Pauli, that's true, but independence and control are not necessarily related in that way. The more you do it yourself, the more work it is. "Not working" is independence. If the automated approach gets you "close enough for government work", less control can be just fine.The more you rely on automated and given-to-be functions, the more you depend on them. The more you do-it-yourself, the more independence / control you have.
Pauli, that's true, but independence and control are not necessarily related in that way. The more you do it yourself, the more work it is. "Not working" is independence. If the automated approach gets you "close enough for government work", less control can be just fine.
No, I want FULL CONTROL. Like I tell my computer where to save my files (not in the same hard drive the PC is working on). So even if my computer decided to be independent and do crazy things by itself (due to "infection" or system error problems), my files are safe and intact in another hard drive. I also tell my PC not to download updates automatically (disable it) and not to use everything that is by Microsoft. I don't tell my PC to do auto-backup for me. I wanna do it myself manually so I know that my important files are safe.
Not the way I'm doing it. My files are on separate hard drive. That in itself is a way of backing it up as being away from the destructive system errors on PC. Yes, the only manual part is just setting the save location. My NAS is mapped to my PC. So I just manually move/copy my important files (not everything) there and it's backed-up right away to my NAS which is on RAID 1 mode.it manually becomes a real chore, and introduces its own risks, like missing a directory.
Not the way I'm doing it. My files are on separate hard drive. That in itself is a way of backing it up as being away from the destructive system errors on PC. Yes, the only manual part is just setting the save location. My NAS is mapped to my PC. So I just manually move/copy my important files (not everything) there and it's backed-up right away to my NAS which is on RAID 1 mode.
The files you're referring to are the easy part. Like you say, just copy everything; it's 100% your files. I'm referring primarily to the stuff in appdata, which is what creates a challenge. Even after cleanup, on a good day my appdata contains 20,000 files in 6,000 folders, over 3 GB. 99% of that is flotsam that I don't want to back up, update, or wade through later, or tie up the backup program trying to keep up with it. For example, all of the crap in the browser cache is in there, and would be constantly growing in a backup. I created a surgical backup plan for that stuff, but it is still dozens of folders. That is where the chore comes in--doing that part manually.
BTW, badrobot, I just noticed that the image in your signature is animated. That's pretty cool! Hey, is there a way to "Like" a signature?