Backup Software

[Jasonkruys]

Can anyone recommend some good backup software? I don't mind paying for it, if it is good.

It would be used to backup my documents/music/pictures/vids to my WD Mybook. A continous backup solution would be good, whereby all the files are originally backed up once, and then any changes are backed up as and when on the fly.

I have been using the supplied memeo autobackup, but frankly, it is rubbish. The restore feature doesn't work on W7 (although you can manually copy files back), it is INCREDIBLY slow, it is constantly 'scanning' the backed up files on the Mybook where the backup plan is taking several days to complete, and the interface is clumsy and a bit 'Tomy' for my liking...

So what have you got?

[jonbanjo]

I'm lousy at backing up but with Linux, cron (to schedule) and cp are useful. Here's one little script:


when=$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%H:%M:%S)
date >backup.log
cp -v -r -u -p /suse/www/http/* /www/http/ >>backup.log 2>>backup.log
mail jon@suse.folkinfo.org -s"Misty Backup ""$when" <backup.logand my email:


Misty Backup 2009-09-07_01:57:21
From: root <root@misty.folkinfo.org>
To: jon@suse.folkinfo.org
Date: Today 01:57:39

Mon Sep 7 01:57:21 BST 2009
`/suse/www/http/folkinfo/songs/abcm2ps.txt' -> `/www/http/folkinfo/songs/abcm2ps.txt'
`/suse/www/http/folkinfo/songs/abc2midi.txt' -> `/www/http/folkinfo/songs/abc2midi.txt'

[Vic]

with Linux, cron (to schedule) and cp are useful.

You might want to consider using rsync instead of cp; it's much more efficient when the targets don't change all that much.

Use "-aH" options normally, or "-azH" if you're backing up over a network connection.

Vic.

[jonbanjo]

You might want to consider using rsync instead of cp; it's much more efficient when the targets don't change all that much

Thanks. I'll use it for that job.

[jonbanjo]

Following on form there and googling... Perhaps DeltaCopy might be worth a look at for Windows users: http://www.aboutmyip.com/AboutMyXApp/DeltaCopy.jsp

[Starfighter]

Anyone out there using Acronis True Image? Recommended by a collegue but I have seen mixed reviews?

I have Vista 64 bit system, around 600GB of data to backup and want to do a full backup then incrementals.

[Sybex]

I have been using Acronis True Image on my 32 bit Vista and XP for a couple of years and have found it to be 100% reliable, I have not as yet tried it on Windows 7 64 bit or Vista 64 bit.

[Ian.H]

I used to use TrueImage, but have recently swapped over to KLS Backup (http://www.kls-soft.com/klsbackup/) for windoze (had it on XP 32-bit and now on 7 64-bit). Being able to store the backups as 7-zip archives rather than a proprietary format that True Image uses makes life very simple if I only want to retrieve a few files from a backup for example.

All the usual features on backup if required.. such as FTP / email notification.

Works For Me™ :)



Regards,

Ian

[Jasonkruys]

I used to use TrueImage, but have recently swapped over to KLS Backup (http://www.kls-soft.com/klsbackup/) for windoze (had it on XP 32-bit and now on 7 64-bit). Being able to store the backups as 7-zip archives rather than a proprietary format that True Image uses makes life very simple if I only want to retrieve a few files from a backup for example.

All the usual features on backup if required.. such as FTP / email notification.

Works For Me™ :)



Regards,

Ian

Hmmm, this looks interesting....Might have to try out the free trial.. Is it generally very quick?

[Duke]

Cobian backup :D

http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm

[Mike]

This won't do on the fly file backups but might come in handy (especially as it is free :)):
http://clonezilla.org/

[Ian.H]

Hi Jason..


Hmmm, this looks interesting....Might have to try out the free trial.. Is it generally very quick?

Quick enough IMO. With my selected files / dirs to backup (totalling 2.11Gb), a full backup, as 7z archives with best compression and verifying after archiving, it took 26 mins on my standard Q6600 with 6Gb RAM running Win7 RC 64-bit. Resulting backup was 1.42Gb if it matters and was saved onto an Iomega 1Tb USB external drive. Incremental backups are obviously far quicker where my average archived backup is ~20-25Mb (mainly AppData etc files). I set the backups to run automatically at 02:00 when, during the week I'm normally in bed (but all my boxes are on 24/7/365 anyway) mainly just for convenience.

As mentioned before, I ran TrueImage for around a year and liked it a lot and was hesitant in trying KLS.. but since I have, I'm very happy with it and not considered going back at all. Without TrueImage installed however, I haven't found a way of accessing my old backups.. but with KLS, when Partition Magic screwed over my Win7 install (again) a couple of weeks ago, I've been able to simply load the .7z archives into 7-zip and grab specific files / dirs that I want, when I want as I started restoring parts of my system.

It's definitely worth a look seeing as the trial won't cost you a bean :)



Regards,

Ian

[FatalSaviour]

I use SyncBack Pro myself and for our work, where laptops & workstations have to backup to the NAS... it has an 'Easy' interface, but also an Advanced toggle which is really quite customisable, so you shouldn't have any problems achieving what you want. I believe there's a trial on their website if you do want to look into it.
HTH