Help Backing up Images on Windows XP System

[Marc_Schoenholz]

I’m looking for back-up software to use on a Windows XP system

I save my images to a Maxtor external hard drive and back-up incrementally to another Maxtor external hard drive using Retrospect HD software.

I had some file corruption take place and had to restore about eight files. My back-up system appeared to be working correctly, but upon careful examination I found the software stopped backing up images 6 months ago. The software was inaccurately reporting over 40 more recent restore points. Luckily no images were lost.

That said I am looking for help on implementing a more effective back up system.

I would prefer to be able to back up to an external hard drives versus creating CDs or DVDs combined with an external hard drive.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Marc Schoenholz

[DierkHaasis]

Norton Ghost, which, I blieve, is now based upon PowerQuest's DriveImage, comes to mind. If it is really based upon PQDI you should have a look at it.

After a lot of lost time lately, I am now trying out [url=http://techsoftpl.com/backup/index.htm]MirrorFolder[/urk], best described as a software RAID 1. It can instantly copy changed files [mirroring] or copy changes over in fixed intervals [auto-syncing]; the program also incorporates a back-up feature.

Many folks have good things to say about MirrorFolder, Uwe Steinmüller at Digital Outback Photo had a nice review up; I am still testing it but will most likely become a customer.

[Tony_Gamble]

I have Retrospect but am also unsure about it.

I use Karens Replicator and find it reliable.
Karen's Power Tools

I've had SyncBak recommended but not yet got round to trying it.
|MG| Free Download - SyncBackSE 4.2.1

Tony

[JamesBeine]

I've been using a program that has solved a lot of problems for me. It's called Backupandburn pro. It will import files from a single or multiple card readers. I use 8 readers. It will order the files by time shot, rename the files giving the raw and jpegs the same number if you desire, burn to a hard drive, and up to two additional drives, and burn a CD or DVD. This is all done by starting the program and inserting the cards. Pretty slick.
jb

[Chris Trauzzi]

I had been using NovaBACKUP (NovaStor Backup Software - PC and Network Backup, Online Backup Software and Services) and found it to be pretty easy to use and reliable. (I was also a beta tester for the new version, which required that I find a second solution as my production backup, in case the beta wasn't actually working.)

It handles open files and can produce a copy (in addition to a compressed back up).

NovaBACKUP has been well reviewed. The only shortcoming I found was that while it is easy to define schedules, it is not easy to edit them (they simply expect you to recreate them).

I learned a valuable lesson from a Government-run IT department many years ago... they made us install our applicaiton, back it up and then they wiped out the hard drive. Our job was to prove we could recover from the back up set. I've learned ever since not to trust the back up software and practice restores at least on one file each week.

Let us know what you decide to go with.

-Chris

[MathewLodge]

Originally Posted by Marc_Schoenholz

I’m looking for back-up software to use on a Windows XP system
I would prefer to be able to back up to an external hard drives versus creating CDs or DVDs combined with an external hard drive.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Marc Schoenholz

The market leader in Windows backup is Symantec BackupExec, which in its latest version (11d) does automatic continuous backup to disk -- in other words, when a file changes it calculates the difference (delta) from the previous version and backs it up immediately. So you can always go back to previous versions of files and there is never a "backup window" -- the server is always backed up all the time. It also allows you to save backup sets to tape drive if you want to store offsite.

See

Symantec Backup Exec for Windows Small Business Server: Overview - Symantec Corp.

BackupExec is more expensive -- MSRP is $930, though there are sometimes promos and reseller discounts (Google backupexec to see some of them). If you want something cheaper, then look at BackupExec System Recovery which starts around $85, and goes up from there. This is the professional version of Norton Ghost. It creates a drive image and then does incremental backups from that; it works very well but you will have a "backup window". If your system crashes and burns, it can also recover your entire computer to a different system -- even if it has different hardware -- in one shot and with a single reboot.

Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery Desktop Edition: Overview - Symantec Corp.

You might also want to look at online backups -- which have the advantage of automatically backing up your files to an offsite data center. So if your house burns down you don't lose the images on that external drive... see Mozy Online Backup: Free. Automatic. Secure. and JungleDisk - Reliable online storage powered by Amazon S3 â„¢ - Jungle Disk

Regards,

Mathew

[Marc_Schoenholz]

To All:

Thank you for responding to my question.

Dierk, interestingly after writing my question on the forum I actually went on to Digital Outback Photo, and like you, after reading the MirrorFolder review I decided to test and downloaded the software. My experience to date, two days, is that the software is easy to install, documentation is Ok, not as clear as I would like, and importantly the software seems to be functioning well.
My one concern is that I emailed Techsoft a question about settings and output and have not gotten a response. Hopefully they will respond within 72 hours.

Tony, I’m really getting pretty paranoid about backing up my files. I have decided to continue to use Retrospect, at least for the time being. I will now save three copies of my files. The third copy, at least tentatively, will be to manually copy files to a separate drive. I’ll use Lightroom to automatically save the originals. Also I have looked at Karen’s ware and will spend more time investigating.

Chris, I read PCWorld’s 2006 review on NovaBACKUP and it was rated number one. The review indicated that a new version was in the works and I did not see any reference to the final software. However it sounds like this is the software that you were beta testing. This is software that I definitely will investigate. Between the review and your comments this software seems very good.

Mathew, thank you for the Symantec recommendations. I had Symantec SystemWorks on my PC and never really took advantage of Ghost. I did not realize that Ghost was/could back up my image files. A few months ago I took SystemWorks off my computer because of the large amount of resources that it used and also because the company received a low rating vs competition by PC World magazine. I switched software to Advanced System Optimizer and BitDefender. That said I had not realized that Symantec is the market leader in Windows backup. I need to determine how there products fit with my system.

So the bottom line is that as of today, I have three copies of all my files. I’m continuing to use Retrospect, I’ve added (testing) MirrorFolder, and I have a manual copy of my images that will be automated via Lightroom. As next steps I’m going to investigate: NovaBackup, Norton products and Karen’s ware.

Once again, thank you for your insight and help.

Marc Schoenholz