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Best way to backup Windows machines?? (need easy restore)
Vanity | 7-20-2009 | Frantzie

Posted on 07/20/2009 8:25:25 AM PDT by Frantzie

I came in nn it appears a harddrive was failing. Jumped in the car to take it to the computer guy. I should have a solid backup to restore plus I had a new 80 gig HD in a box.


TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: backup; computer; driveimage; pctech; tech; windows
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Ideally I think buying a second drive and mirroring would be good for desktops. Old NT had that and I think Dell had it on newer machines.

Rush likes Carbonite over external drives. They supposedly have an easy restore. I think the cost is about $5 a month unlimited data or almost unlimited. I think it is $54.95 a year.

Buying a few externals is another option. It is all about the ease of restore. Buy a new hard drive install it but how to restore?

Others: iDrive, DataDeposit Box, Mozy????

I want it to grab the entire drive not select files and the changes.

Thanks for any suggestions.

1 posted on 07/20/2009 8:25:26 AM PDT by Frantzie
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To: Frantzie

I was recommended Carbonite by other FReepers and it works great. No problems so far.


2 posted on 07/20/2009 8:27:39 AM PDT by mnehring
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To: Frantzie

Carbonite.


3 posted on 07/20/2009 8:30:19 AM PDT by john in springfield (One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe such things.No ordinary man could be such a fool.)
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To: Frantzie

Has anyone tried a restore with Carbonite?


4 posted on 07/20/2009 8:33:44 AM PDT by Frantzie (Remember when Bush was President and Americans had jobs (and ammo)?)
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To: Frantzie; rdb3; Calvinist_Dark_Lord; GodGunsandGuts; CyberCowboy777; Salo; Bobsat; JosephW; ...

5 posted on 07/20/2009 8:35:14 AM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: Frantzie

Has anyone had a recovery experience with Carbonite? I heard one guy say it took a very long time to recover. What was a very long time and how much he had to recover I dunno.


6 posted on 07/20/2009 8:36:06 AM PDT by freedomlover (Make sure you're in love - before you move in the heavy stuff)
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To: Frantzie

Ironic that as I read this thread I’m sitting here sipping a cup of java and doing data backups.

A lot of folks seem to lean on Carbonite but I don’t trust anyone with my stuff. So I do the old-fashioned manual file copy to an external drive. Prices for them have become so attractive that there is no longer an excuse not to own one (or more).


7 posted on 07/20/2009 8:39:22 AM PDT by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: Frantzie

We use two products a lot: (i)MozyPro; and (ii)Backup Exec System Recovery (which comes in versions for the various desktop and server operating systems).

MozyPro is a good price point for our smaller customers and has been nearly flawless. We’ve discovered one instance in which it doesn’t work well, but that is associated with Exchange servers, not likely an issue for a desktop. Its only fault is that it sometimes does not retry when it cannot get a connection. Its good point is that it only backs up changed files on the block level, which makes it very efficient. It is not the fastest way to do a recovery if you have a large amount of data. You can download that data from their website, which will take time and risk some corruption or you can have them send it to you on DVD. Its a good offsite service though and available from anywhere you have an internet connection. With this option you will still need to reinstall the operating system and most of your applications and then restore the data. (Unless what you are backing up is an image file of your system.)

System Recovery costs about $50.00 for desktop operating systems. It is much like the old Ghost. Makes an image to a hard drive device and then allows you to restore same. It is easy to manage, very configurable (automatic backups, manual backups, different kinds of backups). The best thing about System Recovery is that is “bare metal” capable. You can restore to any hardware so long as you have the appropriate drivers available. So you can restore to another machine, or the same machine with a different NIC, etc., etc., etc. Typical time to restore a desktop is about 20 minutes and it will look EXACTLY like it did before hand - all applications functional, all shortcuts in place, backgrounds - everything. It is an image, you restore the image and your operating system and applications will be restored in a fully functional state - no reinstalls. It is my choice for recovery, the one I use on both my personal and business machines. Quite frankly, it is the only backup I use at some of my customer locations. It has the advantage of allowing you to backup to hard disk devices (which are inexpensive) as opposed to high volume tape devices (which are very expensive).

I’m a very practical person - I only get enthusiastic about new technology and devices if they do they have a real function and they work. These two options meet both those criteria.


8 posted on 07/20/2009 8:40:38 AM PDT by Roses0508
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To: Frantzie

Get a WD “My Book”. 1TB about 125.00. At least mine was. Setup back to the USB drive. Easy to ransfer to other computers as well and if a SHTF senario comes q d you have to bug out, grab the USB drive and go.


9 posted on 07/20/2009 8:42:45 AM PDT by AFreeBird
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To: Frantzie
Get a good external USB hard drive. Your stuff is then absolutely private and under your control.
10 posted on 07/20/2009 8:44:41 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$ (Nemo me impune lacessit)
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To: Frantzie

For home networks and single machines, Windows Home Server is incredible.

It’s probably the best product MS has made in the last 10 years.


11 posted on 07/20/2009 8:45:05 AM PDT by Psycho_Bunny (ALSO SPRACH ZEROTHUSTRA)
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To: Frantzie

I just went through a painful exercise and decided the best answer for me was to have another (cheap) laptop with Windows (or Ubuntu or whatever flavor you prefer) set up just to use the restore program, a set of USB-serial ATA cables, and external USB storage.

Regular backups are easy enough to do using different methods, but if you want to have disaster recovery solution, you need a external backup storage and a machine ready to go with restore capability.


12 posted on 07/20/2009 8:45:34 AM PDT by battlecry
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To: Frantzie

Push in the clutch, put it in reverse, let the clutch out SLOWLY. drive!


13 posted on 07/20/2009 8:45:34 AM PDT by US Navy Vet
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To: Frantzie
I've had good luck with Clonezilla and GParted if what you're after is a fast disk-image backup.
14 posted on 07/20/2009 8:47:08 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Frantzie

External drive, Windows backup or scheduled file copy so you don’t forget.

Burn critical stuff to CD every year and store in a firesafe or safety deposit box.

I do not trust any 3rd party backup solutions with my data.


15 posted on 07/20/2009 8:47:43 AM PDT by TSgt (Extreme vitriol and rancorous replies served daily. - Mike W USAF)
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To: Frantzie

I have my OS on one partition (C:) and data on a second partition (D:).

I also periodically back up the (D:) data to an external (USB) drive.

For the OS partition, I frequently ‘copy’ it using CloneGenius2008. CG runs from the DVD drive. It creates files of the complete OS (C:) drive and saves them. It recognizes USB drives, so I save the OS clone files to a USB drive. It takes about 35 minutes to create the image files of my 29 Gb OS drive and about the same amount of time to restore, if needed.

I like the CloneGenius method, because it retains all my Windows settings and programs, if I need to restore.

USB hard drives are relatively inexpensive. A $50 USB drive for backups is certainly worth the price, compared to losing one’s personal data files.


16 posted on 07/20/2009 8:49:07 AM PDT by TomGuy
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To: Frantzie

I use a Maxtor that could hold an entire network X 10 and program it to backup everynight. Easy restore. Don’t trust online outfits and you pay for it once. About $400 to $600.


17 posted on 07/20/2009 8:50:42 AM PDT by poobear
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To: Frantzie

For brain-dead Windows restore from an extermal hard drive, Ghost on, Ghost off. Basically it’s just a snapshot of the hard drive that you can restore onto any other machine. I’m sure there are other hard drive snapshot programs out there.

In using it so far the only problem I’ve had is with drivers when restoring to a different system. You won’t have that problem restoring to the same system.


18 posted on 07/20/2009 8:55:10 AM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: Frantzie
If you want a full restore, the total OS and all programs, the best way to do that is to have some type of imaging software. This will make an image on another hard disk(you need two that are as close to identical as you can get)of your operating hard drive. Periodically you make a new image as files change and new programs are added. Used to be the best imaging software was called Ghost.

I think however that Vista has a problem with imaging(and maybe XP)because of the fact that MS seems to think that after you pay for something you still don't own it.

19 posted on 07/20/2009 8:56:43 AM PDT by calex59 (I, me, myself, am actually Jim Thompson)
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To: Frantzie
I don't like the external services, takes way too long to restore; I've never had a connection that was as fast a USB.

I've restored a bunch of systems using a variety of methods and for most folks True Image works great. No problems with file locking when backing up, the scheduled backups work without issue and the restore process (with the CD you create) is easy as can be.

20 posted on 07/20/2009 8:58:30 AM PDT by Proud_texan (Scare people enough and they'll do anything.)
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