best backup software with USB external hard drives?

I use Version Backup.

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On 6/15/2010 3:41 PM, Joe wrote:
I looked at USB hard drives at Best Buy the other day- I plan on buying
a 1 TB drive. The backup software all seems similar at least from what
the boxes say.

or would it be better to use third party software like Acronis?

My PC has Vista- the backup software with that is extremely minimal.
Joe
True Image has worked well for me. It's fast compared to some simple
ones I've tried. I guess the only disadvantage is the backup is in a
proprietary format.

On Jun 18, 5:14*am, iws wrote:
On 6/15/2010 3:41 PM, Joe wrote: I looked at USB hard drives at Best Buy the other day- I plan on buying
a 1 TB drive. The backup software all seems similar at least from what
the boxes say.

or would it be better to use third party software like Acronis?

My PC has Vista- the backup software with that is extremely minimal.
Joe

True Image has worked well for me. It's fast compared to some simple
ones I've tried. I guess the only disadvantage is the backup is in a
proprietary format.

As an additional backup, do investigate online systems. Some are
fully automatic, some unlimited space, all take your data offsite. It
also will cope with power surges, fire, theft etc. Some people are
concerned about security, but for most users it is not critical. The
best solution my mind is both local, as you are looking at, and online
backup.

With any backup, it wants to be as automatic as possible, I often get
customers who say - I haven't done a back up for several weeks.

Michael
www.cnwrecovery.com

On 6/16/2010 9:16 PM, Arno wrote:
Yousuf wrote:
I use the Windows 7 backup, which I hear is a quantum leap better than
anything that came with Windows before, but I have no idea, as I never
used any of the stuff that came in Windows before. I hear one of my
systems has failed in Canada. I have backed it up with the Windows 7
backup, so once I'm back in Canada I'll know how good it is at restore.
Yeesh, why do these things always happen when you're gone?!

Better entertainment value that way ;-)

Seriously, you absolutely need to test the full restore procedure
before you need it.

Problem is testing a full restore of the system disk is in itself a
dangerous procedure. Better to do it when you got nothing left to lose.

Yousuf Khan

On 6/16/2010 9:16 PM, Arno wrote:
Yousuf wrote:
I use the Windows 7 backup, which I hear is a quantum leap better than
anything that came with Windows before, but I have no idea, as I never
used any of the stuff that came in Windows before. I hear one of my
systems has failed in Canada. I have backed it up with the Windows 7
backup, so once I'm back in Canada I'll know how good it is at restore.
Yeesh, why do these things always happen when you're gone?!

Better entertainment value that way ;-)

Seriously, you absolutely need to test the full restore procedure
before you need it.

Problem is testing a full restore of the system disk is in itself a
dangerous procedure. Better to do it when you got nothing left to lose.

Yousuf Khan

On 18/06/2010 08:45, Yousuf Khan wrote:
On 6/16/2010 9:16 PM, Arno wrote:
Yousuf wrote:
I use the Windows 7 backup, which I hear is a quantum leap better than
anything that came with Windows before, but I have no idea, as I never
used any of the stuff that came in Windows before. I hear one of my
systems has failed in Canada. I have backed it up with the Windows 7
backup, so once I'm back in Canada I'll know how good it is at restore.
Yeesh, why do these things always happen when you're gone?!

Better entertainment value that way ;-)

Seriously, you absolutely need to test the full restore procedure
before you need it.

Problem is testing a full restore of the system disk is in itself a
dangerous procedure. Better to do it when you got nothing left to lose.


The this "full restore" is not a usable backup system.

If you can't test it, you can't be sure it works properly, and you can't
rely on it.

Full system backup and restores can sometimes be useful - as you say,
when you've nothing left to lose it's worth a try. But it is not a
substitute for a proper backup of your data with a system that you know
works because you have tested it.

In article ,
iws wrote:
On 6/15/2010 3:41 PM, Joe wrote:
I looked at USB hard drives at Best Buy the other day- I plan on buying
a 1 TB drive. The backup software all seems similar at least from what
the boxes say.

or would it be better to use third party software like Acronis?

My PC has Vista- the backup software with that is extremely minimal.
Joe
True Image has worked well for me. It's fast compared to some simple
ones I've tried. I guess the only disadvantage is the backup is in a
proprietary format.


The documentation for the full TI2010 says it has a tool to convert
TI's .tib files to the file format used by Windows 7's backup/restore
tool.


--
Al Dykes
News is something someone wants to suppress, everything else is advertising.
- Lord Northcliffe, publisher of the Daily Mail

Problem is testing a full restore of the system disk is in itself a
dangerous procedure. Better to do it when you got nothing left to lose.


The this "full restore" is not a usable backup system.

If you can't test it, you can't be sure it works properly, and you can't
rely on it.

I use bootitng, a partition and boot manager. I limit my system
partitions to 20-30 gigs. I say partitions because there are 1. I have
my data on volumes in an extended partition. And I leave some free space
for testing.

So, if I want to test restoring an image of the main system partition,
I'll just restore it to free space, make a boot item for it including
the data partitions I want, and boot it up.

Too, I test new software on copies of the main partition to see if it
will harm it.


--
Ed Light

Better World News TV Channel:
http://realnews.com

Iraq Veterans Against the War and Related:
http://ivaw.org
http://couragetoresist.org
http://antiwar.com

Send spam to the FTC at

Thanks, robots.

On 18/06/2010 09:58, Ed Light wrote:

Problem is testing a full restore of the system disk is in itself a
dangerous procedure. Better to do it when you got nothing left to lose.


The this "full restore" is not a usable backup system.

If you can't test it, you can't be sure it works properly, and you can't
rely on it.

I use bootitng, a partition and boot manager. I limit my system
partitions to 20-30 gigs. I say partitions because there are 1. I have
my data on volumes in an extended partition. And I leave some free space
for testing.

So, if I want to test restoring an image of the main system partition,
I'll just restore it to free space, make a boot item for it including
the data partitions I want, and boot it up.

Too, I test new software on copies of the main partition to see if it
will harm it.



If you can test the restore, and /have/ tested it, then it's fine for a
backup.

Well, my concern with Acronis is that- I could figure out how to run it to
make backups and create an image- but if my drive crashes and I need to do a
restore- that's when I'm likely to freak out.

Can it restore an image easily to a larger drive of a different brand? Since
the image would contain the boot sector which has info about the old drive-
if I install the image to a new drive, what happens then? Will the new drive
boot up properly?

I wish I had a lot of old computers to just experiment with.

Years ago I did a fair amount of "geek work" but I've forgotten most of it-
and this stuff evolves so quickly I've lost my confidence.

Joe




"edfair" wrote in message
...

I waffle between Acronis and PCBackup for my customers. PCB is now
something else, was MIGO but has been renamed again.

One advantage of Acronis is the image you can get, then use that to
rebuild the system, with the overhead of all the extra stuff imaged.
PCB would require a reload of the OS and then a restore to just get your
data.

Or a combination, weekly image with Acronis and a daily with something
else.