Vanity: Recommendations on PC auto-backup program?

Scoutmaster

[Scoutmaster]

Anyone willing to share a recommendations for an auto-backup program (e.g., like Norton Ghost)? Mrs. Scoutmaster uses a PC, so unlike Scoutmaster's desktop and notebook, Time Machine is not an option. Mrs. Scoutmaster is not prone to remember to back things up on her own (but is a remarkable woman) and Scoutmaster would like to have the manual backup obligation removed from his list of spousal duties.

PC has multiple SATA hard drives, one empty and large enough to be used for backup, or I'm open to ideas for a network-based backup that connects to the router and comes with software for that purpose.

Preference, of course, would be an open source program that you have personal experience and can vouch for.

[rabscuttle385]

I’ve heard that Windows Home Server is quite nice, but it’s silly if you only need to backup one PC.

[bt579]

CARBONITE

[jaydubya2]

I’ve had good success with Acronis.

[Billthedrill]

What OS is she using? I'm using an external USB hard drive and the native backup program that comes with Win7 and Vista. Huge improvement over the one in XP (different beast entirely). Schedule it up, forget about it.

Three strategies - a backup to the same disk, a backup to a different disk (or different media), and a backup to a different geographical location. They all have advantages.

[Obadiah]

Ditto on Acronis.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Rush Limbaugh and Kim Komando both sponsor Carbonite

[Nervous Tick]

>> (but is a remarkable woman)

Mrs. Scoutmaster popped into the room for a second and walked over towards where you were typing, eh?

Good save!

[kevinm13]

Leo Laporte (”The Tech Guy”) (www.techguylabs.com) recommends 3 different backups. I am working on getting all 3.

Backup onsite with a second hard drive. They are cheap and you can probably get one with 500 GB or more for a little over $100. Or backup by putting your important files on DVDs or CDs (these are cheap as are the burners now) and take the disks (CD/DVD) away from your primary computer — to work, Grandma’s, safe deposit box, etc. In case of fire, theft or other problems like an earthquake or flood, you have to do offsite as well.

Then backup offsite with Carbonite because hard drives fail.

[weef]

I’ve had good success with Acronis.

I've heard this too but almost had a disaster this weekend with Acronis.

I installed the latest trial version of their software on my Windows Vista x64 machine (with Raid1) and started a disk backup (ghost). After about 30 minutes it appeared to have locked up - the progress bar had not moved in that period. Then my machine locked up where the only way to stop it was a hard reboot.

Then the fun began, I could boot up but the machine was basically unresponsive so I tried to uninstall Acronis. It hung for at least 20 minutes trying to prepare for the uninstall. After another reboot I had to take a trip through the Windows Repair procedure at boot time because of a boot problem that was detected. After 45 minutes of disk repair I was able to reboot and uninstall Acronis.

Luckily I didn't lose any data (that would have been ironic, no?) and only ended up wasting about 3 hours in the process.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

The best one I've found is called Macrium Reflect

It's free and it uses VSS (Microsoft's Volume ShadowCopy Service) to take images of your hard drive....even while Windows is running! Sweeet.

[jaydubya2]

Sorry to hear of your experiance. I use it on PCs that do not have much downtime. One advantage to Acronis is it can backup a running system, no need to shut down all processes to do a backup.

[Chuckster]

CARBONITE

I'll second that. Saved my bacon when I spilled a glass of wine on my laptop.

[nevergore]

There are laws against drinking while posting! DWP

[Billthedrill]

There are laws against drinking while posting!

E-GAD sir! I'm doomed!

[Age of Reason]

I’d like to backup to an online site by copying certain files to such a site when and how I want to.

That is, I do not want a site that constantly and automatically records every single change I make to my data.

Right now, I back up my changes a few times a day to USB drives and/or to DVD discs, which I store both onsite and offsite.

But the third option of an online backup I’d like to have as well.

The other thing is security: how safe is my confidential business related data when backed up online?

[backhoe]

Mrs. B swears by Carbonite- and the big advantage is that it is not on-site, so if the house burns or floods she can likely get her stuff back.

I use Comodo Backup ( It’s free, google it ) to backup to the home network drive, and the Bounceback Express that came with an old Seagate outboard drive to backup to a USB drive.

I also keep copies of things I’d hate to lose on an old Dell upstairs, just in case...

[lovecraft]

We use carbonite at work, i like it.

[SW6906]

I've used Carbonite for a couple years. Started on XP, now on Vista ZERO problems. Used ti to move files from XP machine to Vista machine. Off-site and unlimited (many only give you so many GB). Should the SHTF at my house, or my laptop is stolen, all of my pictures and data are backed up elsewhere and recoverable anywhere.

Only complaint I may have is that you have to tell it to back up video files, it won't do it automatically. I may be missing some setting to make it do that though.

[Scoutmaster]

Obviously Carbonite is popular — but if I have a program that will allow me to dual back-up (both to an internal, extra hard drive) and upload a copy of the drive by FTP, I’m set without Carbonite.

I have plenty of storage room at oneandone.com and a couple of other places where I host websites, and using that extra space to FTP files for offsite storage is no problem (and, unlike Carbonite, I’ve already paid for the space).

I have several 500 GB to 1 TB Seagate SATA hard drives that are available for backup, and the 500 GM will back-up Mrs. Scoutmaster’s operating system and files until . . . well . . . until forever.

Thanks for the suggestions.