Free Online Backup and Software Options

Last November, I had a similar problem. I booted up my computer one day and everything had changed. All my email disappeared. My favorites were gone. I had a problem tracking down my Windows Explorer. Other things changed too. I tried a restore, but it didn't work. I had already stored a lot of information on my external hdd & flash drive, thank goodness. If you want to keep something, make certain you back-up your files or the same thing oould happen to you.

I backup my laptop (W7) and netbook (XP) to my desktop (Vista) and my desk top is backed up to a 1.5 TB external HD. It's all local. My Mac is backed up by Time Machine on a local hard drive. Thanks Bob for this article, it gives me ideas to set up a couple of remote HD's at my daughter's house. I don't have any horror stories but my backups have made things easier a time or two.

What about windows 8? I know that my laptop has a second partition that I think is suppose to be all of the original files that came on the computer but I don't know how to us it if I had to. Plus it doesn't have my current files on it. Also, I haven't heard anything good about 8.1 so I have not upgraded yet. Should I do that?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes, I do recommend the 8.1 update. The new Refresh and Reset features can be used to restore your computer to your ideal configuration, or return your system to its "factory fresh" state. See http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/restore-refresh-reset-pc

Bob, there's a factoid that needs updating in this article. You state that Comodo Backup supports "Windows XP, Vista and 2000". I just went to the site, and the system requirements are now "Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1". The processor and RAM requirements are unchanged, but the hard drive requirement is now 23MB. A quick Google search didn't find an overt reference to support for Windows 2000 until I found an old CNET Download.com link to version 1 (It still worked!
There was a reference on a Comodo forum about a problem with reinstalling to a Windows 2000 machine which was resolved (presumably using a newer version), tho it apparently isn't overtly supported under Win2K. Just thought I'd let you know in case the issue comes up about Win2K--someone else is already asking about Windows 8 support.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Fixed that, thanks.

P.S. I also found Comodo Backup v1 at Tucows at this link, FWIW:
http://www.tucows.com/preview/500810/Comodo-BackUp

Re Rick 31 March 2014: has a “second partition that I think is suppose to be all of the original files that came on the computer”.

This is called a restore partition, and generally requires a magic keystroke during boot or some other method to get into recovery mode (Acer uses ALT-F10 during boot). Among other things this includes a tool to wipe out your system partition and restore it to as delivered factory condition. Note that it will probably wipe out the other partitions on the drive as well except for the recovery partition itself.

CAUTION: backup all of you disk files somewhere before proceeding with a restore, including the user directories. It could be another disk drive, portable disk drive, or other offline or online storage.

The recovery partition is normally not listed in Win Explorer, but can be seen by various partitioning tools, usually as a non bootable primary partition. It has a few tools to help explore the damage and recover your system to factory state.

Speaking of backups: I have backed up this recovery partition to another subdirectory of my tools partition as an ISO image (easily done with bootable Linux or Cygwin DD command) and another subdirectory copy of the individual files.. This also allows me to go exploring.

Note that if you have to restore your disk backups to a different drive, the restore partition probably won’t work on that drive. Acer (Vista) has a tool in the recovery partition that updates the system disk boot sector to include support for the magic restore boot key stroke. On my system the tool is RYTOOLS/MBRWRWIN.EXE.

Once a restore is done, you have to run Windows Update, install your preferred virus software (integrated firewall and virus software recommended: e.g. Comodo), install all additional software, set up user accounts and restore user files from your backups… Be very careful about internet access until updates and virus software is installed. Once I had done this I made a backup of the “perfect condition” system for next time.

A great source of shareware software is sourceforge.net. A program on that site called "Create Synchronicity" is a backup program that synchronizes individual files or directories. I use it to keep the contents of my flash drives backed up. It will work equally well with hard drives.

Another great program for synchronizing directories is FreeFileSync. The data files on my work and home computers are organized into a relatively small number of folders that I back up daily to a USB Passport drive using FreeFileSync. One nice feature is that you can refer to the backup drive by its volume name, for example [My Passport], which is useful for USB drives that can be assigned different drive letters over time when plugged in.

It's fast, accurate and flexible.

Here is the link: flexible.http://freefilesync.sourceforge.net/

I amnot as computer literate as some of your readers. I enjoy reading your netter and have advanced my knowledge.
My question: since I am replacing my XP with Win 7, am I correct in my assumption that I need only backup important files and not do a full system backup with restore.
I wish I could pack up my cpu and have you take care of all this for me. This old dog is about her limit of remembering all I need. I am sure I have redundent folders thinking that will keep my information safe from deletion. I feel like my own hacker. Thanks for reading my untechnical email.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For most people, all you need to back up are your documents, spreadsheets, email, photos, music and other files that you have created or accumulated. If you have installed programs that you need to migrate to the new system, you'll have to re-install them.

Bob, I am truly late to the game. Just downloaded Macrium Reflect Free Edition to go with my IDrive One External Hard Drive. I, like many others have noted, am a bit concerned about backing up my files online/cloud. But, as I follow your advice religiously, should I make use of my IDrive One Cloud storage space and not worry? As others remind your readers, I am not as computer-literate as others following your thread; but I learn gobs of new and useful information and do my best to absorb and incorporate it all to make my machine more secure, as worry-free as possible and as up-to-date. Thanks for ALL the suggestions, recommendations and links to helpful data.

Crashplan home free is no longer available or functional

"This is a reminder that after October 22, 2018, the free version of CrashPlan for Home will no longer work. This means that any data that you previously backed up using the free version will be inaccessible and you will not be able to back up or restore files, even to local folders or friends’ computers"