External hard drive backup solution

[Jim Murray]

Lokking for an external hard disk capacity around 500Gb-1TB. Purely used for daily backup purposes. Anyone recommend a good value unit with reliable software?

[ayjay]

Well, as no-one else has responded yet, I'll just say I've bought one of these on a recommendation, still awaiting delivery (probably tomorrow).

 

There is no software with it but I intend to use a little freebie programme I found on the MajorGeeks site - it's this one.

 

I looked into a system that had it's own software but reading up on it on the net it seemed to be a bit of a resource hog.

 

If you're not in a hurry I'll let you know how it all works after it's been running a few days.

[Jim Murray]

Excellent, let us know how you get on.

[ayjay]

The hard drive duly arrived this morning and initial set up was a doddle, just plug it in to a USB port and then to a 240v supply and wait for it to say it's ready to go (about 30 seconds).

 

I've set up the replicator programme to copy those files I want to keep backed up and it will do that automatically at a pre-set (by me) time. You can also back up files manually if you want to.

 

The first scheduled back up went off OK, I then deliberately changed a couple of items and ran a manual back up which picked up those items too. so it all seems to be working OK.

 

There's quite a few settings to work out in the replicator programme but as long as you take some time to read what is ticked and what it's going to do it's fairly easy.

[kirisute]

Lokking for an external hard disk capacity around 500Gb-1TB. Purely used for daily backup purposes. Anyone recommend a good value unit with reliable software?

come a bit late to this, sorry about that;

anyway;

pretty much any external HDD (hard disk drive) unit will suffice for what you want to do. Depending on your system you might prefer to check if it requires an external power supply of just needs USB power. The smaller drives will power happily off USB and are handy if your more mobile or want to carry it with a laptop etc etc

most external drives are simply in plastic cases with the same hard drive units internally...maxtor will use seagate drives for instance.

 

As for backing up itself; use software that replicates your files and can then protect them via a password; DONT use a piece of software that creates an ecrypted and compressed backup file (like windows back-up or similar)

Why? well because if the encrypted file becomes corrupted then you lose your entire backup....if you have simply replicetd your files onto an back up drive and you get corruption then chances are most of the files can be recovered...your losses wont be half as bad!

 

i use a program called:NTI Shadow

http://www.ntishadow.com/en/us/product/shadow4.asp

its reasonably priced and it can do both a shadow copy and en ecrypted copy if you so desire..(a shadow copy is an exact dupliacte fo your files)

its very quick and very easy to set up as well as being able to cope with "live shadowing" which basically means it monitors your chosen shadows file and as long as your back-up drive is plugged in it will constantly shadow changes to files to that drive on the fly...

 

overall backup hints and tips:

dont do like one of my clients did and assume a back-up is simply copying all your files from your pc to your external drive! A back up involves 2 sets of files!! one on the original system and one on your back up device! sounds obvious but i encounter people everyday that do the same! This particular clients external drive became corrupted and it all ended up in a costly data recovery process to save his very important files!

if you want to be completely safe then back up your back up as well!! for instance most company back-ups are then backed up themselves and stored off site in a secure and fire proof location! Overkill for the standard home user but it all depends on how important your data is to you!

 

if you rely on a scheduled back up then make sure to check its running when it should! Some auto schedules wont run if the system is turned off; and when its turned on again wont automatically start. if you use one, make sure you have set to run automatically as soon as it is able to do so. so if your system if turned off at the time the back-up will start as soon as you boot up next time.

 

if your using an external drive and its constantly tuned on then make sure its in a stable position...if its knocked or falls then it might corrupt data. Best practice is to back up then unplug the external device and store it away until next time you need to back up! this way your drive is safe from being knocked and banged about.

 

periodically plug in your external drive and use disk check utilities to keep it running smoothly; windows disk checks will happily work on an external drive so doing so is a good way to keep the drive running smoothly.

 

Remember; if your computer is infected with spyware,viruses or similar then chances are it will lurk on your profile information. On a Vista or Windows 7 system this is all stored in your My Documents in a hidden folder! So if you back-up that folder your copying the infection to your back up drive! when you restore it VOILA!! your infected again! and there are even viruses that will specifically replicate themselves via autorun features of USB and external drives! scan your external drives using a well known anti virus program regularly!

 

its alot to work through, but i hope some of these tips will help you out....

if you need anything or dont know what to go for or if something is over priced etc then just ask! i build and repair these infernal machines for a living so ill help you any way i possibly can!

[Jim Murray]

Thanks for those tips - I'm in no hurry(said it now!) but will let you know how I get on.

[ColinW]

Thanks for those tips - I'm in no hurry(said it now!) but will let you know how I get on.

 

I posted a few weeks back about these pocket sized drives, which I thought were flash memory. Then today I had to use mine while I was holding it and realized that I could feel it "humming". Sure enough when I put my ear to it I could hear that it is a normal drive. Obviously even though they "look" like solid state piece of gear they are actually a laptop type hard drive in a cast plastic case. If I'd known that for the last six months I'd have been a lot more careful with it!!

Edited January 19, 2011 by ColinW

[Riley]

I use Norton Ghost, I have only had to use it to restore corrupt files,so far; mainly photos which was great!

Very easy to use. How do you rate it for saving all your valuable data!?

 

I have room to keep 3 full Norton back ups on my external harddrive , each time I make a new one I delete the oldest one to make room... My e mails are my business so I back up Outlook as pst files which has saved my bacon several times.

 

I always feel there cant be much point in backing up C drive cos if it crashes due to virus/malware etc, or in may case the pc is behaving very flakiliy lately and needs a clean re install... using Norton wont I be copying across all the problems too?

 

Thanks for your tips, still struggling with my new years resolution to back up more often!

[kirisute]

I use Norton Ghost, I have only had to use it to restore corrupt files,so far; mainly photos which was great!

Very easy to use. How do you rate it for saving all your valuable data!?

 

I have room to keep 3 full Norton back ups on my external harddrive , each time I make a new one I delete the oldest one to make room... My e mails are my business so I back up Outlook as pst files which has saved my bacon several times.

 

I always feel there cant be much point in backing up C drive cos if it crashes due to virus/malware etc, or in may case the pc is behaving very flakiliy lately and needs a clean re install... using Norton wont I be copying across all the problems too?

 

Thanks for your tips, still struggling with my new years resolution to back up more often!

Norton Ghost is a very effective solution and it can be a very valuable solution for a company or business. The premise of Ghost is that you starts with a standard machine "image".

that image contains all the software/drivers and files that are present on the pc when it running and fully installed. For instance here at work, we use Ghost all the time. We install maybe 30+ pc's at a time. To do that we build and install one pc with standard software and whatever office solutions are required...then we take a "ghost image" of it with Norton Ghost. the next step is to simply plug in all the other pc's, boot from a bootable disk and then transfer the Ghost image to all the new pc's....saves installation of every pc and it keeps all pc's running EXACTLY the same software and drivers.

so in its full use Ghost takes a snapshot of your current system and stores that entire system as a back-up. allowing you, no mater what, to restore each and every file, even OS, to its state that it was when the Ghost image was created!

Drawbacks for such a state are these:

you end up with very big back up files..an entire pc image will depend on your overall files..for instance my pc runs three 1 terrabyte hard drives...they aint full but they maybe contain 300 gig of data each! a ghost of that system would be huge! even when compressed.

 

The back-up files are compressed and "Ghost only"..so only ghost can open them...if your backup device becomes corrupted and your backup files with it...youve lost the lot!

 

you need a boot disk to fully function correctly; this disk is a cd or floppy that contains a basic version of ghost that will read from your backup device to restore your computer to the last backup. lose the floppy or the cd boot disk and your stuck..unless you can recreate the disk on laptop

 

Ghost images are only as good as the time you did the back up..they dont sync files or if your backup device is always plugged in they wont shadow data to keep it up to date. your last back-up is as "new" as your going to get! if you saved something yesterday and your backup is last week in ghost..youve lost it. and restoring via the ghost will damage partition and file data to recover the lost file with low level data recovery software.

 

Ghost images include all DRIVERS for your system...if you upgrade your system then your ghost images become useless! a change in motherboard or even the driver for your hard disk controller will cause a restore from ghost image to blue screen!

 

Now of course Ghost does have option to do a full system image or just a data image so id reccomend you keep it simply with a standard data image most of the time and maybe a FULL system image every 3 months.

 

every back-up solution is only as good as your routine in backing up! but if it all goes horribly wrong then there are data recovery solutions out there that might just save you pulling your hair out!

 

http://www.piriform.com/recuva

Recuva is from the maker of ccleaner and its a superb piece of freeware! Its does a basic low level scan of your drives to recover files you might have recently deleted; its quick and simple and will recover most files with ease.

 

http://www.cardrecovery.com/

Card Recovery is designed for us photographers that rely on our trusty SD cards! occasionaly those cards can stab you in the back and lose their format data! Card Recovery will sort that issue out and get all your photos back! Its not the cheapest soltuion out there but its certainly one of the best and if your about to lose all your family pictures then the cost is well worth it!!

 

http://www.icare-recovery.com/

the last one is a big boy but its a life saver in my profession! I care can recover lost hard drive partitions and also recover data from formatted drives as well as data cards and sd cards...it alot more powerful than the free stuff but you get what you pay for and its never failed me yet!

 

your right about backing up your C drive....at least to a point.

what about your program settings? if you use photoshop all your brushes/plug-ins and user settings are in the C drive Adobe folder. unless your using CS 4 or above where they are stored in your settings/documents and thats not backed up if you simply save your My Documents folder.

Windows Vista and 7 have made it easier to keep all your data in one back up location...but its still not all stored there! so take a good look at what you do and what software you use and track back anything important that it might be saving to the C drive or other locations outside of your user folder. you would be suprised how many system i back up only to be told a week later than they have lost their documents because they have saved them on the C drive!!

Some back up software will now correctly verify locations of all the data linked to your username; so it will pick up the pst files hidden away in the outlook folder and suchlike for you without you having to have that knwoledge..but always, ALWAYS check what your back ups are storing!

Edited January 20, 2011 by kirisute

[Riley]

WOW! kirisute, thank you, that makes it all so clear, you are obviously used to explaining it to the less knowledgeable! I shall actually print this thread and read and inwardly digest ... before I act on it, unusual for me I am normally of the school of "read the notes/manual after its gone wrong!"