Easiest, most *Reliable* BU method - disregarding cost ?

[phkhgh]

Not sure where to post - could be hardware or software solution.

I'm looking for easiest & MOST RELIABLE method to BU OS & installed programs partitions, AND the restore or copying BUs to original partitions / HDDs ACTUALLY works.

I just spent days w/ HP printer software / registry issues. HP support was useless this time.

1) Imaging software seems to always have potential glitches. Any new program installed or Windows update, as examples (Vista x 32 / 64) seems to potentially cause BU software problems - Acronis, Ghost, etc. - read the thousands of posts on the subject.

2) I don't care WHAT the best method / solution costs, long as it's easy as possible (scheduled automatic is better), AND most reliable method available.

I'm partially disabled & though have advance ability to figure out almost any computer problem, have NO time or physical ability for such. I have NO time to trouble shoot why Acronis, Ghost, etc., is no longer working / restoring properly.

3) What do IT pros use for simplest, most reliable BU & restore?

4) My desktop has open bays for several more HDDs (but not my laptop). Maybe buying 1 or more giagantic HDDs & just copying the entire partitions & have DOS prgm(s) capable of copying entire partitions back, if windows or HDD fails completely?

For laptop, maybe large external HDD?

Thanks for suggestions.

 

[MedicBob]

There are solutions costing thousands of dollars out there that promise the world.

I honestly just use Windows Home Server. It can only back up Windows machines and I have restored a few times without problems.

 

[RebateMonger]

Windows Home Server has been extremely reliable and low maintenance for me and for my clients. The image backups allow restoration of single files or whole computers back days, weeks, or months. Pop-ups on every PC tell you if there's a problem with backups, AV, or firewalls on any of the (up to 10) PCs on the network.

Setup is simple. It automatically makes full backups of every PC every night, but only backs up changes and only keeps one copy of files that are on multiple computers.

 

[phkhgh]

Thanks. How much SPACE do you need for the back ups? Like my OS drive has about 30 GB data & prgms drive less than 10GB. Even less data on the laptop.

Does it just keep adding incremental BUs until run out of room?

And will it restore single partitions to a specific date easily?

When you say it keeps 1 copy of duplicate files on diff machines, are you also talking about the OSs? Have Vista 64 on desktop & x32 on laptop. Of course they share some common files. If need to restore the x64 partition, how does that work?

Even if restoring docs partitions, WHS keeps track of which file came from which machine & on what date?

 

[RebateMonger]

Answers to your above questions:

- With WHS, the first backups will take the space that's used on your PCs, minus any duplicated files.

- You tell WHS how far out and how many versions of backups. Unless you delete it, it'll keep the initial backup forever, plus (I think) three monthy backups, plus four weekly backups, plus seven daily backups. I'm probably off a bit, but you get the idea. Except for backups you say to keep forever, it'll delete older backups that don't match the pattern you've set. Basically, after a month or so, the backups don't get much bigger unless you've added a lot of files.

- Single partitions can be restored fine, to any date that's currently in your list of retained backups.

- Only one copy of common files is retained. Every file from every backed-up computer will be available for a restore. If you have a backup set from six months ago still stored, it'll include all files from all the computers that were backed up six months ago.

- WHS automatically keeps track of which file came from which machine and one what date.

 

[SAWYER]

I also use WHS, it is awesome. Mine is an old Pentium 4 pc and works great, I also use it to stream media all over the house

 

[Texun]

An evaluation version of WHS can be downloaded if you have a spare machine to test it on. It's about 800 megs and available here... http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/countries.mspx

I don't use it, but from what I understand you have to reinstall it if you decide to buy it. I'm not sure what that would do to any backups made during the evaluation.

 

[RebateMonger]

I don't use it, but from what I understand you have to reinstall it if you decide to buy it. I'm not sure what that would do to any backups made during the evaluation.

Windows Server 2003 requires installing a "Production" version on top of any "Trial" version. The "upgrade" is very easy to do with Windows Home Server. Almost fully automatic. By design, no backups will be lost and no shared data will be lost. I've done this several times without incident. But, as always, before making a major change in an OS it's a good idea to make backups of anything you can't afford to lose.