Help needed with options for system backup/recovery

terra_ferma

I need help with backup.
All folders and files are backed up daily, but I need to be up and running quickly in case of a system or hardware failure. I have a lot of bits of software that I would need to be able to use again.
I've been looking at disk clone, image, recovery disk options, but it's all very confusing.

I have Windows 7. I also have an external drive that I use to backup files daily.
I use Easeus Todo for daily files backups and I tried to do a clone but it would erase the whole external drive. Also how easy would it be to restore the system from a clone? Would I simply start using that drive instead of the HDD?

I tried to set up a disk backup using Easeus Todo (equivalent to a disk image I believe) but it would need an additional step, a bootable disk (would I need to repeat both steps every month ?).

Can anyone suggest what would be the easiest way to recover the system and all its software in case of hard disk or system failure?
Any suggestions from someone who understands more about this are very welcome

closed

using a disk image and boot cd, either todo backup or

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Restore-your-computer-from-a-system-image-backup

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

terra_ferma

thank you, useful links.

JJ_Egan

I use Acronis True Image Home to create a recovery image .

Starts with a clean computer and everything set up and updated .
Run true image and save a complete image of the C drive to another drive takes about half an hour .
Windows breaks then its a question of using the boot disc to put that image on the C drive wiping all content and restoring to exactly when the image was made .

Half the time now i dont even bother fixing minor problems . Most data is not saved on C drive so its just a question of saving/backing up any current emails /bookmarks.docs etc then a quick replace the C drive image . I tend to have one almost bare windows image and another thats frequently updated .

jje

terra_ferma

JJ_Egan wrote: »

I use Acronis True Image Home to create a recovery image .

Starts with a clean computer and everything set up and updated .
Run true image and save a complete image of the C drive to another drive takes about half an hour .
Windows breaks then its a question of using the boot disc to put that image on the C drive wiping all content and restoring to exactly when the image was made .

Half the time now i dont even bother fixing minor problems . Most data is not saved on C drive so its just a question of saving/backing up any current emails /bookmarks.docs etc then a quick replace the C drive image . I tend to have one almost bare windows image and another thats frequently updated .

jje

Thanks JJ, very helpful

Do you have to update the boot disk every time you update the image?
Also can you use an external drive for both the image and the folders/files backup? Or does the image take up the whole drive, like with cloning?

closed

A boot cd is static, and assuming the boot cd can see the external drive (it's linux based), the image file is just like another data file (or series of data files) stored on the usb drive

a disk image contains everything, including data, windows, etc.

western digital and seagate/maxtor have their own free versions of acronis trueimage you can use if you have one of their drives.

fwor

terra_ferma wrote: »

Do you have to update the boot disk every time you update the image?

The boot disk generally stays the same - no need to update it each time you save an image.

terra_ferma wrote: »

Also can you use an external drive for both the image and the folders/files backup? Or does the image take up the whole drive, like with cloning?

Can't comment on the others mentioned in this thread, but the one I use (Clonezilla) gives you the choice of creating an image which is an identical copy of each partition, taking up the same space, or a compressed image file, which you can store alongside any other form of backup data on your backup drive.

The advantage of the former is that if you backup all partitions plus the Master Boot Record, the backup becomes an identical, bootable clone - you can literally swap it for the existing one if it breaks without needing to go through a restore process (which would need another hard drive). The downside is that is much less efficient in terms of disk space usage.

terra_ferma

It's starting to make sense now...

I expect a boot disk can be window based, which will be the safest option to make sure it works with the external drive
which btw is seagate, so I'll look for the free software. I expect I will be able to download it from seagate's website?

I will give easeus a miss, it's just not user friendly enough and the information it gives is just confusing, assuming you already know what you are doing.

closed

it's called maxblast, not sure if it works on w7

boot discs are always linux based, but you can make your own windows pe based disk if you've got a few hours/days to work at it.

terra_ferma

closed wrote: »

it's called maxblast, not sure if it works on w7

boot discs are always linux based, but you can make your own windows pe based disk if you've got a few hours/days to work at it.

easeus mentions that somewhere, but it says something about being registered (but it doesn't explain what you need to register for).
So if I understand right, if I have an image on my ext drive, there is a chance that the boot disk will not recognise it?

closed

there's one way to find out, create one and see