back up

Baz · Jun 04, 2011, 08:40:31

Any one use this

Im thinking of trying it as i'm having a bit bother with Acronis so was looking for an alternative

psp83 · Jun 04, 2011, 10:06:19

Nope, I use Robocopy command line.

Its a bit geeky but I like it.

Technical Ben · Jun 04, 2011, 10:18:43

If only there was a /sudo get me a Linux expert command. $:-\$
I'll get around to learning it one day.

Glenn · Jun 04, 2011, 10:39:48

ODIN is another one.

Rik · Jun 04, 2011, 10:44:38

Wotan earth would you use that for?

Glenn · Jun 04, 2011, 10:48:10

I came across it the other day, when looking at installing Linux on my Pogoplug.

Rik · Jun 04, 2011, 10:51:35

My father wouldn't have understood that sentence.

Glenn · Jun 04, 2011, 10:52:55

Neither would mine.

Rik · Jun 04, 2011, 10:54:42

It pulls you up with a jolt, when you realise that life has changed so much in a very short period, doesn't it.

Glenn · Jun 04, 2011, 10:59:21

Yep. My grandfather, he saw the first horseless carriages, through to man on the moon, along with computers taking the world by storm.

tehidyman · Jun 04, 2011, 11:34:10

I use EASEUS to do regular incremental back ups of documents, photos and statistics. Satisfactory for me (6 months use), simple to use and so far no problems.

psp83 · Jun 05, 2011, 00:55:19

If you want to try robocopy out then just follow the following.

Copy and paste the following & change the bits in bold to where your files are and where you want them to be backed up to.

Quote
@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL

SET _source=\\FileServ1\e$\users

SET _dest=\\FileServ2\e$\BackupUsers

SET _what=/COPYALL /B /SEC /MIR
:: /COPYALL :: COPY ALL file info
:: /B :: copy files in Backup mode.
:: /SEC :: copy files with SECurity
:: /MIR :: MIRror a directory tree

SET _options=/R:0 /W:0 /LOG:MyLogfile.txt /NFL /NDL
:: /R:n :: number of Retries
:: /W:n :: Wait time between retries
:: /LOG :: Output log file
:: /NFL :: No file logging
:: /NDL :: No dir logging

ROBOCOPY %_source% %_dest% %_what% %_options%

Paste that into notepad and save as backup1.bat

Now open Task Scheduler on windows and setup a task to run whenever you want and point it to the .bat file you just created.

Robocopy comes already installed on Vista and Windows7, You will need to download it for XP.

This link will also explain more : http://ss64.com/nt/robocopy.html

Technical Ben · Jun 05, 2011, 08:54:29

Ohhh. So robocopy is part of windows? Never realised. I still use the default Win 7 backup service.

psp83 · Jun 05, 2011, 12:53:19

Quote from: Technical Ben on Jun 05, 2011, 08:54:29
Ohhh. So robocopy is part of windows? Never realised. I still use the default Win 7 backup service.

Yeah, It never used to be though.

I've tried several backup programs in the past and find this the best one once you get used to it & finding/setting the options you need.

The one I pasted above is just a simple mirror copy & will only copy files that have been changed after the first run.

If you delete a file from the _source it will get deleted from the backup, but you can change that with the different options from the link I pasted.

armadillo · Jun 05, 2011, 16:40:16

So has anyone successfully used Robocopy, Easeus, Odin or Windows 7 native backup/restore to restore a corrupted, suspect, non-booting or blue-screening Windows OS from the backup?

I ask because many backup solutions look great until you actually try to restore your OS from them.

I appreciate Baz's need to find an alternative to Acronis, which he is having problems with. I have restored my OS (XP) between 50 and 100 times using Acronis.

Glenn · Jun 05, 2011, 16:42:24

I use Windows Home Server and have successfully restored the laptop back to a working condition without any problems.

armadillo · Jun 05, 2011, 18:16:32

Is that with Odin, Glenn?

Glenn · Jun 05, 2011, 18:27:43

No, that's just something I found last week. WHS backs up my PC's over night, so there is always a current backup, I also keep the original build backup too.

Baz · Jun 05, 2011, 18:31:16

Quote from: armadillo on Jun 05, 2011, 16:40:16
So has anyone successfully used Robocopy, Easeus, Odin or Windows 7 native backup/restore to restore a corrupted, suspect, non-booting or blue-screening Windows OS from the backup?

I ask because many backup solutions look great until you actually try to restore your OS from them.

I appreciate Baz's need to find an alternative to Acronis, which he is having problems with. I have restored my OS (XP) between 50 and 100 times using Acronis.

havent done a restore yet Armadillo but success with full back up,tested and verified, and 1 incremental and it worked very easily.straightforward to use.Made a boot disc too which I also tried and works fine,this is where my Acronis was giving me grief.

Hope I dont get the need to have to do a restore so may never be able to tell you

I dont really want to give up on Acronis but having found this I may just leave TI for a while.

Again, many thanks for your superb help Armadillo,if you have any more ideas or I crack the problem I will let you know

armadillo · Jun 05, 2011, 20:00:47

Quote from: Glenn on Jun 05, 2011, 18:27:43
No, that's just something I found last week. WHS backs up my PC's over night, so there is always a current backup, I also keep the original build backup too.

So have you done just one restore with WHS or more than that? I have not heard of WHS. Link?

Glenn · Jun 05, 2011, 20:02:34

I've used it several times.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/default.mspx

Steve · Jun 05, 2011, 20:04:48

I've used it many times over the last few years on several Windows machines and it's been very reliable, plus the server and OS has many other uses.

http://www.wegotserved.com/

http://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,9530.0.html

armadillo · Jun 05, 2011, 20:29:10

Quote from: Baz on Jun 05, 2011, 18:31:16

I dont really want to give up on Acronis but having found this I may just leave TI for a while.

By "this" do you mean Easeus?

Quote
Again, many thanks for your superb help Armadillo,if you have any more ideas or I crack the problem I will let you know

Thanks. It bugs me that I did not come up with the final solution. Alas, I think it is one that only the Acronis developers can solve.

armadillo · Jun 05, 2011, 20:47:37

Thanks for the links Glenn and Steve. Glenn, I am not always quick on the uptake. I had not realised that Windows Home Server and WHS were the same thing

The system requirements given mention 2GB RAM and only NTFS supported. I assume that means for the machine on which WHS is installed, rather than a restriction on the machines it can back up.

Looks like a fairly complex and costly solution for backup if you do not want to access data from more than one PC and do not want to access it over the internet and do not want a mail server, i.e. if you only want backup and restore.

But it looks like a comprehensive solution for anyone who does want all those features.

When I build a system, the first thing I check is the recovery software. Hence, I did at least 20 restores from Acronis backups before making my system live. And I did upwards of 40 during my time as a beta tester for Kaspersky AV, which used to blue-screen nearly daily. At the end of beta testing, I restored to before I originally installed Kaspersky AV.

I have been a bit remiss in not testing restore on my laptop. But since I keep no data at all on it and only minimal software, I have nothing to lose by waiting until I need to restore for real.

D-Dan · Jun 06, 2011, 12:31:23

As mentioned in another thread, for full disk (or full partition) backup I find clonezilla hard to beat. It's fast both on backup and restore, can backup over a network, restored systems have always worked for me (I'm something of a tinkerer and eventually tinker my OS to death, leading to the need to restore a backup) and it's free

What more can you want?

Steve