Backup program needed
in [Windows XP]
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From: Bill in Co on 1 Aug 2010 18:53 VanguardLH wrote: > Henry wrote: > >> Running WinXP Pro SP2 on Dell with 3G CPU and 2G RAM. >> >> I bought a Seagate external hard drive for backup purposes and now I'm >> looking for a good backup program. The one that came with the Seagate >> isn't very good because it makes you backup on a schedule rather than >> when you want and Microsoft's SyncToy is worthless because I don't >> have all of my folders under My Documents so I have to make folder >> pairs for each folder. >> >> If there is something free out there that would be great. I'd like to >> be able to have the program run and only change the folders/files that >> have changed since the last time I backed up. > > http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/ > > Doesn't do incremental image backups but will do differential image > backups. > > If you have 5 incremental backups since the prior full backup, all 6 > backups must be available and usable to do the image restore; i.e., you > need full + incr1 + incr2 + incr3 + incr4 + incr5. Incrementals consume > the least disk space but only record the changes made since the prior > incremental backup. The longer the chain of backups the more vulnerable > you are to loss if one of the incrementals is not usable. > > Differentials track changes made since the full backup, not from a prior > incremental or differential backup. Differentials consume more space > than incrementals but are smaller than full backups. Each differential > backup gets progressively larger since it records changes between now > and the last full backup. Restore only need 2 backups: full + diff. > > Other free imaging programs usually only let you save full images. > Paragon is the only that I know of (so far) where its free version also > does something less than a full image, like a differential. I don't > know of a free one that does incremental image backups. But why bother with the incremental or differential backups, and their limitations as mentioned, if a full and complete image backup only takes about 10 minutes (at least over here, for 20 GB of data on C:).
From: VanguardLH on 1 Aug 2010 19:23 Bill in Co wrote: > VanguardLH wrote: >> Henry wrote: >> >>> Running WinXP Pro SP2 on Dell with 3G CPU and 2G RAM. >>> >>> I bought a Seagate external hard drive for backup purposes and now I'm >>> looking for a good backup program. The one that came with the Seagate >>> isn't very good because it makes you backup on a schedule rather than >>> when you want and Microsoft's SyncToy is worthless because I don't >>> have all of my folders under My Documents so I have to make folder >>> pairs for each folder. >>> >>> If there is something free out there that would be great. I'd like to >>> be able to have the program run and only change the folders/files that >>> have changed since the last time I backed up. >> >> http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/ >> >> Doesn't do incremental image backups but will do differential image >> backups. >> >> If you have 5 incremental backups since the prior full backup, all 6 >> backups must be available and usable to do the image restore; i.e., you >> need full + incr1 + incr2 + incr3 + incr4 + incr5. Incrementals consume >> the least disk space but only record the changes made since the prior >> incremental backup. The longer the chain of backups the more vulnerable >> you are to loss if one of the incrementals is not usable. >> >> Differentials track changes made since the full backup, not from a prior >> incremental or differential backup. Differentials consume more space >> than incrementals but are smaller than full backups. Each differential >> backup gets progressively larger since it records changes between now >> and the last full backup. Restore only need 2 backups: full + diff. >> >> Other free imaging programs usually only let you save full images. >> Paragon is the only that I know of (so far) where its free version also >> does something less than a full image, like a differential. I don't >> know of a free one that does incremental image backups. > > But why bother with the incremental or differential backups, and their > limitations as mentioned, if a full and complete image backup only takes > about 10 minutes (at least over here, for 20 GB of data on C:). A full image consumes more disk space. If you are doing backups, it is highly unlikely that you want only 1 backup. If all you want is 1 backup than use cloning. Typically you want a history of backups from which to choose. For example, if you find that you are infected, it is likely that several of your backups may be just as infected and you have to walk back further to find a clean backup. Well, the more disk space that gets consumed per backup means the less backups you can store on your storage media for those backups. Incremental and differential backups give you a greater depth in history of backups from which to select a restore. Despite being cheap[er], disk space isn't free. If getting more into the same size storage constrainment wasn't an issue, utilities to compress multiple files into a .zip, .tar, .rar or other archival filetype would never had showed up.
From: choro on 1 Aug 2010 13:04 Bob CP wrote: > On 8/1/2010 9:55 AM, choro wrote: > ... >> Thanks. I will try to give xxclone a try. I am already using xcopy >> by going to the DOS command center after copying and pasting one of >> the appropriate xcopy commands with the required parameters from a >> word .doc file for which I have put a shortcut on my desktop. This >> enables me to copy folders and subfolders from the appropriate >> partitions on any of the hard disks which I have installed on my >> computer. > > Note that I mentioned xxcopy (http://www.xxcopy.com/xcpymain.htm), not > xcopy. xxcopy has a /clone switch that will duplicate the source > exactly, including deleting any files on the destination disk that > aren't on the source. Since my computers are all networked, I back up > critical data between them on a daily basis (not to mention the usual > external stuff...). >> >> ...I guess I am put off by having to reinstall all the >> programs I have already installed on my old faithful and all the >> tweaks I have made on my old faithful which incidentally is now a >> full 10 years old. It was and remains my first true love! > > It's not perfect, but I've used PC Mover > (http://www.laplink.com/pcmover) to transfer many programs to a new > box. I haven'ty tried any such software but I must admit they scare me. All those DLLs on the old hard disk to go with the old motherboard, graphics card, printer etc etc. Surely they will clash with the new drivers. And I am eventually moving from WinXP to Win7 (which is installed on my new homebuilt PC anyway) and which will require new drivers etc anyway. It scares the shits out of me. I might be a chicken but I prefer a clean install. At least I won't have old drivers incompatible with Win 7. It can't be all that much more hassle to clean install everything and thus avoid any possible pitfalls. But thanks all the same. But I'll keep it in mind and may be try http://www.laplink.com/pcmover with another Hard Disk. I am a glutton for punishment, as a friend once told me. -- choro *****
From: choro on 1 Aug 2010 19:44 choro wrote: > Bob CP wrote: >> On 7/31/2010 8:26 PM, choro wrote: >>> Anthony Buckland wrote: >>>> "choro"<choro(a)tvco.net> wrote in message >>>> news:g925o.9506$zo4.6203(a)hurricane... >>>>> Gerald Ross wrote: >>>>>> Gerald Ross wrote: >>>>>>> Henry wrote: >>>>>>>> Running WinXP Pro SP2 on Dell with 3G CPU and 2G RAM. >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> I bought a Seagate external hard drive for backup purposes >>>>>>>> and now I'm looking for a good backup program. The one that >>>>>>>> came with the Seagate isn't very good because it makes you >>>>>>>> backup on a schedule rather than when you want and >>>>>>>> Microsoft's SyncToy is worthless because I don't have all of >>>>>>>> my folders under My Documents so I have to make folder pairs >>>>>>>> for each folder. If there is something free out there that >>>>>>>> would be great. I'd >>>>>>>> like to be able to have the program run and only change the >>>>>>>> >>> No, I wouldn't want to restore My Documents or any of its >>> sub-folders. But I might want just to have a look at My Personal >>> Phone List for example by connecting an external 2.5" SATA disk to >>> my friend's computer. I can't help but wonder why things cannot be >>> made as simple as possible. >> >> As I said in the first reply, xxclone will do exactly what you want. >> If you want to back up only certain folders, use xxcopy in a batch >> file. > > Thanks. I will try to give xxclone a try. I am already using xcopy by > going to the DOS command center after copying and pasting one of the > appropriate xcopy commands with the required parameters from a word > .doc file for which I have put a shortcut on my desktop. This enables > me to copy folders and subfolders from the appropriate partitions on > any of the hard disks which I have installed on my computer. > > But I feel it is now time to switch over to the new computer I have > built for myself as the motherboard on my old faithful won't support > SATA drives. The new motherboard is equipped with a fast four-core > AMD CPU as well as a very fast DDR3 graphics card plus a generous 4 > GB DDR3 RAM. My old faithful will only take PATA HDs, AGP graphics > cards and much slower memory modules. But it still is my old > faithful and I am finding it hard to switch over to my newer > computer. I guess I am put off by having to reinstall all the > programs I have already installed on my old faithful and all the > tweaks I have made on my old faithful which incidentally is now a > full 10 years old. It was and remains my first true love! > I also have to admit that I am so happy with my Windows XP/SP3 that I > hesitate to move over to Windows 7. One word of advice to those who might want to back up or actually to copy their user files using the easy peasy xcopy command... The xcopy command doesn't like blank spaces in folders on the second or slave hard drive. While it will happily accept " My Documents" (with the blank space) on the master C drive, it cannot cope with My Old Docs on say the slave D drive. So change the folder name on the second slave drive to " My_Old_Docs " (with no blank spaces). -- choro *****
From: Daave on 1 Aug 2010 19:54
VanguardLH wrote: > Bill in Co wrote: > >> VanguardLH wrote: >>> Henry wrote: >>> >>>> Running WinXP Pro SP2 on Dell with 3G CPU and 2G RAM. >>>> >>>> I bought a Seagate external hard drive for backup purposes and now >>>> I'm looking for a good backup program. The one that came with the >>>> Seagate isn't very good because it makes you backup on a schedule >>>> rather than when you want and Microsoft's SyncToy is worthless >>>> because I don't have all of my folders under My Documents so I >>>> have to make folder pairs for each folder. >>>> >>>> If there is something free out there that would be great. I'd >>>> like to be able to have the program run and only change the >>>> folders/files that have changed since the last time I backed up. >>> >>> http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/ >>> >>> Doesn't do incremental image backups but will do differential image >>> backups. >>> >>> If you have 5 incremental backups since the prior full backup, all 6 >>> backups must be available and usable to do the image restore; i.e., >>> you need full + incr1 + incr2 + incr3 + incr4 + incr5. >>> Incrementals consume the least disk space but only record the >>> changes made since the prior incremental backup. The longer the >>> chain of backups the more vulnerable you are to loss if one of the >>> incrementals is not usable. >>> >>> Differentials track changes made since the full backup, not from a >>> prior incremental or differential backup. Differentials consume >>> more space than incrementals but are smaller than full backups. >>> Each differential backup gets progressively larger since it records >>> changes between now and the last full backup. Restore only need 2 >>> backups: full + diff. >>> >>> Other free imaging programs usually only let you save full images. >>> Paragon is the only that I know of (so far) where its free version >>> also does something less than a full image, like a differential. I >>> don't know of a free one that does incremental image backups. >> >> But why bother with the incremental or differential backups, and >> their limitations as mentioned, if a full and complete image backup >> only takes about 10 minutes (at least over here, for 20 GB of data >> on C:). > > A full image consumes more disk space. If you are doing backups, it > is highly unlikely that you want only 1 backup. If all you want is 1 > backup than use cloning. Typically you want a history of backups from > which to choose. For example, if you find that you are infected, it > is likely that several of your backups may be just as infected and > you have to walk back further to find a clean backup. Well, the more > disk space that gets consumed per backup means the less backups you > can store on your storage media for those backups. Incremental and > differential backups give you a greater depth in history of backups > from which to select a restore. Despite being cheap[er], disk space > isn't free. If getting more into the same size storage constrainment > wasn't an issue, utilities to compress multiple files into a .zip, > .tar, .rar or other archival filetype would never had showed up. Excellent explanation. |