Full System Backerupper

cormie

Hi,
Had a Blue Screen of Death scare this morning so I'm just wondering what software, if any, folks are using these days to do a full system backup to external USB Hard Drives. I've used Norton Ghost 3 before but I don't think it ever really worked with an external HD as I don't think such things were about when it was made? So I'm just wondering is there a modern day alternative (opensource/free if possible??) that will create an exact copy of my HD and be able to back it up on an external USB HD. What Ghost did was compress it aswell, so if I had an 80GB HD with 28GB used, the ghost file would only be about 16GB so something like that would be great. Just as long as it's easy enough to use and compatible with the external HD

Any feedback would be appreciated, a backup is long overdue on this machine

seamus

Windows backup to an external server does me.

I'm not overly concerned about getting an exact image of my machine back in the event of death

cormie

Thanks for the feedback. So in the event of death, what extra work would you have to do? Would you have to reinstall your OS and set everything to the way you like it and THEN restore, or would restoring it do all this for you? How much space does your backup take in comparison to the size of the used space on your actual HD and do you have to pick and choose, or does it just "know" what to backup itself?

Sherifu

Backed up a few weeks ago to an extern. I used Vista's imaging backup for vista and partimage for xp.

GreenHell

Symantecs Back up exec would be an expensive option but an option non the less

cormie

I'd prefer not to pay if possible :pac:

Is partimage any use Sherifu? Is it installed with XP or a third party program?

seamus

Well, I'd generally just do a full reinstall. You can do a "system state" save as well, which should bring back in settings and that.

Windows I think gives a few options - stuff like "your documents and settings", "system settings", "entire system" and so forth.

I generally know what needs to be backed up - I'm not concerned with backing up the program files directory for example, I'll just reinstall stuff as I realise that I need it. So I'd do the full reinstall, then restore any data and start working.

You can also use the User State Migration Tool as a form of backup. Theoretically it's supposed to be used for moving a user from one machine to another, but if you use it for backups, then it can be used to restore a user and all of their files and settings.

TBH, I'm lax about it because a full failure is rare for me and I tend to store anything important on the home server which is a mirrored volume.

I'm wrong, yes, but my life wouldn't be destroyed if the server was

Sherifu

cormie wrote: »

I'd prefer not to pay if possible :pac:

Is partimage any use Sherifu? Is it installed with XP or a third party program?

It's a linux utility;

Main Page - Partimage

I used it from a ubuntu live cd.

NullZer0

Acronis True Image!

The BEST

cormie

Thanks for all the info.

Partimage looks like it could do the job I want. Do you reckon I'm likely to run into any problems because I'm using it with XP as opposed to Linux? So do I just burn the CD from here http://www.sysresccd.org/, and then boot it up and make it backup the HD? Did you ever have any trouble backing it up to an external HD through usb yourself?

thanks iRock, is that a freebie and what does it have over partimage?

Sherifu

cormie wrote: »

Thanks for all the info.

Partimage looks like it could do the job I want. Do you reckon I'm likely to run into any problems because I'm using it with XP as opposed to Linux? So do I just burn the CD from here http://www.sysresccd.org/, and then boot it up and make it backup the HD? Did you ever have any trouble backing it up to an external HD through usb yourself?

thanks iRock, is that a freebie and what does it have over partimage?

That'll work. No problems no. Just take your time setting it up, choosing the options and away you go.

Adam

Something to bear in mind cormie, if you got the BSD you should ask yourself why? As it implies that something may already be wrong with your pc, and one die it all dies and you have a backup of a buggy OS.

So I would be with Seamus, I never do full system backups, I just backup files I can't otherwise get again.

cormie

Thanks Sherifu, I'll probably give it a go!

That's a good point alright Mirror, but I'd just like to get everything backed up anyway just incase. It takes days to get my settings the way I want them and installing all the programs, then setting their settings etc.

Is there any tool that could examine the way things are on my machine and give an analysis to tell me why I could have got the BSOD or what's the best way to go about it I wonder? It happened when I was booting the machine, turned it off and rebooted and it was fine. I have been getting shut down errors though so maybe it's something to do with that?

GreenHell

iRock wrote: »

Acronis True Image!

The BEST

Pish Posh


Your event log should tell you most stuff you need to know, you can also disable reboot on BSOD so you can have a proper look at the error.

cormie

Have you used Acronis yourself and you don't like it?

No negative feedback on partimage yet anyway

GreenHell

Ya, it was useable but backup exec had a way friendlier interface.

cormie

I assume you have to pay for both of them? Have you any experience with partimage yourself?

GreenHell

Evaluated both of them.

I looked at it a while back, but decided it was just fancy dd and for work purposes dd did I what needed it to. Typically we'd use ghost if we had to back up a drive, but re image is the way to go usually.

cormie

What's dd?

GreenHell

Oh sorry,

its a *nix command to take a byte for byte copy. No compression, but you can compress later. Not the best tool in the world for taking a snapshop of a system.

Ardent

Another vote for Acronis True Image here. Amazing backup program.

cormie

Ok thanks for the help everyone

Sherifu

No probs.










Who says you don't get replies anymore

cormie

hehe, good replies alright, but not as many people getting into fights over which ones are better etc

Sherifu

Well if you go with the paid option you will get more user friendly options.

If you go with a *nix tool it's not as pretty.

That's about it really.

There is one called DriveImageXML which may be worth a look, haven't used it.

ntlbell

cormie wrote: »

hehe, good replies alright, but not as many people getting into fights over which ones are better etc

jesus cormie ye know how to drag something out...

if you want to setup your box the way you like and do a "full metal" restore just grab norton ghost it has full support now for usb etc so you can back up to external drives now..

if you just want to back up the data just use windows backup

this is not a life altering descision...:D