What backup software should I get?

[ClickHere2Surf.com]

First let me say this is for my personnal home PC.

I used to use 1Safe to backup my PC everyday and since it offers drive letter access I moved all my large (1GB+) video files to tapes so I could watch them off the tape, now they went bankrupt so I need another program and realize 1Safe was probably the only one with drive letter access so I'll have to live without it.

Here's what I want it to do:
-I want to be able to make 1 full backup, then everyday make an incremental backup that is added to the original full backup, and each version of each file should be kept, so if I decide I want to restore to 3 days ago, I enter the date and it restores from the fullbackup and all the followinf incrementals until 3 days ago

-I tried TapeWare and noticed the stats all stay at 0 if I backup only 1 large file, it seems to measure performance at the end of each file copied so I have no stats available when copiying a large file, I would like one that shows the real transfer rate

-In the event of a crash, I would like to be able to just enter the tape and a startup/recovery floppy and restore all my data including windows without having to first install windows and the restore software

Thanks

[Orangeman]

Well Click,

I know I'm going to get some flack for this but let me suggest some programs.

As far as restoring individual files from a list of disks I'd use Norton Ghost. The problem with Norton is that it doesn't give you incremental backups. You have to do a full system backup every time you back up. This is easier if you have a 2nd hard drive. You can store the backup on to that. It takes about 20 minutes to backup 8GB on a 2nd hard drive. CD disks can take up to three hours for 8GB.

A note about Norton Ghost. IF you buy the brand new 2004 edition it can cost you $85 or more. If you buy a 2003 or 2002 edition it'll cost you about 20 bucks.

The problem with Norton Ghost is that if you use CD's for your backup and one disk is corrupted your backup will be destroyed. You can still open individual files have replace them manually in Ghost Explorer (similiar to Windows Explorer) but the registry entries won't be the same and you could end up reinstalling the entire program.

Roxio Deluxe 3 will restore and entire hard drive or just an individual file. The problem with Roxio is that if you have a virus and don't know about it, it will replace the virus when you revert your hard drive.

Genie Backup Manager 4 is also pretty good and unlike Ghost can make incremental backups on to CD disks. However it takes about 2-3x as long to make your first major hard drive backup.

Just some suggestions...

Good LUck,
Orangeman

[TripleRLtd]

Well Click,

I know I'm going to get some flack for this but let me suggest some programs.

As far as restoring individual files from a list of disks I'd use Norton Ghost. The problem with Norton is that it doesn't give you incremental backups. You have to do a full system backup every time you back up. This is easier if you have a 2nd hard drive. You can store the backup on to that. It takes about 20 minutes to backup 8GB on a 2nd hard drive. CD disks can take up to three hours for 8GB.

A note about Norton Ghost. IF you buy the brand new 2004 edition it can cost you $85 or more. If you buy a 2003 or 2002 edition it'll cost you about 20 bucks.

The problem with Norton Ghost is that if you use CD's for your backup and one disk is corrupted your backup will be destroyed. You can still open individual files have replace them manually in Ghost Explorer (similiar to Windows Explorer) but the registry entries won't be the same and you could end up reinstalling the entire program.

Roxio Deluxe 3 will restore and entire hard drive or just an individual file. The problem with Roxio is that if you have a virus and don't know about it, it will replace the virus when you revert your hard drive.

Genie Backup Manager 4 is also pretty good and unlike Ghost can make incremental backups on to CD disks. However it takes about 2-3x as long to make your first major hard drive backup.

Just some suggestions...

Good LUck,
Orangeman

Why do you think you'll get flak punkinhead? You're doing real good with your tech advice lately.
Roxio Deluxe 3? Do you mean GoBack? Arghhhhh.....
Your Ghost recommendations are good. And, your second hard drive suggestion is even better!!! Hey click: did you ever consider that? A second hard drive, USB external or RAID internal? BackUpMyPc even has a 30 day trial. Yeah, it cost's money, but....
And, if you really want to be professional and perfectionist about all of this, there are some really expensive backup tools for PC's. Just ask any of the network admins here. So, how important is this to you, and how far are you willing to go, and how much are you willing to spend???

[ClickHere2Surf.com]

RAID 1 wont protect me from anything but a hard drive crash, and the chances of me loosing data by a HD crash are much less than any other way I could loose data. I have a RAID 0 for performance, and understand RAID 1 can be important when you need 100% uptime.

And I dont trust a hard drive to use as a backup, thats why I just got a Sony AIT tape drive last week which is great and very fast. I was looking for a program to backup to my tape drive, I'm not sure any of those recommened support tape drives.

Anyway, I've been using 1Safe for years with my old tape drive and thought they went banrupt because their website was down for over a week and the emails I sent just bounced back, but everything is back up and running on their site so I will probably be purchasing it. It came free with my old tape drive but was restricted to that drive only so I need to buy it now, but I really liked how it worked for backups and that it can let me play back videos directly from the tape without restoring so I can also use the tapes as removable storage.

Thanks

[corturbra]

Have you tried using the built in Backup program that comes with windows? I've never used it for incrementals, but it's handy, free and easy to use.

Can also be scheduled.

[ClickHere2Surf.com]

Yes I tried the built in one and will never use it again, I made a backup to tape, then when I was ready to restore it it said I didnt insert the right tape, but it was the right one since that was the only one I had.

Thanks

[confus-ed]

You've put the horse before the cart ... wouldn't you have been better sussing some suitable s/w before you bought your drive ?

All the stuff I can think of is gonna cost more than the drive did ! Do we have a budget for this ?

[tobevers]

How cheap do you want to go? I have (at home) a file server with xp pro that I use for backups of two pc's. One pc has win 2000 pro and other xp pro. I downloaded a little program called Replicator (a free program) from here: http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp
This prog lets you do incremental backups to any location on pc or network (after initial backup) and can be set to do them on any schedule. It will also do file deletions from backup if deletions are done from source. It's a handy little program. Downside would of course be viruses being transferred from source to backup...but I have Norton on two "workstations" and AVG on Server... my train of thought being that if one scanner misses it, HOPEFULLY the other won't. Also, this is only for backing up files, not images. I do on occasion ghost the drives for a little peace of mind, but this "free" system has worked pretty good for me, no probs yet. You should check out the sight listed above, if nothing else as she's got some pretty cool progs listed that she's posted as freeware. Just a thought.

[ClickHere2Surf.com]

You've put the horse before the cart ... wouldn't you have been better sussing some suitable s/w before you bought your drive ?

All the stuff I can think of is gonna cost more than the drive did ! Do we have a budget for this ?

I was using 1Safe which I really liked and did everything I wanted but the site was down for a week so I thought they had gone bankrupt so I was looking for another software, but the site is back online so I'll probably keep 1Safe.

[ClickHere2Surf.com]

How cheap do you want to go? I have (at home) a file server with xp pro that I use for backups of two pc's. One pc has win 2000 pro and other xp pro. I downloaded a little program called Replicator (a free program) from here: http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp
This prog lets you do incremental backups to any location on pc or network (after initial backup) and can be set to do them on any schedule. It will also do file deletions from backup if deletions are done from source. It's a handy little program. Downside would of course be viruses being transferred from source to backup...but I have Norton on two "workstations" and AVG on Server... my train of thought being that if one scanner misses it, HOPEFULLY the other won't. Also, this is only for backing up files, not images. I do on occasion ghost the drives for a little peace of mind, but this "free" system has worked pretty good for me, no probs yet. You should check out the sight listed above, if nothing else as she's got some pretty cool progs listed that she's posted as freeware. Just a thought.

I was looking for a program that supports tape drives.

BTW, I seriously wouldnt trust any number of AV software to protect you from viruses, they can only protect you from known viruses, a few years ago, Ive had 3 viruses in 3 years that all corrupted/erased my C: and I was using an updated AV with real time scan those 3 times, after the 3rd time, I stopped trusting AV software and got a tape drive to do a scheduled backup at least once a day, and the backup program (1Safe) keeps each version of each file so if I accidently backup a virus I can restore to any date I want.

[tobevers]

Are you saying that you don't use AV software at all?

[tobevers]

One other question...If you don't use AV protection and you simply restore a past backup, how do you know which recent backup to use that is not infected? Many viruses can be resident on c: and not show themselves until a preset date. If your pc was infected and the virus did not activate for several weeks, you would have to go back quite a ways in your backup assortment to restore a virus free backup. This virus free backup would also not have your most recent files. Can you please explain this? I'm not criticizing your methods, just curious.

[ClickHere2Surf.com]

I still use AV software, but disable real time scan since it slows down the system so I set it to scan once a week.

Anyway, I only got like on virus in the past 5 years and it was that thing that gave you a 60 second warning and then shut down your PC. I dont download exe files from places I dont trust and I have Outlook 2003 for emails which is very safe and I dont think a virus can possibly get past the Outlook protection.

So yes I still use AV, but not real time scan.

[kato2274]

I have Outlook 2003 for emails which is very safe and I dont think a virus can possibly get past the Outlook protection.

Bill? Is that you?

this is one of the funniest things I've ever seen.