Backup Solutions

sweavesweave boston
edited January 2011 in Science & Tech
hey all i need some advice
i was wondering if anyone would have any suggestions for some automated backup software that is reliable.
it's for a person who is most likely not very computer literate.
i need something that she can setup and not have to worry about basically
i've been looking at some software online but any suggestions are appreciated

Comments

  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited January 2011
    On the pay side, I would recommend Acronis True Image Home. On the free side, I would recommend Cobian Backup. Both require initial configuration, but after that they're pretty much set-it-and-forget-it.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited January 2011
    Just use windows backup software it works, it's easy to setup and she's already got it.

    Another option, depending on how much software she needs to backup is using a free online setup like sugarsync. You can have it sync up folder(s) to automatically keep an online copy. The free version gives you 5 gigs free.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited January 2011
    I second the vote for Cobian backup, I use it and love it.

    I'd suggest not using Window's backup software, it's impossible and a half to restore from it if you have to wipe and reinstall. Or at least it was when I tried to do it. Ended up having to dig around in the backups by hand to restore my data because the fresh install wouldn't recognize the backups as actual Windows backup files. Total PITA.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited January 2011
    Windows backup works fine if all your doing is backing up data, like pictures, movies, documents etc... if you are wanting to do entire system snap shots then it's a piece of crap.

    But honestly there's no really good reason to do entire system backups for most home users. In the event of a crash where you need to restore you are probably better off to take the time and do a clean install anyway. Consider it forced spring cleaning.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited January 2011
    kryyst wrote:
    Windows backup works fine if all your doing is backing up data, like pictures, movies, documents etc... if you are wanting to do entire system snap shots then it's a piece of crap.

    I wasn't even doing system snapshots... just backing up my dataz. It stores it in its own strange Windows proprietary format. When I wiped and reinstalled, I attempted to restore my data from the backup and Windows refused to recognize it as a valid backup. I ended up having to crack open the backup by hand, figure out where the things I absolutely needed to save were stored and restore them by hand. Then I went back to using Cobian. At least it uses a standard and easily decipherable format for its backups.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited January 2011
    Sucky. I've never had a problem for simple backup and recovery before. I'm not going to try and argue that windows backup is the best, it's not - not by a long shot. But for something that's easy to setup (it is) easy to use (it is) free (it is) and reliable (I guess that's arguable).
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited January 2011
    Yeah, I'll admit it is easy to setup and use (in Windows 7 at least)... and free-ish (in the sense that you've already paid for it by buying Windows). Perhaps they've fixed the backup tool since... The backups in question were started with the RC of Windows 7, not the full version so who knows. It just left a bad taste in my mouth is all and Cobian has never let me down yet (and is also free, though takes a bit more to get set up)
  • sweavesweave boston
    edited January 2011
    thanks guys
    i'll check out cobian
  • RichDRichD Essex, UK
    edited January 2011
    This may well sound like a daft question but it says that this only backs up changed data. This makes sense as my backup is 50GB+. Therefore if everything was backed up with each backup you HD space would soon vanish. However I can see one problem in that is becomes difficult to delete old data. Most of my backup is MP3s these dont change but I still need to keep a copy of them incase my HD dies... Therefore I can never delete old backups.

    Does this mean that I need to have several tasks. Say one for MP3s that never change, one for photos that never change and one for work that will change? thus allowing me to delete old work backups which contain out of date files.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited January 2011
    Which software are you referring to RichD? Cobian backup?
  • RichDRichD Essex, UK
    edited January 2011
    yeah sorry
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited January 2011
    The way Cobian works is that you set it to make a full backup every so many incremental backups, you also set it to only keep so many backups. That way old data does get rotated out after a certain period of time. At least that's the way I have it set up. specifically, I have it do weekly backups, it makes a full backup every 4 backups. I have it set to remove anything beyond 8 backups iirc. That gives me 2 months worth of backups consisting of 2 full and 6 incremental backups.
  • RichDRichD Essex, UK
    edited January 2011
    I see. that is much easier. Given that I have a 115GB drive for backup storage and 50 GB of data to backup that should work nicely.

    Thank you

    edit:

    I cant find anything that configures deleting. I take it that it will just delete the full backup and susequent increments automatically?
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited January 2011
    There should be a field titled "Full copies to keep" (or something similar, I'm not at my home computer so I can't check this right now), this is what controls deletion. If you set it to 2, for instance, it will make sure it always has 2 full backups as well as any incremental that happened after those 2 full backups. Anything earlier than the earliest full backup being kept will be deleted.
  • RichDRichD Essex, UK
    edited January 2011
    cool thats what i thought. Thanks

    Rich
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