Hi Forum Members:
I for one, backup my entire system, unattended, on a daily basis for immediate restoration.
If there is a crash - whether hardware or software related, I am only out of data from the period since the last backup.
How many of you backup your systems after a NIS Full System Scan, either on a daily, weekly or monthly basis?
What is your backup method?
Just curious...
Hi Plankton
I back up the system weekly. I have main drive partitioned with my music and photos on second partition. I use Second Copy to mirror photos and music to a second drive and use Drive Snapshot to backup C drive to second drive also. It takes 3 minutes to backup C drive and only creates a 3GB image. Separating music and photos makes a huge difference as it only takes seconds to mirror as the folders don't change greatly weekly. Also music and photos do not really compress any further which means Drive Snapshot images would be about 20GB larger and take 20 minutes longer. Once set up like this it is quick and simple.
Bottom line...if backing up is not quick and simple you tend not to do it and find one day it is too late.
Hi
I back up the files that I want to every morning when I get on my computer. I have a back up program which does this and I do it on demand when I want to run it. The program I use can do this also by schedule if you want it to. It adds/subtracts any changes to what ever. It will know even where to put every thing if the letters on your drives change. It can move your files even to a new o/s. It was my life saver a couple of weeks ago when my C drive died.
I use Ghost and do a full system back up daily (incremental) restarting every week! This is done to a network drive.
This is probably overkill 
, but I use Shadow Protect Desktop to back up my entire hard drive each night. I also use Clickfree to back up my personal files to an external drive and Carbonite to back them up remotely.
KBPrez wrote:This is probably overkill
Does Shadow Protect keep dated restores, so you could choose, say, to go back to July 2, 2008?
I ask that, because a series of 30 daily backups can be much less useful than a series of 30 weekly backups.
One of our concerns is a new malware that isn't detected for a week or two. It is possible that it can embed itself in your system and in your OS' restore files; and at the same time corrupt your system so thoroughly that it is irreparable. If that is the case, going back in time two days or seven days or even a couple of weeks, might not be sufficient.
In terms of good practice, the best times for a backup are right after a substantial and successful modification: an upgrade, a heavy microsoft update push, something like that. That way, you can always fall back on the last uninfected major upgrade and not have to go through that much restoration in case of the kind of infection I described.
mijcar wrote:Does Shadow Protect keep dated restores, so you could choose, say, to go back to July 2, 2008?
I ask that, because a series of 30 daily backups can be much less useful than a series of 30 weekly backups.
One of our concerns is a new malware that isn't detected for a week or two. It is possible that it can embed itself in your system and in your OS' restore files; and at the same time corrupt your system so thoroughly that it is irreparable. If that is the case, going back in time two days or seven days or even a couple of weeks, might not be sufficient.
In terms of good practice, the best times for a backup are right after a substantial and successful modification: an upgrade, a heavy microsoft update push, something like that. That way, you can always fall back on the last uninfected major upgrade and not have to go through that much restoration in case of the kind of infection I described.
Hi mijcar,
Shadow Protect uses a sequentially generated number for each backup, but I can see the creation date by looking at the properties window. I use a 500GB external drive for my backups. Each backup takes about 60GB, so I limit myself to carrying the last 7 versions.
Your point about infections and best backup times is a really good one. It’s not something I considered before. I’m going to change my settings and limit the backups to when I’ve done major changes. GREAT POINT. Thanks mijcar! I LOVE this forum.
Hi all:
Let's talk about Bare Metal Backups and the average user.
What are they supposed to use that doesn't require technical knowledge. IMO, this is a *big* problem.
Your opinions, pleeze...
Plankton wrote:Hi all:
Let's talk about Bare Metal Backups and the average user.
What are they supposed to use that doesn't require technical knowledge. IMO, this is a *big* problem.
Your opinions, pleeze...
Message Edited by Plankton on 11-20-2009 08:42 PM
Plankton, this is way too complicated for "simple" advice.
Some examples I always use.
What is more important? Your data, your software or your operating system?
If you have a broken harddrive and you want to keep your computer, it is vital to have a system backup of some kind for when you put a new harddrive into your computer. In this case you need a copy of your old system with its applications; and copies of your data.
On the other hand, if someone steals your computer and you buy a new one, the one thing you don't do is force the image of your old computer onto the new one. Instead you need copies of your old applications that didn't come with the computer so you can re-install them. And you need all your old data.
So just for this simple issue, there are many different considerations. Making system images and how often to do so. Making data backups and how frequently and what kind they should be (incremental or complete, for example). Saving copies of software applications and related installation necessities (activation keys and other requirements for installation, such as email address used to purchase the product).
Then we move into deeper waters. One of my client has files she doesn't want to risk having broken into: Financial records of her own clients. She keeps hesitating about online backup. She also has files, totally different in nature, that are very personal. And she also has files that she has no security concerns about but which are irreplaceable (pictures of her children, etc.). So we need at least two strategies here (financial records into safe deposit box, in case computer is stolen or house burns down). Pictures, etc. to online storage because it is fast and easy.
CDs break down over time. So do external harddrives (I like having three; one in the safe deposit box; one ready to go for the next backup; and one to replace it with while I make the swap at the bank). One of my DVD restores turned out to be defective, but I didn't find out until I got to the second disk -- fortunately I had a complete working set a little bit earlier in time. Online backup is great for replacing small packages of info; but when your harddrive is gone and you want to reimage a harddrive, it costs a fair amount of money to have them second-day you a set of disks designed for reimaging. And it's a lot of time to download 50 Gigs of data files. Doable, and free, but time-consuming.
So, as you can see, this is not going to be a one-size fits all. I like the idea of people talking about how they do it and why; and we can have some good exchanges. Just don't expect we will come up with something that works for everyone, and expecially be wary of advising novices since they seldom even know what they need. What they really need are good questions to answer.