Backing up on External Hard Drive

[(RIP) willstatt]

Got my new external hard drive, so will always be properly backed up in future.

For those of you that use any sort of external device.... Do you

A. just copy your files onto the backup device 'as is'.....or

B. Use XP backup or similiar

Which is best system and why?

advice much appreciated.

Will

 

[cookie]

acronis true image is 'kin brilliant

edit: why?

'cos it is so simple,

it will copy your whole windows system partition while you are still working,

you can dip into the compressed back up files & retrieve one file or restore a whole partition.

it works!

if you see v.8 cheap, you will save some money over v.9 and it does the biz for me.

 

[needlongerlegs]

Belt and braces

Use XP Back up, installed with XP Pro or on the CD with XP home

At least then you can take the data to another pc and restore it no probs.

I also do a straight copy my doc's, locate pst / db files for Outlook / Outlook express etc, and any othe areas you save stuff ie id you have particular photo software, nb you can't back up programmes as such only data.

R's

Graham (IT Profesional LOL)

 

[STUBBS]

on my external drive on my laptop i just use the back up option

 

[Deleted account W]

I've got a line that you run in a dos prompt somewhere that works really well. Something like

cmd.exe-xcopy *.*/s/e/d/c/z e:\data\.

I'll look for it. Our IT man gave it me and I used it to back up my data every day while I was having problems with my hard drive.

 

[themadprofessor]

Another vote for Acronis True Image...

I also use Acronis to back up the operating system to a hidden partition on my primary hard drive, as I am old school and always have my data on a separate spindle to the one with the operating system so if the 1st drive goes south it will not affect my data. This means that I could spare 50 Megs of the 1st 160 Gig drive for this hidden partition that Acronis constructs. If Windows demolishes itself software-wise, I can be up and running in the time it takes to copy the last backup to the C: drive.

I also back both my operating system and the data drive up to a 250 Gig external USB drive. Cost me £84.00 from Pixmania.

Chris

 

[Deleted Member I]

I just copy things directly as is without the need of backup software.

I think the main feature of backup software is that it can backup incremental changes only without copying everything everytime. However, check the backup software you use has this feature.

 

[cookie]

I just copy things directly as is without the need of backup software.

but you can't easily copy your windows partition like that, only data.

 

[(RIP) willstatt]

Acronis true image

Hey Cookie,

I'm going to go the Acronis route, as suggested by you, but which option do you use? Do you 'back up the whole hard disk' or just do selected backups?

A few pointers would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Will

 

[cookie]

i back up the whole of my C drive onto another partition. after first use i then switch to incremental backup.

i have recently found this can creep up in size, currently 50GB so i'm going to dump that onto my new 400GB external drive & create another image from scratch on the internal drive.

if it's any help, i've partitioned up 2 x 160GB drives like this:

the data & download partitions can only really be backed up to the removeable drive (not shown, not even unpacked)