Backup Software

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Tegeril

Tegeril

Platinum Member
Apr 2, 2003
2,906
5
81
I'm looking for a program that can schedule backups of specific folders to specific locations onto an external hard drive (either connected by usb 2.0 or firewire). Also, there is a second computer on a network that will also need to backup to the same drive (without writing over the first computer's data). Just looking for inexpensive suggestions to the best piece of software anyone has used for such a purpose...thanks.

-Aaron
 
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ACWingit

Member
Apr 2, 2003
33
0
0
Me too! Me too!

Having recently returned from vacation and found that my hard drive decided to die while my computer was powered OFF (yes, it was on a UPS), I have finally realized that it's time for me to get religious about backups. I thought i was doing a good job manually however I can't seem to find any email backups newer than a year old. Nothing like lessons learned the hard way :|

so....I guess I need "The idiots guide to automatically scheduled backups"

I have 3 computers. Two are running Win 98. The third (which is the one that died) is running Win XP.
I tried using Win 98's backup utility. Ran into 2 problems. First, you can't schedule automatic backups. They have to be done manually. This means that they won't ever get done.

Second, I have never seen anything slower in my life! I attempted to run a backup of about 1 G of data to a network drive. After running for 1/2 hr it estimated that it was going to take over 6 hours to complete!!!!!!
Please tell me this isn't normal!

I have been told that XP's backup utility can be scheduled. If so, and if it's faster than win 98's backup, I could use this for my XP machine. But I still need a solution for Win 98.

I have seen software advertised that does backups. Most are far more complicated than i need. I just need to backup selected files/folders to a network drive and/or CD-RW. Incremental backups would be great. I would love to schedule the incrementals to run every night.

I do own a copy of Norton Ghost (the one that comes with Norton System Works 2003) but i don't really think it's necessary to keep a copy of the entire disk - I just need my data files.

Many thanks!

 
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Rufio

Banned
Mar 18, 2003
4,638
0
0
I need to know this too...

mark, can you post what info you have, or PM it to me?

thanks!
 
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Staver

Senior member
Oct 10, 1999
909
0
76
The program I'm currently using is Dantz Retrospect. The basic version can backup many files other backup programs skip as being "in use". It will even backup open files in WinXp. You can always download it and try it out for 30 days. If you like it buy a license code. There is also Tapeware. It was faster and had many options, but it failed to backup "in use" files. Veritas also has that same problem.
 
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Rufio

Banned
Mar 18, 2003
4,638
0
0
Originally posted by: Staver
The program I'm currently using is Dantz Retrospect. The basic version can backup many files other backup programs skip as being "in use". It will even backup open files in WinXp. You can always download it and try it out for 30 days. If you like it buy a license code. There is also Tapeware. It was faster and had many options, but it failed to backup "in use" files. Veritas also has that same problem.
Click to expand...

will it even back up my outlook PST file if it is "in use"?
 
M

madblitzer

Member
Apr 20, 2001
31
0
0
There has actually been a lot more interest than I thought. Only reason I asked for a PM is that our company is a reseller of the application and didn't want to come off as a salesman.

Take a look at www.storactive.com. They offer an enterprise backup solution in which a server is hosted by your company and runs the application to backup all desktop and laptop users. However, my business partner and I asked them to create an ASP version where we could host it on our server in our Network Operations Center and resell the service to SOHO's. This is a benefit to the users in that 1) saves them the cost of server 2) saves them the cost of the full license 3) saves them the cost of administering the server.

I can go on but if others are interested, please shoot me a PM with your name and email or phone number and I can set you up with a free one month trial.

Regards,
Mark
 
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madblitzer

Member
Apr 20, 2001
31
0
0
Originally posted by: Staver
The program I'm currently using is Dantz Retrospect. The basic version can backup many files other backup programs skip as being "in use". It will even backup open files in WinXp. You can always download it and try it out for 30 days. If you like it buy a license code. There is also Tapeware. It was faster and had many options, but it failed to backup "in use" files. Veritas also has that same problem.
Click to expand...

Forgot to mention, Storactive's LiveBackup also handles "in use" files and does handle .pst files that are "in use". Unlike many other products including Retrospect, LiveBackup is not a scheduled backup application. It backs up after every save of a file or the closing of the application you are using. So if you back up at the end of the day and your computer crashes at 4pm, you lose all the work you did that day. This is not the case for LiveBackup (ok I'm beginning to sound like a LiveBackup salesman now :p).

Let me know what other questions you have.

Mark
 
S

Staver

Senior member
Oct 10, 1999
909
0
76
Forgot to mention, Storactive's LiveBackup also handles "in use" files and does handle .pst files that are "in use". Unlike many other products including Retrospect, LiveBackup is not a scheduled backup application. It backs up after every save of a file or the closing of the application you are using. So if you back up at the end of the day and your computer crashes at 4pm, you lose all the work you did that day. This is not the case for LiveBackup (ok I'm beginning to sound like a LiveBackup salesman now ).
Click to expand...

This does sound interesting. A long time ago I used something similar to this. I can't remember what it was called at present, but it wasn't as good as what was described on the website. They got most of their money on Restores. From what I read, I did not see any Restore charges. Is this correct? This is just a single upfront charge? I personally could not use anything like this on my ISP (Cox) since they have a 30G download/ 7G upload monthly cap. One can get immediate backup on changed files with Power Quest's Diskeeper as well.
 
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