Backing Up Your Files - Comments Page 1

For fruity people backup is really easy. Use .Mac if you have it, or SilverKeeper [freeware] http://www.lacie.com/silverkeeper/- I use SilverKeeper and my iPod.

Acronis True Image backs up hard disk sectors, not files. It has its place, as do all disk image backup products, but none of them are intended as file backup products. Also, True Image, in some cases, does not back up *all* disk sectors despite the fact the vendor claims that it does. See www.computergripes.com/trueimage.html

EDITOR'S NOTE: Not true, as far as I can tell. After I make a full backup with Acronis, I can "explore" it and select individual files to restore from the backup.

PLEASE NOTE!!! Dantz Retrospect is one of the WORST programs I have even installed in my computer, and was removed within days. It is buggy, awkward and doesn't do what you want, and doesn't tell you that it screwed up. I had been warned about it by a computer professional, but installed it anyway, since it came with my drive - (probably the only way they can sell it is to give it away). Yuk! So Far - the best backup program I have found is Backup4all, with a new version coming out soon. For imaging, True Image is the clear winner. PLEASE stay away from Retrospect.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Interesting... I know several people who absolutely *RAVE* about Retrospect. Maybe you had an older version?

And suggestions for Linux, Gui or CLI?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Hmmm, how about this:

tar cuvf /backup.tar /

That should create an archive file (tarball) of the entire file system. If you run the command again, the "-u" flag tells it to add only files that are new or changed.

I use RestoreBack (Authored by me) for my personal backups. This is a disk based backup program (freeware) written entirely in Java. It allows you to create a backup (A single zip archive)of files and folders on your disk. For more details please visit http://www.aniyog.com/restoreback.htm

I made the mistake of using my back up Iomega external drive as an extension of my regular hard drive to bypass upgrading to more memory. Then the kids knocked it off the shelf and it clicks and won't recognize itself anymore.... All that back up gone. One of the drawbacks of an external... stuff happens around small children.

Though I'm not a fan of most Norton (Symantec) products, Ghost has worked well for me. I do a ghost image of my initial clean install (much better than dealing with Microsoft's restore) and I also have a ghost image of my data drive.

Backing up and imaging are two different things in my book and I use different tools in a very structured (some say paranoid) approach.

Imaging: I use Terabyte Unlimited "Image for DOS" (Shareware) to create a bootable DVD restore disc of my system. One is of the "base" install which is just the Operating System and all drivers and critical updates loaded. Another image ("apps" install) is done once I install important applications... Office, Adobe Photoshop Essentials etc. If I have a catastrophic failure I can go back to these. If I'm about to do a restore and a new version of an application has come out in the interim (like Photoshop Essentials 4.0 just did) then I can go back to the "base" install and create a new "apps" install.

Daily Backups: For backup of regularly changed data I use MicroBackup 2005 from Sadhu Systems. It's freeware and allows me to create a ZIP file of important documents automatically to a removeable drive.

Weekly Backups: Finally, I regularly create a new image using Drive Snapshot by Tom Ehlert (Shareware). This superb program images your system drive while you are running Windows and will even create an image on the same drive if you want (it's very fast and you can then burn the image to DVD). If you have a problem you can "explore" the image as a virtual drive and copy the files back over.

I don't know if it is good or bad but I use Second Copy for my backups. I've been doing it for three years or more. I started using a second external hard drive when tape and CDs were popular. I had to restore my computer once and it took all day loading program and data files. Never again!

Products like Norton's Ghost are good, but not practical for daily/weekly back ups.

If backing up to an external hard drive, or another computer, have a look at Karen's Replicator. It's free and it works.
http://www.karenware.com