Backups 1

[voisey]

Hi all
I'm looking for some backup software, either paid for or free/open source. I have looked through the FAQ's but all results seem to be very old.

Does anybody have recommendations for an easy to use version of an up-to-date system?

Any help appreciated

Thanks in advance

Chris

 

[Salem]

What kind of backup?
- Physical media (tape/disk)
- Remote site you control
- Remote site you don't control (aka - "the cloud")

How much data, MB, GB, TB?
- in the initial backup
- in the deltas between whatever your backup interval is.

How often do you backup?
- x times a day?
- every day?
- every week?
- every month?

Do you need versions?
- like say "I need report.doc from last Thursday"?

How quickly do you need to be able to restore?
- within a few hours
- within a few days


--
If you dance barefoot on the broken glass of undefined behaviour, you've got to expect the occasional cut.

 

[goombawaho]

Right - "backup" is a question answered by 500 different answers based on your situation, budget, internet connection, amount of data, desire for onsite vs. offsite, etc. I'll answer the question totally not knowing the specifics. I use idrive for daily online backup of my data and Macrium Reflect to backup my data locally to an external hard drive AND to create an image of my boot drive (monthly) to my bigger internal data storage drive.

 

[Mike Lewis]

I think it's clear from the previous responses that, as much as backup software, you need a backup strategy.

My own strategy boils down to something like this:

1. For immediate short-term backups of the document or program I am currently working on, simply make copies at convenient times during the day to another directory on your local file system. This is intended to cover accidental deletion of corruption of the file in question while I am working on it.

2. At the end of the working day, do an incremental backup to an external drive or device, such as a USB drive. This is done on a five-day cycle, such that all files that have changed in the previous five days will get backed up, and each backup set is kept for five days.

3. Once per week, do an incremental backup to a cloud-based service or to a remote server.

I stress that the above is what works for me. Your circumstances will be different, as will your method of working. The point is that you need to devise a backup strategy before you start looking for sotware.

For 1 (above), I simply copy a file using the facilities of the OS.

For the other two steps, I use a program called SyncBackSE, which supports everything I want to do. It does my daily incremental backup to an external hard drive, and my weekly remote backup to a server via FTP. I believe there is a free version of this program, but I use the paid-for version. I don't remember how much it ocst, but whatever it was, I'm sure it was worth the cost in order to do reliable seamless semi-automatic backups.

Mike



__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro articles, tips and downloads

 

[voisey]

Thanks
Salem -
I've learnt one thing from this post - "There's more to backups than meets the eye". But I know from being a member of Tek-Tips that someone can help or point one in the right direction.

My wants are relatively simple or that's what I thought.

I just want to automate backing up personal documents/data over a home network on a weekly basis with a system image probably monthly (or even weekly).
The home network consists of a desktop plus 2 laptops.

Mike -
I can understand if working constantly with documents and data the need to have such a strategy but my wife and I have now entered our eight decade (only just) and do not produce any great amount of data.
Your strategy sounds perfect though

Thanks you both for your comments.

Chris
"it's never too late to learn"

 

[Professor Shadow]

If you are using Windows you have OneDrive:

How to backup your computer to the cloud with OneDrive folder protection:
[ul]
[li]Open up OneDrive settings via the system tray icon and move to the Auto Save tab.[/li]
[li]Click the Update folders buttons.[/li]
[li]Select which folders you would like to be backed up and where — such as only locally, or backed up to the cloud.[/li]
[li]Click OK.[/li]
[/ul]





_________________________________
"Thank you for calling Technical Support. If you feel you have reached this number in error, please hang up and try again." ~Jane Barbe

 

[goombawaho]

It's kind of like asking people what food is good. They'll tell you what THEY like.

You're not going to backup a system image file to the cloud most likely if it's large.
If you had a NAS, you could backup everything to that - data backups and image files, but they would be local and thus fire/flood/theft would take them out. I consider some type of online backup mandatory.

This is what I do in total:
1. Create images backups (using Macrium) of my c: to my d: (two different hard drives) MONTHLY
I only keep the two latest image backups of my C: drive on my D: drive (manually purging older ones monthly)
2. Backup my entire D: (excluding the image backups) to idrive DAILY
3. Once a month, I backup my entire D: drive to an external hard drive using Macrium (excluding the image backups)
I "only" keep 8 backups on my external hard drive. Macrium purges one before it runs, thus the external drive doesn't fill up.
I do FULL backups. It makes it much simpler when it comes time to restore. I have 8 different backups to look at if a file goes missing - 8 months into the past.

 

[hairlessupportmonkey]

Veeam endpoint - its free and just works.

ACSS - SME
General Geek

 

[goombawaho]

But that's more of a business product - correct? Sounds like our OP is a home user.

 

[Professor Shadow]

I just want to automate backing up personal documents/data over a home network on a weekly basis with a system image probably monthly (or even weekly).
The home network consists of a desktop plus 2 laptops.

That's why I posted what I did. One Drive does it Live so there is minimal delay not a day or week delay. Each device probably has it's own user, so it has it's own account.


_________________________________
"Thank you for calling Technical Support. If you feel you have reached this number in error, please hang up and try again." ~Jane Barbe

 

[voisey]

Thanks all. Yes I am looking at home backups and very much appreciate all the comments made. I had heard of Veeam previously but had assumed it was not for home use. I will evaluate that as I have a large amount of docs/spr’s/video and images which would be too large for One Drive which I believe has a limit of approx 100gb. I have a few tb’s worth of data (collected over many years - some of which does need expunging I freely admit). Thanks again.

Chris

 

[Professor Shadow]

...too large for One Drive which I believe has a limit of approx 100gb.

6TB...too small?

One Drive plans

_________________________________
"Thank you for calling Technical Support. If you feel you have reached this number in error, please hang up and try again." ~Jane Barbe

 

[strongm]

>6TB...too small?

Only if
a) you subscribe to Office 365; and
b) you pretend to be 6 users

 

[goombawaho]

and you trust Microsoft with your data.

 

[hairlessupportmonkey]

But that's more of a business product - correct? Sounds like our OP is a home user.

Endpoint is good for home users.

https://www.veeam.com/windows-endpoint-server-backup-free.html

ACSS - SME
General Geek

 

[strongm]

and you trust Microsoft with your data

Are you suggesting that Microsoft's cloud storage is less secure than, say, Google's, Apple's or Amazon's? There's no evidence of this.

 

[goombawaho]

Not what I'm saying. I suppose I meant "who can you trust, everyone is getting hacked". Just have faith is all you can do.

 

[strongm]

So, you're saying "and you trust the cloud with your data

 

[Professor Shadow]

The Cloud is just someone else's computer.

_________________________________
"Thank you for calling Technical Support. If you feel you have reached this number in error, please hang up and try again." ~Jane Barbe

 

[goombawaho]

Is this a cross-examination strongm? My email is in the cloud before I download it via POP to my Inbox. Yes - POP, so I can back it up! My backup goes to the cloud. My Google searches are in the cloud. Avoid the cloud - I dare you, faith or none. It's kind of like when I go out to drive somewhere in the morning. Will I get in an accident, get killed? Probably neither, but I still do it.

Brilliant/Obvious/Silly? Unsure.