Re: Windows Backup Utility Question
- From: "Patrick Keenan" <test@xxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 2 Dec 2006 02:14:43 -0500
"sbier" <sbier@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:B9A852F1-9F16-43C4-A36A-B05CCB4D5E3F@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks, Rock. Good advice re: multiple copies. To make my backups more
usable, I use the Copy option so the files aren't compressed or encrypted.
But there's still plenty of chances for restores just not working. I used
to
use Drive Image but ran afoul of some disastrous problems, which not only
wiped out my data but made my PC unbootable - and there was virtually no
tech
support to help. I've read some very bad things about Norton Ghost and
also
Acronis True Image (not as many complaints as Ghost, though). I'm now
trying
for the zillionth time to get Retrospect Express HD for Maxtor OneTouch to
work on my PC, but so far no dice. Very frustrating stuff. Thanks again!
If you're just wanting to do backups of the user folders, I'd suggest Backup
Plus. It doesn't use a proprietary format. Its .BAC backup files are
actually ZIP files, which are reliable and well understood and there are
plenty of recovery tools should things go wrong. It's hard to make that
statement about ntbackup. And it's not expensive.
http://www.backupplus.net/
We normally have Backup Plus run at night, backing up incrementally to DVD,
and have the office manager change the DVD each morning, so there are five
daily DVDs. It's important to periodically verify that you can restore
files from these backups, but that's easy to do. You can pick individual
files.
This will *not* make a fully restorable, bootable image of a drive.
If you want backups of the entire drive, I have had good results on many
systems with TrueImage. Did have some issues with older versions and newer
XP installs (like TrueImage wanting to run with no UI) but updating it fixed
that. I have been able to pick individual files out of a TrueImage archive
for restoration.
When migrating machines, I often use FileSync to just move files from one
drive's folder structure to the new one. This works very well and doesn't
just give up it if can't copy a file.
http://www.fileware.com/products.htm#FileSync
HTH
-pk
"Rock" wrote:
"sbier" wrote
I need some advice. I use WinXP Pro and am planning to buy a new PC,
also
with WinXP Pro. I use the XP Pro Backup Utility to do nightly backups
of
everyone's Documents and Settings folders. Can I use these files to
transfer
my Documents and Settings stuff from old to new PC by just copying the
file
to the new PC and running restore?
That should work, however if I were you I would have multiple backups in
different forms. There have been posts in here were someone created a
backup file using ntbackup and then later couldn't restore from it. You
might just copy the required data to DVD or to an external hard drive or
thumb drive. It's always good to have redundancy in backups. Of course
if
you keep the old PC and data in tact until after the data is safely
copied
to the new PC that's another means of redundancy.
Personally I'm not very fond of ntbackup for a variety of reasons. You
could look into a different backup method such as a disk imaging program
like Acronis True Image. I am not sure if it can restore individual
files
but I think it can.
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: Windows Backup Utility Question
- From: sbier
- Re: Windows Backup Utility Question
- References:
- Re: Windows Backup Utility Question
- From: Rock
- Re: Windows Backup Utility Question
- Prev by Date: Re: Recycle Bin: Can't Empty
- Next by Date: Re: System can't restart on boot actions
- Previous by thread: Re: Windows Backup Utility Question
- Next by thread: Re: Windows Backup Utility Question
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
