Backing up your software media

[Muse]

I have an off-site data backup thing going. It's mostly personal data that's important to me.

I'm thinking I should thoughtfully include more than personal data. I have a lot of software that I installed from discs, DVDs and CDs. I have in the past copied CD content to hard drives and installed from the setup.exe, with evident success. It's easier than digging up a disk and installing from that.

I'm thinking I should back up all the software I have on media that I would miss in the event of any kind of catastrophe (fire, earthquake, theft, media failure, etc.). The software can be single disks, in some cases multiple disks. In some cases it's Windows installs.

I have in some cases made ISOs, from which I can reproduce disks. Is that the best way to go or can I get away with just doing a copy/paste of everything on a disk and putting the data reflection on my NAS, which gets backed up? If I can reliably install from those, it would be simpler. Restoring from ISOs, to my knowledge, would require my burning actual disks. Or is there a way you can mount ISOs?

 

[ImpulsE69]

Hoarders: The Next Generation.

 

[Muse]

Hoarders: The Next Generation.

Got imagination?

 

[mikeymikec]

I have an off-site data backup thing going. It's mostly personal data that's important to me.

I'm thinking I should thoughtfully include more than personal data. I have a lot of software that I installed from discs, DVDs and CDs. I have in the past copied CD content to hard drives and installed from the setup.exe, with evident success. It's easier than digging up a disk and installing from that.

I'm thinking I should back up all the software I have on media that I would miss in the event of any kind of catastrophe (fire, earthquake, theft, media failure, etc.). The software can be single disks, in some cases multiple disks. In some cases it's Windows installs.

I have in some cases made ISOs, from which I can reproduce disks. Is that the best way to go or can I get away with just doing a copy/paste of everything on a disk and putting the data reflection on my NAS, which gets backed up? If I can reliably install from those, it would be simpler. Restoring from ISOs, to my knowledge, would require my burning actual disks. Or is there a way you can mount ISOs?

If the software installer works after being copied to another storage device, then I'd just back it up that way. Yes you can mount ISOs, there is software out there that will for example mount an ISO to a drive letter (I have the feeling that modern versions of Windows can do it?), and programs like WinRAR can read ISOs. However, if an installer gets cranky about only working from CD, then it might have some awkward copy protection on it and so you might run into further problems.

 

[lxskllr]

I'd just image a whole working system. That way you can do a bare metal restore and have a working machine.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Got imagination?

I do...I picture it something similar to storage units. Great in theory but mostly used to store the junk they don't want/use for 15 years that isn't actually worth anything but they pay the monthly fee to keep it anyway.

 

[John Connor]

I'd just image a whole working system. That way you can do a bare metal restore and have a working machine.

That's what I do periodically. I use an external USB HDD and store it in a fireproof safe meant for electronics. Or rated as.

 

[sdifox]

You can mount an iso as a virtual drive

 

[Muse]

Making an image of a working system is something I do a lot, but seems to me it's only useful if you have the system to restore it to. In the event of a fire or earthquake I may not have the system to restore it to. That's why I want to either create ISOs of install disks or copy/paste of disks to storage... so that I can, in the event of destruction to systems, build new systems and install to them any software I want/need.

I suppose ISOs are a good option. If as said, I can install from them without needing to burn to physical disks, and that's what people here are saying... Thanks!

I say these things because I've been seeing/hearing so much about the catastrophes the last few months... hurricanes, the wildfires just north of me, where a lot of people lost "everything." Even precious photos can be backed up to off-site storage, either the original digital files or scans of prints.

Personally, I'd rue the loss of photos, but also have a lot of data I'd really hate to lose. My more recent photos are digital but I have prints from years ago I should really scan.

 

[shortylickens]

Got imagination?

More than you.

 

[Carson Dyle]

I can't even recall the last time I installed software from physical media. I install operating systems now from USB flash drives. As soon as the machine has a working network connection, applications and utilities are either installed from my network file server, or from the latest version installer downloaded from the 'net. I keep old software installers on my file server, but most of it could be deleted or lost and just downloaded again. It's mostly there as a matter of of convenience. They take up little space and get backed up just like anything else.

Files are files. For me, the only thing that makes a real difference in backup strategy is size. It would be a very expensive proposition to backup many TBs of video files, but everything else I have is backed up in at least three places.

 

[lxskllr]

Making an image of a working system is something I do a lot, but seems to me it's only useful if you have the system to restore it to. In the event of a fire or earthquake I may not have the system to restore it to.

Not sure what the difference is. If you don't have a machine to restore to, you don't have one to install to.

 

[Kaido]

1. Make ISO
2. Verify ISO
3. Archive ISO (offsite & offline)

I like Macrium Reflect for local backups (offline optional via physically unplugging the USB drive) & Backblaze online for online storage. The pay-for version of Malwarebytes handles cryptolocker viruses now, but it pays to be prepared.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I would use a program that can generate an ISO from the CD, as bootable discs won't work if you just copy the files, and I've even seen some oddball software not work without the actual CD. Heck even making an ISO of those may not always work. But that's the route I would take, and test it.

For systems, imaging works, but keep in mind that the ability to restore that image on another system is going to be hit and miss, so you still want backups of the software installers, the data, etc.

Since imaging requires downtime what I typically do is image all my servers every couple years, or after initial deployment. That's to save all the config stuff, as some things in Linux can be tedious and require lot of googling and RTFMing to get working so don't want to have to do that twice. Actual data then gets backed up nightly and put off site weekly.

Eventually I want to run fibre and put a NAS in my shed once it's built and do nightly backups to that too.

 

[Muse]

More than you.

Woo woo, we're having a contest now!

 

[Muse]

Not sure what the difference is. If you don't have a machine to restore to, you don't have one to install to.

Just that in the event of some kind of catastrophe, my machines may no longer exist. I'd need different machines going forward. AFAIK, you can't restore an image to a machine that's substantially different (different mobo, chipset, etc.) than the one from which you created the image.

 

[lxskllr]

Just that in the event of some kind of catastrophe, my machines may no longer exist. I'd need different machines going forward. AFAIK, you can't restore an image to a machine that's substantially different (different mobo, chipset, etc.) than the one from which you created the image.

You can with gnu/linux, and it's my understanding windows is more tolerant of that than it used to be.

 

[Muse]

You can with gnu/linux, and it's my understanding windows is more tolerant of that than it used to be.

Good to know, I'll give it a try if it comes to that. I want to be sure, though, so I'll try to be prepared for image restoration not working.

I don't run any linux distros, just Windows. I rely on a few programs that are strictly Windows (unfortunately).

 

[Red Squirrel]

You can with gnu/linux, and it's my understanding windows is more tolerant of that than it used to be.

Even in Linux I find it's often hit and miss. I've personally never been successful. It usually just ends up at a black screen, or a grub menu or something. There's probably a way to get it to work but by the time I figure that out it's usually faster to reinstall.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Completely different topic from the OP, but as for imaging...

If you're moving to completely different hardware, you typically don't attempt to restore from an image. You reinstall the OS and applications and you restore data and settings from (non-image) backups. It's up to you and/or your backup software to backup those settings so that this is possible.

If you want to do it right and have a stable system, it's well worth the time. And if you've completely lost the original system to some kind of disaster, you've probably invested enough time into getting back up and running that a few extra hours shouldn't be a big deal.

 

[Muse]

Completely different topic from the OP, but as for imaging...

If you're moving to completely different hardware, you typically don't attempt to restore from an image. You reinstall the OS and applications and you restore data and settings from (non-image) backups. It's up to you and/or your backup software to backup those settings so that this is possible.

If you want to do it right and have a stable system, it's well worth the time. And if you've completely lost the original system to some kind of disaster, you've probably invested enough time into getting back up and running that a few extra hours shouldn't be a big deal.

It's not really very off topic what you say here. You discuss some of the reasons I'm concerned with backing up media in the first place, and they were challenged here.

 

[Carson Dyle]

It's not really very off topic what you say here. You discuss some of the reasons I'm concerned with backing up media in the first place, and they were challenged here.

Umm... I still don't see it.

How is the question of backing up installation media related to system imaging?

 

[lxskllr]

Even in Linux I find it's often hit and miss. I've personally never been successful. It usually just ends up at a black screen, or a grub menu or something. There's probably a way to get it to work but by the time I figure that out it's usually faster to reinstall.

I've never had an issue. I'm typing this on an Intel workstation that started life as an AMD netbook. It booted flawlessly first try.

 

[Muse]

Umm... I still don't see it.

How is the question of backing up installation media related to system imaging?

Only because it was suggested here that the former wasn't necessary if you did the latter. I think we've dispelled that notion.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Only because it was suggested here that the former wasn't necessary if you did the latter. I think we've dispelled that notion.

Which doesn't mean that you need to duplicate installation media if you want to install some ancient piece of software that came on disc. Hasn't THAT notion been disproved to you yet?