Backup software for backing to external hard drive

[Kadence]

I have a 300GB Velociraptor, and I'm planning on adding another one for RAID 0.

I figure it would be good to get something like a $200 external drive with enough space to backup the whole RAID 0 contents.

What kind of setup should I do with this? Which software options would be considered best?

I'm thinking that some software that offers something like nightly incremental backups would be what I'm looking for, however I'm not knowledgeable in this area. I also don't know just how much resources this kind of software would take up when it's operating (i.e. whether it would heavily slow down anything I'm trying to do on the computer at the same time).

 

[mpilchfamily]

Look around at Download.com. There are many great options for backup software with a range of features. Some will cost you about $30 while others are free.

 

[Kadence]

I'm afraid I don't know enough to be able to choose a specific option from among the myriad listed. Also I'm having trouble finding programs whose descriptions seem to be what I need. I tried searching download.com for "backup" and "backup hard drive".

Can anyone recommend specific software options that would be able to do the things I need? e.g. incremental backup, and other features that I might need which I'm too ignorant to know I need

 

[Kadence]

Actually I just read that a differential backup is better than an incremental backup, at least as I interpret it - where I'd have an external backup drive just as large or larger than my RAID config. So I'd guess I'd want something that performs a full backup, and then differential backups nightly?

Still don't know what programs I could get for that though.

 

[RebateMonger]

Backups are of two types: System Backup and Data Backup

Data backup is easy. Full System Backup requires special attention to the OS System files to make sure you get a valid backup and that you can restore your entire computer and get a running PC back.

Windows XP has a built-in backup program called NTBackup that will back up files or your entire system. Actually, with XP Home, you'll have to add the program from your XP Install CD (if you have one).

There are a couple of disk imaging backup programs that are easy to use and well supported. The most popular is Acronis' True Image.

No matter what software you choose, be sure to throroughly ready the documentation, be sure you understand what it's backing up (and NOT backing up), and be sure to test the backup integrity periodically so you know that you are making usable backups.

 

[Kadence]

So now I've just read from this Acronis pages that incremental backups are actually considered more practical.

So in terms of the practical experiences of individual users here, what do people prefer - differential or incremental backups? And does it really matter all that much?

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Kadence
So in terms of the practical experiences of individual users here, what do people prefer - differential or incremental backups? And does it really matter all that much?

In most cases, it doesn't matter. At least, it isn't an earth-shaking decision.

The only time it makes a significant difference is if you have A LOT of changed files between full backups, or if you have a lot of intermediate backups between full backups. If you understand the concept, it's usually easy to figure out which is the best for a particular situation.

 

[SolMiester]

If you have an external drive, why not just use some free sync'ing software ie:allwaysync

 

[Kadence]

Thanks, that seems like a good option