Backing up...

Harlequin565

Harlequin565

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Ian
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I'm picking up a new computer in a couple of weeks, and wanted to know which software people use to back up their systems.

I'm looking for something that:

- Backs up only new/changed files since the last backup
- Doesn't kill my computer while it's running
- Runs on XP as well as Windows 7 (will be backing up from an XP machine and restoring to a Windows 7 machine. Not critical this.)
- I don't necessarily need an image of my hard drive, but I would like program settings (like PS plugins, LR plugins, presets, actions, iTunes library info, Outlook .pst, Excel settings etc) all to be backed up. I know which files they are, and where they reside, and appreciate I'd have to add this manually.

I have a Western Digital MyBook as my back up device as well as a 2nd Iomega portable hard drive for additional Photo backups only. The backup software that came with it is frankly rubbish and grinds my PC to a halt then crashes (blah blah blah, encountered an exception blah blah blah will close)

I don't mind paying as long as the software is good.

At the moment, it's a lengthy copy/paste of the folders along with a notepad reference saying where they all go. Painful.

I don't need anything bundled with AV or Firewall software.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Ian.
 
There is a free downloadable (microsoft) programme that will let you copy your files from your old (XP) computer and then download them in 7 (using your back up drive), did mine a treat when I changed my computer a couple of months ago.

As for normal backup synctoy gets my vote.
 
I use snapshot disk image to image my system drives. The nice thing about that is it will do a differential backup so you can always do a full system restore with just two filesets.

I also use rsync to backup between PCs (I have cygwin installed on all my PCs) as I have a couple of Linux machines and rsync (together with crontab) allows me to have a common backup environment across machines. All a tad manual to setup and a bit geeky, but now I have it setup, it just sits there and just "works" for all the computers in the network (including an Android tablet!).
 
Thanks for all the replies. Very helpful!

I have a Linux partition on my XP machine, and am also capable of using dos and cygwin, so I may go the geeky option.

Or I may just use pre-written software...

Cheers!

-H
 
In that case take a look at robocopy and create some batch scripts with the appropriate switches
 
Harlequin565 said:
Thanks for all the replies. Very helpful!

I have a Linux partition on my XP machine, and am also capable of using dos and cygwin, so I may go the geeky option.

Or I may just use pre-written software...

Cheers!

-H
Click to expand...
If you do decide to go geeky, I've written up some instructions on what you need to do for cygwin. PM me and I'll mail you the .pdf (it's currently on an internal web page, but I could print it to .pdf for you)
 
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