I just backed up my computer..

[mousegunner]

I'm so proud! Took me about five hours to do the job. I know I should do this regularly, but I haven't done it for over half a year. Anyway, it's good to know that if my computer crashes, I will still have important documents and photos.

[TGO David]

I use Acronis True Image Home Edition and an external drive to backup my stuff on a semi-daily basis and once a month do another backup to a second external drive that is kept in my safe. Cheap insurance.

[Oh Shoot]

I used to use Ghost, until it wanted to trash boot sector of a new box.

There's a marvelous freeware from RunTime called DriveImage XML I've been using for several years now.

Images entire drive, compressed, allows total restore or individual files, writes sector by sector XML file for the restore map.

Doesn't run automated or do incremental backups, but does very well for my needs, backing up to external SeaGate via firewire...

http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

- OS

[Fallguy]

Good deal...I have been looking for some good, easy to use, cheap image software.

Could you use the Scheduled Task to run DriveImage XML?

[Oh Shoot]

Good deal...I have been looking for some good, easy to use, cheap image software.

Could you use the Scheduled Task to run DriveImage XML?

Hmmm, not sure FG...

I'm sure you could start the proggie with it, but you have to specify a few things every time, like backup/restore, source/destination, etc, and there's no command line structure to the thing AFAIK.

There are a lot of free keystroke/macro recorders though, where you can make a shortcut to run a program with actions/parameters, and some of those allow scheduling, or you could call a shortcut made with one of those with Windows Scheduling...

I just do it every now and then, usually on way to bed...it's pretty fast, though and you can work while it does its thing, although that slows it and you down. Does about 25 GB data in 15 min or so unfettered.

- OS

[Fallguy]

Hmmm, not sure FG...

I'm sure you could start the proggie with it, but you have to specify a few things every time, like backup/restore, source/destination, etc, and there's no command line structure to the thing AFAIK.

There are a lot of free keystroke/macro recorders though, where you can make a shortcut to run a program with actions/parameters, and some of those allow scheduling, or you could call a shortcut made with one of those with Windows Scheduling...

I just do it every now and then, usually on way to bed...it's pretty fast, though and you can work while it does its thing, although that slows it and you down. Does about 25 GB data in 15 min or so unfettered.

- OS

Ah...I got ya. Granted doing it once a week shouldn't be too hard to remember. Like you said just start before going to bed....

Do you just overwrite the previous image? I read the webpage a little bit, but it is a true image of the HD, right? I mean I run the program, HD crashes the next day, I can buy a new HD and restore the old HD on the new one? Oh...I do have a 500gb external HD that I would be putting the image/backup on.

The only real problem I see is, I don't have a firewire connection on my computer and it appears the USB hub my external HD is plugged into isn't 2.0....so could take a while for the backup....but got to do what you got to do.

[Champ198]

I recently lost a hard drive on my main home desktop PC. I never thought about a hard drive failure. It hadn't been backed up in a year. I lost all the photos from our camping trips and the kid's track photos. The wife was hurt for weeks (and mad at me) I got more RAM, a new hard drive, upgraded the software and I'm back in biz.

I need to get one of those external USB hard drives for backup like right now.

[analog_kidd]

I use MIcrosoft's free SyncToy program. It will take folders that you specify on your machine and synchronize them with folders on another machine. You can tell it to make exact copies every time, so if you delete something from the source, it deletes it from the remote machine. I just tell it to copy new or updated files and ingnore deleted ones, that way if I accidentally delete a file I can recover it.

I have this set up as a scheduled task that runs once a week for my documents and copies to a machine I use as a server. I'm not too worried about reinstalling the O/S and apps, I just want my data.

[Guest Astra900]

I'm so proud! Took me about five hours to do the job. I know I should do this regularly, but I haven't done it for over half a year. Anyway, it's good to know that if my computer crashes, I will still have important documents and photos.

I use Acronis True Image Home Edition and an external drive to backup my stuff on a semi-daily basis and once a month do another backup to a second external drive that is kept in my safe. Cheap insurance.

Good God! I have a CD full of pictures and a sheet of paper with all my passwords wrote on it. If my comp crashes, I buy another one, and dig out my password sheet until all my usual hangouts recognize me again:D

You guys must have your whole life on that thing!

[TGO David]

I back up my irreplaceable items like photos, tax returns, etc. onto optical media and store those in my safe and/or safety deposit box at the bank. But as an IT consultant / small business owner, yes I pretty much have my entire livelihood spread across several machines in my home office. Hence the routine backups.

[StumpyBeagle]

I use Cabonite on line backup. 50 bucks a year and it backs up everything. It runs in the background and I haven't noticed any interference or system slow downs at all. Best part is I don't have to do anything. It's all automatic after telling the program what directories you want to keep backed up. Any time you add files to the marked directories it just automatically backs it up to their server.

[Guest Astra900]

I back up my irreplaceable items like photos, tax returns, etc. onto optical media and store those in my safe and/or safety deposit box at the bank. But as an IT consultant / small business owner, yes I pretty much have my entire livelihood spread across several machines in my home office. Hence the routine backups.

I'm NOT trolling or trying to pick a fight, just a simple question from an even simpler person:D; You ever worry that a corruptible man made machine has such a hold on you? Imagine if you will, some 19 yr old douche that gets offended because you can be a brutally honest person at times, which I admire BTW. Not your average 19 yr old, but one like that little a-hole that wrote the worm virus. Wow, no wonder you invest in so much to back up your important things. I dunno if it's a good thing I am such a techno-simpleton but I wouldn't have it any other way:p

[Guest c_o_jones]

I have been using this prog. for one to one copies when a HDD gets full or just starts crapping out.

It just runs in ram, loaded from a CD image.

If you move to a bigger drive, no problem, I just use a partition editor to make use of the extra space.

G-parted is a good free one that comes to mind.

http://www.easeus.com/disk-copy/

It just makes a sector by sector copy. For free, it works very well.

[Oh Shoot]

Do you just overwrite the previous image?

No, I make date-named folders on the external drive and write different image each time.

I read the webpage a little bit, but it is a true image of the HD, right? I mean I run the program, HD crashes the next day, I can buy a new HD and restore the old HD on the new one?

Yep...you'd just have to reinstall Drive Image XML on the new drive and use the restore function. If you want best geekage, you can make a bootable CD with the proggie on it and restore from boot up...but I've not done that.

The only real problem I see is, I don't have a firewire connection on my computer and it appears the USB hub my external HD is plugged into isn't 2.0....so could take a while for the backup....but got to do what you got to do.

Is it just the hub, or the actual capability of the USB port the hub is plugged into? They make USB 2 hubs.

USB 2 is almost as fast as FireWire, but certainly USB 1.1 speed will take some time, especially if you're looking at 20 GB and more...

If you have room on any internal HD on your puter, you could write the backup to a folder on that first, and simply copy it to external drive, but not sure if that would take significantly less time..

- OS

[TGO David]

I'm NOT trolling or trying to pick a fight, just a simple question from an even simpler person:D; You ever worry that a corruptible man made machine has such a hold on you? Imagine if you will, some 19 yr old douche that gets offended because you can be a brutally honest person at times, which I admire BTW. Not your average 19 yr old, but one like that little a-hole that wrote the worm virus. Wow, no wonder you invest in so much to back up your important things. I dunno if it's a good thing I am such a techno-simpleton but I wouldn't have it any other way:p

That's ok. I get paid daily to keep 19 year old douchebags out of other people's networks.

[Fallguy]

No, I make date-named folders on the external drive and write different image each time.

The reason I ask is wasn't really sure why you wouldn't just use the latest image you have done for a back up. Of course I guess earlier images might be good if you installed something that caused a crash and wanted to go back before that point?

Yep...you'd just have to reinstall Drive Image XML on the new drive and use the restore function. If you want best geekage, you can make a bootable CD with the proggie on it and restore from boot up...but I've not done that.

I went ahead and made the bootable CD. not 100% sure, but I think I can put the .iso file on my jumpdrive and boot from it even.

Is it just the hub, or the actual capability of the USB port the hub is plugged into? They make USB 2 hubs.

USB 2 is almost as fast as FireWire, but certainly USB 1.1 speed will take some time, especially if you're looking at 20 GB and more...

If you have room on any internal HD on your puter, you could write the backup to a folder on that first, and simply copy it to external drive, but not sure if that would take significantly less time..

- OS

99% sure it is the hub, I think the computer has USB 2 ports, my hub is older and was used on my other computer and is only 1.1, I think. I actually have 2 hubs on plugged into the other that is plugged into the computer. Not sure if either is 2.0 or not...to be honest not sure how to tell. One has an external power source and the other doesn't. I have that one at the end of the chain. I guess I really need to see what I can find out or do...my HD currently has about 161gb of data on it.

It does appear you can use Task Scheduler to run the program, I'll have to play with that I guess and see if I can get it set up.

I have been meaning to do this a while...Thanks mousegunner for the thread and getting me interested again and Thanks OS for your help.

[Guest Astra900]

That's ok. I get paid daily to keep 19 year old douchebags out of other people's networks.

Oh, cool, so you do a Cyber-counter-sniper sort of thing. If I understood anything about computer codes, I would think that would be a pretty cool job.

[Oh Shoot]

The reason I ask is wasn't really sure why you wouldn't just use the latest image you have done for a back up. Of course I guess earlier images might be good if you installed something that caused a crash and wanted to go back before that point?

Well, yeah that, but as long as I have plenty of room on external, I just keep last 3 or four, delete earlier ones now and then...lazy, easy...

I went ahead and made the bootable CD. not 100% sure, but I think I can put the .iso file on my jumpdrive and boot from it even.

Cool....

Don't you have to "expand" ISO files when you write them as an image, rather than just execute the .iso file?

99% sure it is the hub...I guess I really need to see what I can find out or do...my HD currently has about 161gb of data on it.

Well, you could always unplug something from USB 2 port temporarily or something...or just see how long it takes like you have it...and go from there...got an extra slot in that puter? You can get USB 2 card cheap...

It does appear you can use Task Scheduler to run the program, I'll have to play with that I guess and see if I can get it set up.

Kewl...glad it may work for you.. it's all I've really needed, with double 200GB drives, but still with only about 25-30 GB on each...

- OS

[Oh Shoot]

I'm so proud! Took me about five hours to do the job. I know I should do this regularly, but I haven't done it for over half a year. Anyway, it's good to know that if my computer crashes, I will still have important documents and photos.

Guess you've been following the thread...

Glad you got backed up, but if it takes you five hours, IMNSHO you need to find a better solution so that you can do it more often ... and restore easily...

- OS

[Fallguy]

Cool....

Don't you have to "expand" ISO files when you write them as an image, rather than just execute the .iso file?

- OS

Yeah....may have got ahead of myself a little on that one. Not really sure why I'd need to boot off the jump drive anyway. ...and I may have been looking at the wrong thing when I said ISO file...lol

I know just enough to be dangerous....lol

[enfield]

I have a timed program that backs up my user files and settings in the background to a second drive. It does an incremental backup daily and a full backup once a week, all to unique files. It autopurges backup files in what it calls a logarithmic pattern - it keeps progressively fewer files the older they get. Important stuff like pictures and tax data also get archived (manually) to duplicated CD's which go in the safe.

Linux is so handy!

[Fallguy]

Of course if I understand everything right (big if) there is a difference between a backing up and imaging

With a back up it may make a copy of your tax file, account info from Microsoft Money, etc.... but if you lost your entire hard drive, you would still have to reinstall those programs on the new hard drive to use the backed up data.

If you have an image of your old hard drive, you can restore it to the new hard drive and everything will be just like before, with programs already installed, with the same settings even, file directories the same and so on.

Is this right IT guys?

I try to keep up with all my install disk and programs, but don't always do a great job, this is why I though imaging the HD is better than just making a backup.

[Fallguy]

I started to use Driveimage last night, just after it got started it came up with a CRC error. I ran chkdsk on a reboot. It got further, but then had another CRC error. I tried chkdsk one more time....still a CRC error on using driveimage, this time I just told it to ingore all and it has continued on. Still not done, backing up nearly 200gb via USB, I know I know anything I have done since the shadow has been created won't be in the image. I haven't really done much, I just wanted to ask about this.

Will the fact that ignored CRC errors make the image useless for backup?

Is there something else I need to do to try and clear the CRC error up?

Thanks.

[Oh Shoot]

I started to use Driveimage last night, just after it got started it came up with a CRC error. I ran chkdsk on a reboot. It got further, but then had another CRC error. I tried chkdsk one more time....still a CRC error on using driveimage, this time I just told it to ingore all and it has continued on. Still not done, backing up nearly 200gb via USB, I know I know anything I have done since the shadow has been created won't be in the image. I haven't really done much, I just wanted to ask about this.

Will the fact that ignored CRC errors make the image useless for backup?

Is there something else I need to do to try and clear the CRC error up?

Thanks.

Sounds like you have it set to verify the data ...

CRC indicates that the written data doesn't match the source data byte for byte.

Before continuing, I'd do a complete Scan Disk surface scan of the destination disk. Maybe the source disk also. Could be some sectors going bad.

If any are found on the destination disk, they would be marked as bad and no data would be written there in the future. Of course, if bad sectors keep developing, it's usually a sign of a disk on the way south.

I'm not saying that's definitely what that indicates, but I'd look into it.

First time or two I used the Drive Image XML, I had it verify, but with no probs, I didn't have it do it after that, as adds time to the process. So does the compression option, but I do use it.

CRC errors can also occur when you get a corrupted download and try to install or activate a program, too. Again, it means that something has changed between the original byte structure from original source and destination.

- OS

Edited February 10, 2009 by OhShoot

[Oh Shoot]

Of course if I understand everything right (big if) there is a difference between a backing up and imaging

With a back up it may make a copy of your tax file, account info from Microsoft Money, etc.... but if you lost your entire hard drive, you would still have to reinstall those programs on the new hard drive to use the backed up data.

If you have an image of your old hard drive, you can restore it to the new hard drive and everything will be just like before, with programs already installed, with the same settings even, file directories the same and so on.

Is this right IT guys?

I try to keep up with all my install disk and programs, but don't always do a great job, this is why I though imaging the HD is better than just making a backup.

That's all correct.

Programs like DriveImage XML and Norton Ghost don't even give option of backing up individual directories or files, just whole disk volumes.

Although you can still retrieve individual files from the backup drive image set if you like.

- OS