Comments for What backup program should I use?

Comment from Victor on 2008-11-09

2008-11-09T14:31:01Z

Restoring to a new computer seems to be like doing illegal copies of your OS.
But what if your hard disk crashes? I had to deal with that problem: I had a 80GB hd and it crashes. Hd I could buy was 200GB. Backup programs simply made a first partition but I loose 120GB. I had to reinstall all to be able to use the whole disk.
Is there a backup program able to do this tasks?

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Comment from Jay on 2008-10-04

2008-10-04T16:19:36Z

Acronis only restores to the backed up computer. I want backup software that will backup to a new computer. If mine crashes I will purchase a new computer. What program should I use? Thanks. Jay

I'm not aware of a *backup* program that will do what you're asking for. Moving software from one computer to another is typically way more complex than just putting the files from one computer onto another.

My recommendation for setting up a new computer is that you set it up ... install everything for that computer on that computer. Then transfer data - perhaps using your backups. Most backup programs work fine for that.

- Leo
05-Oct-2008

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Comment from Richard Goodman on 2008-08-23

2008-08-24T00:43:34Z

I have backed up my Windows XP and Office on a 16GB Flash Drive. If my hard drive fails, can I just boot from the Flash Drive, then copy all the backed-up files to the replacement drive? Or, will I need some interim step?

It really depends on how you're backing up. Some backup programs will do as you describe, but most do not. You'll likely need some kind of interim boot disk at a minimum.

-Leo

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Comment from Harrison Gardner on 2008-07-31

2008-07-31T19:15:31Z

In reading this series of comments, I went to check my own software, PCCloneEx, since I had never really tried to restore anything with it. The program seems to work, but when it restores files it leaves them in a zipped format. I know I can simply unzip it, but are there back-up programs that will restore the file in its native format?

Thanks,

Most backup programs actually restore to original format. Restoring only .zip is ... unusual.

-Leo

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Comment from Christian Meid on 2008-06-05

2008-06-05T22:29:00Z

Hi Leo.
I am looking for a backup software that can make a different daily backup of some selected data for a week and start after to overwrite the first once again. So that I could go a little back in the backup in case I lost some data. Could you advice me a product? Thanks a lot! Christian ;)

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Comment from Bill Cartledge on 2008-03-16

2008-03-17T02:15:28Z

Leo, can I use the Internet via DSL, to copy data files from my laptop (Vista) to my desktop PC (WinXP-SP2) or vice-versa? Using what program?
I have mostly photos, under 1000.

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Comment from Don Clark on 2008-03-15

2008-03-15T13:34:00Z

Dear, Leo
Can I and if so can I just backup windows updates? Is the NTBackup Backup/Restore that comes with windows ok for home backup? I have only one computer for home use Windows XP Home SP2.
Thanks,

Don

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Comment from lb on 2008-02-03

2008-02-04T00:23:29Z

Professor Asus' comments (postd jan 4'08) were *so*helpful!! i just bought a simpletech external harddrive (320gb) and was checking out the data backup software that it came with (arcsoft total media backup & record). it has an seemingly easy interface but i was starting to get pretty frustrated trying to understand how to backup and what to backup. i looked up the Acronis True Image software that Prof Asus recommended and it sounds like exactly what i want. thanks! http://disk-imaging-software-review.toptenreviews.com/acronis-true-image-review.html

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Comment from jitesh singh on 2008-01-29

2008-01-29T18:01:01Z

i think i will be a wise thing to have a backup copy of all your important data on a CD and also a backup copy in a portable memory stick(Pen drive).

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Comment from Professor Asus on 2008-01-04

2008-01-05T04:20:01Z

It is far easier and more efficient to make an image of your OS partition with Acronis or Drive Image and to restore your drive with this back-up image when necessary.This is a quite fast and reliable method of restore and also protects and preserves settings,connections,and any installed programs.Further benefits can also be gained by saving an image of a "virgin install" and using it to "start fresh" if need be,as this is much faster than normal OS installs.I highly recommend use of these imaging methods for ALL computer owners and users.Making images of other partitions and data is also a very useful tool for complete backup and safety of your computer.You can save these image files on DVD,an external drive,on other drives or all for multiple backup with ease.Imaging as such will save you many hours and bring your systems back in a flash...Be sure to make an Bootable Recovery Disk and keep this in safe storage with your image disks.I have used Acronis for years on my clients computers with virtually no problems and have ALWAYS been able to fully restore completely with no loss of systems or data!!!

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Comment from Leo A. Notenboom on 2007-12-31

2007-12-31T23:11:50Z

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Douglas: you didn't say *how* you're backing up. But most
backup programs just handle that automatically.

Leo

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Comment from Thomas on 2007-12-29

2007-12-30T05:55:54Z

Doug;

The answer to the question you asked depends on whether you are manually burning files to CD, or if you are using a backup program that knows how to use multiple CD's for the backup medium. If you are using intelligent backup software, then you just tell it what to back up, 'My Documents' for example, and the software will tell you when to place blank CD's in the tray, and do the burning automatically.

If you are just burning files to CD, then YOU have to select a group of files that will fit on the CD, keep track of which files have been backed up, and keep selecting groups of files until all the files you want backed up are finally on CD's.

The problem here is that Backing up to multiple CD's can be tiresome and inefficient. It is easy to lose track of where you are, and it is not easy to find files on your CD collection when you need to fetch a particular file.

I suggest you take stock of what you need to back up. If you have a static collection of files, say a set of digital images, that will fit on a few CD's, then burning to CD's will be sufficient. If your work documents add up to less than 15gb, then a flash stick of sufficient size will be work. If you have more to back up, then an external hard drive is your best bet. Either of these beats the pants off CD's for routine backup needs, and the costs are less than one Geek Squad visit.

You only need to back up the files you create, such as your word documents. It is useless to back up all the other stuff on your computer such as the Windows operating system files and all the program files because you can't use them or restore them.

Hope this helps.

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Comment from Douglas Shilson on 2007-12-29

2007-12-29T16:59:25Z

Hello, in backing up and the CD is full, how does it know where to start the next CD to finish the copying? I have Microsoft Word. Thanks, too bad you don't live close to Minneapolis. I'm going poor, having the Best-Buy Geek squad over at 170.00 per visit. (Hour) Thanks, Doug!

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Comment from Thomas on 2007-12-29

2007-12-29T16:11:54Z

If you have not tested the recovery or restore process of the backup system you are using, then you essentially DO NOT HAVE a backup. I have seen too many sad faces from people who diligently made backups, but the inevitable computer crash came, and they were not able to restore their backup data because it was in a proprietary format and they had no idea how to gain access to it. Windows NT Backup is the classic example of boneheaded backup formats. Also make sure that your backup process does not copy the user and security information of the NT, W2k, and XP files. I've seen users that stuck an extra hard disk in their computers to make copies of their important files, but the computer crashed, and of course the hard disk backup is not readable by any other computer except the one that just blew up (because of the NTFS file security features). The moral is: TEST your backup data in a separate computer.

Fortunately, most current backup programs store data in standard zipped format, or in uncompressed copies, and do not store the user security settings of each file.

SyncBack is my favorite backup program, but it is a full-featured program that does a lot more than just backup. Make sure you understand what your backup program is doing because it is easy for a newbie to overwrite or delete files they did not intend to lose.

Be exceedingly careful if you are using the built-in Windows file encryption feature for any of your files. Be sure you can restore and read the backup you made of any encrypted files on a different computer.

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Comment from Leo A. Notenboom on 2007-09-17

2007-09-17T16:00:59Z

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It depends on how you burn things to CD, but the first thing to do is simple:
don't delete them from your hard disk until you're certain they're all safely
on CDs. THAT means making sure you can see the pictures from those cds on
another computer.

If you use CD burning software it'll tell you when you've put too many on the
CD before you burn it. Burn what will fit, keep track of what's been burned and
repeat, using as many CDs as you need to back up all your pictures.

If you're just using Windows Explorer to copy files, it'll stop when the CD
runs out of room. Again, just keep track of what's been copied, and use
multiple CDs to backup all your pictures.

Leo

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Comment from Joop St Kloos on 2007-09-15

2007-09-15T13:16:48Z

Leo: Am a Senior and have had 1 crash in 3 yrs. I have foto files for 3000+ and the thought of losing all that work drives me crazy. I have bot CD's to copy but don't know how many fotos each will take. Is there a way to determine this so I don't lose all my work? Many thanx for yr articles which I just stumbled across!

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Comment from Keith B. on 2007-08-18

2007-08-18T10:25:11Z

I recently tried and bought Acronis True Image 10 after many years of using Retrospect (anyone remember when Retrospect was called DiskFit?). My issues with Retrospect had to do with occasionally damaged backup files (Retrospect calls them "Catalog Files").

However, Acronis TI 10 was a major disappoinment to me. It has some serious SLOW speed issues during incremental backups! It can take HOURS to incrementally backup and verify the smallest incremental changes!! The program verifies the entire backup and NOT just the changes. Go to the Acronis forum and see for yourself. This is a known problem and the developer claims to be working on a fix for a later version. Try the demo first and be 100% certain that this program will work for you!!!!! Acronis product support is as slow as their software and consists of generic advice.

I reluctantly went back to Retrospect and upgraded to the latest version ($49). I have been pleasantly surprised with the robustness of the program. Kudos to the new owners, EMC Insignia, for the improvements. Retrospect is back in my good graces! :)

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Comment from Chucko on 2007-08-17

2007-08-18T03:35:51Z

Hi to all! I tried the Karen Kenworthy product and it was OK (her other stuff is pretty cool) but SynchBack SE is SUPERB! Bit complex, maybe, but defaults will get you 99% of the way there. Filter and schedule features optional and very helpful. We backup data partitions (drives) from multiple machines across a network to a central USB file repository. All local data is on drive d: and subsequent F G H etc. Meaning we do not back up the C: Windoze OS files to the network repository -- that is another matter entirely because of registry issues. Possible solution might be Acronis Drive Image 10 on each local machine. Don't know... Or a real OS like Unix: we're thinking about it! Hey: Anything but Windoze: it IS time.

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Comment from John Baldry on 2007-08-11

2007-08-11T10:29:30Z

Karen Kenworthy's Replicator program (for Windows) does everything I need for regular backups. As with all Karen's programs it's freeware and is available from her site at http://www.karenware.com The page for the Replicator can be found via the following TinyURL:
http://tinyurl.com/cnta
You can set up all the backup jobs you need, both large and small. It's a very flexible program, and unless you really must create drive images I don't see any need for another program.

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Comment from Ron.H on 2007-08-11

2007-08-11T08:59:54Z

I Have been using Acronis 10 for a long time, and find it very good and easy to use, as a bonus it will back up your email in a separate file about 60 seconds. I use an external usb drive and internal drive for main back up. I use the external drive for a very good reason, I had a bad experience when my computer went mad and deleted my backup drive as well as my C:\drive,
I did not think it possible to delete two separate drives but it did and I did not touch f/disk or format at all hence the external drive, when I am doing any thing like format etc I make sure that I turn it off.
Regards to all
Ron.

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Comment from Tom C on 2007-08-10

2007-08-11T04:41:14Z

This article makes reference to "10 Quick Steps to Perfect Backups". However, the link to get a copy is "http://ask-leo.com/d-10qsback" which comes back with 404 error.

The site www.10quicksteps.com is currently inactive and says it will return shortly.

Is there another source for "10 Quick Steps to Perfect Backups"?

Thanks.

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Comment from Chris on 2007-08-01

2007-08-01T17:46:39Z

I recommend Norton Ghost 12. I also recommend that you ALWAYS back up to a separate drive. If your primary drive dies, so does your backup.. No point in that. With Norton Ghost 12, you can back up to a network computer (and recover from a network computer) using the windows software or the bootable CD (saved my butt so many times). I have 2 back up places, a different drive on the same PC, and a network drive on another PC. Works great and only takes minutes to do both!

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Comment from Josh on 2007-06-30

2007-06-30T20:59:19Z

There is an excellent FREE backup program called "driveimageXML". http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm
I've been using it for over a year and I have not been disappointed.

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Comment from Lou Gascon on 2007-02-16

2007-02-16T16:59:03Z

Hi Leo...
Whilst I must agree that '10 Quick Steps to Perfect Backups' is perhaps worth the small outlay, it only mentions and recommends Retrospect 7.5 which at more than $100 bucks is, I think, a bit heavy weight.

Having researched further, I can see that things have moved on un petit peu, and have to consider the convergence of Vista...

With this in mind, I have found what appears to be a fairly new prog by the 2 Bright Sparks co http://www.2brightsparks.com/ namely SyncBackSE 4.1.3...
The 2 Bright sparks say somewhere in their blurb that they were fed up with Backup software not quite doing things the way they would do them, and so developed a program that would - I'm impressed! And this showed to my way of thinking that they knew what they were doing...!

I should like to ask if you or any readers know the program and have anything to say...?

Costs: SyncBack - Freeware
SyncbackSE - $30.00

Change for my Partitioning Prog...

Thanx in advance

Lou

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Comment from Ken Crook on 2006-11-04

2006-11-04T10:49:41Z

I tried Norton Ghost a few years ago and it required a second partition to do the image backup. But I would have had to reformat the drive to make the second partition, which would have destroyed the stuff I wanted to backup!
Recently I again wanted to try doing a image backup. The Norton Ghost site would not display the Ghost documentation to let me see if things had changed.
I checked out "Acronis True Image" on its site and the documentation is readable and understandable. I tried it and it runs easy and seems to work, I haven't needed to restore yet.
Anyone have any experience with Acronis True Image?

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Comment from Morgan on 2006-11-04

2006-11-04T10:05:37Z

I backup to an external hard drive every night using a batch file I wrote myself and WinRAR (rar.exe command line program) and GPG (to sign the backups). I keep the past 3 months backups so I can restore any file within that period which is perfect for what I want.

I have tried many other tools however I prefer to backup to a industry standard format and a RAR archive is perfect for this. For a few hundred bucks on the external drive and a few hours writing the batch file it has been a great backup solution for the past few years for me.

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Comment from Leo Notenboom on 2006-10-23

2006-10-23T16:36:22Z

Typically there's a way to examine what files are included in a backup. Another recommended approach is to pick a file at random, and try to restore it.

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Comment from emily brown on 2006-10-23

2006-10-23T16:30:38Z

Dear Leo:

How can I be sure that my backup program did a full back as instructed? thanks.

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Comment from Chris on 2006-09-26

2006-09-26T14:45:10Z

You should use an automatic online backup tool like Data Deposit Box... It's not terribly expensive and you can back up as many PCs or servers as you like. Once you set it up, there is nothing to do.

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Comment from Tricia Shactel on 2006-09-19

2006-09-19T08:05:53Z

how can I back up my media?

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Comment from Leo Notenboom on 2006-09-06

2006-09-07T05:32:50Z

I'm not at all familiar with Genie. You might need to contact the vendor's site for support. I would expect the instructions to be part of the basic documentation, though.

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Comment from patrick witeck on 2006-08-19

2006-08-20T02:38:39Z

Love your site Leo! Okay, I downloaded back up files with Genie. Well recently I lost 2 files on my computer. Now with my back up CDs how do I get them back. Very sorry if this is a really dumb question! Thanks for your precious time. Patrick

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Comment from G.Lance DIXON on 2006-08-17

2006-08-17T08:24:14Z

Another advocate of Norton's Ghost. Saved my bacon more times than I care to remember - requires a second hard drive ( cheap these days ) but just copy to my Pioneer DVD-RW toaster despite fiddling with the parametres.
This can be done easily with other burning software though so; 1 backup on the 2nd HDD and a a 2nd on a RW-DVD -

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Comment from jereme on 2006-08-08

2006-08-09T05:04:35Z

If you want to back up your whole disk, and have equal room to spare, try

Norton Ghost

I don't use it, because I don't mind Reinstallation of almost everything.
But I've heard, it's good!!!

Well,
C-yeh

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Comment from rednob on 2006-08-01

2006-08-01T18:35:47Z

freeware disk imaging and DVD-R's baby...

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Comment from herry on 2006-06-07

2006-06-07T20:37:50Z

Carbonite hides this well within their FAQ:

To keep users with very high speed internet connections from hogging all our bandwidth and storage, we limit backups to .5GB per day once you have sent us 50GB of data. So if your initial backup is, say 40GB, the initial backup will go as fast as your Internet allows. If you add .5GB of new data each day, after 10 days you’ll have 50GB in your backup. After 100 days, you’ll have 100GB in your backup. There is no size limit. But you can only send us .5GB of new data each day once you have passed the 50GB threshold.

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Comment from absi on 2006-05-29

2006-05-29T12:25:03Z

I have been using carbonite (www.carbonite.com for a month or so for backup and
it has been working flawlessly.

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Comment from Hans Klein on 2006-05-19

2006-05-19T12:46:38Z

For a nice non-techie backup solution, I'm using the new Carbonite Online backup (www.carbonite.com). It's $5/month with unlimited capacity. I have about 32GB backed up. Can't beat the price. It takes awhile for the initial backup as my DSL only uploads at about 2GB/day, but now that it's done, it just works away quietly in the background keeping the backup current. So far so good. Gotta check out their whacky web site if nothing else.

Hans

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Comment from Lara on 2005-09-28

2005-09-28T08:04:06Z

I like ABC Backup!
(http://www.abcbackup.com)

Cheers,
Lara

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Comment from joe mcelroy on 2004-12-14

2004-12-15T03:07:45Z

I had a virus i couldn't remove with spybot, adaware, avg, and trend micro so i restored my 2 week old XP backup and problem solved! Didn't think i'd need it with those tools....

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Comment from Joe McElroy on 2004-11-28

2004-11-28T23:14:23Z

I copy my entire current XP NTFS partition to a second hard disc. As long as it's partitoned first, (you can do this from within XP) , made active, and as large as my current C: partition (using Maxblast or any freeware to do this) it works fine. After copying, you must remove (disconnect) the original drive temporarily and boot from a floppy containing Fdisk. (i use a Win98 boot disk) It will say you have no valid c: drive because it doesn't see the NTFS partition as valid. You then answer yes to use disc as large disk, and then run Fdisk/mbr. Remove the floppy, reboot, and it will boot to the XP backup drive, and you have an entire, activated, backup of your complete active hard disk for a fatal crash (they DO happen, and for no good reason) of your current one. I bought a 60 gig drive for $40 a month ago and keep it in my case without power cable attached just for this purpose. This could then be reversed to a new, larger drive if required. This was the only way to make it work with

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Comment from John Miller on 2004-10-07

2004-10-07T13:02:55Z

If you have JRE installed on your system or if you are willing to download and install it, there is one excellent backup program (AKGBackup) in Java. The url is http://www.akgupta.com/applications/akgbackup.htm

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A comment on: What backup program should I use?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
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Comment from Leo on 2004-05-17

2004-05-17T21:44:48Z

I ran into this problem all the time when I was backing up across different disk formats ... an NTFS drive syncing with a FAT drive. The problem is that FAT doesn't know about, or store, timezone or daylight savings time information. NTFS stores all timestamps internally as GMT, so cross-timezone compares should work. (My problem happened twice a year ... when daylight saving time came and went).

Syncfile doesn't do what you ask (60seconds is the maximum "really sloppy" time comparison). I'll add to my todo list the ability to allow you to specify the amount of allowable difference as a parameter on the command line.

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A comment on: What backup program should I use?

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Comment from Matthew Engstrom on 2004-05-17

2004-05-17T21:39:02Z

I have downloaded syncfile to compare the date and time-stamps of different files. I am finding that if I use it to compare files across time zones the time stamps differ therefore syncfile thinks they are different. Is there a setting to change the time-stamp cusion to a few hours or ignore the time itself and only compare date or date & size?

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A comment on: What backup program should I use?

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Comment from michael horowitz on 2004-04-08

2004-04-08T23:03:01Z

As a possible replacement for SyncFile consider Replicator from Karen Kenworthy (www.karenware.com). It also replicates a directory by examining the last modified date/time of each file and is also free (although Karen does appreciate donations). However, it has a Windows UI and can run in either unattended mode (using its own scheduler) or manually by setting up an icon on your Windows desktop that backs up one or multiple directories. The "tags" feature also provides a backup for the backup.

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A comment on: What backup program should I use?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
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