Backup software & methods

[Caiyuo]

How do you guys prefer to make backups and with what? Image, file backup, syncing, etc.

As an aside, are there any options that work with networks? I'm trying to get a backup plan going for 3 separate computers and would love to be able to manage them all from one, if weekly/monthly automation wouldn't be sufficient.

[Ragnell]

I would also like to know, I use to use norton ghost when I was at work, to make ISOs but I can't find similar

[Cephius]

Acronis True Image is my personal favorite. The 2011 version is probably their best yet, it has a nice clean interface, with all kinds of choices and utilities to pick from.

I like making full backup images. In the event of a disk failure, user error, program fuckup, or whatever else - I can have my system back up and running in 20 minutes. No reinstalling stuff, minimal effort. Obviously, this takes up the most space even with compression. The smaller drive you have though, the easier and more attractive option this is. I backup about 2 TB of data once a week and it takes approximately 6 hours.

My personal backup method of choice is an incremental backup. This basically means that the program will create one base image, then each subsequent run will compare changes and make another file with the changes. If something goes wrong, you have a bunch of different points in time to revert to. It's handy if you're constantly making changes. Acronis also has a bunch of neat situational utilities, like the ability to convert images into virtual machines (or visa versa), to mount images as a file system (delete a critical file? simply mount an old image and drag/drop) or to do continuous backups. It has a nice scheduling feature so, as long as you don't run out of space, you can "set it and forget it".

As an aside, are there any options that work with networks? I'm trying to get a backup plan going for 3 separate computers and would love to be able to manage them all from one, if weekly/monthly automation wouldn't be sufficient.

Most backup programs have the network backup option. The only problem is, if you're backing up a lot of data, it's sloooooow. Most home networks cap at 100mbits, which really is not that much when you're talking about 100s of gigs of data. If you have a small drive though, (like, 80-100gb) it's certainly a viable option.

[SephYuyX]

Depends what youre backing up, how often, and how big it is.

I just do a file backup on my personal.
For small/medium business a simple NTBackup will suffice. (coupled with a .bat file you can customize it greatly, this is my personal preferance for lazy and cheap)
Larger businesses will be Veritas, NetApp sync, etc.

As mentioned, norton ghost is a cheap and simple solution for image backups.

[Rockstaru]

A program I like to use is Microsoft SyncToy. It's limited, but for simple folder backups, it's fairly easy to use and gets the job done.

[Caiyuo]

Thanks for the recommendations, this really helps. I've tried SyncToy before myself and liked it as well as a syncing service to use within a network without needing the cloud the way a lot of them do.

@Cephius: That sounds really awesome, actually, I think I'll look into it because I have a spare external that really isn't used for much at all. thanks!

@Ragnell: Have you heard of/tried Clonezilla? I believe it's essentially the same, incredibly popular as well.

As a tip, if any of you use xmarks, they have an extremely handy ranking system that can be setup to reflect in your google search results so, for example, when searching for norton ghost, you'll see it's ranked #75th among sites tagged "Ghost" while Clonezilla is ranked as the first, with some stupid ghost shit marked as the 3rd, lol.

[xerodok]

There are methods to backing up almost anything, it all depends what. Acronis True is great software for backing up your entire system in the event of a failure or you mess something up. Cephius outlined, you can make incremental backups incase you need to rollback a week or something, but, what I also recommend is making an image of how your computer was the day you put it together, with all the standard programs and settings of course. In the situation you'd want to reformat, boot your image and you'll be up and going.

If you're backing up other media, like pictures, videos, etc. I would recommend just syncing your documents to an external HDD. You should strictly keep your computer backups with the bare essentials, maybe some programs. This keeps it smaller and easier to manage. There's software called Allwaysync that syncs your files much like if you were on a Windows Server domain, but stores it locally somewhere on your network or an external device. You can schedule it so it only syncs when you log on and off, restart/shutdown, or real-time.

Cephius, you should add a section in the List of Free Apps and Utilities thread with other backup utilities.

[Zeith]

bacula is free, will let you choose and pool your storage medium, allows configurable full/incr backups, works over a network, scales, has a cool name.

[Cephius]

Cephius, you should add a section in the List of Free Apps and Utilities thread with other backup utilities.

Can do, I think I only have Macrium Reflect up there, which is a poor man's Acronis. Are there any other good apps besides the aforementioned Allwaysync and SyncToy?

[chiyio]

clonezilla works well.

[Caiyuo]

Aside from what's been mentioned, I really liked both GFI Backup and Cobian Backup for file backup for freeware.