I have uses a password saver on my computer for years but guess what? Its useless when your hard drive crashes. I've spent the last week in never never land trying to remember passwords. Finally got the right one for pgmusic forums. No luck with gmail. Rebuilding everything and this time I'm keeping a separate password book on paper.












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Also, consider taking an Image Backup periodically onto a separate removable drive.

Macrium Reflect have one that I believe is free-of-charge for personal use.

Macrium Reflect is a fantastic program. I back up all of our computers with it.

But I do not keep passwords on my computer. I have them in a three ring notebook that is not near my computer. I also have them on a flash drive again that is no where near my computer. It is a PITA but it is the safest way to store passwords IMHO. YMMV

I heartily recommend Last Pass.


https://www.lastpass.com/

I also heartily recommend periodically imaging your hard drive so you can restore it relatively painlessly when it crashes.

Most online accounts offer a "forgot password" link, so you can reset those via an email link, but it is a bit of a pain.

If there are passwords for which you are desperate, there are people who are able to recover most data from the typical crashed disc, but it isn't cheap and of course it can't be guaranteed to be successful. Some do a no-recovery/no-fee arrangement.

There are good arguments for putting important secure data on a memory stick and passing it to someone trustworthy and/or bank, lawyer, safe, etc.



FWIW, I also keep important passwords and similar data, e.g. for online banking, "memorable data", PINs and so on using a secure data application. There is a very, very, short list of people who have access to those secure data application files and their passwords. My wife and I have a reciprocal arrangement, and we each store the other's master password in our own file.

I keep all unimportant passwords in a Firefox account, but I don't sign-in anywhere, even to the Firefox account from Android. Using that account means I can use auto-generated passwords that are safer than my old algorithmic method from any PC that I use. Firefox accounts seem to have been pretty secure, but I'd never put important passwords there.



Both our files are stored both on our own personal PCs and also on our home fileserver, which is then backed up nightly and automatically, by BackupPC on a machine in an outbuilding. That way there's no issue of me forgetting to do it!

Part of the reason for all that is that when we die, there is a good method for other relevant people to be able to administer things.

I have always kept my PWs on paper but.... you have to remember to update them when you change them. It's helpful to make notes on the date of that PW.... I don't work in an office where people are snooping in my stuff so I'm cool with written PWs.

And sometimes, this doesn't even seem to work.

Gotta back up your important files at least monthly. I do it weekly. I use a password protected spreadsheet for my passwords.

At least.

I back up my data every day using MS Sync Toy to an external drive. Sync Toy only rewrites files that have changed and writes new files, so it only takes a few minutes.

I do a disk image at least once a week. I also do an image before I install new software, when MS wants to update my OS, or when I've made any major changes.

You can replace your computer easily, but you can't replace your data easily, if you can replace it at all.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

My approach is the same. I believe that everyone should expect a disk crash at some stage. Being prepared will seriously ease the pain.

A crash isn't a matter of if, but when.

It's often said that there are two types of computer users:
Those who have had a disc crash
and
Those who have not had a disc crash ... yet.

Notes, is it still OK to use SyncToy? In looking this up I see that the download was discontinued in January 2021.

Jeff

I didn't know it was discontinued.

It seems I'm going to have to save my last download, unless there is something else out there that works better.

What I like about SyncToy is it only changes the files on the external drive that have been either changed or added on my HD, in the folders that I have selected. It backs up data in a minute or two.

Notes ♫

SynchronizeIt! does the same thing. It's not free, but it is excellent, includes file comparison tools and more.

It's the main one that I still use (for non-image backups - I use Macrium Reflect (paid version) for that.

BTW, still runs perfectly on all Windows O/S versions including Windows 11.

I don’t know how the topic morphed, but I use SyncToy daily. I did not know about SyncronizeIt and will check it out.

As long as SyncToy still works, I see no reason to get another, but as we all know, sooner or later all software will go belly-up, and it's good to have a back-up plan for backing up.

I don't mind paying for things like SyncronizIt, so I've put that name in a safe place, for the eventuality. Of course, putting things in a safe place is a sure way to never find them again.

Notes ♫