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I Finally Got Religion - How do YOU back up key files on your PC?

GasX

GasX

Lifer
After a catastrophic hard drive failure, I have finally got arround to setting up a back-up program.

Are there any good software programs that will copy a set list of directories to another drive every [fill in the blank time period here]?
 
You could use xcopy32 from DOS at bootup daily.
  • Copies files and directory trees.

    XCOPY source [destination] [/A | /M] [/D[: Date]] [/P] [/S] [/E] [/W]
    [/C] [/i] [/.Q] [/F] [/L] [/H] [/R] [/T] [/u]
    [/K] [/N]

    source Specifies the file(s) to copy.

    destination Specifies the location and/or name of new files.

    /A Copies files with the archive attribute set,
    doesn't change the attribute.

    /M Copies files with the archive attribute set,
    turns off the archive attribute.

    /D: Date Copies files changed on or after the specified date.
    If no date is given, copies only those files whose
    source time is newer than the destination time.

    /P Prompts you before creating each destination file.
    /S Copies directories and subdirectories except empty ones.
    /E Copies directories and subdirectories, including empty ones.
    Same as /S /E. May be used to modify /T.

    /W Prompts you to press a key before copying.
    /C Continues copying even if errors occur.
    /I If destination does not exist and copying more than one file,
    assumes that destination must be a directory.

    /Q Does not display file names while copying.
    /F Displays full source and destination file names while copying.
    /L Displays files that would be copied.
    /H Copies hidden and system files also.
    /R Overwrites read-only files.
    /T Creates directory structure, but does not copy files. Does not
    include empty directories or subdirectories. /T /E includes
    empty directories and subdirectories.

    /U Updates the files that already exist in destination.
    /K Copies attributes. Normal Xcopy will reset read-only attributes.
    /Y Overwrites existing files without prompting.
    /-Y Prompts you before overwriting existing files.
    /N Copy using the generated short names.
 
i use ghost. it's not intelligent since it doesnt replace files, it just images your drive\partition. that is, it doesnt look for changes. it's a pure image program.
 
I'm with Mday. A second hard drive is cheaper than any other form of backup, and when (not if) your drive dies, you're immediately good to go, and you're as good as your last Ghost. I can Ghost my drive while I'm showering and shaving. 🙂
 
I think I've finally achieved backup zen status. I have my OS drive, a 'work' drive (those two are one physical drive, a raptor), then I have a 'storage' drive for those MP3's and ISO's (WD 180GB 8MB), and then I have a nice 200GB WD as my backup drive. I've created a ghost backup image of my OS (boot) drive and put it on the backup drive.

I use a proggie called "Smartbackup" to do nightly backups of everything onto my backup drive. If something happens to any of the other drives, I'll have everything back from backup in a jiffy. Check out smartbackup here. It extremely flexible and allows you to backup up just the stuff you need the way you want it. One of the features I really like is the way it allows you to specify the "kind" of backup to do (sync, simple copy, smart copy etc).

Unless someone steals my whole computer, I should be set with the backups. I plan to purchase another 200GB drive to use as an "off site" backup so if my computer goes or my place burns down or something, I can at least listen to my MP3's while I rebuild 😉
 
ghost is a descent option but youll have to reboot and use a boot disk to make your image. Im also not sure if it yet has support to write images to NTFS paritions so youll need a 2nd hd partitioned fat32.

i stopped using ghost when one too many restores failed. and combined w/ the fact that i hated having to reboot to backup my system i started using Veritas Backup Exec 9.0. you can schedule backups of your drives w/out restarting and even backup to tape drives (if you have them). Veritas Backup Exec 9.0 is probably the most robust backup program out there. now it doesnt work like ghost - it doesnt clone your disk or partition, it only coppies all of the files so restores are a bit more work (ie youll need a 2nd computer or an alternate boot hd to load the files to the proper hard disk and then reinstall the bootloader using your windows cd). this program also allows you to do incremental backups which is pretty nice for those of us that want to backup a bit more frequently and save some time.
 
xcopy to a different hard drive on a different computer

EDIT: with daily and also weekly backups so you can recover from corrupted files
 
At my place, the only "critical" files are my Quicken files. I back them up to CD-R and keep copies at work. That way even if the place I'm living in burns down, I can still keep track of things.
 
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