Backup software for Win 7...

[bruce73]

Because I'm paranoid about backups I also use Windows Imaging every Wednesday to a different backup drive. This of course just happens to coincide with any "Patch Tuesday" (Wednesday in the UK) updates.

Lol, Kado, you sound like me. I also have Windows Imaging set up for every Sunday morning. I thought I would just use the free ver. 5 to add a couple of full images/week, but I like your system. I may just spring for the standard version. I might even scratch Acronis from my 7/64 media PC and my XP Pro laptop and replace it with it MR.

Just a couple of follow-ups:

1) I already have a sizable amount of media files (~270GB) on my E (Storage) partition of my main drive , so I don't want to do a full disc image. Can/should I make a partition image of my D drive (HP Recovery) for safe keeping? Seems wise.

2) When WinPE loads, it asks about loading extras drivers. I say "no," and proceed, but, if I install MR on other machines, I should probably load at least the networking ones. Do I point the scan to the Windows\INF folder? Not sure.

 

[whs]

Well, I am not that dilapidated. In fact I never used XP. And when I have to help out friends that are still running XP, I am completely disoriented. I never understood why people would want to hang on to it.

 

[kado897]

Because I'm paranoid about backups I also use Windows Imaging every Wednesday to a different backup drive. This of course just happens to coincide with any "Patch Tuesday" (Wednesday in the UK) updates.

Lol, Kado, you sound like me. I also have Windows Imaging set up for every Sunday morning. I thought I would just use the free ver. 5 to add a couple of full images/week, but I like your system. I may just spring for the standard version. I might even scratch Acronis from my 7/64 media PC and my XP Pro laptop and replace it with it MR.

Just a couple of follow-ups:

1) I already have a sizable amount of media files (~270GB) on my E (Storage) partition of my main drive , so I don't want to do a full disc image. Can/should I make a partition image of my D drive (HP Recovery) for safe keeping? Seems wise.

2) When WinPE loads, it asks about loading extras drivers. I say "no," and proceed, but, if I install MR on other machines, I should probably load at least the networking ones. Do I point the scan to the Windows\INF folder? Not sure.

1. I did.

2. It did with me in the VM I did this mornings testing but not on my main machine so I don't know where to point it. I guess that on my main machine it picked up the drivers it needed when I created the disk or maybe the standard version comes with extra drivers.

 

[bruce73]

2. It did with me in the VM I did this mornings testing but not on my main machine so I don't know where to point it. I guess that on my main machine it picked up the drivers it needed when I created the disk or maybe the standard version comes with extra drivers.

Windows\INF seems to be the right folder.* On both the XP laptop and 7/64 media PC, I was able to load the ethernet drivers, but when I hit "Browse > Computer > Network" all I got is an empty folder. I checked the Config tab and it was configured correctly (hit "Renew" and it renewed successfully). Any ideas?

*EDIT: Also system32\DriverStore\FileRepository. At least on this HP machine.

 

[PinkiPad]

Sorry to hijack my thread back, but I ran into an issue. On the Macrium site I could not find a download link. It also does not backup files and folders, at least in the free edition. This means...? If I need to restore a file it won't be neatly in a folder?

Any other recommendations???

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Did you look here:

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

You can recover individual files by "mounting" the image file with the recovery disk. Not as tidy as a "file by file" backup program, but it works so long as the image file will mount. Which it usually does.

 

[whs]

Just double click on he image. It will mount the VHD automatically. From there you can pick any file.

 

[PinkiPad]

Did you look here:

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

You can recover individual files by "mounting" the image file with the recovery disk. Not as tidy as a "file by file" backup program, but it works so long as the image file will mount. Which it usually does.

Thank you. I don't have a recovery disk. I have a cd rom player with blank disks, I think. I imagine I will need a program to write/create a disk?

I definitely need to test if the image file will mount, too.

This sounds waaaaaay more complicated than a simple backup program. I need simple. I need uncomplicated. I need easy to do. I have very little time on that netbook and just want to connect the backup drive, choose the files (all) and hit go.

Any recommendations?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Did you look here:

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

You can recover individual files by "mounting" the image file with the recovery disk. Not as tidy as a "file by file" backup program, but it works so long as the image file will mount. Which it usually does.

Thank you. I don't have a recovery disk. I have a cd rom player with blank disks, I think. I imagine I will need a program to write/create a disk?

I definitely need to test if the image file will mount, too.

This sounds waaaaaay more complicated than a simple backup program. I need simple. I need uncomplicated. I need easy to do. I have very little time on that netbook and just want to connect the backup drive, choose the files (all) and hit go.

Any recommendations?

See my post number 2 in this thread.

If you want to back up Windows, that means an image app of some kind, all of which have a degree of complexity--some more than others. Macrium and EaseUS Todo are the "simplest", in my opinion.

You make the recovery disk within the imaging program. You need a CD burner and burning app.

If you want to backup your personal data as opposed to Windows, there is less complexity and any of the programs I mentioned in post 2 will suffice. No recovery disk required.

For that matter, for data backup you don't need a program. Just use the mouse and drag (copy) the appropriate folders to the backup location. But data backup programs automate that process, once they are set up.

 

[PinkiPad]

I thought I had posted about SyncToy, Robocopy, Karen's Replicator

Robocopy, do you have a product download site? I mean official product
SyncToy scares me into thinking i can delete by mistake and seems complicated
Karen's Replicator I am downloading now

3 years ago, before I was ill, doing an image backup would have been a piece of cake -- no fear.

Will post tomorrow if download is successful. First try failed

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Robocopy is part of Windows.

Member PParks uses it as follows, via a batch file.

The syntax listed can be easily modified to fit your folder structure/paths.

All you have to do is create a .bat file on your hard drive. Put the following syntax into the file

C:\windows\system32\robocopy D:\data I:\backups\data /E /MIR
C:\windows\system32\robocopy D:\music I:\backups\music /E /MIR
C:\windows\system32\robocopy D:\movies I:\backups\movies /E /MIR
C:\windows\system32\robocopy D:\pix I:\backups\pix /E /MIR

The /E includes directories that are empty.

The /MIR tells it to mirror the source and the destination. Hence, if you delete the file from D:\data, it will remove it from the I:\backups\data folder as well.

Robocopy only gets changes...so the first run takes awhile, and subsequent runs are fast..as it's only files which have changed.

 

[PinkiPad]

Thank you. Where do I save the file?

Where is Robocopy hiding? I search via the Win icon in sys tray, it lists it as a program. I click it, a DOS window opens for a nanosecond, closes, that's it. Searching otherwise finds nothing

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Save what file?

Robocopy is part of Windows. It lives inside C:\Windows\winsxs, but you don't need to be concerned with that.

You make a simple batch file and put a shortcut to that batch file on your desktop. It's an icon like any other shortcut.


When you poke the icon, robocopy runs and does your backup. If you backed up 5,000 files from the C drive, you would end up with a copy of each of those 5,000 files on the backup drive.

I can probably show you how to easily make the batch file, but a few details are needed, such as:

What folder or folder do you want to back up?

What is the name of the drive to which you will back up? E? F? If you are backing up a bunch of files that are on the C drive, you would back them up to some other drive--D, E, F, whatever you have available--internal or external. Not a DVD.

Understand: Robocopy does not back up your Windows installation. It backs up files--typically your own personal data files. Movies, pictures, Word documents, Excel files, mp3s, whatever you have accumulated.

If you want to back up your Windows installation, you MUST use an imaging application, which implies some complexity that you have stated you would like to avoid. Robocopy is NOT an imaging application.

 

[Corazon]

I'm not sure Robocopy is a good idea here. It's strictly speaking not even a backup app although it can be used as such. It's really a very, very advanced file copying tool meant to supersede the older xcopy command.

Robocopy can copy complete file/folder trees, just the folder structure but no files, it can copy ACL access lists or not, it can copy file audit information or not, alternate streams or not - it's quite complex and powerful.

It's also meant to be used from a command window, it's not meant to be run on its own. Last but not least, the potential for making mistakes is enormous due to the many commandline options available.

I would strongly recommend not to use Robocopy unless you're 1. very secure in its usage and 2. actually have a very specific reason for using it. There are much simpler applications for general backup purposes - incidentally, Macrium Reflect is one of the most straightforward you'll ever find.


EDIT: The Robocopy executable lives in C:\Windows\System32; there is another copy in the winsxs folder but it's not meant to be run directly from there.

 

[PinkiPad]

Thank you both

I'm seeking software where I tell it what to backup, i.e. c;/, and it does a full backup. I can use it to restore C:/ in case of a HDD crash or individual files just in case.

If I remember (and short-term memory loss s part of my illness), Macrium sounded great but I could not find a link to download. The URL I was given had a link to a virus scanner or something like that.

I did a search but most programs seemed to promise a lot IF you bought the big, neato-I-am-wonderful-buy-me-buy-me program but the trial was garbage as you could not get a feel for the big picture.

Before i was ill, nothing on a computer scared me. Now ...

 

[ignatzatsonic]

You need to stay connected to this forum for an hour or two, rather than posting every other day or so. That way we can have an ongoing conversation.

We still need to know:

Do you want to backup Windows and everything on the C drive? If so, imaging is a must and Macrium is probably your best choice. All you would need is the Free Edition. You would have also have to burn a recovery disk to be able to restore C. You would not buy anything, but it isn't as simple to operate and use as you might like.

Or do you want to back up only your personal data? If so, you can use a simpler program---such as SyncToy, Karen's Replicator, Robocopy or whatever. No recovery disk needed.

If you have a Windows installation disk or a recovery partition or a set of recovery disks, you have a way to recover without using an imaging application. But there is some complexity involved with any of those choices.

We can't be of much help without more details. We know nothing about your PC.

 

[PinkiPad]

You need to stay connected to this forum for an hour or two, rather than posting every other day or so. That way we can have an ongoing conversation.

We still need to know:

Do you want to backup Windows and everything on the C drive? If so, imaging is a must and Macrium is probably your best choice. All you would need is the Free Edition. You would have also have to burn a recovery disk to be able to restore C. You would not buy anything, but it isn't as simple to operate and use as you might like.

Or do you want to back up only your personal data? If so, you can use a simpler program---such as SyncToy, Karen's Replicator, Robocopy or whatever. No recovery disk needed.

If you have a Windows installation disk or a recovery partition or a set of recovery disks, you have a way to recover without using an imaging application. But there is some complexity involved with any of those choices.

We can't be of much help without more details. We know nothing about your PC.

I only get on after dinner for 90 minutes. That's it, generally. I only sit up in bed at that time. I log in every day at this time. I'm in a nursing home and during the day I am out of bed but busy with other things and can't drag out the netbook. I do, on occasion, get on my iPad at night. I'll bookmark this site but again, not every night.

BTW, it's now 6:29 PM and I'm on until 7 PM.

I have my installation disk. I have no photos, but a little personal data and a few programs. I'd just like to be safe, just in case.

I have installed Karen's Replicator, I believe, but haven't used it yet. Tomorrow night I will look for it and try. It isn't on my desktop or Start menu. I thought I installed it .

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Give it a go with Karen's Replicator.

It is about as simple as you are going to get.

It will back up your personal files--pictures and so forth. It will not back up your Windows installation or your entire C drive.

It will not back up the installation of your programs.

You need a destination for the backup files to go to.

 

[PinkiPad]

Karen's Replicator installed fine. Just looked around to familiarize myself with it. I'll do a full backup this weekend then do a weekly changes backup.

Tomorrow I run it. Hope it doesn't take too long!

Thanks to everyone.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

The first time might take minutes if you have only a little to back up. It might take hours if you have a lot.

The second time it should run much more quickly (probably under 5 minutes) because the second time you would only be backing up files that were new since the first backup or had changed since the first backup.