9 replies to this topic

[ebrke]

I'm a little embarrassed to ask this, but I'm looking for a better way to back up minimal win7 install (mother's laptop--still using 7 DVDs to back up). A backup file is less than 50 GB in size according to proprietary Lenovo backup software. Could I use a usb flash drive as backup media?

[securitybreach]

Clonezilla. It works with all OSs and you can back up to any media, partition, drive, network location, etc. It lets you take a clone of a whole drive or just a snapshot of a partition, Clonezilla is a must.

[Ed_P]

Yes ebrke your mom should be able to use USB drives for her backups.  Her current backup app should support the USB drives.  If her backup app creates system images greater than 4GB be sure the USB drives are formatted exFAT.

She should use multiple USB drives so she can have a grandfather, father, son backup scenario.  64 GB drives should work for her 50 GB backups but try one before buying more.

[ebrke]

securitybreach, on 14 July 2018 - 06:57 PM, said:

Clonezilla. It works with all OSs and you can back up to any media, partition, drive, network location, etc. It lets you take a clone of a whole drive or just a snapshot of a partition, Clonezilla is a must.

I've used the proprietary Lenovo backup app that came with Lenovo tools on mom's laptops. It does work--I had a HDD replaced on one of her laptops and system was successfully restored from the Lenovo backups. I'd use Clonezilla on my linux system if I ever backed up, but since I can do a new net install of SUSE in under an hour, on the rare occasions I've had a problem, I just do a new install. My /home is just copied to a flash drive.

Edited by ebrke, 15 July 2018 - 01:40 PM.

[raymac46]

I use an older 250 GB drive in a USB drive enclosure to back up my Windows desktop.
https://www.vantecus...rive Enclosures

[Pete!]

raymac46, on 16 July 2018 - 07:07 AM, said:

I use an older 250 GB drive in a USB drive enclosure to back up my Windows desktop.
https://www.vantecus...rive Enclosures

Ditto, but it's a bit smaller (120 GB).
I've been lazy, an updated image is overdue.

[zlim]

I use Western Digital external portable hard drives. I have 7. Two @ 500GB, Two @ 1TB, and 3 @ 2TB. I have 5 computers to backup and I do them every 4 - 6 weeks, except for the XP that gets done when I feel like it. (It gets Office 2007 updates every so often). I also keep lots of the images rather than removing them every time I do another.

Some of the drives want to run additional software. I don't let them.

If you decide to go the portable hard drive route, don't put every image on there just in case the hard drive dies. Either buy 2 external hard drives or rotate between the external and a USB stick so you have at least 1 source for an image.

[abarbarian]

https://www.ebuyer.c...ASABEgLNRvD_BwE

I use one of these. The usb3 is as almost as fast as the pc drives. With it I can copy to and from the pc or with two ssd/hdd's inserted copy and paste between them.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Backup schmackup! Data is forever. Who needs backups.

[goretsky]

Hello,

Here's something I wrote a while ago on backup strategies:  Options for Backing Up Your Computer [PDF].  It doesn't get into mentioning specific products, but does give an overview of the various types of backup technologies and methods available.  It's a few years old, but aside from discussing storage capacities is is still fairly current.

Regards,
Aryeh Goretsky