Proposed HD/OS backup plan...feedback?

[ssoni223]

Here is my plan:
Drive 1) Do a fresh XP install. Install all my apps. Copy over MyDocs
Drive 2) Mirror drive 1 and store in desk.
Drive 3) Daily external USB backup of myDocs.
Drive 4) Add this as a RAID-1 live mirror drive of Drive 1

In event of OS failure/corruption/virus, I can rollback to drive #2, the fresh starting point, and simply copy over myDocs from drive 3. (And install any new apps since)


I used to simply mirror my entire drive (w/ Acronis), and then disconnect the slave. However, I didn't do it frequently enough, and got screwed when I had to revert to a 9 month backup. (Kick self in head....20 times) So, yes, I also need a more transparent solution for external backup as well.

Q: What's the easiest way to schedule a daily/seamless copy of myDocuments/ onto an external USB HD?

 

[Roguestar]

Make an image of a fresh install without any documents, files, video, anything other than OS and programs on it. Then weekly back up files and documents to the external drive. In the event of failure, re-image from fresh install image, and copy docs over.

 

[tw1164]

Originally posted by: ssoni223

Q: What's the easiest way to schedule a daily/seamless copy of myDocuments/ onto an external USB HD?

You could just create a simple batch file, and have scheduler run it at a certain time.

 

[Navid]

I use Cobian, which is a free program.
http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm

I have set it up to create daily incremental backups, monthly differential backups and quarterly full backups.
The backups are stored on a secondary internal hard drive.

This way, I don't have to remember to backup. It is done automatically.
Occasionally, I burn a backup to a DVD. This way, I am partly covered if the second hard drive has a hardware failure.

Another nice thing about Cobian is that the backups are just compressed folders. I don't need any software to recover data. I can just use Windows explorer and recover data.

For OS, I use Acronis for imaging.

 

[ssoni223]

Rogue,
If I only imaged the bare OS, I'd have to reinstall all my apps onto the backup.
That's why I'd rather image the OS+Apps.
Upon recovery, I'd just need to copy the MyDocs over.

 

[Slugbait]

There are several different ways...here's mine

1) Partition, XP gets 15G (over 8G free after I finish...)
2) Install XP, run autopatcher, install drivers and security, ms update, delete $NT files and SoftwareDownload files, disable RecycleBin, clean Restore, ACTIVATE, make clean image (usually fits on a DVD for archiving)
3) Install all apps/games to a different drive/partition, set up all options/activate, etc
4) Customize the snot out of everything (system tweaks, website logon cookies, machine accounts, refresh rate, gamma, temp folders for rips, msconfig, etc)
5) Create master image
6) Import PST file

If my machine gets compromised, or I somehow manually screw everything, it takes 10 minutes to restore, saving me a week of my life. If I want to start over from scratch, I drop the clean image and save a little more than a day of my life.

 

[Roguestar]

Originally posted by: ssoni223
Rogue,
If I only imaged the bare OS, I'd have to reinstall all my apps onto the backup.
That's why I'd rather image the OS+Apps.
Upon recovery, I'd just need to copy the MyDocs over.

I said "fresh install without ... anything other than OS and programs on it", that's what I meant .