Windows 7: Best Back-Up software?

Hey everyone,
I am looking for a program that does automatic back-ups. I want to be able to choose what files/folders, and i want to be able to choose when it backs up. I would also like for it to monitor the programs for updates and instantly update them.

Thanks,
Ben

Hi Ben,

The Windows backup will do automatic backups, and you can tell it what to backup.

I'm not so sure about the real-time monitoring, though. I haven't seen any good programs that will do that.

You could create a system restore point on a schedule. That will backup the registry, and settings and the like.

You can also create a full system image, or include it in the scheduled backup. It does take up a chunk of space, but it allows for a complete restore in minutes.

Hi Ben

The first two are easy. Acronis. backs up liles/folders as a scheduled task. The third is a bit more trouble. For it to back up "instantly" it has to be an active ask looking all the time. there are some 3rd party apps that will sync an origin folder and destination folder but they are "backup" apps. I dont think you would want acroonis (or any other) back up app kicking off once a minute


Hope this helps
Ken

+1 for Acronis...its that good...

I have Acronis B/U SW 2009 and have trouble with it. When I want to use it it keeps on asking for second (I think) CD and I have no idea what it wants.
Acronis 2009 is totally installed (I think by download) and I want to backup to an external hard drive, not CD.
Is it that 2009 does not work any more with windows7, 64 bit or what gives?

Check out Acronis True Image 2010. It has a constant backup feature. I have never used it. Chances are it's what your looking for. It is working on my system you can check my specs. It is not compatiable with Ooutlook 2010. Which means You get no email notifications. Also you can't back up your email settings. (backs up the Outlook directory naturally. Which means you have your email settings) It is compatiable with Outlook 2007. Go to Acronis and do some reading.

There's a problem with the Non Stop Backup feature that has got people up in arms at the Acronis forums - Nonstop Backup Turns Off For No Reason -- Getting Extremely Frustrated With ATI Home 2010 | Forums

@ Ritter197, yeah you'll want to go with ATI 2010 for Windows 7, though some have reported that the backup feature in ATI 2009 does work under Windows 7. I can't confirm or deny since I currently don't have my copy of 2009 installed. I just use Windows 7 backup.

By ATI 2009, are you referring to ATI 11?

Acronis is very good , but for Windows 7 you'll want ATI 2010.

I've never used the continuous backup either. I think it backs up every 5 minutes.
IMHO, thats just too much and way overboard.

True, continuous has issue for some, But this feature really isnt needed anyway IMO, because:

You can schedule auto back ups as often as you desire. Weekly, Daily, or even periodically.

You can set it to make a full back up every 30Minutes if you choose to.


I prefer to set it to auto back up every 3 days. If theres a update or something I want before the scheduled time, just manually tell it to update.

It is quite simply 1 button press, <Update Now>

I approach my backups a little differently and it might be something that you could consider as well. I'm not sure, so I will just throw it out here.

#1). I keep everything (data, downloads, etc) on a dedicated file serving box at my home. I don't use this as a desktop, I don't run apps from it, it just sits in a corner and serves up files via 4 file shares.

#2). My desktop computers are set to map drives to the server. Thus, when I save files, downloads, etc...I ensure to save them to my server machine.

#3). My server machine has 2 hard drives installed. Every few hours, a synchronize job runs (using robocopy) to mirror all of the data from my primary hard drive to that second hard drive which is located internally.

#4). Every couple of weeks I attach an external USB hard drive and run robocopy again which synchronizes my internal drive with my external drive. Robocopy only gets changes since the last run, so these backups take less than 2 minutes to complete with my rate of change at home. And I often keep 2 external USB drives...1 at work in case my house burns down or is robbed. I drive stays at home in the ultra rare event that I manage to lose both internal server drives.

#5). On my workstation, I run Acronis True Image and make 1 image of the machine when it was just installed. Vanilla install, patched and activated. From there, I usually just create a new image every month or so..so that I can revert back to that in the case of a disaster. For me, having to reinstall a few apps is simply no big deal...so I don't mind going back a few weeks.