Backup software advise wanted

I've got this person who want to be able to backup all data from
his C: hard drive (Win XP Pro) to his second hard drive D:
Any program that would automatically backup data ?
Something that works in the background.

"Tod" wrote in message
...
I've got this person who want to be able to backup all data from
his C: hard drive (Win XP Pro) to his second hard drive D:
Any program that would automatically backup data ?
Something that works in the background.

Set it up as a RAID array perhaps?

Otherwise... I use Drive Image (now Ghost) to image my HD to a USB drive
every night. Been working well for a year now.

Is this person doing any other backups? If not what he proposes isn't very
safe. In the event of a power supply failure both drives could be toast.

Tod wrote:

I've got this person who want to be able to backup all data from
his C: hard drive (Win XP Pro) to his second hard drive D:
Any program that would automatically backup data ?
Something that works in the background.

Just use Windows backup. One of the advantages of a multitasking operating
system is that _anything_ can work in background.

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

In article ,
J. Clarke wrote:
Tod wrote:

I've got this person who want to be able to backup all data from
his C: hard drive (Win XP Pro) to his second hard drive D:
Any program that would automatically backup data ?
Something that works in the background.

Just use Windows backup. One of the advantages of a multitasking operating
system is that _anything_ can work in background.

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)


D: has to be NTFS (because of the 4GB file limit in FAT32) and you
should set the compression property on it.

The command is called ntbackup.exe. The online help has information on
how to set it up.

Backup up to a second disk is fast and good, but it's only part of a
real backup scheme


--

a d y k e s @ p a n i x . c o m

Don't blame me. I voted for Gore.

"J. Clarke" wrote in message
...

Just use Windows backup. One of the advantages of a multitasking
operating
system is that _anything_ can work in background.

Can it copy open files?

I think the OP probably should go back to the client for clarification. Does
he expect D: to be a clone of C:? eg Does he expect to be able to swap the
drives over if C:: fails? If he does then I don't think Windows Backup will
do the job. It's ok for backing up data but I don't think it can backup open
system or data files. I might be wrong but I recall that when I last used it
to backup C: there were a lot of exceptions in the log.

In article ,
CWatters wrote:

"J. Clarke" wrote in message
...

Just use Windows backup. One of the advantages of a multitasking
operating
system is that _anything_ can work in background.

Can it copy open files?


Assuming we are talking about ntbackup.exe, yes, for the operating
system. I used ot for years n a prodcution environemnt and have
restored C drives several times. The major downside, IMO, is that the
restoration proceedure is a PITA.

Applications are on a case by case basis. I'l told tha Outlook needs
to be closed to get a valid backup and I wouldn;t backup an Oracle
data base while it was running.


I think the OP probably should go back to the client for clarification. Does
he expect D: to be a clone of C:? eg Does he expect to be able to swap the
drives over if C:: fails? If he does then I don't think Windows Backup will
do the job. It's ok for backing up data but I don't think it can backup open
system or data files. I might be wrong but I recall that when I last used it
to backup C: there were a lot of exceptions in the log.





--

a d y k e s @ p a n i x . c o m

Don't blame me. I voted for Gore.

CWatters wrote:


"J. Clarke" wrote in message
...

Just use Windows backup. One of the advantages of a multitasking
operating
system is that _anything_ can work in background.

Can it copy open files?

In XP and 2K3, yes. Look up "volume shadow copy" in Windows Help.

I think the OP probably should go back to the client for clarification.
Does he expect D: to be a clone of C:? eg Does he expect to be able to
swap the drives over if C:: fails? If he does then I don't think Windows
Backup will do the job. It's ok for backing up data but I don't think it
can backup open system or data files. I might be wrong but I recall that
when I last used it to backup C: there were a lot of exceptions in the
log.

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

CWatters wrote:
"J. Clarke" wrote in message
...


Just use Windows backup. One of the advantages of a multitasking

operating

system is that _anything_ can work in background.


Can it copy open files?

I think the OP probably should go back to the client for clarification. Does
he expect D: to be a clone of C:? eg Does he expect to be able to swap the
drives over if C:: fails? If he does then I don't think Windows Backup will
do the job. It's ok for backing up data but I don't think it can backup open
system or data files. I might be wrong but I recall that when I last used it
to backup C: there were a lot of exceptions in the log.




He wants to backup data, not OS or programs.

I've got this person who want to be able to backup all data from
his C: hard drive (Win XP Pro) to his second hard drive D:
Any program that would automatically backup data ?
Something that works in the background.

Does he also expect backup software to choose what is a "data"
automaticaly? If not, what does this person mean by "data"?

In article ,
J. Clarke wrote:
CWatters wrote:


"J. Clarke" wrote in message
...

Just use Windows backup. One of the advantages of a multitasking
operating
system is that _anything_ can work in background.

Can it copy open files?

In XP and 2K3, yes. Look up "volume shadow copy" in Windows Help.


So if I'm have Outlook running will ntbackup always produce a valid
backup of the outlook.pst file ?

I just looked up "volume shadow copy" on a couple systems;
On w2kSP4 there's nothing.

On an XP/pro system it's there and I played with vssadmin but I don't
know what to make of it, yet.

Is this an OS feature that other backup software benefits from ?

--

a d y k e s @ p a n i x . c o m

Don't blame me. I voted for Gore.