Recommended Hard Disk Backup Software – 3217 days old

[floppybootstomp]

So what's good and what works?

I had previously used Powerquest's Drive Image 2002 and it worked well. It doesn't work in win XP, I had to use the two floppy disk setup to backup.

I hadn't done a full image backup since March so yesterday I deleted that and attempted another one. I tried three times and on each occasion the thing crashed on 98% copy.

On reading reviews of Drive Image 7.0, the latest version which is supposed to work within Win XP, I noted that a lot of customers said it wouldn't work well with SATA drives or HDD's connected to IDE three or four.

I'm using a RAID 0 setup on the SATA controller so maybe that's my problem, previously I was using a single HDD on IDE 1.

So, I don't fancy forking out hard earned wonga for Drive Image 7.0 if there's a question mark on that one.

Is Norton's Ghost any good? Any other alternatives that work well?

I have half an 80Gb seperate IDE HDD set aside as a partition to do the backup. I have around 42Gb on main disk atm but I figure that will go on OK with compression or I could make the partition 45Gb instead of it's current 40Gb size.

[Night Rider]

I been using True Image for a couple of years - started with 6.0 and upgraded to 7.0 when it came out (ver 8.0 has just been released but I don't feel the need to upgrade yet - 7.0 works fine for me).

Works in Windows and uses XP style wizards to do the process so it's pretty straight forward to use and hasn't let me down yet. It isn't as fast as DI 7.0 apparently but it's never let me down yet. I've only used it with standard IDE drives so I can't say about SATA and RAID but it should be fine. Cheaper than DI or Ghost too as I remember.

Check out True Image 8.0 at http://www.acronis.com

It'll image your Linux partitions too

[tim]

Ghost 2003 is what I use.

I boot off the floppy disks and dump/restore HD images across my network or straight to/from DVD.
Simple and effective.

It has the capability to use TCP/IP, USB (1.1 and 2.0 ), Firewire or CD/DVD writer.
It can write HD images directly to NTFS and is certified as XP compatible.

[floppybootstomp]

Thanks for replies, gentlemen.

OK, I checked out Acronis True Image, liked the look of it, and paid for the download of V8.0.

I've just backed up my drive C to drive H and it was quite painless.

Whether it works on a reinstall or not, I actually hope I never have to find out

But. The thing cost $58.75 inc. I'm not sure what that works out at in UK sterling yet, but it's probably less than £30.00, which is cheaper than both Nortons Ghost & Drive Image 7.0.

I can't believe I actually paid for a piece of software

No, wait, what am I talking about, of course everything's paid for...

I created the bootable recovery CD and I've also burnt the proggie to CD, along with a small backup of some other stuff (don't like wasting space )

I figured like, I have this system just so, latest grafix drivers, all updates for everything, about twenty games installed, all patched and many with extra maps.

It would probably take me in excess of a day to get things back to how they were if anything crashed, so I reckon it's a small price to pay.

Thanks, NR, for recommending that thing, it's dead easy to use.

[tim]

Bloody hell, that's a BIG backup image file!

Ghost 2003 only copies sectors that are in use and has STAC Lo/Hi compression to keep them image sizes down

[floppybootstomp]

Originally posted by tim
Bloody hell, that's a BIG backup image file!

Ghost 2003 only copies sectors that are in use and has STAC Lo/Hi compression to keep them image sizes down

Tim, I did have the option to compress, four different options, but I figured with no compression there was less chance of corruption.

Maybe I'm being over cautious

[SeniorCitizen]

Flopps, been using TI since ver 1.0 and never had a prob. BUT...it has saved my arse more than once. Have always used the "normal" mode of compression and its worked fine on my w2k. Ya made a good buy!

[floppybootstomp]

Thanks for input SC.

Reassuring to know this program works well

[Night Rider]

Yup - I think it'll serve you well Flopps - It does exactly what it says on the tin.
And if you do have any problems Acronis's support in my experience is top notch - With the original TI6.0 I couldn't get into safe mode. I emailed Acronis, they asked for some files, sent me back a new file, problem sorted. This all occured in less than 24 hours. Dennis Dementiev was the geezer and he's da man

[Alakazam]

Thankfully, I've never had to use my backups but I also use Acronis TI, with all the crap I put on and off the puter I suppose I really should try the reinstall to make sure they work.

[Furton]

If you buy this months PCPro on the cover disk they have a full back up program for free, can't remember what it's called right now, worth a look.

[floppybootstomp]

Just out of interest chaps, this proggie worked out at £33.28 UK dosh, that's from $58.75 americano loot.

Just took a look online at my CC statement.

Still cheaper than DI V7.0 and el ghosto.

[Alakazam]

A little follow up for my benefit Floppy, If I read through this thread correct, then True Image from Acronis worked well with your WD Raptors? The reason I'm asking for sure is I've got TI ver6 and would upgrade if 8 works OK with Serial drives as that is what my new rig will be using.

[floppybootstomp]

Originally posted by Alakazam
A little follow up for my benefit Floppy, If I read through this thread correct, then True Image from Acronis worked well with your WD Raptors? The reason I'm asking for sure is I've got TI ver6 and would upgrade if 8 works OK with Serial drives as that is what my new rig will be using.

Yes, it worked well with the Raptor disks in a RAID 0.

I've also used it with a pair of WD 120Gb SATA drives in a RAID 0. No Probs.

It will also do a disk to disk clone if you wanted to upgrade your hard disk but keep same motherboard.

[Moski]

Hi everybody,
I also use True Image from Acronis and like it but I don't know how to create a boot CD for my laptop since it doesn't have a floppy while Acronis requires the bootable floppy for that job. Can anybody share your experience on this? Thanks

[floppybootstomp]

In the version I have, V8.0, on the main screen there's an option to 'Create Bootable Rescue Media'

If I click on that it takes me through a 'wizard' and I have the choice to burn a rescue CD.

[Lighthouse]

I have been using "Stomp backup" for years now. Stomp is the Veritas software, one of the few that supported my tape drive, as well as a long list of other devices. My prior primary computer had a RAID 0 array too, and it never had trouble reading it.

However - I do file-by-file backup, not an image. They had/have a single-user version called Backup MyPC that was not too expensive.

The full line of Veritas backup software is at

http://www.veritas.com/Products/www

[Alakazam]

Thanks for the reply Floppy and Lighthouse, I'll also check out the Veritas line. The rescue CD sounds like a very good option instead of switching a bunch of floppies, Floppy.

[SeniorCitizen]

Zammy, the only difference between ver6 and 7 is that 7 has the ability to do an incremental backup on changed files and the "verify Image" is included w/the program. Can't put my hand on it right now, but there is an free external proggie from Acronis that will do the "verify" thingee. Only difference between ver 7 and 8 is that you do not have to image the page file that will save you space. However, my page file is on the 2nd hd, thus didn't see the need to upgrade and shell out the $30. Ver 7 had only been out about 6 months when Acronis came out w/8 and NO FREE upgrade. Pissed a lot of Acronis customers off in the fact that there just wasn't any justification for a "major" upgrade that didn't provide anything other than what I mentioned. Still using ver 7 and no problems.

[zeallot]

Powerquest drive image is decent too and runs off a floppy. I haven't tried the ones listed though so not sure how it compares.

As for file backups I use Synback which is great as it uses ms task scheduler to schedule the backups, and does not use it's own so that means you don't need anything to run in the background other then mstask which is usually running in first place anyway.

Image backups are good for quickly backing up a whole drive though, especially OS since a file backup wont cut it, for the OS drive.

[zeallot]

Ha ingore my post I sort of missed the part about it not working in XP I had skimmed through the topic a tad too quick.

But for an OS drive backup it's probably best to do it through dos anyway...

[TJM4FUN]

drive image 7 is very nice.
with 2k an above , it does all forms of backups, full, incremental, sizes output files.
Booting the cd is also amazing, it will read from usb attached devices, ie usb hdd, it will also do a simple file share across networks to another pc to retrieve your image.
the cd boot is only for restore, as the backups can now be done concurrent with ps operations.

Biggest flaw I know see is that symantec (Norton)
bough them out as the did with ghost. shouldn;t take long to scre wup a good product.