Looking for Better Backup Capability

S

shamrock838

New Member
Looking for Better Backup Capability:

I have a Dell Vostro 420 Desktop -- WIN Vista Business SP2 -- as my everyday, home computer. I also have a Dell Latitude D820 laptop -- WIN XP Pro -- that I use is an emergency stand-in or when for mobile purposes.

I’ve been backing up my desktop on a weekly basis for some time now. Over the years I’ve tried various backup programs but have never been satisfied with their ease of use, longevity, keep-up with advancing technology and my own changing needs.

I’ve been doing simple weekly copy ‘n paste backups from desktop to external HD. This arrangement is far from perfect but I’ve found it easier to retrieve individual files in a hurry and without a hassle.

Still, I’m looking for a better way of backing up. One particular need is to get back to daily backups of files created/updated in the last 24 hours. This used to be called a differential or incremental backup – I forgot which. It’s been that long.

SO – I’m open to suggestions that are not too technical or esoteric for this semi-literate computer user.

Many thanks.
 
Personally Window's built-in system restore is all I've ever dealt with these days. Used to use a backup program that went obsolete during the Win98 days and ever since I've just learned to keep all of my important files (i.e music, pictures, downloads) on my external hard drive, which personally, I find to be the best backup system of all. Pretty much what you're doing from the sounds of it!

However, having tested a few recently just for the giggles of it, I'd recommend the following:


Shadow Protect Desktop:
http://www.storagecraft.com/shadow_protect_desktop.php

Genie Backup Manager:
http://www.genie-soft.com/


From my own testing and per other reviews, I'd have to go with Shadowprotect if I'd actually buy it for keeps. The UI's are all pretty much the same for backups so ease of use isn't really a question. I'd steer away from Norton Ghost and/or Acronis as those programs easily screwed up my hard drive and I found certain files became 'corrupted' after restoring them due to my own stupid schemes of destroying my computer.


I still think copy+paste of your downloads/music/pictures/videos works the best though, but nice to have that bootable image when in doubt...
 
I use Macrium Reflect for the image backup and I also use Second Copy for daily data backups. All to an external HD. Hope that helps.
 
You can try CloudDrive

CloudDrive is a free client tool to help you to save your files to Adobe Acrobat's 5G free online storage. With it, you can upload/download any files or folders with just a drag&drop. It is 100% free. website: http://www.driveoncloud.com
 
shamrock838 said:
Looking for Better Backup Capability:

I have a Dell Vostro 420 Desktop -- WIN Vista Business SP2 -- as my everyday, home computer. I also have a Dell Latitude D820 laptop -- WIN XP Pro -- that I use is an emergency stand-in or when for mobile purposes.

I’ve been backing up my desktop on a weekly basis for some time now. Over the years I’ve tried various backup programs but have never been satisfied with their ease of use, longevity, keep-up with advancing technology and my own changing needs.

I’ve been doing simple weekly copy ‘n paste backups from desktop to external HD. This arrangement is far from perfect but I’ve found it easier to retrieve individual files in a hurry and without a hassle.

Still, I’m looking for a better way of backing up. One particular need is to get back to daily backups of files created/updated in the last 24 hours. This used to be called a differential or incremental backup – I forgot which. It’s been that long.

SO – I’m open to suggestions that are not too technical or esoteric for this semi-literate computer user.

Many thanks.
Click to expand...

I just found something that i think is what you are looking for.
I have the same problem has you with backups and until a few days i was working with cobian backup,the problem with cobian was that i needed to keep an eye on him and make sure i will nackup the new stuff to the other 2 HDDs that i have.
I just found what most peole are looking
When you create a new file in a disk you would like that he would be automatically copyed to another Disk or Disks in real time without your entervention and make sure it will be copied in the perfection.
The program that i have been working in the last few days its called Mirrorfolder and you can download it from here for a 30Days trial:

http://www.techsoftpl.com/backup/download.php

(its very cheap software -39bucks) and he works in a lot of difrent ways and one of them is act as RAID-1 and that means that you only need to configure him once and after that each time you modified a file or add a new one to the specified folder or entire HDD he will copy it to one or more destinatons in the same second and he will make sure that the copied file is a clone of the original, even can copy ACLs, permissions..well everything to keep him like the original.
Hope that helps
 
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