PC Backup Software

[MrJim]

I have Carbonite on my other PC, Carbonite and Time Machine on the mac, but nothing on this PC laptop. I'd like to get an external HD for this--what is the recommended software? Time Machine came with mac and works great; does Win7's "Backup and Restore" get it done or is 3d party recommended?

Thanks

 

[dysert]

I have Carbonite on my other PC, Carbonite and Time Machine on the mac, but nothing on this PC laptop. I'd like to get an external HD for this--what is the recommended software? Time Machine came with mac and works great; does Win7's "Backup and Restore" get it done or is 3d party recommended?

Thanks

I'd suggest using Windows Backup as long as it works. It's good as long as it works (I've been using it w/o problems on my Vista machines for years) -- and it's free. However, if it stops working then you might look into something like Acronis. I used to use Norton Ghost, but it let me down.

 

[MrJim]

I'd suggest using Windows Backup as long as it works. It's good as long as it works (I've been using it w/o problems on my Vista machines for years) -- and it's free. However, if it stops working then you might look into something like Acronis. I used to use Norton Ghost, but it let me down.

And like Carbonite & Time Machine just test it occasionally by retrieving files?

 

[dysert]

And like Carbonite & Time Machine just test it occasionally by retrieving files?

Yep -- always a good idea.

 

[NiobiumTragedy]

Right now I have my backup on another drive, but I'm going to be taking this drive out and putting it in my studio with remote access so I can back everything up remotely and it will be in a different building.

I've heard a lot of ads for this Carbonite, but I just can't put my trust into these companies with my personal data.

 

[dysert]

Right now I have my backup on another drive, but I'm going to be taking this drive out and putting it in my studio with remote access so I can back everything up remotely and it will be in a different building.

I've heard a lot of ads for this Carbonite, but I just can't put my trust into these companies with my personal data.

I'm with you. I'd much rather have my data backed up to an external drive in my hands than sending it out to "the cloud". Good luck backing up over a network. I've had trouble using Win7's backup across a network.

 

[MrJim]

Right now I have my backup on another drive, but I'm going to be taking this drive out and putting it in my studio with remote access so I can back everything up remotely and it will be in a different building.

I've heard a lot of ads for this Carbonite, but I just can't put my trust into these companies with my personal data.

I understand the risk and thought to go only with an external but don't have any remote access/other building set up.

 

[dysert]

I understand the risk and thought to go only with an external but don't have any remote access/other building set up.

If you're really concerned about the physical destruction of your facility, would you be able to do, say, weekly backups to an external drive and then take the backup offsite?

 

[MrJim]

If you're really concerned about the physical destruction of your facility, would you be able to do, say, weekly backups to an external drive and then take the backup offsite?

my facility is my house~the garage is "offsite" though kind of chilly in the winter

I picked up a Seagate 500GB unit this morning~apparently has its own software installed.

Carbonite is due beginning of the year~~maybe I'll come up with some kind of "offsite" plan..

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Crashplan is really good. It allows you to automate incremental backups with versioning etc. and I've found it really easy to use. Its primary business is in cloud storage like Carbonite, but it also has an option that allows you to back up to an external hard drive or a separate PC.

 

[MrJim]

Crashplan is really good. It allows you to automate incremental backups with versioning etc. and I've found it really easy to use. Its primary business is in cloud storage like Carbonite, but it also has an option that allows you to back up to an external hard drive or a separate PC.

..and linux compatible too..

 

[paul1149]

Windows backup has exactly one advantage that I can see: it's integrated with the Windows Recovery Environment, which makes everything simple. But for configurability and flexibility I'm not keen on it.

For local backups I use EaseUS Todo. I give it an 80%, that low only because on several backups of external drives it has backed up my whole system. Other than that, it's very good, and it's getting better. And it's free.

As for the cloud, I only put unimportant stuff there unencrypted. Everything else is automatically encrypted via boxcryptor and handed over to sugarsync
.

 

[freezerman2000]

I'm using a WD external drive for my backup..no problems so far.

 

[MrJim]

Backup is complete and now it's creating the "system image"~~and I can honestly say I'm not exactly sure what it is but sounded important.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Backup is complete and now it's creating the "system image"~~and I can honestly say I'm not exactly sure what it is but sounded important.

The system image is (if you're using Windows) basically a facsimile of the entire C:\ drive. If your system borks up or if your system drive fails, when you re-install Windows on the new drive you can use the system image as kind of a system restore to replicate your OS to exactly the state it was when the image was created.

It's probably the easiest way of backing up an actual OS install.

 

[MrJim]

The system image is (if you're using Windows) basically a facsimile of the entire C:\ drive. If your system borks up or if your system drive fails, when you re-install Windows on the new drive you can use the system image as kind of a system restore to replicate your OS to exactly the state it was when the image was created.

It's probably the easiest way of backing up an actual OS install.

It's like the set point restore on XP (maybe they still have that on 7)--could you put this image onto another computer? Like if this one was destroyed?

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

It's like the set point restore on XP (maybe they still have that on 7)--could you put this image onto another computer? Like if this one was destroyed?

I believe so.

 

[paul1149]

Yes, but there might be a problem with drivers. Incompatible drivers could cause blue screen on boot. You might be able to work your way in around that, or you can dumb down your install before you take the image in preparation for transferring to dissimilar hardware (and you can backup your drivers beforehand and then reinstall them after the image backup). Or programs like Acronis and EaseUS have restore to dissimilar hardware functions available for any system image they create (but IME it doesn't always work).

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Yes, but there might be a problem with drivers. Incompatible drivers could cause blue screen on boot. You might be able to work your way in around that, or you can dumb down your install before you take the image in preparation for transferring to dissimilar hardware (and you can backup your drivers beforehand and then reinstall them after the image backup). Or programs like Acronis and EaseUS have restore to dissimilar hardware functions available for any system image they create (but IME it doesn't always work).

You can always safe mode and try to isolate the driver, but as I said, there are some situations where a clean install would be better than a system restore, and this would be one of those situations. I think the purpose of the feature is as a restore function on similar hardware, not as a clone function with radically different hardware.

Or, you could just backup the Users folder and just copy that over. It wouldn't be clean, and it wouldn't be elegant, but I don't think that would cause driver issues.

 

[NiobiumTragedy]

I understand the risk and thought to go only with an external but don't have any remote access/other building set up.

One thing I had thought about doing previously was backing up to an external and putting that external into a fireproof safe. I know they make safes with USB inputs on the outside so you can connect to a drive on the inside but they are pricy and have pretty terrible reviews.