External hard drive

Im_just_careful

I've always bought Seagate drives but there is no particular basis for that choice other than the disc copy software that they provided and I used for upgrading discs in a PC.

I'm a great fan of NAS drives and for what it's worth I've been pleased with the Buffalo products.

I don't back up whole operating systems just data and use Microsoft Sync Toy which has done what I wanted for some years.

Oddjob

andy2004 wrote: »

pc syncing software should help with that, you could tell it which folders to check on the laptop / pc and then just sync to the external and you could tell it when to do it, nightly, daily, weekly,
Personally i would prefer to do it manually, then i know whats been copied and where and know i have it backed up.
even if i did have 5 copies of the same file could always use duplicate cleaner to remove the copies

The only problem with that is, I think I read on here that someone was looking at getting a Clickfree drive which autosyncs, which is the way I was going to go originally till I read their thread, and closed said that if you did that and had a virus, you could potentially copy that virus onto your backup.

Oddjob

garynuman wrote: »

Acronis are currently running a BOGOF for "True Image Home 2012" (£39)

This is a superb piece of kit. It can be setup for scheduled backups or runs a real-time backup whilst running in the background.

I have 2 licences.

Gaz

That has some really scarey reviews though for someone like me who is not very techie, It seems the old versions were good but the newer version is unstable.

http://download.cnet.com/Acronis-Tru...-10168093.html

closed

No particular benefit doubling the cost by buying 2, if your data from both machines will fit on one drive. The odds of an internal drive and external drive failing at the same time are fairly slim. It's worthwhile burning photo's etc to dvd as well.

There are plenty of free disk imaging options:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=45197656&postcount=8

Most online reviews of hardware and software tend to be people who have had problems, happy users don't tend to bother.

Oddjob

closed wrote: »

No particular benefit doubling the cost by buying 2, if your data from both machines will fit on one drive. The odds of an internal drive and external drive failing at the same time are fairly slim. It's worthwhile burning photo's etc to dvd as well.

There are plenty of free disk imaging options:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=45197656&postcount=8

Most online reviews of hardware and software tend to be people who have had problems, happy users don't tend to bother.

Thanks for the links.

My laptop is W7 so the howtogeek looks the one for that.

My Pc is XP as that is over 7 years old.

garynuman

That has some really scarey reviews though for someone like me who is not very techie, It seems the old versions were good but the newer version is
unstable.

http://download.cnet.com/Acronis-Tru...-10168093.html

Not had a problem myself (latest 2012 version). I have had to undertake a FULL restore twice in the last 18 months - both to dissimilar hardware. No issues at all.

I would also recommend it is downloaded from the Acronis website rather than a 3rd-party source.

Gaz

andy2004

Oddjob wrote: »

The only problem with that is, I think I read on here that someone was looking at getting a Clickfree drive which autosyncs, which is the way I was going to go originally till I read their thread, and closed said that if you did that and had a virus, you could potentially copy that virus onto your backup.

I did put "I would prefer to do it manually" I dont use sync software, at all, I use my internals, then i move the files to my externals when my internals are almost full.

As for acronis I've never had any trouble with any off them.
I just uploaded my copy of version 2011 for my friend. When he finally comes into IRC i'll give him the link.
The only program I had trouble with was the free TODO backup with i tested when i installed windows 7 on my new build, has a few issues with icons not displaying right. so i used the todo free boot cd to recovery to my previous backup and for some reason it turned my 850gb almos full partition into unallocated. Had to boot from hirens boot cd and use a partition recovery program, basically scans for the deleted partition info and recovers it, a recovery in place, then you can use it as normal. 100%recovery.

Went back to Acronis 2012, prefer the 2011 version
converted the recovery cd to acronis to USB using a little program which enable me to put hirens, windows 7 and recovery on 1 usb and make it bootable. YUMI <is the program. see link http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/

most of my friends recommend macrium reflect http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx