Backup software recommendations, please

[Eggdog]

Hi,Our home server died and I'm reconstituting an older computer for my wife's personal use. It runs Windows XP, and will continue to do so.I'd like some recs about what to use for backup software. I tried downloading a couple, and they were either buggy or inscrutable. I would definitely prefer something that backs up the files "as is", without compression.I'll be using USB drives. We had a pretty bad experience with online backup (the files I just restored, uh, weren't what I thought they were) and I don't want to go in that direction again.I'm not necessarily looking for freeware. I'm fine with paying for something that works.Thanks!

[striker]

Hi Eddie,I'm an old school fail safe kind of guy and don't believe in backups as is: I only believe in imaging.If you meant the former you don't need any software at all to start: just copy the files to be backed up to some USB drive dedicated for these purposes. What you also could do is using some sort of sync tool like Microsoft provides free of charge. (others offer alternatives, search around at snapfiles.com)Now imaging: assuming you know the difference between those two (backing up / imaging) I've used a couple;Norton Ghost up and incl. v. 14 : the older ones worked a OK, v. 14 I send back and got a refund. I had my reasons.TeraBytes Unlimited Image for DOS (IFD) was the next one I used (licensed): it worked like a charm, however it needs time to produce a complete image.When I got Vista 64bit I also used it, but after I while I've had it with the time it needed to produce the image; so I started to look around for something else.I ended up to my full satisfaction with StorageCraft ShadowProtect. (http://storagecraft.com/) That's what I still use now I'm on Windows 7 (32bit). However, I use the rescue CD which one can produce once you have the paid version on the machine: with this disc I produce the images outside of Windows and I also use this disc to start up the machine to restore an image if needed.(some folks tell me this isn't needed anymore with Vista an 7, I know (the shadow service comes to mind) but like I said, I'm stubborn, old school and a fail safe idiot. Mmm, did I say that? Need more coffee...There are alternatives, also freeware ones. The best advice I can offer is trialing them out to the full extend. That's what I also did, except I went for a paid solution directly and skipping the freeware ones.Good luck!edit: BTW, you also could use a linux version for the purpose of imaging, yes you can. If interested talk to Frank Golden, I'm sure he's willing to set you on track.

[Tushman]

Hi Eddie,I'm an old school fail safe kind of guy and don't believe in backups as is: I only believe in imaging.If you meant the former you don't need any software at all to start: just copy the files to be backed up to some USB drive dedicated for these purposes. What you also could do is using some sort of sync tool like Microsoft provides free of charge. (others offer alternatives, search around at snapfiles.com)Now imaging: assuming you know the difference between those two (backing up / imaging) I've used a couple;Norton Ghost up and incl. v. 14 : the older ones worked a OK, v. 14 I send back and got a refund. I had my reasons.TeraBytes Unlimited Image for DOS (IFD) was the next one I used (licensed): it worked like a charm, however it needs time to produce a complete image.When I got Vista 64bit I also used it, but after I while I've had it with the time it needed to produce the image; so I started to look around for something else.I ended up to my full satisfaction with StorageCraft ShadowProtect. (http://storagecraft.com/) That's what I still use now I'm on Windows 7 (32bit). However, I use the rescue CD which one can produce once you have the paid version on the machine: with this disc I produce the images outside of Windows and I also use this disc to start up the machine to restore an image if needed.(some folks tell me this isn't needed anymore with Vista an 7, I know (the shadow service comes to mind) but like I said, I'm stubborn, old school and a fail safe idiot. Mmm, did I say that? Need more coffee...There are alternatives, also freeware ones. The best advice I can offer is trialing them out to the full extend. That's what I also did, except I went for a paid solution directly and skipping the freeware ones.Good luck!edit: BTW, you also could use a linux version for the purpose of imaging, yes you can. If interested talk to Frank Golden, I'm sure he's willing to set you on track.

A lot of good information there - and I totally agree with Striker about using imaging software.In addition to his recommendations: Acronis True Image. Version 8 & 10 were rock solid. (I think you can actually find version 8 floating around on the net for free). And no I'm not suggesting you go to a crack or warez site... I remember there was a deal on FW forums talking about version 8 being available as a free download. It may have been a limited time promotion only deal. Edited September 10, 2010 by Tushman

[Ed_P]

I use DriveImage XML by Runtime Software LLC to image my drives. And I run it from my BartPE rescue USB/CD/partition.It should be noted that the term drive is not the same for all imaging apps. With DI XML a drive is a partition or volume on the hard drive, not the total hard drive itself. As such I also backup my hd's MBR separately. I image my 80 hd, to another hd, in about 45 mins. And DI XML is free for home use.

[striker]

I mentioned the sync program from Microsoft: Sync Toy.AFAIK the latest version is 2.1: if not, others will correct me.You can find it here:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/deta...=en&pf=trueScreen shots can be found here:http://www.snapfiles.com/screenshots/synctoy.htm

[goretsky]

Hello,For backing up to tape and DVD-RAM, I like NovaStor's NovaBack, which is the only program I could find that supports tape drives under Microsoft Windows 7.For disk imaging, I use Acronis. True Image. Paragon Software has some offerings that work very well, too, I'm told.For copy files (locally, across networks, etc.) I have had good success with 2BrightSparks SyncBack Pro. I use it nightly to copy changed data files to an external hard disk drive.Regards,Aryeh Goretsky

[Tushman]

For copy files (locally, across networks, etc.) I have had good success with 2BrightSparks SyncBack Pro. I use it nightly to copy changed data files to an external hard disk drive.Regards,Aryeh Goretsky

Goretsky,Sounds like you're already sold on SyncBack Pro already but for what it's worth, I usually use Robocopy for that type of stuff. There's a lot of different switches you can use including one for copying files that are newer compared to the one on the backup drive. The main reason why I like it is because it's free & built-in to the OS.

[Frank Golden]

AS Striker mentioned there are totally free linux based tools to image a bootable partition.The one I use and recommend is Clonezilla-Live.Clonezilla -live can be used from a CD or a USB Flash drive.The flash drive version requires a computer that can boot from a USB device (most newer computers can).Actually the same .iso file is used to create both versions.The USB Flash version, like most USB Flash distros boot up much quicker and run faster than a Live CD.Clonezilla is a GUI tool that uses basic keystrokes, primarily the up\down and enter\spacebar keys.It has a slight learning curve but the results are worth it.I will use as an example the imaging and image restoring of my Win 7 Home Premium partition to try to describe what Clonezilla can do.Background: I have a notebook computer with a 500 GB 7200 RPM hard drive and 4 GB of ram.It has 10 partitions (actually 9 since one of the partitions is an extended partition).See image below (click thumbnail).The first one is my Win 7 install.It is as you can see a 23,069.9 MB NTFS primary partition.As you can see also there is a large Fat 32 partition (sda3 or L:) this is where I store my completed images and from where I can restore them.I also save copies to an external drive.When I run Clonezills-Live it detects all these partitions and offers to mount one as a special folder in ram.Everything runs in ram.Clonezilla only copies the used portions of a partition or disk.This helps keep the resulting image small.So in my example my 23,069.9 MB Win 7 partition has approximately 11.0 GB used.The rest is free space.Now I realize the OP expressed his dislike of compression but in this case the default compression applied by Clonezillahelps reduce the 11.0 GB of used space in my example into a 5.5 GB image.It is lossless compression so nothing is lost.Basically the resulting image is bit by bit identical to the original after restore.I know some folks are going to say "but the destination partition is Fat 32, with it's 4 GB file size limit".This is not an issue with Clonezilla because it automatically splits the image into 2 GB pieces.When Clonezilla is used to restore it recombines these pieces automatically and seamlessly.Actually a complete image is actually a file folder with the main image files plus support files.See image below (the three 2,048 MB files in the middle are the actual image files).The above picture is the actual contents of my image folder for Win 7.It took me about 9 minutes to create this image.This compression allows me store my images (6 OS's 6 images) on a couple of USB flash drives.Restoring an image stored on a flash drive is very fast (about 2.5 GB a minute).Restoring from the Fat 32 partition (sda3 or L:) is about 1.5 GB\minute.My habit is to perform a restore immediately after (while still in Clonezilla) creating it.Since I have the last couple of images saved this isn't as risky as it sounds.Performing a restore immediately ensures the image will work when disaster strikes.The only risky part it the very first restore, with no previous image to fall back on.I have yet to have Clonezilla fail me.A big limitation, but one common to most imaging programs is that the source partition must be exactly the same size as the destination partition.Again using my example, if I wanted to use Clonezilla to my 23,069.9 MB Win 7 install from one drive to another then the destination partition must be exactly 23,069.9 MB in size to the byte.The used space doesn't matter. If the source partition and the destination partition aren't exactly the same size Clonezilla will error out.This limitation also extends to the location of the destination partition.As you can see my Win 7 partition is sda1 (linux designation) to move to another drive the destination must be sda1 also.Clonezilla can be used to migrate everything from one drive to another.I did just that when I bought my present 500 GB drive (upgrade from my 320 GB drive).I first created new images of all my OS partitions and saved them to a couple of flash drives.I then installed the new drive and used Gparted Live to partition it exactly like my old drive.The only difference was that the Fat 32 and NTFS storage partitions were grown to use the remaining free space.I next reinstalled my original drive and used a external SATA to USB adapter to manually copy all the data files to their respectivepartitions.Finally I installed the new prepared drive back to the notebook and restored the OS partitions to their respective locations on the new drive.All work took a couple of hours.Clonezilla can't do some stuff the "more sophisticated" paid imagers can do but it is free and quite capable.

[crp]

and I would like to addXXCOPY to the list of programs that can do backups and clone drives.

[patio]

Paid = Acronis True ImageFree = Macrium Reflect

[degustibus]

Unlike the top pros here, I don't image because the the main files I have an interest in backing up are client documents, text files and some light DB files.I use Karen's Replicator for these backups/synchs to USB and across my home lan. For very quick and dirty stuff I use old laplink3 in the Dos window -- main disadvantage is it doesn't do long filenames....but I'm stuck in the past anyhow and don't often use long filenames since so many of my files are created with....WordStar 6....

[FuzzButt]

FWIW I use a multi layer strategy. I pay for Carbonite to backup my RAID array and some other important files. I use Windows 7's backup to take care of backing up my C: drive (SSD) to another local hard drive and I have removable drives I store elsewhere that have Acronis images on them. Having a multi pronged approach is the best bet. Also keeping more than one image and testing it before you have a problem is also a good idea. Plan for the impossible. I can happen.

[ChipDoc]

I've never used a backup service, but there's an overriding principle at work here - the real key to data security is keeping multiple backups in multiple physical spaces. Even in an Enterprise situation, I've taken data home with me simply to have it in another space in case something (like a hurricane's tidal surge) takes out both the main building and the data storage center. My house is 30 miles inland; both those businesses were pretty much right on the water. I didn't have any say in the picking of the data storage site...The impossible happens regularly. Keep multiple copies of critical data in different physical locations!

[zlim]

I don't store "document-type" files on my computers. I image because if the hard drive dies, I can pop in a new hd, restore the image and have the computer operational with all the installed software.

[ChipDoc]

I keep all of the installs on an external drive. When a drive crashes, I use it as an opportunity to do a fresh install of everything. The machine runs a whole lot faster all of a sudden! But that's just me.