Solved: Automatic Backup software???

[bobbyjonesrocks]

Does anyone know of a good backup software that is free and is user friendly. I used to have norton ghost and I didn't like it that much. Thanks for the feedback!!!

 

[Elvandil]

Whole partitions or just files and folders?

 

[bobbyjonesrocks]

I am sorry, right now I can't remember what a partition is?

 

[Elvandil]

A partition is a division of your hard drive. It is what a drive letter gets assigned to. So, do you want to back up the whole drive, operating system and all, or just some files and folders from the drive?

You probably won't find any "automatic" backup software for your whole drive that is free.

 

[bobbyjonesrocks]

A partition is a division of your hard drive. It is what a drive letter gets assigned to. So, do you want to back up the whole drive, operating system and all, or just some files and folders from the drive?

You probably won't find any "automatic" backup software for your whole drive that is free.

I don't want to sound stupid, but what would you recommend, the whole hard drive or some files/folders?

 

[Elvandil]

Both is nice. Something like Acronis True Image can make a backup of your whole system so that if something terrible happens, or even if the drive fails, you can recover the whole thing, programs and all.

But some things are updated pretty frequently and you may want to back those things up more often than the whole system. For cases like that, a simpler backup program can be used. Acronis can do both, but not free.

Take a look at these for the whole drive:

Free Drive Cloners/Imagers:

XXClone
CloneZilla
Partition Saving
PCI CloneMaxx
Drive Image XML
EaseUs Disk Copy
HDClone
DriveClonerXP

Commercial Apps:

O&O DiskImage
Acronis True Image Home
Keriver Image
Avanquest Copy Commander
Paragon Drive Backup
NovaBackup
R-Drive Image
Norton Ghost
HDClone Pro or Enterprise
Terabyte Image for Windows
Terabyte Image for DOS (can directly access FAT, FAT32, and NTFS partitions)
Spotmau Disk Clone & Backup


And these for file/folder backups only:

Karen's Replicator
Cobian backup
VersionBackup
JaBack

 

[bobbyjonesrocks]

thanks for all of your research and help!!!

 

[Elvandil]

Hopefully, you'll find what you want.

 

[new tech guy]

Another option for file backups is to go a route that i use. I simply wrote batch files for all of the pc's and their user accounts in my house and they run either on set schedules for pcs that are on and logged in 24/7 (like my sisters) or have it in the startup folder so as soon as the user logs onto the pc the system performs a file backup. That is another route and a free method for file backups.

 

[bobbyjonesrocks]

Another option for file backups is to go a route that i use. I simply wrote batch files for all of the pc's and their user accounts in my house and they run either on set schedules for pcs that are on and logged in 24/7 (like my sisters) or have it in the startup folder so as soon as the user logs onto the pc the system performs a file backup. That is another route and a free method for file backups.

Thanks for the idea, but I don't think that I have enough time to write some batch files.

 

[WhitPhil]

If the backups are for file recovery as opposed to full system recovery (ie an image), then Karen's Replicator would work.

 

[bobbyjonesrocks]

Both is nice. Something like Acronis True Image can make a backup of your whole system so that if something terrible happens, or even if the drive fails, you can recover the whole thing, programs and all.

But some things are updated pretty frequently and you may want to back those things up more often than the whole system. For cases like that, a simpler backup program can be used. Acronis can do both, but not free.

Take a look at these for the whole drive:

Free Drive Cloners/Imagers:

XXClone
CloneZilla
Partition Saving
PCI CloneMaxx
Drive Image XML
EaseUs Disk Copy
HDClone
DriveClonerXP

Commercial Apps:

O&O DiskImage
Acronis True Image Home
Keriver Image
Avanquest Copy Commander
Paragon Drive Backup
NovaBackup
R-Drive Image
Norton Ghost
HDClone Pro or Enterprise
Terabyte Image for Windows
Terabyte Image for DOS (can directly access FAT, FAT32, and NTFS partitions)
Spotmau Disk Clone & Backup


And these for file/folder backups only:

Karen's Replicator
Cobian backup
VersionBackup
JaBack

Thank you for WhitPhil but I already found out about Karen's Replicator from Elvandil.

 

[WhitPhil]

Sorry. Didn't notice it in his "massive" list. It is easy to set up and easy to run and track.

 

[Elvandil]

Yes, Karen's is very nice. It doesn't look like much, but it has many more options than you would suspect until you begin setting up a schedule.

 

[new tech guy]

Thanks for the idea, but I don't think that I have enough time to write some batch files.

Batches are not difficult at all to write nor do they require much code. Here is mine:

@echo off
echo Deleteing old backup directories...
rmdir G:\backups /s /q
echo Creating backup directories...
mkdir G:\backups\
echo Backing up files...
xcopy C:\users\<user> G:\backups\ /e
echo backup complete!

that is all there is to it and it backs up everything file wise in my basic user account (not including hidden/system files).