What backup software do you use?

[dmcantrell]

After a recent hard-drive failure experience, I am in the market for a new backup software package.

I was using Norton Ghost 10.0, but this software had some limitations that made it very inefficient and difficult to use.
* Files saved as proprietary format, had to use Norton Ghost to read them
* Seemed to be pretty slow when I had to use it to recover files, took ~48 hours to restore ~70GB from USB drives
* The boot disk capability did not work for me due to my motherboard's disk controllers

I was going to get the Acronis 2010 True Image software, but it has terrible reviews on newegg (link).

What do you all use?

[Flea77]

I have Acronis on many machines, my personal, my wife's, several customers, and have yet to have a problem (knock on wood). Never had a machine it did not work on as long as the machine was in good condition (if the hard drive controller goes out, it is not the fault of the imaging software that you can't restore an image). I have used it with great success for almost four years and would not hesitate to install it on more machines.

Allan

[dmcantrell]

Hrm, interesting. Everywhere I read the Acronis gets rave reviews. I wonder why the newegg reviews are so terrible.

So have you actually had to use one of the backed up images (from Acronis) to restore a disk? I'm particularly gunshy on this issue due to some real headaches I had to overcome this week. I thought Norton Ghost was great until I actually had to use it for recovery...

[revjvegas]

SyncBack is simplistic and free, but offers no compression.

Just tossing it out there.

2BrightSparks | Downloads

[billbunton]

I use Time Machine and Super Duper (and Dropbox for quite a bit of my stuff). But that probably doesn't help you (except maybe Dropbox) because it sounds like you're on a PC :-)

[Peacock]

Have you checked Carbonite out? What are you trying to backup your files or create a system image?

[texxter]

I use Acronis for the drive with the OS and apps. For images and other data I use Second Copy from an eSata array to another drive, either eSATA or USB. I have two identical copies of all my files online at all times. Once a year I buy a drive, make a copy of the images for the year, label it and put it away for archival purposes.

[hhscr]

syncback here also, easy to use and has been very stable for me.

[srwatters]

I'm with Bill. TimeMachine, DropBox, & iDisk. SuperDuper for disaster recovery on the OS partition.

[Kalrog]

I use CrashPlan CrashPlan - Automatic Online Backup

Full clients for Linux/PC/Mac and it allows you the best of both worlds - a local backup to an external HD for speed. Then take it to a friend's house and you also can do an off site backup. No charge for any of this, unless you want to upgrade the software or let them do the backup storage in their cloud.

[dmcantrell]

Originally Posted by Peacock

Have you checked Carbonite out? What are you trying to backup your files or create a system image?

I haven't checked out Carbonite yet, but I will now.

Here's what I'm trying to do :

1) make scheduled backups of my data (non O/S files)

2) make a copy of my boot drive (image I guess?) so that I can easily recover it in the event of a drive failure. When I say "easily" I mean "copy some stuff and be running again" and not "reinstall my O/S and all of the piddly little system files and drivers over the course of three days to get back to where I was before the drive failure".

Thanks for the replies so far, this is helpful.

[dryicerx]

daily cron job to incremental (full weekly) tar, gz, gpg, then rsync to local file server
also weekly s3cmd to upload to amazon s3

note: days I work with photos a lot (not every day), I usually skip the compression and gpg, not really necessary

[Flea77]

Originally Posted by dmcantrell

Hrm, interesting. Everywhere I read the Acronis gets rave reviews. I wonder why the newegg reviews are so terrible.

So have you actually had to use one of the backed up images (from Acronis) to restore a disk? I'm particularly gunshy on this issue due to some real headaches I had to overcome this week. I thought Norton Ghost was great until I actually had to use it for recovery...

Yes, I have used it for recovery, and for HDD upgrades, OS upgrades, always works fine.

I would suspect after reading a few of the Newegg reviews that people are not testing the hardware before doing a restore. As I stated in my first post, if your HDD stops working, you put in a new drive and start a restore and it fails, did it ever occur to the guys on Newegg it may not be a failed drive but a failed controller instead? How about another device on the controller that is misbehaving? So many things could be wrong and none of it would be Acronis' fault.

Allan

[dmcantrell]

Originally Posted by Flea77

Yes, I have used it for recovery, and for HDD upgrades, OS upgrades, always works fine.

I would suspect after reading a few of the Newegg reviews that people are not testing the hardware before doing a restore. As I stated in my first post, if your HDD stops working, you put in a new drive and start a restore and it fails, did it ever occur to the guys on Newegg it may not be a failed drive but a failed controller instead? How about another device on the controller that is misbehaving? So many things could be wrong and none of it would be Acronis' fault.

Allan

Thanks so much. I'm going to consider the terrible reviews on newegg an "outlier" and go with the Acronis. They have a good deal on it right now -- $18.99 after rebate.

Thanks for all the help!

[johnstodd]

If you have a second drive with enough space to hold "My Documents" for example...

set bkupdrive=F
robocopy "C:\My Documents" "%bkupdrive%:\My Documents" /mir

The first time this will run for a while depending on how much space your My Documents is using. After the first time, only changes, adds, deletes are processed and only takes a few seconds. It's not a full image backup but it does a great job of keeping an exact copy of My Documents on your backup drive (for example). To restore...just drag and drop.

Once a year, I restore my computer using the original disk and then restore My Documents from my backup drive. A great way to clean off a year's worth of junk and start clean again.

Just my way of doing it. It's free.

[dmcantrell]

John, thanks for this tip.

Follow up question :

When you do your yearly restore, does this method also restore your "program files" and their respective settings?

I also do the "yearly slate cleaning" but I'm trying to find a way to avoid sitting in my desk chair all day on a Saturday installing all the programs I use (Photoshop, Nero, MS Office, etc.).

[DJ.]

Acronis user for many years and it has never let me down when I needed a bare metal restore or just to mount a drive to recover files. Great for recovering OS, Apps, Data, and drive cloning. You need to design your own backup and recovery plan around your system and your workflow.

I have SyncBack Pro but I just use it and Teracopy to move files around from drive to drive and machine to machine. Great tool for syncing files or backing up files without compression.

I also just purchased a copy of O&O DriveImage 5 and installed it on one machine. Same principle as Acronis but cheaper and the default compression was twice as tight as Acronis. Easy to install and use so I will be watching this one and if it warrants I may switch.

[dmcantrell]

Well, just FYI I bought a copy of the Acronis software earlier today. Newegg.com has a special running, $38.99 - $20 rebate = $18.99 and free shipping.

[johnstodd]

Hi David,

My method only keeps an exact copy of My Documents or any other folder you want to use as a source. I do sit down once a year and re-install. So my method does not save any program settings...etc... I just got tired of keeping up with the latest releases of whatever drive image software I was using. Either the software would be discontinued...software company was bought out and discontinued the software unless I wanted to upgrade to their other version... or I had to upgrade to keep in sync with the latest operating system...or when I would buy a new computer I had trouble re-installing already licensed software on my new computer. Know what I mean. So I use "robocopy"...it's free...and I re-install the rest of my software every year or so.

[Nocturnus]

I was using just DVD's and thinking i'd be safe by keeping them in a safe deposit box. Guess I was wrong. 3 of my DVD's will not read on any of my computers. :( I lost my HD that held my copy of all my images. So from now on, i'll have a copy on my external hard drive, over on my HTCP's raid 5, on my webservers RAID setup and at work. Everything at work gets backed up to tape.

Keep more then one set of backups kids.. heh.

[Flea77]

Originally Posted by Nocturnus

I was using just DVD's and thinking i'd be safe by keeping them in a safe deposit box. Guess I was wrong. 3 of my DVD's will not read on any of my computers. :( I lost my HD that held my copy of all my images. So from now on, i'll have a copy on my external hard drive, over on my HTCP's raid 5, on my webservers RAID setup and at work. Everything at work gets backed up to tape.

Keep more then one set of backups kids.. heh.

Were they DVD-R discs? What brand? Did you verify the disc before placing it in storage?

Allan

[Nocturnus]

Memorex DVD-R. They worked before going in. At this point they are about 3 years old. I'm going to be trying some of the drives we have at work that are newer.

[mdparthum]

I see advertised out there DVD-R, +R's etc. that are archival. Does anyone know what makes them archival? Is it a different recording material? Has anyone used them with any success so far? Thanks.

[suzyjazz]

What is the best thing to use if I just want to store my images somewhere else? I'm looking at backing up everything I have now -- copy all images from DVD/CD to my computer, and send them to online storage.

[Kalrog]

Originally Posted by suzyjazz

What is the best thing to use if I just want to store my images somewhere else? I'm looking at backing up everything I have now -- copy all images from DVD/CD to my computer, and send them to online storage.

Any of the online backup solutions can do that. Crashplan is what I picked because of having the options of local (external HD), online (their cloud) and friend (direct backup to a friend's HD somewhere else) all in one software package. And the only one you have to pay for is the online one, the rest is free (or can be if daily backup is enough).

But carbonite, mozzy, etc. should all be able to do what you are asking.

[Peacock]

I use zenfolio for my galleries, but the great thing too is that you can just upload you photos there and you do not have to display them! Pricing is good, and the interface is easy to use...free trial available to try out...
Zenfolio | hosting service for photo galleries | a place to learn and enjoy photography
here is a referral code if you decide to buy will give you 5 dollars off, as well as me next time I have to renew... EEQ-N7F-27U

[tropicpine]

David:

I use the NTbackup that comes with Windows. It is VERY simple. The only failures I have had were my failures to do regular backups. I never have to worry about being able to locate my media for a restore. Untill someone pays me to use their software you can't beat the price.

Originally Posted by dmcantrell

...
Here's what I'm trying to do :
...
2) make a copy of my boot drive (image I guess?)
...

More than half the tim Ihave had to do a restore it has been due to corruption of my OS files. I have found that the investiment in time needed to do a 'from scratch' reload of my OS has resulted in a faster and more stable system.

[mmcmurr]

I used to use mozy (Mozy - Safe, Secure, Affordable Online Backup) until it would try to re-upload EVERYTHING if I disconnected/reconnected my drobo.

Now, I use Backblaze. It's FAST, secure (encrypted), off-site. All you need is a good internet connection. Online Backup from Backblaze , and the price is nice. $5/mo.

[rwwright]

recently bought Genie. seems to work ok on 64bit win 7

[jlrphoto]

I use Good Sync. I backup my "my documents" folder to an extenal hard drive.

I have some other files I keep on that external drive as well (some movies and music, and any software where I purchased a "download"). Once a week or so I will back up external drive #1 to another external identically sized hard drive. Works for me so far...there isn't any compression or anything, but good sync does monitor which files change, so it's a pretty quick synchronization. I don't really care at this point about making a bootable drive.

I tried carbonite, and it took about 6 weeks to get everything uploaded to their site. Whenever I did another photoshoot, it would take about 4 or 5 days to upload the files for backup. It was so slow and cumbersome I couldn't possibly imagine how I'd get the files back off of their site if I actually needed to recover them.