HDD backup strategy?

[videobread]

What is your backup strategy - software, DOS, etc.? I'm just getting into backing up my HDD. Should have been doing it sooner. What are you doing to back up? What are some good strategies? Images vs copying, etc. Easy vs foolproof, etc.

[stiltman]

Ghost my OS drive after any program installs or OS patches
RAID 5 on my data drive, so I don't back it up

[jman98]

Assuming you are running Windows, the easiest way is to buy another hard disk of the same size or larger (but NOT smaller!!!) as the one you want to back up, attaching it to your PC through whatever means are appropriate, buying Norton Ghost and using that for backups. Then you can remove the backup hard drive when finished. I prefer disk to disk copies as I'm not real fond of the whole imaging thing, but some prefer that. Disk to disk copies are just easier to deal with if they are the same type of drive because if the original dies, you can just pop in the replacement and go. Imaging requires you to restore an image. Ghost is often used by businesses to make an image of a Windows install that can easily be replicated to new machines, so it does work.

[redwudz]

I make a image of my boot drive when I first set it up with Acronis True Image. Then a second one when all my software is installed and working properly. I use DVD media most times. But I have also backed up to a network drive on my system. Most of my other data, videos, downloaded programs, etc., is backed up anyway to DVD, so I am more concerned with the OS and the installed programs.

[Malicious]

I usually have all my data saved to each of my computers. So if one happens to fail I still have the data I find important. However, if you have data that changes every day or so I would suggest buying an external HDD and either using the software built onto the HDD to do incremental backups or use something like Ghost or Acronis.

[Poppa_Meth]

I bought and AMS Venus enclosure and put a Seagate drive in it, which comes with free Acronis software downloadable off Seagate's website. I make a full backup monthly and incremental updates weekly. It's come in handy a couple of times now.

[yoda313]

I have been doing dvds for things like pictures, videos, and music. I finally bought a second usb/firewire/esata external drive for my vista pc so know I'll start moving my 160gb usb 2.0 external to my xp pc for fulltime backup use. My os drive is 80gb so I can do a full backup without any issues. I have norton Save and Restore so I'll use that for a full backup procedure.

[handyguy]

Backup data files to dvd.

I have 2 drives in my computer. Now & then I just do a complete copy of my main to the other one. HD's come with backup software, if not it's on the manf's site.

I use Acronis true image. I don't do a ghost image, see no point in it as hd's these days are so big & cheap.

[grossjamesh]

I use Ghost.

[Bjs]

Depends, drive image 7 for creating bootable dvd backups ... one dvd, and its done ... never any problems like those reported from other products.

As for personal backups, and because of the amount of data being transfered, 2 large external drives, mirrored to prevent data loss should one drop off the planet, plus 2 more in storage for end of weekly backups.

Every day, such as database work, a little free program called synctools dose what I need in this area to flash drives ... avoid the os built in utility all together.

For vista64bit, R-drive dose the job, until I find something better.

[ahhaa]

Two factors that frequently get forgotten-

a. people spread the problem onto all their drives before detecting it.
They also never practice restoring, so in their panic they do in their own data.

b. people expend the effort to create backups and then leave them just sitting by the computer.
Thus making them useless in case of fire, flood, theft, or even just their sticky kid fooling around.

[handyguy]

Or they backup to something that they can't restore from.

Think there are going to be dvd players in 20 years?

[yoda313]

Think there are going to be dvd players in 20 years?

Actually that won't be as much of an issue. The miracle that is USB has proven this. It doesn't matter what your computer comes with. As long as you have the right connectivity legacy devices still work.

Main example being you can still buy a usb floppy drive. Who uses floppies anymore??? But the point is with the right connection you can still preserve it.

Plus as long as the disc size stays the same backward compatiblity is still plausible. Just like my bluray rom player can read dvds and cds.

Granted over a longer time frame older technologies will fade away. However future connectivity should keep that factor a less pressing issue.

Edit - Case in point I doubt there is a 5 1/4 floppy disc drive enclosure for usb connection. HOWEVER given the power of the internet I bet you somebody has developed an interface so you can still access ancient mega floppies like those....

[johns0]

Any important item etc pictures,document will always be backed up to the most current storage be it floppy to cd to dvd to usb to holographic cubes and i find its a waste of time doing image backups due to the fact that by the time you need to restore your system most drivers and some applications will be out of date.

I just backup Files that cant be replaced fast or at all.

[Poppa_Meth]

I have an old Commodore 64 Floppy drive (bigger than a shoebox) in my basement. A while back just for the hell of it I hooked it up to a serial to USB adapter. And yes I had a fully accessible floppy drive.

[yoda313]

I have an old Commodore 64 Floppy drive (bigger than a shoebox) in my basement. A while back just for the hell of it I hooked it up to a serial to USB adapter. And yes I had a fully accessible floppy drive.

See now that's what I'm talking about!

Now all you need to do is find emulators to access the old files

[lordsmurf]

Copy of C: to W: using Paragon Drive Backup, where W: is a network map share to Z: on the main computer, a 500GB external USB2 for backups. Restoring is not the easiest process (because I'm unwilling to use 25+ DVDs per C: backup), but I'm hoping the need won't ever arise anyway.

Other drives, document-based data and images, are saved to X: on the main system, again as an X: network map share, to a 1TB USB2 drive. These are manually copied, not using any software (not needed).

Certain "valuable" assets (example: Outlook PST archives) are saved to both X: and the secondary computer C:\Backup folder. Some files even duplicated to the laptop, which serves as the "main" system in the event the main system go down.

Backups are on-site. Duplicating some data and sending to an out-of-state off-site is in the works, but it costs money $$$ to buy drives you'll never really use or see. In this recession, that's a hard expense to justify. I'm more worried about hardware failure than anything else. Some irreplaceable data is already off-site on DVD-R/DVD+R. Should I need to "grab whatever I can and leave in 5 minutes", there is a chance I'd snatch both USB2 drives along with a laptop.

Most all video data is left on DV, archived to DVD-Video as video in DVD cases, and archived to DVD as source files on spindles.

My oldest data is from about 1992 (prior backups were deemed unnecessary and disposed of more than a decade ago), and I can access it just fine by way of emulation. VirtualPC has come in handy, as well as software like VirtualBox or DOSBox. However, the need rarely arises, usually the result of nostalgia or showing off what I did in college.

[lordhutt]

Everything important is on at least 2 computers.
Everything is backed up to DVD's
Everything is backed up to a 1TB external that is kept in a fireproof/waterproof safe.

I just use a free program called 'Replicator'....one of the Karen's Power Toys programs.

[lordhutt]

Is there a way to use Acronis True Image to make a file backup?
I mean if I want to back up to another hard drive but I don't want an image file but I just want an exact copy of all the individual files.....I was playing around with it and can't seem to find an option to do this....

[wtsinnc]

I have Acronis 9 and use it frequently to backup the entire HDD (clone) in XP. For individual files, you can use the backup individual files/folders feature by selecting your files to backup, saving that file to "My Documents" or, perhaps, a new folder in a different location such as program files, then burn that file to CD or DVD. I have never been a fan of keeping critical backup files on the hard drive due to the possibility of a catastrophic drive failure making anything inaccessible. For simple documents backup, I find the built-in Windows backup and restore utility to be exactly what I need and definitely prefer it over Acronis for that purpose. Once the backup has been completed, I burn to CD using Imgburn (free) or Copy To DVD SE. Either way, I make a new critical documents file about once per week and destroy the earlier backup once I have confirmed that the new backup is usable. Good CDs cost less than 20 cents; the best low-cost security you can find.

[lordhutt]

Either I am not understanding you or vice versa.
Lets say I have a folder with all my mp3's...about 7000 files.

I plug in an external hard drive. I want to basically copy all of the file to the external....almost 50 gig. A simple cut and paste is a little much for this volume of files.
So what is the best way to do this....I don't want an image file. I want to simply have the 7000 files on the external just like they are on the original drive.

I mentioned a couple of posts above that I used Karen's Replicator for this....and did this exact task. However, some of the files did not copy properly. So I am looking for a different more reliable option.

I still don't see a way to do this with Acronis True Image....I tried the Windows backup you mentioned but it just made a windows backup file 'image' file.

[wtsinnc]

Hello lordhutt;

The problem was on my end. I've spent the last hour experimenting with a process that I believe will do the job for you.

You stated that you have approximately 50gb of video files in a folder and you want to copy this folder to another hard drive.

Try this;

If you do not have the "Copy To" and "Move To" commands in your right click context menu, I am providing a link which will allow you to add them.
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows/add-copy-to-move-to-to-the-windows-explorer-right-click-menu/

After adding those commands, simply right click on the folder containing your video files and select "Copy To" and select where you want the entire folder to go on the second hard drive. Earlier, I successfully transferred three movies contained in a folder to a second hard drive on my computer and it transferred perfectly. The folder is 10.6gb and with took a little over five minutes. I confirmed playback capability using VLC Player.

I hope this works for you.

[lordsmurf]

Why is it "a little too much" ? I copy such files during my routine (more like 100,000 files), letting it run in an overnight copy.

[lordhutt]

Thanks guys...especially wtsinnc for all that time

I can do the copy paste and have in the past. I just recall a time or 2 when windows locked while doing this haven't really used it for a volume of files that big since. However lordsmurf, the bigger problem with that would be for an incremental/differential backup....let's say when I add a few hundred files or simply alter the id tags and just need to copy the changed files.

I have been using the Karens Replicator for years actually and was never concerned until I recently had this problem with the MP3 transfer....I just figured one of the mainstream programs like Acronis would have an option like this....

[lordhutt]

....ok, I just realized that now I misunderstood you, wtsinnc.
How is this 'copy to', 'move to' different than standard cut/copy and paste?

[wtsinnc]

I believe that "Copy To" will move the file(s) slightly faster; it did for me, but only by about 30 seconds for 10.6gb.

-Also-

If you don't already have the "Copy To" and "Move To" commands added to your Explorer context menu, they're handy to have. Even if you're going to use another method to transfer, I would still add them.

Good luck !

[edong]

I believe that "Copy To" will move the file(s) slightly faster; it did for me, but only by about 30 seconds for 10.6gb.

-Also-

If you don't already have the "Copy To" and "Move To" commands added to your Explorer context menu, they're handy to have. Even if you're going to use another method to transfer, I would still add them.

Good luck !

Have you tried this to copy a boot drive? The reason I ask is, my experience with Ghost and the hard drive's copy utilities are mostly hit or miss. Sometimes the destination hard drive boots up, many times it doesn't. Because some files failed to copy. And this happened to me in at least four PCs and different hard drives. In theory, they should make identical copies, but they don't. I know copy and paste will not do the job.

[wtsinnc]

Hello edong.

I have cross-copied successfully; that is, I have been able to transfer files to a destination drive, then back to the source drive (both internal SATA). As far as I could tell, the integrity of the transferred files was completely maintained. What I have cross-transferred using the "Copy To" command were three movies in one 10.6gb file, the sample photo set which comes with Windows, and three random program .exe files (WinPatrol, CCleaner, and DVD43). I have yet to transfer pure music files but I feel that it too would be successful as the movie soundtracks play perfectly. I have also had very good results cloning a hard drive with Acronis version 9, even to a smaller drive than the source HDD. As far as using Acronis for file backup to the "Secure Zone", I have never liked it and don't use it. For file/documents/e-mail type backup, I use Windows backup and restore which can be easily added to XP Home Edition which is what I use most of the time. Following backup to a documents folder, I burn the backup to disc.

Please understand that I am a true neophyte regarding computers and have learned a lot and received great advice through these forums. I realize there are many ways to transfer/backup data and something out there could very well do a better job, but I do obtain repeatedly good results using these methods and will continue to employ them as long as they continue to work as well as they do for me. Give it a try.

[creakndale]

I use "FolderMatch" for this type of backup.
http://www.foldermatch.com/

[ahhaa]

You might also try Clonezilla and/or Gparted on Live CDs. They read all file systems and do drive maintenance if needed as well, plus can partition drives, read all OSs, run from a USB drive, butter your toast in the mornings,etc

http://www.clonezilla.org/
http://gpartedclonz.tuxfamily.org/