How do you backup your system?

fra10trader · Apr 10, 2006

Quote from zxcv1fu:

I used to be a system engineer/consultant. Used to troubleshoot the server setup/backups. The more I do the more that I have to maintain/support.

When it comes to my own setup, I'd like to K.I.S.S. I have a mobile rack installed in my pc for the second HD. Every week I copy my data under 3 folders to the second HD. Every month I burn my data to a DVD. In case of any disaster that I have to leave in a hurry I can grab either the DVD or the second HD.

Right now I use 1 pc & 1 laptop. They are plenty for me to update the patches. I also have a server not been used. Any time my pc or latop crashed & beyond repair I can always install/bring up the server in a short time.

that works too

collar · May 15, 2006

WinFS seems to be a really interesting filesystem. I've searched over to get more info on it and came upon this source http://www.ntfs.com/ There's much useful data there, I suppose you give it a glance

TraderRobb · May 19, 2006

One nice method is using a 2 1/2 inch hard drive in a external case (cost about $125). Using Drive Image, you can create backup images through a USB connection and the 2 1/2" won't require external power. Fits in your shirtpocket !

nononsense · May 19, 2006

Quote from TraderRobb:

One nice method is using a 2 1/2 inch hard drive in a external case (cost about $125). Using Drive Image, you can create backup images through a USB connection and the 2 1/2" won't require external power. Fits in your shirtpocket !

Excellent way!
Only don't walk around with it in your shirtpocket. Keep it in a safe place till such time you need it to save your life.

TraderRobb · May 19, 2006

That's only in case of fire!

MaxDarkside · May 21, 2006

Quote from TraderRobb:

One nice method is using a 2 1/2 inch hard drive in a external case (cost about $125). Using Drive Image, you can create backup images through a USB connection and the 2 1/2" won't require external power. Fits in your shirtpocket !

That is how I do it too. Image the drive. If the HD fails and I restore to the same computer, I'm back and running again soon with everything back the way it was. If I restore to a new computer, then the drivers are different so I can only restore most directories and not the Windows registry. My major problem is making sure I image often enuf.

vital-analitix · May 31, 2006

Quote from zxcv1fu:

I used to be a system engineer/consultant. Used to troubleshoot the server setup/backups. The more I do the more that I have to maintain/support.

When it comes to my own setup, I'd like to K.I.S.S. I have a mobile rack installed in my pc for the second HD. Every week I copy my data under 3 folders to the second HD. Every month I burn my data to a DVD. In case of any disaster that I have to leave in a hurry I can grab either the DVD or the second HD.

Right now I use 1 pc & 1 laptop. They are plenty for me to update the patches. I also have a server not been used. Any time my pc or latop crashed & beyond repair I can always install/bring up the server in a short time.

the other important item is to have a DVD with ALL your software (and all license keys, encrypted in a TrueCrypt container) that is required for install. I am using ISO images and have some software that will just let you mount the ISO image as if it is another HD.

When my setup changes then I just burn a new DVD and the old one goes off-site.

I back up daily "My Documents" into a Truecrypt container which is on another hard disk. For this I use "Robocopy" from the Windows XP resource disk. Takes less than 30 seconds....

vital-analitics

Bernard111 · Jun 1, 2006

Quote from AmbushHillbilly:

Anybody having trouble recovering from DVD in True Image 9?

I can backup and recover off my usb drive fine.

I burn this same image to DVD. I check the image with Acronis and all's well.

But when I boot into Acronis (from the bootable CD) I can't recover from the DVD. I get a "not the latest" warning, then a E400040012 error, and then the "Processing" screen hangs for hours.

Funny, I can boot into Acronis and recover from the same image off the usb drive.

I'm on the latest build of Acronis and it's a small image file (at this point) so multiple DVD's is not an issue. I'm not burning to DVD within Acronis (whole other can of worms there). I'm just burning the image file from drive to DVD.

I have been round and round with Acronis support. They've had be try everything short of a stripping naked and doing a rain dance (that's likely next).

The recovery from usb drive is nice, but I'd feel better if I could recover from my somewhat trusty DVD (which I keep in the safety deposit box). The DVD feature is why I went with Acronis (versus Casper, etc.). Heck, even Windows Backup can recover from DVD.

Any ideas out there?

AmbushHillbilly,

Did Acronis release a fix for these issues with images stored on DVD media?

nononsense · Jun 1, 2006

Quote from vital-analitix:

the other important item is to have a DVD with ALL your software (and all license keys, encrypted in a TrueCrypt container) that is required for install. I am using ISO images and have some software that will just let you mount the ISO image as if it is another HD.

When my setup changes then I just burn a new DVD and the old one goes off-site.

I back up daily "My Documents" into a Truecrypt container which is on another hard disk. For this I use "Robocopy" from the Windows XP resource disk. Takes less than 30 seconds....

vital-analitics

If you are trusting DVD's for critical backup, you don't have security.
DVD's are handy for a lot of things but have a reliability way below current HD standards.

Bernard111 · Jun 1, 2006

Quote from nononsense:

If you are trusting DVD's for critical backup, you don't have security.
DVD's are handy for a lot of things but have a reliability way below current HD standards.

If I use an external HD USB to store backup images with Acronis TrueImage, is there any known issue?