I was wondering if there were a simple way to back up my whole computer rather than just the data which is what I do at the moment.
Having just experienced having to recreate a laptop, and literally spent hours on reinstalling programmes, and then all the security fixes, and persuaing microsoft that I wasn't trying to get more versions than I should I am sure there must be a simpler way.
At the moment I backup my databases for the software to the main computer and an external hard drive, and then copy 'my documents' onto the external drive.
This means that if anything happens to my desktop the data is safe but not the programmes.
Suggestions please of the best way forward - remembering I am not that technically minded and being self taught at most things I do on the computer not good at jargon
Thanks
Marion
Replies (17)
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You can clone the hard drive which basically means make an exact copy of it onto another hard drive - http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/askjack/2011/jan/20/cloning-a-windo...
Various programs are available to do this - some are mentioned in the article
Cloning is the way to go.
Just bung a spare hard drive into your PC or use an external drive for your laptop.
Then install a disc cloning program and schedule it to take an image of your system drive.
I use ShadowProtect Desktop Edition http://www.storagecraft.com/help/ShadowProtect/en/index.html
It is a bit more expensive than the competition but then it is a professional product rather than the all singing, all dancing likes of Acronis and Norton Ghost. AND it just works - really well.
I have mine set to image both my system drive and my data drive in full every week and also to do an incremental image (just those files that have changed) every day. The incremental images just take a matter of a couple of minutes and this software is really fast.
It has saved my bacon on many occasions not only by keeping a backup of all files which you can easily access, but if your hard disc crashes, you just bung in another one and copy everything back - that only takes half an hour.
I have learnt this the hard way like you, having to reinstall everything from scratch is a total nightmare.
If you need any more info. just PM me.
Backup
I would also recommend an online backup solution like Carbonite so that the clone images are backed up offsite. This is to protect you if the PC/laptop and the second hard drive on which the clome images are kept are both destroyed/lost by fire/flood/theft/etc.
Offsite is good
I would also recommend an online backup solution like Carbonite so that the clone images are backed up offsite. This is to protect you if the PC/laptop and the second hard drive on which the clone images are kept are both destroyed/lost by fire/flood/theft/etc.
Good point - I should have added that I also backup to a removable drive every month and store this offsite in case of lightning, war or little green men!!
Backups
Hi Marion,
If you are using windows 7 - take a look at windows backup that comes as standard.
If not, try looking at some of the professional backup software such as Acronis.
Be wary of some of the cloud based backup solutions, because if they do not have the ability to courier your data - it could take weeks to restore online.
Best regards,
Kryton
Data backup
I'm a big fan of MozyPro, which automatically backs up your computer to a secure location (and you have the comfort of knowing they're owned by EMC)
one click backup
Just bought 650mb portable (very portable) hard drive "one click"
Just plug into computer and it backs the whole lot up in minutes.
Can be used for multiple computers.
I've just changed from Dropbox to SpiderOak
100Gb for $10 per month. $100 per year if you pay for 12 months in advance.
We started having problems with the synchronisation on Dropbox, but SpiderOak seems OK, and it is cheaper, and has a better privacy policy and greater security.
Macrium Reflect
I would like to offer Macrium Reflect
It is free, works well with Windows 7 as well as earlier versions, both 32 and 64 bit, and is very solid.
Once you have created an image it allows you to mount it as a filesystem, so you can restore individual files if you need to. Or of course you can restore the entire image.
Networks
Drop box can cause speed issues on re-booting on a network terminal.
The problem is it will allow someone without admin rights to intall it, but it does it in a convoluted way to by pass the restrictions in place, so every time you shut down or start the terminal everything gets copied to and fro between terminal and server and a re-boot can take 20 - 30 minutes as a result.
So I've heard!
Whatever you choose...........
Whatever disaster recovery method you choose, consider how long it will take you to recover the data from the location where it is backed up.
In my opinion Internet backup solutions should only be used as a second or third line of backup. You should always have a backup held somewhere that's easy to get hold of to restore. It's no good having an off site backup that takes you 3 days to retrieve it.
For those who work from home, consider - do you have an outbuilding with a power supply?
If so, consider siting a Network Storage device in the outbuilding. This will provide you with an off site backup capability which is quick to restore from if there's a major problem.
If you have a separate location
If you have an office, keep your data on a USB drive or NAS drive.
Use online backup and sychronisations such as SpiderOak, or one of the others (although Dropbox doesn't work with NAS drives unless you get 3rd party software).
Buy a NAS drive, or USB drive for home, and get your data synchronised to this external drive.
This gives you real-time backup, and if your office drive fails you have another external drive which is fully up to date to take to the office and slot into the place of the failed drive.
Absolutely no effort needed at all, once it is set up.
Simple :)
Norton Ghost to NAS + offsite copy.
Norton Ghost will backup to almost any media, either disk image or selected files.
I do a monthly full image and then daily incremental, all to a NAS box and then the Offsite Copy facility copies that to a USB drive which I store away from the PC.
I have 3 USB drives that I use in a cycle, so I have 2 months totally offsite with the current month not far away.
Because everything is scheduled to the NAS, all I have to do is remember to attach the external drive.
About once a quarter I will choose a file or directory at random and restore it to another location to check that everything is still working.
I looked at online storage facilities for backup and rapidly came to the conclusion that even with BT Infinity running at the maximum advertised speed, taking an image of my single computer would take forever. Plus most of these companies seem to be in the USA, which has security implications, to me.
Regards
Steve
Backups
I ensure all new PCs and laptops are set up from a standard list of software that we use (after patching up from Windows Updates). List includes items such as anti-virus, practice management software, office, sage, accounts production, payroll, tax return software. Then use Norton Ghost.
All data is automatically saved to NAS drive which is backed up daily. Incremental Ghost backups done at weekends (to pick up odd files saved locally and updates to Windows and anti-virus). Of course backups kept off-site.
We are only a small practice so don't have much need for shadowing as there is only so much work the three of us can do in a day, saying that we still have well over 1TB of data excluding Ghost images.
I also agree that Internet backup solutions and cloud storage will be the future but with the woefully slow internet in the UK, speed is too much of an issue at this moment in time.