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[dcwebman]

I'm trying to find a good backup program to backup my home "server". There is @240GB that needs to be backed up. I have duplicate 320GB hard drives, one in the computer and one in a USB 2.0 exclosure and plan on backing up to the external every night. I store all my media on the server so don't want to take a chance on losing anything. I have seen discussion on backup hardware, but don't recall anything recent on backup programs.

Right now I am trying NovaBackup and it works fine except a full backup/verify takes about 21 hours for the @240GB uncompressed, a bit long. I have also tried the OEM version of Dantz Retrospect but wasn't impressed. Also Cobian Backup, Ghost, and True Image. I have read a review on the new Symantec backup but they said it wasn't that much different from the last Ghost.

What I'd like to have is:
- Full, Differential, Incremental backups with verify
- Backup to hard drive, DVD
- Can save open files
- Fast
- Easy to understand and use
- Email sent with log after backup
- Multiple copies saved, i.e. not just one sync
- Image backup (optional)

Price under $100. Any suggestions?

[AoXoMoXoA]

Right now I am trying NovaBackup and it works fine except a full backup/verify takes about 21 hours for the @240GB uncompressed, a bit long.

You usually will not be doing a full backup after the initial run but rather using incremental, so IMO this becomes less critical.

I chose to avoid traditional backup solutions as they usually create backup volumes that must be unpacked (usually by the originating backup software) in order to have access to the files within. IMO this leaves an additional openning for errors to cause failures making your files inaccessible.

I have settled on a program that does a backup of my files but without changing the format, resulting in an exact mirror of my files (in their original form and directory structure) and thus accessible within Windows. I can easily restore any files without need of any particular software, and no chance of an unpacking error. If needed I could simply replace my library drive in my system with it's backup and be up and running.

If this type interests you look at:
Karen's Replicator (free)
Super Flexible File Syncronizer ($29.95) http://www.superflexible.com/
SyncBack ($25.00) http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/sbse.html
Second Copy ($29.95) http://www.centered.com/pricing.html

[lOth]

I'm very happy with SyncBack (mentioned in the post above).

The only thing it might not do is save open files.

[dcwebman]

Thanks for the replies but I don't really want to use syncing software unless it does multiple backups. I already use Karen's Replicator to sync my laptop's documents to the server so the server can back up my documents plus the media.

As far as doing a full backup only once, you're eventually going to have to do another one so you don't have many many incrementals to restore after that backup. Of course you hope to never have to restore.

I will take a look at the programs mentioned though because maybe most of the things I want can be accomplished by them. I do see SyncBack does back up open files.

If anybody else has suggestions on traditional type backup programs, please let me know.

[KingSparta]

but don't recall anything recent on backup programs.

many times

>> I already use Karen's Replicator to sync my laptop's
it runs into problems from time to time, and will stop copying

SyncBack, works better

[craft]

null

[dcwebman]

I would recommend Acronis True Image, it supersedes Symantec Ghost by far and doesn't bloat you windows, It's also quite fast- takes about 4-5min to backup my harddrive.

I own True Image and tried it. At the time I was having problems but it turned out to be the hard drive enclosure when I thought it was the software. I might give that another try.

SyncBackSE does look very interesting from reading the website and I like the support and forums there. Just need to get the time now to try it.

[benn600]

I think the reason it may have taken so long is you may have been using some sort of md5 generator or something like that which basically reads the file and checks to make definite positive proof that the file is exactly as it should be.

I use SyncBack as well-- I have the full version.

Question for SyncBack users.  At the moment, I have 2TB of server storage but only 1TB of backup storage.  I have other drives I can backup to but I don't know of a way to read the changes and then save those to another location.

Basically, if I read the source and see--oh, some new music has been added, I want to then change the destination (after it checked for changes) to be a blank drive so I can save the changes there--at least in the short term until I get a good deal on another 500GB drive.

[benn600]

Now that I look at the two pieces of software, Second Copy looks much better.  I should have looked at it more closely before purchasing SyncBack.  I'm still not sure I would like it--I've only looked at screenshots--but it has a much newer user interface and has the feature I was asking for above--spanning files across multiple removable disks.  That's disappointing!  I wonder if I should buy Second Copy too?  I wonder if they have a discount for users switching from SyncBack....I've seen that with other software like Norton products--switching products and they'll give you a discount.

[dcwebman]

Now that I look at the two pieces of software, Second Copy looks much better.

That does look interesting too. A friend mentioned Memeo AutoBackup as a tool that also does the background copying like Second Copy.

[avenger107]

Handy Backup might be interesting to try. It is fast and easy to use. It can span multiple removable drives including DVDs for long term archiving. It compresses to .zip files so recovery is not dependant on having the program available. It will do uncompressed as well, which is pretty much the same as straight copy, but faster.  It has the ability to do full or diferential backups, as well as automaticly create several version backups based on time or date.

http://www.handybackup.net/
 
For uncompressed backups robocopy from MS resource kits is fast and reliable. The /MIR option works as good as any sync program. That is what I usually use when backing up my MP3 collection.   

[RiderFan]

I use second copy and it's great. I back up 4 PC's over my LAN to 1 usb hard drive. You can even set it up so that when you turn on your usb hard drive, it copies all your profiles automattically.

[danrien]

i love the idea of somebody writing a plug-in that utilizes the smartlist abilities and burning capabilities of MC to do backups.  Especially with the new scheduler.... really some interesting stuff could be done here.  of course, that's always the case with MC.

[dcwebman]

For anybody that might be interested, I decided on SyncBackSE. I especially like their forums and upgrades, much like MC.

[KeystoneCop]

i have played with a lot of backups, and I hate to say it.. the microsoft sync does as good or better than most

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=E0FC1154-C975-4814-9649-CCE41AF06EB7&displaylang=en

and no i did not have to reboot every 5 minutes to make it work.