Windows 7 Backup Solutions

ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
edited November 2009 in Science & Tech
I'm looking for peoples recommendations for software yet again. Right now I'm using the built in Windows 7 backup tool. It's okay from a backup standpoint, the problem is when I wiped the RC off my computer and installed my full copy, it refused to recognize my backups as backups so instead of just being able to say "restore all my files" I had to go and restore everything by hand from the million zip files Windows backup created. That royally pissed me off. So now I'm looking for a 3rd party solution that will suit me a bit better. In the past I've used Cobian Backup which is nice, but lacks a restore tool. Of course each backup is stored in a single archive so restoring by hand isn't quite as bad as with the Win7 Backup tool. Nevertheless, I'd like to find something that will hopefully work just as well as Cobian for backups but also has a restore tool where I can just say hey, here's my backups, restore everything and it will do it for me.

tl;dr - Looking for a better backup tool, needs the following:

*Backup to local disk
*Incremental backups
*Backup scheduling
*Uses a standard format (zip, tar, 7zip, etc.)

Would like this as well:

*Decent restore functionality
*Easy to use UI
*FTP support would be awesome++
*Open Source would also be awesome++

Comments

  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited November 2009
    Except for the standard format requirement, I'd recommend Acronis True Image. You can do incremental backups, scheduled backups, create a hidden partition that's only used by Acronis and you can restore when you boot the machine and you can backup/restore specific files. Fast also.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited November 2009
    Second the Acronis recommend. It's one of the best pieces of software I ever bought, and it has saved me countless hours of tedium.
  • mas0nmas0n howdy Icrontian
    edited November 2009
    I haven't checked for updates, but as recent as True Image Home 11, there were serious problems for some Windows 7 users, myself included. Just a heads up, they may have resolved it all by now.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited November 2009
    Acronis eh... Home edition seems reasonably priced. Black Hawk, care to elaborate on the lack of standard format? The Acronis site claims it uses zip format, can't get much more standard than that. Does it just use zip to pack a proprietary backup format or something silly like that?

    If I weren't such a slacker, I'd just install rsync and tar for Windows and port one of the many Linux backup scripts I've written over the years. Sure, that would lack an easy restore function but hey... free right?
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited November 2009
    It might use ZIP inside of its hidden partition, but I think his point was that you can't easily get to your own backups and use them - it's not like it's backing up to ZIP and then putting it in your My Documents folder or whatever. That partition disappears, according to the system, so the only way to get to it is from within the program - either in Windows, or using a recovery disc you can burn.

    A note: I love Acronis as well. Great solution.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited November 2009
    Snarkasm wrote:
    It might use ZIP inside of its hidden partition, but I think his point was that you can't easily get to your own backups and use them - it's not like it's backing up to ZIP and then putting it in your My Documents folder or whatever. That partition disappears, according to the system, so the only way to get to it is from within the program - either in Windows, or using a recovery disc you can burn.

    A note: I love Acronis as well. Great solution.

    Ugh... yeah, this is the kind of complication I'm trying to avoid. I simply want something that will do incremental backups of my home directory and any other locations I specify and store them in some sort of standard archive on my external drive. Possibly also let me upload it to my server via (S)FTP. I don't need all this hidden partition crap. I think I'm probably going back to Cobian at this rate.
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited November 2009
    You're not required to set up the hidden partition, but I don't know what it does if you don't - I went that route the few times I went that way.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited November 2009
    Good to know Snark. I just set Cobian up again for now. I'll look into Acronis to see if it offers enough of an advantage to justify the cost and the use of a proprietary format. If Cobian only had a UI to simplify restoring files I wouldn't even have started this thread as it would do everything I could want. Sadly it doesn't. Anyway, thanks for the input guys.
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