Which program will fill these backup needs?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tony
  • Start date Start date
You are asking for the functionality of a CD/DVD writing program which will
write whatever files you wish to CD/DVD.
The files are made to fit the media just as they are made to fit any other
media, but they are recorded using, usually, a file structure based on ISO
9660 or ISO.IEC 13346.

A backup program can just as easily backup to CD/DVD.
 
Ron Reaugh said:
drops

Do you work for Acronis? You only ask questions where the Acronis answer is
yes, 100%. Suspicious.


Your questions don't meet a sufficient randomness criteria. It's as if they
were formulated from a TrueImage spec sheet and we've all seen such shill
behavior in NGs before.
Click to expand...

Interesting. At what point do you predict your "criteria" will transition to
a Theory, or maybe even a Rule? Will it someday be a Law? (Don't get riled;
I have tongue firmly in cheek.)

You've been on Usenet too long Ron (yes, I've seen you on many of the same
groups over the years that I frequent). I'm an engineer by profession, so I
tend to be very precise in my statements and tend to think things through
before I post. Just to make you happy, I will state that I am in no way
connected with Acronis or any potential related company or person associated
with said company.

Okay?
 
(Pete Cresswell) said:
RE/

I'm no expert - and you probably just tacked the
Click to expand...
"incremental/differential" part
on as a nice-to-have for cases where new stuff is installed on the system...but
just in case: I make a distinction between data and system backups.
Different needs, probably different optimal solutions.

I'm using Retrospect for data, DriveImage 7 for system.

I have no love for Retrospect but, truth-be-told, it has gotten me through a
couple of drive failures with (apparently...how does one really know?) no lost
data.

With DriveImage 7, I'm just going on a hope, a prayer, and the word of others
who say they've successfully restored a system from it. Not as bad as it
dounds, I think, because my backup of last resort is still the discs used to
rebuild a system "manually"....and they're all backed up twice (at different
offsite locations) via CD copies.
Click to expand...

Retrospect is rather expensive when compared to other solutions (like NTI
and such). What drew you to this as your data backup choice?

I have also read good things about DI7, but if I understand it correctly, it
is no longer available from Symantec. Although I've read that Ghost 9 is
pretty close.
 
RE/
Retrospect is rather expensive when compared to other solutions (like NTI
and such). What drew you to this as your data backup choice?
Click to expand...

Back (wayyyyyy back...) in my MacIntosh days, I had the Mac version and the
UI/functionality was par excelance. Needless-to-say, the Windows version bears
no resemblance....but I was too naieve to guess that before buying it. What it
does have, however - and which is on my "MUST" list - is the ability to list all
backups of a given file or files and restore the one(s) I want.

Dunno from price. Practically my whole professional life rides on my data
backups....so function/reliability and not price are the determining factors.

For media I use a couple of Kanguru 120-gig drives that are engineered TB
transportable (i.e. they'll take a certain amount of abuse) and I swap those two
between home office and my desk at whatever client site I'm serving. In
addition, I have a 120, an 80, and a 60-gig USB2 drives hooked up that I also
back up to each time I do a backup.

As soon as I suspect something is not right data-wise, I disconnect all drives
except for my data drive, and then try to figure out what's going on. Once I
had a multi-mode (USB2 + FireWire) card that went bad and started toasting
drives. It managed to fry three of them before I caught on....so I'm
extra-cautious about exposing a backup to my system once the system has become
questionable.

What I think is sorely missing in my strategy is quarterly or, at least, monthly
backups to offsite DVD because I'm still somewhat at the mercy of hardware
failures the way it is now.

While we're at it, can anybody comment on USB2 DVD writers? I've been shying
away because of the multiple formats....waiting for things to settle down....but
now that I think of it, that's foolish considering the importance of not losing
my data.


I have also read good things about DI7, but if I understand it correctly, it
is no longer available from Symantec. Although I've read that Ghost 9 is
pretty close.
Click to expand...

I had the most confidence in Ghost (at least the DOS version I used to have).

Reason: it does it's thing while Windows is shut down - so there's nothing
changing while the image is being made.

I take it on faith that it's possible to make an image of a moving system...but
can't even imagine how it is done.... Hence my less-than-100% confidence in
DriveImage. OTOH, DriveImage is sooooo much more convenient to run....
 
Hi Pete,

My random guess is that it intercepts all writes to the disk and copies a
disk block that will be changed so it is effectively working on a static
image. On the other hand, if the "snapshot" at the beginning of the backup
has some data in an intermediate state, that is what will be backed up.
Hence I try and have as few things running as possible when DI7 is running.
You're right in that it is very convenient which means the data will get
backed up.

-- John
 
My interest is piqued. What process do you use for data, Martin?
Click to expand...

A program that I've been using for several years, called My Own Backup.
See http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,7023,00.asp

AFAIK it's not longer being developed, which is a shame because it could
do with a facelift. It backs up files in ZIP format, so there's no need
to worry about proprietary formats. The PC World review says it doesn't
work under Windows Me and XP, but I've had no problems using it on both
OSs.

I've also tried Genie Backup Manager 4, see http://www.genie-soft.com/,
but found the way it handled file filtering a bit illogical.
 
Full Retrospect 6.5 can be had for a bit less than $80.
Upgrade version can be had for a bit less than $40, e.g., if your drives
came with an OEM version of Retrospect, you qualify for the upgrade.

Dantz also has a "competitive upgrade", i.e., for folkes already having
certain other backup software. You'll need to check the Dantz web site
and/or call them. About a year ago, the competitive upgrade was only
available directly from Dantz. At that time, as I recall, the prices was
around the price of the normal upgrade.
 
FWIW:

I use drive image 6 with winxp_sp2. Make the image and store it on
another hard drive in the same box. Has saved my bacon a number of
times. Very simple to use.

e.
 
Once again, thanks to all.

FWIW:

I use drive image 6 with winxp_sp2. Make the image and store it on
another hard drive in the same box. Has saved my bacon a number of
times. Very simple to use.

e.
Click to expand...
 
Martin Jay said:
A program that I've been using for several years, called My Own Backup.
See http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,7023,00.asp

AFAIK it's not longer being developed, which is a shame because it could
do with a facelift. It backs up files in ZIP format, so there's no need
to worry about proprietary formats. The PC World review says it doesn't
work under Windows Me and XP, but I've had no problems using it on both
OSs.
Click to expand...

Does that include SP2?
 
I have used Powerquest Drive Image for several years. It's now owned
by Symantec, and the newest version is Ghost 9.0 which I have. Ghost
9.0 is essentially Drive Image 7 updated with Symantec logos/splash
screens.

All of your requirements work with Ghost 9.0. A new feature that DI 7
didn't have is the incremental images as well.

I have restored a dead drive with DI 7 in the past and works fine.

I have booted from and tested the emergency Ghost boot CD and restored
a few selected files from a DVD backup.

I believe that PC Magazine just said that in their opinion Ghost 9.0
has a slight edge over Acronis True Image now because of the
incremental backup, but basically otherwise a tie.

john
 
John said:
I believe that PC Magazine just said that in their opinion Ghost 9.0
has a slight edge over Acronis True Image now because of the
incremental backup, but basically otherwise a tie.
Click to expand...

Just out of curiosity, what about Ghost's incremental backups is better
about True Image's incremental backups?


-WD
 
Ghost incremental backup works at file level, TI incremental backup at disk
level (last time I've checked). Try performing TI incremental backup after
havy disk defregmentation, you will see what happens.
 
I reread the PC Mag online review and stand corrected on my previous
comment about the incremental backup. Sorry for my mis-statement
about the incremental backup.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1644439,00.asp

"Overall, we slightly prefer Ghost 9.0 to our previous Editors' Choice
in this category, the still-excellent Acronis True Image 7.0. Ghost
9.0 gets the nod, though, thanks to its ability to put a Windows
pre-boot environment on startup disk so that you get the same
networking and hardware support on the emergency disk that you get
inside Windows (Acronis uses a Linux-based emergency disk). Ghost also
has the ability to mount an image file as a drive letter. So all
things considered, Ghost 9.0 is the essential tool for rescuing a
complete system. It belongs in every serious PC user's toolbox."

Please read the full article though.

I can say I'm very happy with Ghost 9.0, but I've never used Acronis
TrueImage.

john
 
John, does Ghost 9 do the same kind of drops to DOS and reboots during
imaging that Ghost 2003 does?
 
Tony,

No. Ghost 9.0 is NOT Ghost 2003 updated. It's the new updated
version of (previously) Drive Image 7.0. Everything is done within
Windows XP while XP is running. No reboots either.
 
John said:
No. Ghost 9.0 is NOT Ghost 2003 updated. It's the new updated
version of (previously) Drive Image 7.0. Everything is done within
Windows XP while XP is running. No reboots either.
Click to expand...

Ghost 2003 is bundled on the Ghost 9.0 CD though, so its still supplied
should you need it.
 
John. said:
I believe that PC Magazine just said that in their opinion Ghost 9.0
has a slight edge over Acronis True Image now because of the
incremental backup, but basically otherwise a tie.
Click to expand...

The review you refer to can be found here:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1644439,00.asp

and is summed up with:

"Overall, we slightly prefer Ghost 9.0 to our previous Editors' Choice
in this category, the still-excellent Acronis True Image 7.0. Ghost 9.0
gets the nod, though, thanks to its ability to put a Windows pre-boot
environment on startup disk so that you get the same networking and
hardware support on the emergency disk that you get inside Windows
(Acronis uses a Linux-based emergency disk). Ghost also has the ability
to mount an image file as a drive letter. So all things considered,
Ghost 9.0 is the essential tool for rescuing a complete system. It
belongs in every serious PC user's toolbox."

On final point, True Image does offer the ability to mount a drive image
as a drive letter.
 
Does that include SP2?
Click to expand...

I'm not fortunate enough to be using SP2 at the moment. I've just got
back home from an extended trip away. XP is trying to auto upgrade to
SP2 at the moment, but has stalled at 0% for the past three days. :(

I've just noticed that GBM 5 is out. I've download the 30 day trial and
will see what I think of it later. Apparently there's an add-on which
will allow users to back-up open files, which I'd find useful.
 
Back
Top