How do you backup and restore files?

[antef]

Simple question...some thoughts....
1) Simple mirror like with robocopy. Easy, but no file history
2) Windows built-in file backup.
- How do you restore from this? I know it's a simple procedure but when I do the restore I only want the files that were previously on my PC, NOT all the files I've ever had including ones I deleted. What's the sense in a restore if it's going to dig up old files I deleted for a reason and don't want anymore. How do you deal with this?
- Also, it's seems to write cryptic zip files to the hard drive instead of just loose files. This means my files are at the mercy of the restore software working properly in the future. I don't think so.
3) Third-party software? They all seem small potatoes and not the most user-friendly.

Requirements are simple - daily backup, file history/deletion recovery, but a restore process that will restore exactly what I had as of my last backup, not every file I've ever backed up. This seems simple but there doesn't seem to be an obvious answer.

And follow-up question: all of the same requirements from above, but off-site/in the cloud. S3 with third-party tools? Others?

Thanks!

 

[Anteaus]

My backup routine is simplistic, but basically I keep all my files that need to be backed up organized under C:\backup\. I have a external backup drive I use that also has a backup directory (i.e E:\Backup\). When I'm ready to do a backup, I use Beyond Compare to sync the two directories.

I like it because it's relatively simple and will compare the directory structure and files to find out what has changed and do what needs to be done to make them the same. I just make sure all my files are the way I want them and run the sync. Since all it does are file functions all you end up with is a a copy of the original files. No fancy proprietary compression, etc. It also does FTP so I'm guessing in theory you could use it over the internet though I haven't done it.

 

[antef]

My backup routine is simplistic, but basically I keep all my files that need to be backed up organized under C:\backup\. I have a external backup drive I use that also has a backup directory (i.e E:\Backup\). When I'm ready to do a backup, I use Beyond Compare to sync the two directories.

I like it because it's relatively simple and will compare the directory structure and files to find out what has changed and do what needs to be done to make them the same. I just make sure all my files are the way I want them and run the sync. Since all it does are file functions all you end up with is a a copy of the original files. No fancy proprietary compression, etc. It also does FTP so I'm guessing in theory you could use it over the internet though I haven't done it.

Thanks, this is similar to what I do now with robocopy. It works but like I mentioned, no file history. I want at least one backup source where I can restore a file I deleted accidentally or a previous version of a file. What is the best option for this, either on-site or off? The problem with Windows' backup is that it's a proprietary format and does not ever "clean up" the backup - when I restore it will give me everything I've ever backed up, even things I chose to delete on purpose.

 

[corkyg]

I use my home network, and store duplicates in three different locations, No restoration needed. The files are immediately available through the network using normal file management tools.

 

[EagleKeeper]

If you have the storage capacity; make a full copy of the backup directory.

Now you have the time stamp backups

 

[JimmiG]

Backups without file history aren't very useful. Various things can cause files to change or become corrupted. Those corrupted files would then overwrite your backup the next time you run it.

I use Acronis True Image and the following backups:

-From one internal drive to another, daily

-From internal drive to external drive, weekly (as long as I remember to plug the drive in...)

-Acronis online backup, daily

So far I haven't had to consolidate the backups or delete any history. Since it only backs up changes, there's still plenty of space. Will have to do that eventually, though. You can restore individual files or the entire backup archive from any date the backup was run.

Also of course you'd only back up important personal data, to save on storage space. Re-installing software isn't a big deal.

 

[antef]

Backups without file history aren't very useful. Various things can cause files to change or become corrupted. Those corrupted files would then overwrite your backup the next time you run it.

I use Acronis True Image and the following backups:

-From one internal drive to another, daily

-From internal drive to external drive, weekly (as long as I remember to plug the drive in...)

-Acronis online backup, daily

So far I haven't had to consolidate the backups or delete any history. Since it only backs up changes, there's still plenty of space. Will have to do that eventually, though. You can restore individual files or the entire backup archive from any date the backup was run.

Also of course you'd only back up important personal data, to save on storage space. Re-installing software isn't a big deal.

Thanks for this. Can you tell me what sort of format the backup is in? Is it an image file, archives, loose files? When it comes to my data, I prefer loose files so that I'm not at the mercy of the tool working properly if I need to restore in a critical situation. However, regular files in regular folders isn't very conducive to versioning, which makes me think a secondary backup solution should be used for that (either alongside the loose files, or a cloud solution, etc.).

And you mentioned you can restore from any date...but will this restore the EXACT files you had on that date, or will it also restore files in the backup that you've since deleted on your PC? This is the problem with Windows' built-in backup, it seems it will restore everything.

 

[Gooberlx2]

If you want simple file based backup (no zips or proprietary containers), you could try something like cwrsync and create a batch script to make snapshots using hardlinks (obviously, would have to be adapted for windows), so you're not wasting drive space.

Personally, I use just use Crashplan. Proprietary containers and all that, but it works well.

 

[Red Squirrel]

For basic "mirror" backups (in case of drive/raid failure) I use rsync and it just runs every day. rsync can backup Windows by grabbing the files over smb, so that's what I do to backup stuff like my user profile, game settings etc...

Everything else is on my server so it just gets rsynced to a removable drive that I rotate around. For stuff like source code where I may want to go back to a specific time, I use rsync but it saves to a month/day folder configuration. I always include the date and time in a text file at the backup destination as well, that way I know exactly when the backup ran. If for some reason it failed then that file wont get updated.

I want to look at rdiffbackup though, as it would probably do a better job at versioning than having all those folders with lot of duplicate files.

 

[Gooberlx2]

yeah, rdiff is supposed to be a much faster implementation as, I believe, it does delta backups. But I always found simple shell scripts with rsync, hard links and folder rotation easier for me to manage and customize.

Definitely look in to using hard links if you don't already.

 

[Kaido]

Requirements are simple - daily backup, file history/deletion recovery, but a restore process that will restore exactly what I had as of my last backup, not every file I've ever backed up. This seems simple but there doesn't seem to be an obvious answer.

What you are looking for is a CDP product (continuous data protection). Basically it makes a backup when you make a change (or on a schedule, such as a daily file backup, or every X amount of hours). If you want something free, checkout Genie9 Timeline:

http://www.genie9.com/Free_products/free_timeline.aspx

It backs up multiple versions of your files & then auto-deletes the oldest. If you want set & forget with a simple file restoration procedure, it's a good one. A comparison of the free & pay for versions is available here:

http://www.genie9.com/Free_products/Comparison.aspx

If you want the more advanced features in the comparison chart, the Home version is $40 and the Pro version is $60; there are usually coupons floating around as well (Retailmenot etc.), but the free version is pretty dang good.

Another product to look at is a pay-for cloud backup solution. Personally, I use Backblaze, which is $5 a month per computer (again, check Retailmenot for coupon codes), does continuous backup, and has unlimited storage space:

https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup.html

I use this on all of my home computers; covers both Macs & Windows PC's. Just depends on if you want to do local backup (i.e. Genie9) or cloud backup (Backblaze), or a combination of both. For local backup, I use Macrium Reflect, which makes an image of the entire disk, rather than individual file changes, and just do a nightly incremental backup from the master image. So I use Backblaze for files in the cloud & Macrium for local disk images. It sounds like what you are looking for is a local CDP system like Genie9, however.

 

[Bardock]

I use Ghost still.

It can hot image a running windows system to an image *.gho file that I keep on external drive.

You can restore to bare metal or virtual machine.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

Which version is it? Does it allow you to boot from a USB and ghost the drive when you're not in windows?

I use Ghost still.

It can hot image a running windows system to an image *.gho file that I keep on external drive.

You can restore to bare metal or virtual machine.

 

[Bardock]

version 12. USB works but uses dos and doesn't seem to recognize my 2tb backup.