Recommendations for backup software?

[yoda313]

I am intending to do more backups now. I just bought an extra 500gb wd passport harddrive for backing up my vista pc.

I have norton save and restore 2.0 and norton 360 which has a backup utility. However norton save and restore 2.0 is old and I don't know if I should upgrade or not. I don't think I like the 360 backup utility.

I would be interested in recommendations for upgrade software. I'd prefer at least a 2 license package for 2 computers. Also free would be considered if its a widely used program.

Note one computer is xp and the other is vista.

Thanks.

Oh and I'm not really looking to spend more than 20.00 usd on this otherwise if its much more I'll just stick with what I have and make do with it.

[jman98]

Define what you want to backup. You could mean
1) I only want to backup files that I specify
or
2) I want to make an exact copy of a hard disk on my computer.

Windows 7 and presumably Vista comes with a decent enough backup program of its own that you can use freely. Perhaps XP has such but I don't know. Also if you have Unix skills and can write Unix scripts, you could always install the Cygwin toolkit (http://www.cygwin.com) and do this sort of thing yourself via running a script under Cygwin.

I have used Norton Ghost before the 2nd option above, but I haven't used Ghost in years now.

[johns0]

I'm using paragon backup and recovery free edition for my imaging backups,does a good job.

[yoda313]

2) I want to make an exact copy of a hard disk on my computer.

That one. Basically take my c drive back it up as is and use it as a full recovery point.

Also if you have Unix skills and can write Unix scripts,

That would be a no. But thanks for the suggestion.

I'm using paragon backup and recovery free edition for my imaging backups,does a good job.

Thanks I'll check it out. Does it have incremental backup settings so you don't have to redo the whole backup and only update changes?

[johns0]

I think the advanced pay version has incremental backup,cant see it on the free version.

[yoda313]

I think the advanced pay version has incremental backup,cant see it on the free version.

Thanks for checking.

I downloaded it but it said another instance of the installation was running and it couldn't continue. I must have clicked it twice or something. I think I'll have to do a reboot to install it. But I'm doing some other stuff on the computer right now and I'll do that in a bit.

Thanks again.

[ranchhand]

I'm using Macrium Reflect 5.0 free edition, and so far I really like it. It does a complete image of my system (1TB) in about 15-20". It has a well-engineered interface, takes 3 mouse clicks. I can boot from an emergency restore CD if Windows is corrupted and can't boot, or restore from within running Windows if a virus can't be removed. A neat thing I especially like is that if I click on any saved image on my backup drive, MR launches a virtual drive, assigns a drive letter, and loads that image as an Explore tree structure. I can see all saved data and programs, and can drag & drop any data file from music to spreadsheets onto my current desktop and there it is, a file from 6 months ago! I keep at least 9 images from months back in case I discover I need a file that I had deleted. Incremental or differential backups are available only on the paid edition, but I prefer a total image backup anyway. I only restored once but it worked perfectly. I had Acronis 11 retail version fail on me once and that was a major week-end of work sitting in front of the computer to recover my data and reinstall Windows & programs. No more Acronis for me.

[yoda313]

Thanks ranchhand I'll look into that also.

[fritzi93]

Macrium free is good; I've used it on a netbook with Hitachi hard drive. Dunno about Paragon.

If you have a Seagate or WD hard drive in the computer, you could use one of the free versions of Acronis they offer. Doesn't matter if it's the "C" drive, just so you have a hard drive matching the manufacturer's version of Acronis.

Unless you want to do incremental backups, the free versions of any of the above will do fine. If you only have the OS and programs on your "C" drive, as I do, it only takes, oh, 5 minutes or so to do a full image of the OS drive.

Good luck.

[The Mariner]

What about MS Sync Toy ?

[yoda313]

Thanks everyone. I did get the paragon free software to work. The full drive backup took about a hour and a half to two hours. I liked the shutdown when complete option.

I haven't turned it back on since to see the backup on the external drive.

Does paragon have a boot cd creation tool? Also I had to dig to make sure everything was backed up. For some reason it defaults to exclude "extraneous" system files for some reason - when I want a backup I want everything.

[johns0]

Does paragon have a boot cd creation tool? Also I had to dig to make sure everything was backed up. For some reason it defaults to exclude "extraneous" system files for some reason - when I want a backup I want everything.

Yup,open the program and go to the top toolbar and click on tools/recovery media builder.

[bevills1]

fritzi93, actually Seagate Discwizard can be used in the absence of any Seagate or Maxtor drive and works with any brand drives by using the workaround at http://forums.seagate.com/t5/DiscWizard-and-MaxBlast/Using-DiscWizard-MaxBlast-to-back...hard/m-p/25406. I've done this a number of times, and it's always worked. Discwizard can also be installed with its BartPE plugin which may be used to create a BartPE CD that may include other utilities as well, and Discwizard backs up all files. Some of the other backup programs might also be included on the same BartPE CD if they have a BartPE plugin.

[fritzi93]

Yeah, good one. I remembered the tech over-ride after I posted and wondered if anybody would mention it. I don't have to use it, since I got a few hard drives of each in my computers. Been using the Seagate version in this one, the WD version in the office computer.

Anyway, personally I think Acronis is as good as any. And I've had to rely on it a few times too, to re-image. Always worked.

[bevills1]

Completely agree about Acronis of which Discwizard is a version. I used Ghost 2003 for years until I discovered Seagate Discwizard which is a little faster and compresses to smaller size than Ghost, and I had some problems with Ghost recognizing some usb drives but no such problem with Diswcwizard. I also like Discwizard's BartPE capability which can include other utilities like anti-virus and other trouble shooting programs on a single boot CD as well as other imaging programs if one wanted.

[yoda313]

Thanks johns0. I'll be sure to check that out when I have some time.

Right now I am using the other new harddrive that I bought and I'm working on getting my xp pc backed up. I already had an external drive for it but its an aging western digital 160gb harddrive. The design is quite a few versions back so I wanted some insurance for future backups. Plus its a larger drive - the new one is 500gb.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. For the time being I'm sticking with the paragon stuff but I might revisit this thread and try out the others.

[handyguy]

If you buy a Seagate it comes with great backup software.

[nic2k4]

I like Acronis true image, but Paragon System Backup is comparable and you can get it free today only (August 22).

[Constant Gardener]

Maybe that's why Acronis is bundling a free copy of True Image Home with each purchase of full or upgrade - just got upgrade+full for $29.99. Offer ends today.

[bevills1]

Seagate Discwizard is a version of Acronis and is a free download anytime, and it can be run from a bootable CD as well as a BartPE CD that's bootable. Unless I missed something the link to get it free today only (August 22) says nothing about boot disk for the free version of Paragon System Backup. Any backup program should be able to run from boot disk in case one is unable to boot his OS and needs to restore an image.

[stiltman]

*Limitations: Paragon Boot Media Builder – stand-alone wizard that helps to prepare a WinPE-based bootable environment is included to System Backup 11 but it’s not available for this giveaway.