Computer Software > Windows

Backups

(1/2) > >>

sheddyian:
Having worked in IT for far too many years, and having setup, tweaked and maintained various backup systems for employers, I'm ashamed to admit I don't currently have one in place at home for my various computers.  I keep 2nd copies of a few important files, but mostly it's down to luck  :-[

The other day I switched my main Windows 7 PC on, saw the BIOS screen then was met with rapid beeping but no errors displayed.  Investigating, I increasingly suspected the disk had failed, but it turned out that the boot order of the data disk and system disk had swapped.  Much relief, but realised I should have a backup system in place.  I was lucky this time, but next time?

I added a 2nd disk to my Raspberry Pi file server (always running), configured my laptop with Windows 7 Backup and scheduled weekly backups to the network device.  All went well.  I was on my way!

I then looked at the couple of occasional-use Windows XP machines, and for the first time ever I ran Windows XP backup.  It's obvious that a lot of work went into Windows Backup between XP and 7, because XP backup is abysmal.   No scheduling, no incrementals, you just run it to copy stuff.

I then went to my main Windows 7 machine, expecting to have a similar efficient setup as the Windows 7 laptop, but because that PC is running Win7 Home Premium, I can't use Windows Backup to save to a network device  :o

So I then looked at (free) 3rd party software, and tried a few.  None that I tried did what I want - which is to do a full backup, then incrementals for a time, then another full, then incrementals etc.  I want to be able to recover individual files, or the whole system.  (This is what the full function WIndows 7 Backup seems to do)

I didn't find any 3rd party solutions that did this.

So, my question - do you do backups?  If so, what software do you recommend?

Ian

c6em:
Acronis True image.
Full back ups (both entire disk and partition), incremental backups, differential backups, scheduling, and ability to mount the image to recover specific files.

I don't use the scheduling part so cannot advise on how good/bad that part of the package is - I do mine manually as it depends how much new work I've done as to whether I backup.

As ever if you want all the facilities then you are going to be hard pressed to find a free one, so yes - you have to pay for it.

HPsauce:

--- Quote from: sheddyian on January 01, 2015, 11:42:41 PM ---saw the BIOS screen then was met with rapid beeping but no errors displayed.
--- End quote ---
The error IS the beeping.
If you listen carefully there will be a pattern to the beeping of long and short beeps, sometimes in groups with short gaps, repeated after a pause.
Each BIOS manufacturer has its own pattern which you can find easily enough online.

The cause is usually a pretty fundamental error (not a disk which is detected later) such as no memory found.

Chrysalis:
The reason why 7 backup's is so much better is the volume shadow copy system, its very similar to zfs where it can have a backup of a file without using extra space or resources.

3rd party software such as macrium use these features as well, by the way macrium reflect I recommend, is reliable and fast.

d2d4j:
Hi

We use r1soft/idera for our backup solution.

I'm guessing this is overkill for domestic use, as it's enterprise class backups.

For domestic backups, we use cobian, which is free and does exactly what your wanting to do,  even has extras free like remote management etc... And can fully encrypt, compress etc

Just google cobian backup

I hope that helps a little

Many thanks

John

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page