Internet Options / Content / Certificates.
Don't you have an ipod or usb drive where you could just copy your files ? That would be a very simple and fast solution.
I hadn't thought about using my iPod, but that's another great idea. I'd have to clean off all the music (it's a 20 GB model which is maxed out), but I could afford to have it sync for a couple of hours...

Is the "export" command targeted at a file or removable drive? Or does it just prep the certificate for being copied?
 

Blimblim

The Inside Track
-jinx- said:
I hadn't thought about using my iPod, but that's another great idea. I'd have to clean off all the music (it's a 20 GB model which is maxed out), but I could afford to have it sync for a couple of hours...

Is the "export" command targeted at a file or removable drive? Or does it just prep the certificate for being copied?
You can select multiple certificates, and export all of them together. If possible try doing this and importing the certs on another computer right away as I've never used this feature before and I'm not 100% sure how this works.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom