what do you use for backups?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Talal Itani
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Talal Itani

Which utility do you use to backup your data? I have been using NTbackup
,but I dislike this utility. Thank you.

Talal Itani
 
Which utility do you use to backup your data? I have been using NTbackup
,but I dislike this utility. Thank you.

Talal Itani
Click to expand...
I use Retrospect 6.5 it shipped with my Western Digital external usb
backup drive. It's fairly flexible. In addition to backup hard drives,
it also works with a selection of tape drives and zip drives. The only
thing it won't do is burn DVDs or CDs. You can set it to copy your hard
drive, or backup as compressed files. Retrospect works with WD backup
drives "One Touch" class of drives. You set your backup preferences
with Retrospect. Then as long as the backup drive is powered up you just
touch the button and the software does the rest. Works great if you
missed a scheduled backup due to your system being down for a while.

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Talal Itani said:
Which utility do you use to backup your data? I have been using NTbackup
,but I dislike this utility. Thank you.

Talal Itani
Click to expand...
I use both CD burning software and the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. I
just copy the data to my second hard drive. NTBackup is a good solution in
case you have a tape drive.
 
Talal said:
Which utility do you use to backup your data? I have been using NTbackup
,but I dislike this utility. Thank you.

Talal Itani
Click to expand...
I'm using Nero BackItUp at the moment, though backing up large amounts
of data to dvd-r is quite time consuming.

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People have different preferences, besides which you received similar advice
in your last post on imaging
 
DL said:
People have different preferences, besides which you received similar
advice
in your last post on imaging
Click to expand...

Yes, Good point. I am trying to find out what people do about backups. My
backup solution is primitive. I need an automated way. Thanks.
 
Matt said:
I'm using Nero BackItUp at the moment, though backing up large amounts
of data to dvd-r is quite time consuming.
Click to expand...

How long does it take you to write to one DVD?
 
Talal Itani said:
Which utility do you use to backup your data? I have been using NTbackup
,but I dislike this utility. Thank you.

Talal Itani
Click to expand...

All my hard drives are in removable trays. When I want a backup of my C
drive, I put a spare into the D drive and do a full copy with Ghost 2003. I
boot it from a floppy and it takes less than 15 minutes to do a full copy of
my disk that has about 25gb of data. I then take out C and install and run
off the copy to make sure it's good and that has never failed me. Easy and
quick and I have a backup of not only my data but the whole disk OS
included.
 
Whomever said:
All my hard drives are in removable trays. When I want a backup of my C
drive, I put a spare into the D drive and do a full copy with Ghost 2003.
I boot it from a floppy and it takes less than 15 minutes to do a full
copy of my disk that has about 25gb of data. I then take out C and
install and run off the copy to make sure it's good and that has never
failed me. Easy and quick and I have a backup of not only my data but the
whole disk OS included.
Click to expand...

Thank you, but I do not understand the booting from floppy step. Why do you
have to boot from floppy?
 
Talal Itani said:
Thank you, but I do not understand the booting from floppy step. Why do
you have to boot from floppy?
Click to expand...

I boot from floppy because my system has one and the Ghost imaging program
is on it. I could also boot from a bootable cd with ghost on it. The
reason for booting from either is if your hard disk crashes you don't have
any other choice if you want to get back to where you where. If you only
backup your data, which by the way is better than nothing, if your hard disk
goes you still have to reinstall the OS and then apply the backups.
 
Talal Itani said:
Which utility do you use to backup your data? I have been using NTbackup
,but I dislike this utility. Thank you.

Talal Itani
Click to expand...


Think about what data you have. Divide it into categories. Critical, not so
critical, and don't care for example. Devise a backup strategy that saves
each category on a frequency that is appropriate. I use a combination of
methods. Disk imaging, Ntbackup, SyncToy, and just copying files to a
network share. Make sure you have multiple copies of your data on several
different media some of which is stored in a different physical location
from your computer. What works for me may not work for you. Develop your own
plan and stick to it.
 
Kerry Brown said:
Think about what data you have. Divide it into categories. Critical, not
so critical, and don't care for example. Devise a backup strategy that
saves each category on a frequency that is appropriate. I use a
combination of methods. Disk imaging, Ntbackup, SyncToy, and just copying
files to a network share. Make sure you have multiple copies of your data
on several different media some of which is stored in a different physical
location from your computer. What works for me may not work for you.
Develop your own plan and stick to it.

--
Click to expand...

Thank you for this advise. I think what you recommended is what I need.
Today I learned about SyncToy, so I will use it. I will also get a drive
for disk imaging, yet I do not know which software to use yet. About
Ntbackup, I wonder if there is a better tool to accomplish the same thing.
 
Talal Itani said:
Thank you for this advise. I think what you recommended is what I need.
Today I learned about SyncToy, so I will use it. I will also get a drive
for disk imaging, yet I do not know which software to use yet. About
Ntbackup, I wonder if there is a better tool to accomplish the same thing.
Click to expand...


I use Acronis True Image for disk imaging. I have some customers who use
NovaBackup. I like NTBackup because it available free on any computer with
Windows 2000, XP and 2003.

http://www.novastor.com/pcbackup/backup/n_backup.html
 
I use Acronis True Image for disk imaging. I have some customers who use
NovaBackup. I like NTBackup because it available free on any computer with
Windows 2000, XP and 2003.
Click to expand...

What does Ntbackup give you that SyncToy does not give you?

When you make an image with Acronis, and later a problem happens to the
drive, do you install the drive with the image and boot from it?
 
Talal said:
How long does it take you to write to one DVD?
Click to expand...
Probably around 20-30 mins to write the disk and then verify it too,
because they are backups, I burn them at low speed for greater accuracy.

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FREE step by step guides, tutorials and
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guides are full size and 100% advert free!
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Matt said:
Probably around 20-30 mins to write the disk and then verify it too,
because they are backups, I burn them at low speed for greater accuracy.
Click to expand...

I see what you mean. Such a long time will surely discourage me from
backing up.
 
Talal Itani said:
What does Ntbackup give you that SyncToy does not give you?

When you make an image with Acronis, and later a problem happens to the
drive, do you install the drive with the image and boot from it?
Click to expand...


With NTBackup you can make a backup of the complete system that could be
restored to a new system. The procedure is cumbersome but it works. SyncToy
makes copies of files. A copy is not a backup. It is a convenience if "a"
file or "a few" files get corrupted, deleted, or you merely want an older
version.

With disk images you boot from the recovery media (usually CD) and restore
the image overwriting what is currently on the drive. Note that with with
some imaging programs like True Image you can mount an image in Windows and
copy individual files from it. There is some overlap between disk imaging
and backups with some imaging programs. You can download a trial version
from Acronis and try it your self.
 
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