Disk Imaging and File Backup

[jimfoto]

I'm looking for software that will create a bootable drive of my OS hard drive and will do incremental backups of my data.

I work with a large number of images my backups are basically copies of the files. I like having uncompressed files with the same folder structure in my backups. My daily, automatic backups do not delete files off the backup drive (in case bad sectors have made files disappear). Periodically I will do a one way backup where deleted files from my primary data drive will be deleted from the backup drive. All of my drives are matched so my OS drive (with some data) is going to the same size, brand etc. In the event of an OS drive failure, I'd like to be able to just boot off my backup OS drive.

I've been using Syncback for data backup but don't think it will create a bootable drive for me. Do I just use Windows 7 for this and sontinue using Syncback?

 

[jimfoto]

I guess I'm really looking to clone my OS drive on a regular basis and copy my data from one drive to another on a scheduled basis. Normally the copying would be two way with a periodic one way session to clean up the backup drive.

 

[Emulex]

BESR 2010 or the norton equivalent is the best bare metal there is for physical.

for esxi veeam is the best bang for buck..

i've had to restore 4-5 machines and never had a problem. AES-256 encrypted super high compression - they even have dedupe in the newest version. its solid. it works on live systems (i have the users logout before the backup starts to give the best backup when possible but it has a good vss writer). it works great with sql server. When the threat level changes say from level 1 or a virus outbreak occurs you can force every machine to backup instantly) unlike acronis it is 100% reliable and i've never had any restore issues (desktop/server its all an image if you look at it that way). Honestly thought best advice: do full backups skip incremental. Bandwidth is cheap -disk is cheap. you will have far less issues.

BESR has option to skip bad sectors and notify you and continue backup - no interaction. It skips unused sectors to speedup copy and not try to compress garbage unused blocks. there is nothing better on the market. Free 30 day trial iirc. There is the same program made for consumer called norton ghost? or something like that. norton 360? i dunno.

Acronis is junk compared to BESR 8/8.5/2010 - heck if you have XP you can buy a used copy of 8 cheap. I've tried them all this product for bare metal backups rocks. Only problem is the new SSD machines are so fast i've started to overload the nas