Windows XP: Backup Strategy
Backup with Synctoy
by Big-H - 2/17/06 3:06 AM In reply to: I've found that ''old fashioned'' copy & paste works best by lakephillipMicrosoft do occasionally produce some useful software. The synctoy is one such. I've been trying it and it's quick and easy. Look at
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/results.aspx?pocId=&freetext=synctoy&DisplayLang=en
You link two folders. I have left folder to be backed up on the hard drive and the right folder to contain the backup, which is (my case) on an external H/D.
I use "Contribute", which checks all files on the LEFT folder, compares to RIGHT folder and then copies over any new and updated files. You can make it a both way check if you use your external H/D as a portable storage.
It does not compress files, so you don't have any problem with trying to retrieve just one file.
It does NOT backup the system, for which you need a proper backup tool, but is brilliant for keeping track of current work and checking back over earlier work / images.
I couple that with burning to DVD
Howard
Not Bad . . .
by tonyny77 - 2/17/06 5:02 PM In reply to: Backup with Synctoy by Big-HHoward,
That sounds like a pretty decent idea. Right now, though, I'm running just one PC. But I thank you for your contribution and will keep Synctoy in mind when I expand to a second system.
Thanks.
Tony
SyncToy
by hannon2u - 2/18/06 7:42 AM In reply to: Backup with Synctoy by Big-HThanks for the advice. I followed your instructions, downloaded SyncToy and have a good another good backup and I kept the File-Transfer Wizard copy of the system files all onto a USB HD.
The importance of backing up dat often
by shimsar - 2/17/06 5:27 AM In reply to: Backup Strategy by tonyny77Much of what I know today I've learned from the mistakes of others, and regarding "back-ups" there is no better example that that of Moses, who after breaking the stone tablets (his hard disc), he had to spend an additional 40 days and 40 nights getting his data together.
With the cost of CD's so cheap today there is little reason not to back up on CD's often.
Shmuel Shimshoni
2 Steps & Media Choices
by deirdrew - 2/17/06 5:34 AM In reply to: The importance of backing up dat often by shimsarSee:
http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6142-0.html?forumID=5&threadID=157706&messageID=1750286
My experience
by Rickybee - 2/17/06 5:41 AM In reply to: Backup Strategy by tonyny77I am a sys admin at an accounting firm and have had a lot of experience on this subject over many years. Here's my current solution for home and at work:
In the Office
I the office I use another PC at the other end of the building which runs sync software to syncronize the contents of our data server to large hard drives across the LAN. Static ones in the machine do weekly copies, removable drives for dailys. I switch the daily drive out once a week and take them home on a monthly rotation.
I also use the software to copy a few essential folders to my own workstation and from there I burn those to DVD once a month, creating a more permanent backup of those files.
At Home
I built a media server in our living room which has a huge hard drive, so that doubles as a backup copy of all my important files. Again using the same software syncing across the LAN.
I read other posts where one person said 'copy and paste' is the best solution and another that uses Second Copy. The basic copy and paste solution, I would agree, is a great way to go if you don't have many files, this software I use does the same thing automatically. I liked Second Copy but there is another similar program which has a free version which I find very reliable; SyncBack (google it). I use this at home and at work, it uses very little resources and can run at set times to keep your folders/pc's in sync. Next best thing to having RAID.
My experience
by Rickybee - 2/17/06 5:43 AM In reply to: Backup Strategy by tonyny77I am a sys admin at an accounting firm and have had a lot of experience on this subject over many years. Here's my current solution for home and at work:
In the Office
I the office I use another PC at the other end of the building which runs sync software to syncronize the contents of our data server to large hard drives across the LAN. Static ones in the machine do weekly copies, removable drives for dailys. I switch the daily drive out once a week and take them home on a monthly rotation.
I also use the software to copy a few essential folders to my own workstation and from there I burn those to DVD once a month, creating a more permanent backup of those files.
At Home
I built a media server in our living room which has a huge hard drive, so that doubles as a backup copy of all my important files. Again using the same software syncing across the LAN.
I read other posts where one person said 'copy and paste' is the best solution and another that uses Second Copy. The basic copy and paste solution, I would agree, is a great way to go if you don't have many files, this software I use does the same thing automatically. I liked Second Copy but there is another similar program which has a free version which I find very reliable; SyncBack (google it). I use this at home and at work, it uses very little resources and can run at set times to keep your folders/pc's in sync. Next best thing to having RAID.
Backups & media
by Noreast - 2/17/06 6:55 AM In reply to: Backup Strategy by tonyny77I use Norton Ghost (DOS) weekly and backup to a portable (tray) HD that I keep in another room.
Three internal hard drives
by kingcorky - 2/17/06 7:32 AM In reply to: Backups & media by NoreastI have three internal hard drives in my computer. The "Master" hd is for my programs, the "Slave" is the hd that I save all my data onto, and the third, "Backup" is the hd that I back up both the Master and the Slave. I use Norton's Ghost version 2003, which is the DOS version.
My strategy with back-ups
by Bob L - 2/17/06 11:06 AM In reply to: Backups & media by NoreastI run my business out of my home. I deal with international customers and lots of e-mail and engineering files. So I'm also my IT guy (not by choice).
Anyway, I keep my whole business in a single folder on my desktop. That folder has thousands of sub-directories. I used a cheap software utility called Clone that runs every 4 hours. It updates my 'normal' external drive every 4 hours with both file changes and new additions from this single folder. Once every week or so, I plug in a different external drive and run the same utility that backs up all changes from the past week. Occaissionally, I also back up my Outlook archive when the spirit moves me. (I save important e-mails in my customer/supplier folders that get backed up every 4 hours).
If I were to lose my laptop hard drive, I have two other machines that have Office in the house, so it wouldn't be a big deal to hook up and continue on.
Norton Ghost to Maxtor External HDD?
by HarleyUltraClassic - 2/17/06 7:38 AM In reply to: Backup Strategy by tonyny77Here was the comment from TONYNY77:
However, the external drive (a Maxtor One Touch II) started acting stupid; I began getting “Delayed Write Failed” error messages. Maxtor hasn’t been sufficiently helpful. Although I’ve seen a ZILLION people reporting this problem in forums with other drives as well, I have yet to find an authoritative/working solution ... just a whole lot of guesses. And this is why I began writing my backups to a second internal hard drive.
-------------
I use a 20gig primary HDD, a 160gig seondary HDD and a 160gig External HDD. I use Norton Ghost 9 to back up each drive to another.
I experienced bad problems when formatting on my new Maxtor External HDD...and I'm thinking it's caused by the USB connectivity vs IDE used during the format procedure. I struggled when I formatted my newest Maxtor 160 Gig HDD - it took over 12 attempts (using Disk Management in WinXP)
After each format was complete and I put new data on the HDD, I found I would lose all data, lose all partition/formatting and get a message that the drive was "Unallocated." It seemed to happen each time after rebooting the PC or turning OFF the External Maxtor hard drive.
Finally, I removed the Maxtor HD from the External Case and installed it in my PC and performed the partition & format inside the PC using IDE cables. So far, that seems to have fixed my problem for the past month!
Again, I suspect the USB connectivity vs. IDE connectivity caused some "problems" during the partioning/formatting.
Hope my experience will help you.
Jan
Yes, Jan
by tonyny77 - 2/17/06 8:14 AM In reply to: Norton Ghost to Maxtor External HDD? by HarleyUltraClassicJan,
Yes, I whole-heartedly agree. Based on my experiences, I have also become worried about external hard drive connections via USB. I'm not bad-mouthing USB, but I've heard numerous other stories leading me to not trust USB for such high speed connections such as a hard drives require.
Therefore, although I don't mind using the second internal hard drive for backups, I wish XP provided the ability to isolate the drive or the file system. When ''bad guys'' write their malicious code and they're trying to wipe you out, one of the things they often look for is backups to delete/corrupt ... as if we didn't have enough problems already.
Thanks again, Jan. Good post and I agree.
Tony
Re: Norton Ghost to Maxtor External HDD?
by rgismondi - 2/17/06 7:15 PM In reply to: Norton Ghost to Maxtor External HDD? by HarleyUltraClassicJan, are you refering to a computer with Windows XP? And is your USB connection 1.1, or 2.0?
~~Robert
Re: Norton Ghost to Maxtor External HDD?
by HarleyUltraClassic - 2/17/06 7:53 PM In reply to: Re: Norton Ghost to Maxtor External HDD? by rgismondiRobert,
I'm running WinXP SP/2 and USB 2.0. It's been my experience with my 4 connection USB port that some USB gadgets don't work...period.
Now, this experience with partitioning and formatting a large 160gig HDD (exceeds the 137gig capacity limit) occurs. In short, the format I performed after installing the hard drive in my PC and using the IDE cable seems to have worked. USB appears to be the bad guy here.
- Jan
137 Gig Limit
by tonyny77 - 2/18/06 4:32 AM In reply to: Re: Norton Ghost to Maxtor External HDD? by HarleyUltraClassicOh, Jan,
You know, you said the magic word/phrase: "137 Gig limit."
I've been writing my backups to a 2nd internal hard drive. It's a 300 Gbyte Seagate hard drive. When I began my preparations to install it, everything I read in the instructions made me firmly believe that my Dell system would have no problem with the 137 Gbyte limit.
However, when the Seagate install wizard tested my system, nope ... the wizard reported that my system failed the test. The wizard could install a fix for this limitation and I gladly let the wizard make the necessary fix. I don't know what it adjusted, by the way, but my system does recognize the full 300 Gigs, now.
But there was one other problem. After completing the installation and trying my first backup using the new drive, I was shocked to see that the backups that used to take about 20 minutes to my external drive were now taking MORE THAN THREE HOURS!!! How can this be, I wondered???
Well, the point is that I later found in the wizard's help files an obscure mention of something called Intel's Application Accelerator; I believe it's a newer version of the drivers used by my hard disk controller. Once again, I don't know what was adjusted by this Application Accelerator, but it did the trick; the I/O rate to the new Seagate hard drive seems to be normal.
If I hadn't already known that my backups were much, much, MUCH faster using the external USB drive, I might have never suspected that something was wrong.
Tony
P.S.: I hope Robert, the moderator, catches this post. I wish he (or someone) could volunteer a little info to us regarding this Intel Application Accelerator.
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