Best Back-up Software ?

[CosmicSurfer]

I'm looking for a good Back-Up software to do "Scheduled" Full and especially Incremental Backups of selected Files and Folders...

I'm not sure that I need full drive Back-Ups. I use 4 seperate drives for WinXP O/S (80GB), Applications (250GB) & Data (2x 320GB - Raid 1).

I also use a 5th (250GB) External for storing Back-Ups and old Data copies.

I picked up a Copy of Norton Ghost v14 at Pantip...

But is it the best that I can use?

Is it intuitive and easy for a "non-geek" User like me??

What about "Recovery".. Is it also user friendly???

Please apply the above criteria to any recommendations you may make.

Much Thanks

CS

[Beardog]

I use Norton 9 Ghost. A 4th grader can use it. mine has 3 questions to reinstall if you have a problem. Pretty easy. You most likely will need to back up to a new disc once in a while on a 2 sided disc. All you need is an up to date dvd burner 2 years ago or newer. You might be able to back up portions if most are not being filled.

Ghost is pretty simple to use.

all my friends are on it now as I was getting pissed that they would screw up their computers & want me redo the way I set it up. All but 1 friend chose to do this & I cut him loose since I was tired of setting up his comp every 2 months!

[Mighty Mouse]

I'm using 2003 Ghost on my Win XP system. I love it.

Previously I had the Symantec suite installed, including Anti-Virus but it was a resource hog. I un-installed everything, and then physically got into my registry to delete all entries relating to Symantec.

Ghost was the only Nortons program that I really needed so I reinstalled it. It is trouble free and I recommend it.

[Daffy D]

I too have been using Ghost 2003 for years on XP and it has saved my ass on more than one occasion. I had a look at later Ghost Versions but they were more complicated and had features I didn’t need so I stay with 2003.

The only problem with 2003 is that you need the floppy to boot from if you have a total system failure and my floppy drive is getting a bit temperamental and does not always read the disk.

I did post a question here some time ago how I could boot from a CD but didn’t get any constructive answers so just hope if and when I need to use the floppy again it will work.

Daffy.

[naka]

Acronis True Image.

Naka.

[JetsetBkk]

I too have been using Ghost 2003 for years on XP and it has saved my ass on more than one occasion. I had a look at later Ghost Versions but they were more complicated and had features I didn’t need so I stay with 2003.

The only problem with 2003 is that you need the floppy to boot from ...

I used to use Ghost (v 9, I think) until I got problems burning to sets of CDs, so I wanted to backup to an external USB drive, but my version of Ghost didn't have good USB drivers.

So I changed to Acronis "True Image Home" v11. I use it only to make complete images of my C: drive and store them on an external USB disk, and I only use the bootable CD to do the job. It's not even installed on my system at the moment as I made the bootable CD on an older system and have since restored another system that didn't have it installed. So all you need is the CD. I made 4 copies of the CD, just to make sure...

I did post a question here some time ago how I could boot from a CD but didn’t get any constructive answers so just hope if and when I need to use the floppy again it will work.

It's easy - you need to get into the BIOS (keep tapping 'F2' (?) while booting) and change the order of the boot devices that the BIOS tries. I have CD first, then floppy, hard disk, & network (I think). Why not start a new thread and we can post more details and pictures of what to do?

[Guest Reimar]

I using the paid version of NTI Backup Now, not for me only but for my customers as well. Much better that Norton Ghost and even better than Acronis True Image.

Anyway it's depend how you want work wiyh and how much you'll need to backup and others.

Cheers.

[cophen]

If you're doing file backups you might want to try VersionBackup (www.versionbackup.sb-aw.com). It's free for non-commercial use and it will keep an archive of backups rather than just overwriting the previous backup so you can keep, say, 5 sets of backups.

[Digitalbanana]

I have by nature and past experience, when offered any Symentec product, run for the hills in haste. Indeed when install version 10 when it was fashionable I got a blue screen of death and lost my entire o/s and hard drive data during install which kind of made me wonder!

I use Farstones DriveClone with unlimited success but there are so many other bloat free products out there to choose over Ghost.

[CosmicSurfer]

If you're doing file backups you might want to try VersionBackup (www.versionbackup.sb-aw.com). It's free for non-commercial use and it will keep an archive of backups rather than just overwriting the previous backup so you can keep, say, 5 sets of backups.

I was actually looking seriously at VersionBackup a few months ago... But in the days I was pondering trying it out and researching other programs, VersionBackup went from FREE to $99, and I've never seen it at Pantip, so Now I'm kicking myself that I didn't just download it when I had the chance. You don't have the "FREE Version" Install hanging around, do you??

PM me if you can provide it.

With much appreciation,

CS

[Daffy D]

”JetsetBkk wrote”

It's easy - you need to get into the BIOS (keep tapping 'F2' (?) while booting) and change the order of the boot devices that the BIOS tries. I have CD first, then floppy, hard disk, & network (I think). Why not start a new thread and we can post more details and pictures of what to do?

Yes Yes I know all about that, thing is Norton 2003 only lets you make a FLOPPY boot disk, my question was if I make a floppy boot disk then transfer those boot files to a CD and then do the tapping thing to select Boot from CD will it in fact Boot from the CD?

Daffy.

[JetsetBkk]

”JetsetBkk wrote”

It's easy - you need to get into the BIOS (keep tapping 'F2' (?) while booting) and change the order of the boot devices that the BIOS tries. I have CD first, then floppy, hard disk, & network (I think). Why not start a new thread and we can post more details and pictures of what to do?

Yes Yes I know all about that, thing is Norton 2003 only lets you make a FLOPPY boot disk, my question was if I make a floppy boot disk then transfer those boot files to a CD and then do the tapping thing to select Boot from CD will it in fact Boot from the CD?

Daffy.

Ah, I see. I would say almost certainly that it would not work.

This problem with Norton only creating floppy boot disks and not CD boot disks is one of the reasons I went to Acronis - my new PC didn't have a floppy drive, and the USB floppy I bought I didn't trust.

I think nowadays, most newer backup software allows you to create a bootable CD. So I'm afraid it may be time for you to update.

[merijn]

Acronis True Image. The best there is

Naka.

[hp8000]

I use partimage, a GPL software included in SystemRescueCD who is a Linux system on a bootable CD-ROM including many utilities.

Just restored an ntfs Windows XP image, the image is compressed to 2968Ko and decompressed on the disk use 5,58Go space. It was done in 3min36sec.

[rishi]

As for a backup to recover from total disaster, DriveImage XML does it for me. Even to such an extent that it has made me completely dispose of my good old Symantec DriveImage 7.0 boot cd's - the last version of a state-of-the-art piece of software, before it was turned into the bloat ware called Ghost. Although I've tried out this or that later version of Ghost - well, that didn't make me upgrade from good old DI 7.0 ... But the free piece of no-nonsense software Drive Image XML did what Ghost never managed.

As for the second part of OP's query...

I'm looking for a good Back-Up software to do "Scheduled" Full and especially Incremental Backups of selected Files and Folders...

... well, who'll want a program that requires you to find your boot cd, put it into your drive in reboot in order to backup and "recover" some lost modification to a selected file and folder?

I'll join hands with OP in the hope that someone will share there experience with a good INCREMENTAL backup program - preferably one that also contains some synchronization functionality (like when you are working on the same project on your desktop computer and on your laptop).

[hp8000]

The advantage I can see in Partimage is that it can backup many filesystems: Ext2fs/Ext3fs, Reiser3, FAT16/32, HPFS, JFS, XFS, UFS, HFS and NTFS. Even backup of NTFS described as experimental works like a charm.

Supported Filesystems

[JSixpack]

As for the second part of OP's query...

I'm looking for a good Back-Up software to do "Scheduled" Full and especially Incremental Backups of selected Files and Folders...

... well, who'll want a program that requires you to find your boot cd, put it into your drive in reboot in order to backup and "recover" some lost modification to a selected file and folder?

I'll join hands with OP in the hope that someone will share there experience with a good INCREMENTAL backup program - preferably one that also contains some synchronization functionality (like when you are working on the same project on your desktop computer and on your laptop).

Acronis Drive Image does incremental backups of drives and/or partitions. And you can mount the backup file as a virtual drive by increment and can then synch particular files yourself if you wish. For scheduled routine frequent backup/synch of files and folders, use a product like Syncback, which has a free version; the paid version (USD 30) will do incremental backups--and a lot more--as well.

Acronis normally runs from your HD unless you need a complete restore, in which case you use the Acronis boot CD.

[JetsetBkk]

Acronis normally runs from your HD unless you need a complete restore, in which case you use the Acronis boot CD.

The only reason that I use the Acronis boot CD to make image backups is so that I'm backing up with the same software that I'll use - if necessary - to restore.

[JSixpack]

Acronis normally runs from your HD unless you need a complete restore, in which case you use the Acronis boot CD.

The only reason that I use the Acronis boot CD to make image backups is so that I'm backing up with the same software that I'll use - if necessary - to restore.

Totally unnecessary except in cases where Acronis may fail to entirely lock the disk owing to a process that is constantly or frequently writing and you are unable to shut down such a process. After creating an image, you can then spend two minutes to see if Acronis can mount it, in which case it's a good image and a boot CD created with that version of Acronis will definitely restore it. With Acronis installed on your HD, you can conveniently mount and explore an image, modify it, and restore it to other HDs connected to your system. Nor need you reboot of course to create an image except in the case just mentioned.

And so the versions of Acronis (HD and boot CD) should match, though the later versions will surely restore images created by earlier versions, but similarly the Acroniis boot CD should be the same version as that with which you created the image.

Think how you burn a music CD with Nero but play it back with Winamp.

Edited April 7, 2008 by JSixpack

[Crushdepth]

I like Acronis, but I had some problem restoring an image recently. Acronis 'normal' mode just wouldn't work, I had to switch to 'safe mode' and then everything was fine. But I spent half a day cursing and swearing to figure that out.

Re. syncrhonisation, suggest you take a look at Microsoft Groove or Jungledisk. Groove lets you create a shared workspace or folders between multiple computers or with colleagues and it will synchronise any changes you make to files in there automatically - changes are copied to all machines in the background. If you are working offline, changes will syncrhonise next time you log on. Works very well (don't bash it till you've tried it guys, its a good 'poor man's VPN IMHO).

Jungledisk lets you mount Amazon's remote storage space as a disk on your computer so you can potentially have monster amounts of data parked out there but work off it 'normally' (files are actually transferred by FTP in the background). So you can work off a common set of files on different machines (downside is you must have internet access for it to work). Also supports encryption. Jungle disk is 20 bucks one-time-use-on-as-many-machines-as-you-want license. Amazon storage is costing me about 4 cents a month at the moment!!

[JetsetBkk]

Acronis normally runs from your HD unless you need a complete restore, in which case you use the Acronis boot CD.

The only reason that I use the Acronis boot CD to make image backups is so that I'm backing up with the same software that I'll use - if necessary - to restore.

Totally unnecessary except in cases where Acronis may fail to entirely lock the disk owing to a process that is constantly or frequently writing and you are unable to shut down such a process......

"Totally unnecessary except" - and that's why I do it from the boot CD. I understand all that you say, but I'd rather take a minute or so more to boot the CD than take any chance of having restore problems with the installed software. The CD s/w is unalterable unless it fails to boot - but that's why I made 4 copies. The s/w installed on my HD may suffer all sorts of problems - including "upgrades" making it not work.

And of course I do the "validation" check after the image has been created.

And so the versions of Acronis (HD and boot CD) should match...

Heh, heh! "should" indeed. Maybe I played too long with "Ghost" to trust the "should's" anymore.

[Rice_King]

An old thread I just had to give a bump to since I started using Mozy Online Backup.

Mozy gives you 2 Gigabytes of online storage absolutely free of charge. No setup fee. No Credit Cards. No expiration! For many folks, this 2 GB might be enough space to backup all the data that they deem important. If more than 2 GB of the free storage space is required, Mozy charges a fee of $4.95 per month for an UNLIMITED backup account. The fee is nothing compared to the cost it would take to re-create all of the data you will lose without an online backup solution.

So how does it work? Using the Mozy software, you define what data you would like to backup by directory, file type, last modified, etc. It even comes with a very comprehensive list of backup sets already defined. Once you setup a regular backup schedule, Mozy takes care of the rest. In the background, it will encrypt your data with 448-bit Blowfish encryption and send it to the Mozy servers via 128-bit SSL. You can either use the default Mozy key or supply your own, but if you lose your key your data is lost forever since no one will be able to decrypt it.

Once Mozy does the initial backup, it works in the background (set it and forget it) to detect files which have changed and sends only the blocks which have changed over the network. This will save storage space on their end and time and bandwidth for you. The good news is that both the CPU time used for encrypting and the network bandwidth can be throttled easily and flexibly. The Mozy software can even backup files which are currently open (locked) and backs up Outlook files (.pst files). Essentially, the whole thing is a block-level continuous incremental backup.

Disaster strikes. How do you recover your data? If you’ve just accidentally modified a file you didn’t intend to, you simply right-click on the file in Windows Explorer and select “Restore Previous Version” and you can restore any version within the last 30 days. You can also access the “MozyHome Remote Backup” virtual drive in windows explorer and browse the files on the Mozy servers before restoring. If you need to restore files to a computer which doesn’t have the Mozy software installed, you can use the web-based restore. Finally, if the ultimate disaster strikes and you need a copy of all of your files and don’t want to download them, you can request that your data be burned to DVDs and shipped to you overnight. There is a fee for this service, obviously.

Note: My initial backup has been running between 3-6 GB per 24 hour period. And since this is my initial backup, Mozy is running constantly. I have not noticed a real degradation in browsing the web or doing email. I even run BitTorrent with only a minor hit in speed.

[PattayaDavid]

I've never used Norton Ghost as a result of my previous experience with other resource hogging products from Symantec, as others have pointed out. I have used Acronis products in the past and have been very happy with them. I have just completed a clean install of Windows Vista 64 and plan to install backup software soon. I am currently using Acronis Disk Director for hard drive partition management. I've also used Acronis True Image in the past and have a copy of version 10 and plan to install it soon, but like the OP, I would be interested to see if there is something better out there. Speaking of Acronis True Image, is there any significant improvement in version 11 over the previous version 10 which I have?

Also, I have 4 320GB hard drives configured as 2 RAID 1 systems. Is it possible to use one 750GB external hard drive, possibly split into 2 volumes or partitioned and use one volume (partition) to backup the 1st RAID 1 system and use the second volume (partition) to backup the 2nd RAID 1 system? Can this be done using Acronis True Image, Norton Ghost or by some other software means?

Pattayadavid

[CosmicSurfer]

Also, I have 4 320GB hard drives configured as 2 RAID 1 systems. Is it possible to use one 750GB external hard drive, possibly split into 2 volumes or partitioned and use one volume (partition) to backup the 1st RAID 1 system and use the second volume (partition) to backup the 2nd RAID 1 system? Can this be done using Acronis True Image, Norton Ghost or by some other software means?

Pattayadavid

You are as Paranoid as I am....

Backing up the Back-ups (RAID 1)

Interesting Question... I'd like to see the answer too.

Thanks,

CS

[youngkiwi]

You should always backup a RAID 1 volume. It is not designed to be a backup in itself and only protects your data from single hard drive failure. RAID 1 does not cover you from data corruption, viruses infecting your data, etc.

In case the files on your RAID volume become corrupted, you should ALWAYS, ALWAYS have a backup, preferably off-site.

Regarding one of the previous posters comments regarding Mozy online backup, there are widely documented reliability issues with Mozy's restore process. Many Mozy users have had major headaches restoring data from Mozy.

If you want an online backup solution, I use and recommend Data Deposit Box. They charge $2/GB per month and are great for backing up relatively small amounts of data. I have about 20GB backed up with them and restoring files is reliable and a breeze. Having an offsite backup also protects your data from theft of your computer, fire, natural disaster, etc.

[JetsetBkk]

You should always backup a RAID 1 volume. It is not designed to be a backup in itself and only protects your data from single hard drive failure. RAID 1 does not cover you from data corruption, viruses infecting your data, etc.

In case the files on your RAID volume become corrupted, you should ALWAYS, ALWAYS have a backup, preferably off-site...

To be honest, I don't see the point of RAID 1:

RAID 1 (mirrored disks) uses two (possibly more) disks which each store the same data, so that data is not lost so long as one disk survives. Total capacity of the array is just the capacity of a single disk. The failure of one drive, in the event of a hardware or software malfunction, does not increase the chance of a failure or decrease the reliability of the remaining drives (second, third, etc).

I have two identical disks and use the second as a backup. With RAID 1, if you screw up the first disk, you also screw up the other disk!

[PattayaDavid]

You should always backup a RAID 1 volume. It is not designed to be a backup in itself and only protects your data from single hard drive failure. RAID 1 does not cover you from data corruption, viruses infecting your data, etc.

In case the files on your RAID volume become corrupted, you should ALWAYS, ALWAYS have a backup, preferably off-site...

To be honest, I don't see the point of RAID 1:

RAID 1 (mirrored disks) uses two (possibly more) disks which each store the same data, so that data is not lost so long as one disk survives. Total capacity of the array is just the capacity of a single disk. The failure of one drive, in the event of a hardware or software malfunction, does not increase the chance of a failure or decrease the reliability of the remaining drives (second, third, etc).

I have two identical disks and use the second as a backup. With RAID 1, if you screw up the first disk, you also screw up the other disk!

That's fine and well as long as you backup regularly (daily), but if you only backup weekly or monthly and your primary hard drive fails then you've lost that week or month's worth of data.  I prefer the Raid 1 configuration with a weekly backup.

[Crushdepth]

A couple of things I like about Acronis are the scheduled backup (because I have a terrible memory so its great to have backups done automatically), and that you can validate the archives as well to make sure they actually *work*. Being able to browse archives and recover individual files if you want to is also a huge plus.

[JetsetBkk]

A couple of things I like about Acronis are the scheduled backup (because I have a terrible memory so its great to have backups done automatically),

Firefox add-on: 'Reminderfox' - reminds me when to do backups!

and that you can validate the archives as well to make sure they actually *work*. Being able to browse archives and recover individual files if you want to is also a huge plus.

Also a good idea is to actually DO a restore. I have a spare C drive for my lap top. Every 3 months I swap it with the working one and do a restore from the last image backup.

[JSixpack]

A couple of things I like about Acronis are the scheduled backup (because I have a terrible memory so its great to have backups done automatically),

Firefox add-on: 'Reminderfox' - reminds me when to do backups!

and that you can validate the archives as well to make sure they actually *work*. Being able to browse archives and recover individual files if you want to is also a huge plus.

Also a good idea is to actually DO a restore. I have a spare C drive for my lap top. Every 3 months I swap it with the working one and do a restore from the last image backup.

Do tell us the point of that.