Thread: Backup software

What operating system are you running ? Windows, OSX, Linux .... ?

I use Acronis True Image, and am very happy with it. It backs everything up, including the partitions, and I run it as an incremental to a usb drive. I have successfully recovered a corrupted laptop with it, cloned a replacement drive, and transferred my system to a replacement laptop with minimal issues. The program just does what it is claimed to do.

Sorry

am running win 7 - may upgrade to win 10

The Western Digital one supposedly works really well, just clones the drive and allows incremental backups.

I use EaseUS to clone my drive, I only have a 120GB SSD so cloning doesn't take all that long. EaseUS do some good specials if you sign up to the newsletter, their partitioning software is great. They do however make a self launching bit of software run the entire tome your computer is on, I can't disable it either, no idea what it does.

Yup, I use Acronis True Image, EaseUS, & Secondcopy. All for different jobs.

The Feb issue of Techlife has an article on Backups, the mag is about $10.

They cover the gear & the how to.

Another vote for Acronis.....
a rule I live by with PC's,

data does not exist unless there are 3 copies...
1. Your original database
2. First back up copy
3. Second back up copy

all data bases on different drives...

also so make sure you check that the back ups are not corrupt on a regular basis, no point having a corrupt back up.

cheers

I've picked up a black box (KD22 OMNINAS) with two WD drives in a raid 1 setup for the main backup

I use CrashPlan, a cloud backup service which also lets you backup to as many local drives as you like, and even to a friend's computer if you wish. This means there's always an off-site copy without having to worry about moving a physical drive around.

Originally Posted by Sawdust Maker

Sorry

am running win 7 - may upgrade to win 10

Two Internet links for you to check out ....

The first link is to a review of the "Best Free PC Backup Solutions" from the TechRadar web site - last updated in late 2015.

The second link is to "13 (Non-Free) Best Backup Software Suites" from the PCAdvisor.co.uk web site.

Many of the backup software suggestions mentioned elsewhere in this thread are also mentioned in one or the other of the above Internet Links.

Take your pick ....

Regards,

RoyG

Depends - a LOT. How much data do you need to backup and in what format is it.

The rule of three is 3-2-1, Three copies, in two different formats and one off site.

There are swings and roundabouts with each format.

Tape backup - cheap solution for very large amounts of data (hundreds of terrabytes) but high initial cost for the infrastructure.
Hard disk drive - relatively low cost but limited life and needs to be regularly replaced to make sure you guard against drive failures.
SSD - higher cost but more reliable but you need to take into account the write cycles, pretty good option for moderate data sets.
USB memory stick. Quite low cost but not as reliable so you should keep more copies to guard against failure and lower write count than SSD.
Online storage. - - this very much depends on the data size. For smallish data sets you can use one of the free solutions such as Dropbox, this is what I use since my needs are relatively modest. For a relatively small annual fee you can use one of the paid solutions such as Dropbox pro, carbonite but the bandwidth can make it tricky, especially for the initial backup and when there is a large incremental data set. If you are computer savvy then you can use Amazon S3 which is quite cheap but you need to manage the software integration yourself. Amazon also provides value add services but again, you need to really know what you are doing. (Amazon S3 is used by many of the commercial services such as Dropbox).

As for software, again it depends on the data amount and type but that is a whole different discussion.

Lets use the scenario where you have (for arguments sake) less than 500G of data to be backed up.

Buy a pair of red HDD and add them to your desktop in RAID1. Use a local sync to keep a mirror of your data there. Buy a couple of 512G SSD and use rsync to keep them in sync with the HDD. Once a week take one of the SSD and take it off site. After that swap the SSD once a week so that one is on site and one off site.

John

If memory serves, Win 7 and later come with the option of auto file versioning to an external drive. Could be a good first line of protection.

Another source of reviewed freeware info is this one: Best Free Windows Desktop Software - Editors Choice Selection | Gizmo's Freeware

I think if the files are important then some kind of off-site backup is essential. Ben mentioned CrashPlan which I use too - mainly as there's no size limit and one of the offspring was producing films. Have also found Carbonite effective but it doesn't keep deleted copies longer than a month. There are others. A side-benefit is that you can source a file from anywhere. A downside is that if you have a lot of audio or video it can take a week or longer for the first backup to complete - a product of the 'asymmetric' in ADSL. In the US some of the subscriptions include receiving first off an external drive that you load with all your files and send back to be put on their server.

G'Day Nick,
I just have an Officeworks 3TB Seagate backup drive permanently connected to my computer doing a daily backup of the "my documents" folders new additions.
Seems to work okay.... Though I also do special backup's of copy & paste onto portable drives of specific files like photos plus woodwork stuff & toy plans.
Cheers, crowie