Cloning & Back Ups

[karlsnooks]

Anybody any idea as to what happens though when the computer is switched off at scheduled back up?

Yes, conditionally. I know how you can modify many aspects of when and how the backup runs.

This is not a complicated procedure but will require close attention to detail.

When would you like the backup to run and under what conditions?

Backup is one of the few programs that tries to force MS ideas of when and how backup should run.

Somehow I suspect that even a great and industrious tutorial writer may come up with something here but only he can speak for himself and his schedule and whether he considers the tutorial could do more harm than good. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing and I trust his judgment.

 

[stranexuk]

Anybody any idea as to what happens though when the computer is switched off at scheduled back up?

Yes, conditionally. I know how you can modify many aspects of when and how the backup runs.

This is not a complicated procedure but will require close attention to detail.

When would you like the backup to run and under what conditions?

Backup is one of the few programs that tries to force MS ideas of when and how backup should run.

Somehow I suspect that even a great and industrious tutorial writer may come up with something here but only he can speak for himself and his schedule and whether he considers the tutorial could do more harm than good. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing and I trust his judgment.

Hmmmm, sounds like we're starting to get into the realms of "difficult" now then!?!

Ideally, I'd like the backups to be made every few days. I have no particular time of the day in mind but I guess it would be useful if they could be run at power off......I presume that would be problematic? Alternatively, they could just be scheduled to run at a certain time of day when the computer's likely to be on (say midday) and if the computer happens to be switched off at that time then the program either carries out the backup at next power on or the user is reminded that a backup has not been able to be completed and is asked to do it manually. I'd like to make the process as automated as possible as the end user (my father) isn't all that computer literate despite using it regularly for business

I'd also schedule a system image to be made say every month to a separate partition on the external drive, o/and to a removeable HDD. As this is only a monthly task, I'd (he'd) have no problems just being prompted to carry this out if the computer hadn't been switched on at the scheduled time. In fact, if I'm using a removeable HDD that may be better anyway as I'd prefer the disk to only be in the case whilst the image was being carried out.

I have no idea if the above is possible, but's it's an ideal. There seems very little information on the net as to how schedulers work when the computer is powered down. Out of interest, do you guys just leave your machines in sleep/hibernate rather than shutting down?

 

[Wishmaster]

Although there have been other very good suggestions, In your case, Something like Acronis might possibly be worth looking into.

Its scheduling is actually pretty straight forward and easy to set up.


Once you tell it what to back up, and where to store that back up (each back up can be different), you then create a schedule associated with just that back up, in the Optional section.


So each back up can have its own seperate schedule, as well as notes and comments about that back up.
It's the same for Images and/or File backups.

You could have it do a System Image on an external HD every Month on the 1st and keep that untouched, until the 1st of next month, at which point it can delete the old and create a new Full back up (If you choose)

Mean while, it can be making Daily Incremental Images, on a Internal hodden Partition (Secure Zone) and consolodating every 7 days for example on a separate schedule.


Setting up what intervals to do each back up, type, and when to start.

 

[karlsnooks]

Stranexuk,

Procedure isn't difficult but there are a couple of gotchas which most are not aware of. Will you be running the backup on a desktop or a laptop computer?

There are additional scheduling options not shown in the Backup and Restore dialogs which can be set/reset/configured using the the Task Scheduler.

When MS wrote this software they didn't consider that you might be sitting at an airport with a battery with limited life and not wanting to waste those precious minutes running a backup.

I've got a couple more options still to test before I go thru all of the steps and precautions. The precautions have to do with one-time configuration.

Once I've documented everything you will find the procedure straight-forward. The trouble is that I've never written down the procedure for another to use. If it's a desktop and you don't care if your computer wants to do a backup in the morning when you turn it on or maybe you want the backup to run in the middle of the night.

These are all considerations when running any backup program or any program which you want to "schedule".

Myself I disable all scheduled tasks and run them when, where, and how I want to. I don't even let Windows Update run automatically.

 

[karlsnooks]

OK. I've been playing with the auto-backup feature of Win 7 Backup And Restore, and I am impressed. Works effortlessly and non-obtrusively. For standard situations, very easy to configure.

The one case requiring anything out of the ordinary is if you need to make sure that on a laptop, running on battery power, and a heavy backup that the backup doesn't occur while on battery power.

 

[stranexuk]

Karls.....it will be on a desktop and I'd like any backups to run during the day when the computer is likely to be on (during the night it will be shut down). There's not really any problem with it running when other programs are running.

Wish....I must admit, the more I am learning about Acronis TIH, the more I like it's customability. I note in one of your screen shots, it shows the option to "run on startup" if the scheduled backup is missed.....that's EXACTLY what I want and if it means paying a little more, then so be it. Of course, if Karls can explain the process to make the same thing happen with Win7 BU&R, then may choices aren't so limited!

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

If I was going to learn something, this is what it'd be; I have the 2010 Suite and it's great.


Paragon Partition Manager Personal - Full Features

 

[karlsnooks]

stranexuk,

With desktop, all will just real slick.

No work on your part at all except to set your schedurle which I'll bet Brink covered in his tutorial, but I'll check. And yes, Win 7 Backup & Restore, will automatically run if you missed your "scheduled" backup. I've been testing and trying to make it fail and I can't. The backup just works perfectly and so unobtrusively that I even had to go check my backup disk to make sure that it was there.

I'd always just run on demand, but the scheduling works like a charm. Later today, I'lll look at Brink's tutorial again to make sure that the scheduling is covered. I'd be surprised if it is not since he does such a marvelous job.

Your father is going to love Win 7 Backup and Restore.

 

[stranexuk]

Excellent! Many thanks Karls, your research and advice is most appreciated, by me, and no doubt by my father when it comes to not having to remember to do his backups!!!

 

[karlsnooks]

Glad to be of assistance.