comically_cluttered

Thanks. We'll see how things are in a few months. I'm just so ready for this year to be over already.

Sorry for late reply, but totally. Laziness has done much the same to me on occasion. Actually, the most recent backup I did before last week was like two months previous.

And one of my external drives (more of an archive itself than an actual backup drive) is failing, but I've been too busy to send it in for a replacement. This thread has reminded me to get to that soon.

No prob, happy to help!

This might be a silly question, but when you backup, do you need extra storage space 1:1 with whatever you're copying? Or does it compress the files somehow to keep those backups in a smaller form?

Not silly at all. I was actually going to mention it, but thought the comment was getting too long (lol). It depends on the backup being used, but Kopia and restic both use compression and store the data in archives.

I think, depending on the compression algorithm used, you can save a fair amount of space, but it does add up over time if you're backing up new (large) files often.

The application I use (BorgBackup, sadly not on Windows) is very similar to Kopia and restic, and just as an example, I ran a backup of brand new files that added up to around 14 GB on my computer, but the archive was only about 10 or 11 GB. Might have some numbers a bit wrong (not at my PC right now), but it's somewhere in that ballpark in terms of disk space saved.

They also won't backup files twice unless the file has changed, so large files like videos should only be copied over once since they rarely ever change unless someone changes the metadata or something, which most people won't do.

The only real downside is that you won't be able to just browse the files like normal and copy them back over. You need to first open the archive with the application, but then you can pick and choose which files you want to restore.

I appreciate doctors, but I have trouble communicating my thoughts/feelings, which sometimes leads to misunderstandings. After a recent procedure, I've been prescribed three new meds.

This is really exacerbating my anxiety because I'm always extremely hesitant to fuck with my stable "cocktail" (even though I'm not sure it's actually as effective as it should be) and it's difficult to explain this to some doctors.

I know these meds will help, but I get overly concerned about stuff like QT prolongation, so I'm just doing an ECG before I start because I probably need that peace of mind.

Also they're fucking expensive and there's no copay because fuck me, I guess. It's very frustrating. Like, things are a bit cheaper than they would be in the US (don't know how people deal with that shit there), but it still comes with the caveat that cost of living is higher here than the US, so it evens out anyway.

I spent the last 2 days repairing my install of windows 11. I had attempted to uninstall the patch that was causing SSD failures.

From what I understand, this mainly affected people with Western Digital/SanDisk drives (which, lucky me, I'm also using). I updated the firmware for the drive listed on the SanDisk site and I've run a few tests and things seem fine so far (I haven't bothered trying to rollback Windows itself, so we'll see if it sticks).

However this gave me enough of a kick in the ass to try and take backups and file organization more seriously. Going to be looking into various methods for backups now. Ideally the quicker I can back things up the better as it would encourage me to do it more frequently.

It seems like Kopia and restic are pretty popular open source options which work on all major operating systems.

Kopia has a GUI, but restic is (as far as I know) command-line only, so if that's important, just use whichever you feel comfortable with. I think you can schedule both to run automatically, so you won't need to worry much about doing it manually (I personally prefer to do it manually, but I've been bitten by that in the past thanks to my stubbornness here).

When it comes to full disk imaging (basically cloning your drive), CloneZilla is (IMO) the best option. RescueZilla is a more user-friendly frontend for that, which is what I use.

For a closed source option, Macrium Reflect is/was also okay in my experience, but I haven't used it in a while and I think they've limited the free option to an older version, though I might be wrong.

(Side note: I don't know how well the full disk imaging ones work when it comes to Windows systems encrypted with BitLocker. I know it used to be a bit complicated, but may have improved by now.)

Lol, I'd love if the pun were intended. Made me laugh, so thank you for that and the well wishes.

Things are mostly okay, but exhausted beyond words. I'm sure I'll feel better tomorrow, but man has it been a day.

Thanks, I appreciate that.

I think the worst is over now and in about three hours I head to the hospital. No idea when the actual procedure is going to take place, though, but all should be smooth for now.

Right now, I just can't wait until I'm finally sedated, lol.

The best thing I remember about both of my last procedures was that bliss.

Fucking motherfucking bowel prep bullshit.

I've done this before, but that was before I was always fatigued. I'm fucking exhausted after first dose and starting the next one in an hour.

Haven't eaten in like 18 hours (I guess a cup of soup earlier counts as food, so maybe less because I had one earlier), and the appointment is in the morning (8 hours from now), which means by the time I'm ready to fall asleep, that's when I go to the hospital.

I hate this shit.

Edit: Doesn't help that it's the middle of winter here and I can't tell if I'm shivering because cold or because weakness.

Played and finished Spider-Man: Mile Morales (PC version) a few days ago. It's gorgeous and it gets so much right when it comes to adapting the comics.

Yeah, that's what I plan on doing. I have several drives from older devices and external enclosures. I never really see the point in selling or getting rid of still working drives. More storage, more backups, slightly more redundancy.

Marvel Snap.

I don't even know why. I have no interest in spending money on it so I'm locked out of most decent cards and I don't even like card games/deckbuilders that much.

Maybe it's just because it's quick rounds and with characters I love and am relatively familiar with.

Man, chronic fatigue is a fucking bitch.

Got a new PC today and I legitimately can't even move it anymore. Just bringing it inside caused my energy to drain near zero (plus the lovely side effects of my body thinking it was exercising and causing pains and other discomfort because why the fuck not).

I'll have to set it up on my desk and everything tomorrow or Friday. Chassis too heavy, also have to set up new UPS, even heavier.

Might have to do this over three or four days, actually. Rest day in between because also software setup and restoring some backups and getting all my system settings in order. At least some of it can be reliably automated with Chris Titus' Windows utility, so that's nice.

(Then I also need to replug the old one in and properly erase the SATA SSDs before opening that up and removing them, but that can probably wait until next week anyway since it's not going anywhere anytime soon.)