Comments for How long should I keep my backups?

Comment from Richard FDisk on 2009-02-11

2009-02-12T02:40:23Z

To me System Restore is a joke, everything I've heard and experienced with it has been bad, so many misconceptions about it's actual function and what it's really for;
ie. if you get a virus System Restore will not cure you from the infection, it's really poorly named; I have the SR service shut off and completely disabled on all my machines;
I use the third party product from Symantec: BESR (Backup Exec System Restore) which takes full drive images or can be setup to schedule full & incremental / differential backups and from that you recover your system in it's entirety or portions that may get damaged from disk failure file corruption etc.
For my main machine I have every backup from the very first one taken when I had the machine built. I keep my "User Files" on a separate drive away from the OS & Programs drive C:\ My BESR drive images only contain the OS & Programs and I have a separate backup setup for my "user files"
mainly any file that I need or am currently working on I have a minimum of two copies in different locations usually two different drives

]]>

A comment on: How long should I keep my backups?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Duane on 2009-02-11

2009-02-11T20:27:51Z

As well as System State and My Docs backups (using the standard Microsoft tools), I use Macrium Reflect to create a ghost image once a week. I don't make that many changes, so I find that keeping My Docs, System State, and a ghost image dating back two weeks is suitable for me. I also use Puppy Linux as a back up OS, so I can retreive .pst files and anything else I might need before restoring from a source that I might have made two days ago, but is never more than two weeks old.

]]>

A comment on: How long should I keep my backups?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Coly on 2009-02-10

2009-02-10T17:26:05Z

I keep around 10 days worth of System Restore points. Sometimes it is the best or only way to uninstall something that didn't work out. An uninstaller may leave a lot of stuff behind or not work at all.

]]>

A comment on: How long should I keep my backups?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Robert King on 2009-02-10

2009-02-10T17:01:00Z

Hello, Leo. I'm a 75-year old computer newbie ...not really a "newbie" at my age, but a novice computer user nonetheless. I use a system called "Registry Booster" to "clean up" my registry .... I don't know why I need to do this, but do it anyway. I only use this laptop for emailing to my kids and friends, for my Blockbuster account, to order online crap I don't really need, to research stuff for crossword puzzles, "streaming" music sites and for online banking purposes. So, nothing really complicated or technical involved. So my comment is .....do I really need "backups" and a registry cleaner? If I don't need backups and they're taking up space, how can I delete same to allow more computer space?

My thoughts on registry cleaners are here: What's the best registry cleaner?
If your computer's hard disk was suddenly blank and everything on it were permanently lost, would that be a problem? If so, then you definitely need backups. And as that statement implies backups should never be to the same hard disk; they should be to another hard disk. These days that's typically an external USB drive.

- Leo
11-Feb-2009

]]>

A comment on: How long should I keep my backups?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.