System Backup Advice

[Hairy-o]

Hello, I'm looking for advice on how to properly back up my operating system and drivers, along with file folders (such as music and photos) that I would be quite unhappy if my system crashed and lost all my work.

Can you help me with a procedure on how to do this, and a program that might recommend to do the file backup for me on a regular basis (to a secondary drive or at least to a thumb drive to store on).

thanks

 

[raybro]

There are numerous programs which will do what you want. Some free, some pay for. By far, one of he more popular commercial apps is Acronis True Image. Its what I've been using for a number of years. I've also used a relatively new free program called Easeus ToDo Backup Home with no problems.

Click here to go to a post by Elvandil which contains a list of links for free and commercial programs in post #9 of the thread.

Using a pen drive for backup is not really a good idea. A secondary or external HDD is the preferred and more reliable media.

You may also want to consider a file syncronization program like Syncback. This would be in addition to the full backup and would update your document backup files daily (or however often you select) thereby minimizing the frequency of updating your full backup.

I encourage you to pursue this. Drives fail. Its not a question of IF, but one of WHEN it will happen.

You may also find there are many opinions on how to configure a backup scheme. Its very individualistic.