Backup Software choice?

[glennc]

Tell me about it, I had to buy EASUS to get back some irreplaceable photos. Was worth the cost. That thing got like 95% of the stuff back. Amazing. Luckily I hadn't done a 7 time wipe of free space......
glennc

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Think about this:

You have your operating system and your personal data on the same partition (C). Everything is working OK.

Feb 1: you make an image of C (the entire partition).

Feb 5: you do a lot of work on your PC, maybe scanning in 200 new pictures or doing your tax returns.

Feb 10: your operating system becomes unstable and System Restore doesn't help. No problem, you've got the image you made Feb 1.

So you restore the image.

Well, you just lost all that work you did on Feb 5. You are back to where you were on Feb 1.

That's an example of how you can become complacent, thinking an image will always bail you out. You've got to stay on your toes.

 

[dTonic]

My advice is that it can be useful to have an image of the operating system, but I would not rely on an image as my ONLY backup for my personal data. Imaging generally works, but is not completely reliable and you need to back up your personal data in some other way. That other way might be a simple copy procedure with your mouse to a separate drive--or you could use a program to back up your data in an automated fashion.

I agree with you 100%. I have had "verified" images fail for reasons I never could figure out. So a Automated program such as "GoodSync" for personal data backup is the best way in my opinion. I generally separate my personal data from the partition where the OS resides as much as possible. In other words, I have separate partitions for "My Documents", "Application Data", and even one for the pagefile.sys. This keeps my OS clean, unfragmented, and manageable when making an backup image of the OS for recovery purposes. A key point her would be, although the process of backing up the data is automated, do not automate with respect to scheduling the backup process. This could allow backing up of malware or viruses. Before backing up data or creating a intermittent image, the first step is to insure a clean computer.

Has anyone played around with Acronis True Image for disk imaging? Was wondering if anyone had a decent review of disk imaging software.


dTonic

 

[whs]

Hello whs,
Thank you for relying to the thread and my peace of mind. I also found Macrium Free pretty easy to use. Just one thought is storing your data compressed. Much of my stuff is already compressed .jpg files and .iso. I am concerned about the integrity of compressing already compressed files. I recall decades ago I was warned not to Winzip a compressed file as it might, just might cause corruption. Appreciate your time.
glennc

I do not think that this is a problem. They way compression works it only compresses when there is something to compress - e.g. a long string of blanks or zeros or whatever. When the compression has already taken place, it would not find such a condition and leave it alone.

 

[pparks1]

Has anyone played around with Acronis True Image for disk imaging? Was wondering if anyone had a decent review of disk imaging software.

I own Acronis True Image 2010 for my home computers. I found it available at NewEgg once for $23.99 and it works well. With that said, I have also used Macrium Reflect (free) and EaseUS ToDoBackup (free) for test boxes at work and both of them work well also. The feature I like with Acronis is called Try & Decide...so you turn on T&D and then you can make changes, install stuff, etc...and at the end you can choose to discard the changes or keep them. (99% of the time I discard). The 1 time I tried to commit them, it wrecked my machine and I had to restore a backup....so I won't ever commit the changes again.

For me personally, I have an 80GB SSD for my OS, apps and games. I have a 1TB drive for downloads, scratch space and image backups in the machine. My actual data is stored on a server, which has a second hard drive installed which replicates the data every 6 hours. And then I connect 2 external drives regularly and backup the data using robocopy to my external drives and then typically keep 1 or both of them offsite in the event of a fire, theft or other home disaster.

So, I often install the OS, activate it and Windows Update patch it and make 1 image. Then I further image about once per month. Thus, in the event of an issue I can go back to the latest 1 month image or go back to the clean vanilla image in the case of a major problem.

 

[dTonic]

That's a nice setup for back, indeed. Sounds too expensive for me. I think I'm heading towards a second HDD for mirroring the data partitions on the working drive, then I can just syncronize the data from HDD to HDD. I also want to keep the second drive inaccessible until I chose to access it for Syncing. This ought to keep the viruses from the second drive.

dTonic

 

[whs]

The feature I like with Acronis is called Try & Decide...so you turn on T&D and then you can make changes, install stuff, etc...and at the end you can choose to discard the changes or keep them. (99% of the time I discard). The 1 time I tried to commit them, it wrecked my machine and I had to restore a backup....so I won't ever commit the changes again.

That is funny.

 

[glennc]

Hello to all,
Thank everyone for joining in the discussion. I still haven't decided.
But I have a more immediate issue. I have tried to do a Windows backup with System Image and so far it has failed twice. Double checked settings and reset backup to search for devices to backup to. On the second try I got a 0x8007002 Error. I rebooted again and did a create system image by itself. It did it without a hitch. Now I'm attempting to do a backup without the system image. As I'm sitting here it just failed twice, almost immediately after starting.
Now a word of background. It appears that Backup wants to store on the root of the my E: drive. That is where it always did it before. The backup from prior to doing the multiple reformats was copied back to a Folder, not back to root where it was originally. I don't know but could this be a problem?????
Endeavor to persevere.
glennc

 

[glennc]

Hello geek,
Thanks for the time. I agree that there is more out there. Thanks for the vote of confidence on that product. Will review after doing a complete clean install of the OS.
Take care.
glennc

 

[whs]

Hello geek,
Thanks for the time. I agree that there is more out there. Thanks for the vote of confidence on that product. Will review after doing a complete clean install of the OS.
Take care.
glennc

Glenn, have a look here.

 

[glennc]

Hello whs,
Thank you for that link. I have been leaning towards Macrium, I don't know why really except it lets me choose stuff. I, due to issues with Windows 7, did a complete clean reinstall. After getting the basics on it, no data minimum programs with updates. I did a backup with System Image and repair disk. Don't you know that while installing my scanner software it crapped out and it couldn't see my SATA DVD Drive. Went back to an earlier restore point, problem went away, but gained new problems. Haven't had a restore point work yet, only three tries though. So I just booted to the Repair Disk and went back to the System Image. Everything was perfect and started adding the software and data back on the drive. Pheeeew.
Thanks again
glennc

 

[whs]

Glenn, the problem with the windows backup and also the system restore is that it is not very reliable. It works sometimes and other times it does not. That was already the case in Vista and seems to still be a problem with Win7.
For that reason I have built my restore strategy around Macrium (after using Norton Ghost and Paragon before). What I like about Macrium is that it is straight forward and you know at every point of the way where you are. I have also been teaching the use of Macrium in my computer club and done many recoveries for real or demo. I never had the slightest problem with those. I use the free Macrium which does all I need.

 

[glennc]

Thanks again whs,
I was unaware of any inconsistencies with the Windows Backup Program. It saved my bacon today. But if it is intermittent, I do not wish to install W7 again for a while.
Will give it great thought, thank you!
glennc

 

[derekimo]

Glenn, the problem with the windows backup and also the system restore is that it is not very reliable. It works sometimes and other times it does not. That was already the case in Vista and seems to still be a problem with Win7.
For that reason I have built my restore strategy around Macrium (after using Norton Ghost and Paragon before). What I like about Macrium is that it is straight forward and you know at every point of the way where you are. I have also been teaching the use of Macrium in my computer club and done many recoveries for real or demo. I never had the slightest problem with those. I use the free Macrium which does all I need.

+1 what he said.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Glenn:

If you want to use Windows Backup, be sure NOT to rename any of the image files it makes and DON'T move them either. Those are 2 of the primary complaints. Just accept the default names and locations.

I gave up on it because the interface is not intuitive and non-intuitive interfaces never inspire confidence in an application. They tried to do a one size fits all thing by putting the imaging capability inside the backup capability when they should have left them separate. A product dedicated to imaging, such as Macrium, doesn't have that shortcoming.

 

[glennc]

Howdy ignatzatsonic,
Thank you for your advice and opinion. I think I will use a non MS alternative.
I haven't had the time yet to read in depth the difference between a backup, System Image or Backup with System Image. All I know is that for my one necessary us of the Windows System Image, it did exactly what I wanted. It took my computer back to a point of working perfectly and got rid of all remnants of installed programs that Revo and Advanced System Care or a return to an earlier restore point did not accomplish. So in my limited knowledge, I like System Images and I would like to store more than one. Easily and without having to rename or move, which apparently is impossible or questionably safe with Windows backup.
Thanks again.
glennc

Glenn:

If you want to use Windows Backup, be sure NOT to rename any of the image files it makes and DON'T move them either. Those are 2 of the primary complaints. Just accept the default names and locations.

I gave up on it because the interface is not intuitive and non-intuitive interfaces never inspire confidence in an application. They tried to do a one size fits all thing by putting the imaging capability inside the backup capability when they should have left them separate. A product dedicated to imaging, such as Macrium, doesn't have that shortcoming.