How often do you back up?

LongJohnBaldy

Hello, I haven't been following the thread. Does Norton Ghost backup Microsoft Outlook OK?
You see, I'm silver haired variety.

paulmorg

LJB - Norton Ghost literally makes a complete copy of your hard drive. Once you encounter a problem, you stick the norton disc in your pc, reboot, and load your last backup from wherever you stored it (cd, dvd, external drive etc.)

I could backup my hard drive now, throw it out the window, and then restore everything to a new disk (assuming I had one!) within half an hour or so. The disk is recreated exactly as it was when you did the backup. It's just a case of making sure you do them often enough!

LongJohnBaldy

Thanks paulmorg, I'll check Norton Ghost out, cost etc.

charlieheard

paulmorg wrote:

LJB - Norton Ghost literally makes a complete copy of your hard drive. Once you encounter a problem, you stick the norton disc in your pc, reboot, and load your last backup from wherever you stored it (cd, dvd, external drive etc.)

I could backup my hard drive now, throw it out the window, and then restore everything to a new disk (assuming I had one!) within half an hour or so. The disk is recreated exactly as it was when you did the backup. It's just a case of making sure you do them often enough!

This is only useful if you have a suitable size disk to backup to. I have 2 160Gb disks with 95Gb free space. To make a Ghost copy, I would have to backup both disks regularly to external drives. Also Ghost copies everything - all the windows files, all the other program files, which don't change that regularly, if at all. It would take hours every day. It's a bit like buying a spare engine for your car in case the other one breaks:rolleyes:

For me, its much better to invest less in a proprietary backup solution that only backs up things that have changed in a few minutes, and do a full backup of my important files once a week or fortnight. It also means that I can recover individual files from backup, rather than a whole disk! In the car analogy, I only have to change the spark plugs.

When my PC did crash after a power failure (despite so-called surge-protectors), it took me less than half a day to reinstall from disks and then recover my files from backup. It also meant that I uninstalled totally various software packages that I didn't use, but didn't want to remove in case they made my PC unstable. With Ghost, you'd get your old environment back, warts and all...

Mozilla_2

I set my HD up as follows:

1 x 120GB Hard disk, split into 40GB & 80GB partitions.

I install all the apps and operating system etc onto the 40GB (labelled 'System') and keep my data on the 80GB (labelled 'Data').

I have a second 40GB hard disk onto which I make a Ghost copy of of 'Data' every so often.

I then have a third (bloody hell!!) 40GB hard disk that I plug in every few months and Ghost 'System'.

The benefits:

1) Should something go wrong with Windows and I need to reinstall it, I simply Ghost back from disk 3 onto the 'System' partition, without having to take backups of my data. Also, I only have to reinstall the apps that I have changed or installed since the backup.
2) Should disk 1 completely go belly up, I can get Windows (with Office and most of my apps) and my Data up and running within the hour!

You may think that all these hard disks and backups are a bit drastic, but once you lose your data after a hard disk failure, you tend not to forget taking backups! Trust me I should know...

pug_in_a_bed

Can anyone give me a link for a site or somewhere that explains easily and simply for a pc idiot how to

1) partition hard drive so stuff is safe on it
2) how exactly to back up your system using nero etc, as I'm slightly confused
3)how to use acronis true image!
I downloaded the free trial, it was scary the way it starts up before xp - but how on earth do you use it? does it save the back up to a dvd or soemthing? I was horribly confused....
thanks

sra

pug_in_a_bed wrote:

3)how to use acronis true image!
I downloaded the free trial, it was scary the way it starts up before xp - but how on earth do you use it? does it save the back up to a dvd or soemthing? I was horribly confused....
thanks

You shouldn't be using it before XP :eek: - That's for disaster recovery.

I don't know how the downloadable one works? Did you install the program in the usual way you usually install stuff on XP?

If you did then clicking the True Image icon should start the wizard which is extremely easy to use and should guide you through everything.

Putting a disk in and letting it run at startup is for when something goes wrong and you want to restore your system

pug_in_a_bed

sra wrote:

You shouldn't be using it before XP :eek: - That's for disaster recovery.

I don't know how the downloadable one works? Did you install the program in the usual way you usually install stuff on XP?

If you did then clicking the True Image icon should start the wizard which is extremely easy to use and should guide you through everything.

Putting a disk in and letting it run at startup is for when something goes wrong and you want to restore your system

:eek:eek indeed! I installed as i would any program, its a 14 day trial. I installed it all fine, but when i restarted the pc there it was. I had to close it to log into xp. I'll have another go at clicking on it and see what happens. I need to hire a pc assistant!

jezza1O1

Its good to see people taking backups seriously.

The question of what level of backup is an interesting one. For my home PC I will simply backup my importand files, the things that I cant replace. The thing I care most about is my digital photos, to the extent that I keep an 'off-site' backup too! I have a few other important docs etc, but anything else I wouldnt lose sleep over!

A full system reinstall for a casual user like me isnt actually very scary. Windows takes <30mins (on a newer PC and having the sp2 install of XP helps here!), office maybe 10mins, I have a few other bits and pieces and some games. After an upgrade I did a complete install a few weeks ago and the whole process took an evening and I timed it around eating dinner, spending time with family, etc just need to pop in every now and then to kick the next thing off. I found it a breeze tbh, and had to laugh when I recalled the days when Office came on 22 floppy disks!

Now things would be different for a heavy home user, or someone who uses their PC for work. Perhaps a commercial backup system like Norton would be useful here, especially if you cant afford down time.

I think peeps need to consider their needs and act accordingly - but whatever you do - BACKUP! I can assure you all that one day you will lose your data, it is totally inevitable - PCs get nicked, house burn down, lightning strikes but more importantly hard disks have a finite life span! Back up now before its too late!

JamesUK_3

i think its just as important as to WHERE and HOW people store their backups.

Don't want to sound pedantic here but if

PCs get nicked, house burn down, lightning strikes

do happen, the dvd's sitting on the shelf next to the pc are just as likely to be burnt or stolen along with the data on the main pc! (Of course this wont apply to hard drive failure)

Also beware on relying on partitions to keep data safe. It's fine if a MBR or FAT table goes astray but if the drive does suffer physical damage or a broken drive controller, it's a *&*%@ to get the information off the drive.