Is it neccesary to backup "My book Live network drive" before installing any firmware updates?

Hello and how is it going?

My name is Peter and we have a My book live network drive, that needs to have its firmware updated. I was wondering whether we would have to backup the HDD’s data to another HDD before we install the updates becuase I thought I saw this tip somewhere and I was just wondering if it is really neccesary…

Please let me know…

Thanks

Peter :robothappy:

The answer to this question is the same as the answer to this question:  Do you care if you lose your data?   

While I’ve never experienced data loss during a firmware update, it is always a risk.

OK so do you back up yours?

In my case, my My Book live IS my backup.

well yes i do care because it contains family photos and things that are only on that drive. the thing is that I dont know if I should bother going out and buying a $300 drive. Do you think I should or should I just do the updates

As a matter of principle, don’t rely on a single copy of important files such as photo’s! If they are ALL on your MBL, then you are risking losing them if MBL crashes, just remember that Hard Disks are not immune to failures, they are after all, physical devices. My advice would be to keep the photos on your PC, and keep a copy of them on your MBL (or vice versa). Another alternative is to write a copy to CD/DVD.

The point to remember is that if the items are important to you, too many backups aren’t a bad thing. Rather too many than not enough!

I use MBL as my main backup, so should things go wrong during update of firmware, I don’t lose anything that matters. Only you can say whether this applies to you!

Mike

Important data = backups, the more copies the better.

I do as well, use MBL as the backup device while I keep original files on laptops/phones/desktops/etc.

Some fun reading:

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/digital-storage-basics-part-3-backup-vs-redundancy/

But you see it is more of a storage thing rather than a backup device and I don’t have enough room on my computer to store the photos to then backup on the drive

You really do risk losing them if they are your only copy.

CD’s and DVD’s are cheap enough, just use them to make additional copies. As an additional safety measure, try not to store CD’s/DVD’s in same location as PC/MBL. If your house catches fire or is flooded, you risk losing them all! If this is not possible, consider investing in a fireproof/waterproof box to keep them in.

How much you are prepared to spend to protect them, really does depend on the value YOU place on them.