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You have a computer backup plan.. but does it work?

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tomos:
What's important to me with an imaging programme is that it doesnt backup the hibernation file (2GB here) and the paging file if you have one on the C drive. Incremental backups are a big plus. Beyond that, of course (as mouser says) that it really works :)

MilesAhead:
I bought the Paragon Drive Backup Personal 9.0.  It has file exclusion on image backups which is okay if you want to exclude a few big files.  For example I used to exclude my DVD folder.  If I did a restore there would be "phantom entries" in the DVD folder for dvd images that didn't really exists... but just deleting them fixed that.

The problem comes if you have a folder tree with hundreds of files in it.  The Paragon backup will tick off the name of every file it is excluding so that the backup will take 5 hours instead of 15 minutes.  You are better off just to move the big files you don't want to throw away, onto an external drive before the backup.

So far I haven't found an image backup with exclusion that doesn't have this same problem.  Other than that the Paragon is fine.  One thing about the Macrium is you get network support without buying some "deluxe" version.

Also just a few days ago I tested the Macrium Linux boot CD and it recognized an internal Sata drive in a USB Docking station(which was a relief since I mainly use that for backups.)

xtabber:
Given today's huge drives -- and the huge amount of data that tends to fill them up (nature abhors a vacuum),  I don't think full drive imaging is a good solution. If it takes too long to image one's drive, it just won't get done often enough to provide proper protection.

My suggestion is to partition the drive into at least two logical drives. The C: drive should be relatively small (say, 30GB on a 500GB drive, 50GB on a 1TB drive) and should be used only for software installations (a pain to restore) and data that is critical and changes frequently, such as email, current work, etc.. Everything else should go on the D:, etc. drives.

The C: drive can then be easily imaged regularly. The D:, etc. drives don't need to be imaged, but rather should be mirrored or synced to one or more external drives, or a backup computer.

I have 4 logical drives on my primary work desktop system, with D:, E: and F: used for different types of data and storage. I create a full image of C: on another partition at least once a month and always before installing anything that might scramble something. At the end of each month, I image C:, copy the image file to a bootable DVD and store that in a fireproof safe in my basement.

On my working notebook (which has no built-in optical drive), I have two logical drives and regularly image C: to D:. I also keep a copy of the most recent image of C: on a bootable USB flash drive, from which I can restore the system to a working state in case of disaster on the road.

I use Acronis True Image Home (currently 2009) for my imaging and UltraISO to create my bootable DVDs. I never use incrementals (too fragile and slow to retrieve) but keep current work and critical data synchronized between a couple of systems (at the minimum, my desktop and notebook).

MilesAhead:
I did the multiple partition thing so only my OS was on C: years ago.  The trouble with Windows is even if you install stuff on D: or E: many of the applications, such as Visual C++/Visual Studio insist on putting a bunch of stuff on C: making it difficult to guess how much space to allocate.  Back then I could jockey the drive space around with Partition Magic, but it was still a pita.

The approach I take now is to run with at least 70% free space.  If I don't want to throw away what I'm deleting, I move it off to an external drive.  Defrags are fast since there's plenty of free space to work with.  Image backups are small, typically 20 GB after compression. I have a 2 PC setup with network so I can back up from my main machine to the external connected to the other machine, and be surfing with the secondary machine. I make multiple backups every week since it only takes between 10 and 20 minutes.

Periodically I back up to drives that are only connected during backup and I swap out the drive in the docking station so that I have recent backups in case all the connected drives should be simultaneously infected by some wonder virus.

The last time I ran with 80% disk space used was on a machine with an 80 GB drive.  Once I got to 200 GB or higher I run them lean.  The maintenance chores are all faster and (almost) fun since they rarely exceed 1/2 hour.

40hz:
Faster drives and interfaces will also have a major influence on how we chart our future backup plans.

Despite Intel's general foot-dragging over direct support for USB 3.0, it is starting to make its appearance courtesy of ASUS and some other board manufactureres. Once USB 3.0 becomes more generally available, there will be some additional options available for various backup strategies.

A few USB 3.0 hardware links for anyone interested:

   http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/exclusive_first_usb_30_and_sata_60_expansion_card_will_sell_30

   http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/highpoint_announces_sata_6gb_controller_availability

   http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/new_asus_motherboards_boast_true_usb_30_and_sata_6gbs_compatibility

The new 6Gb/sec SATA spec also holds promise.

Good intro article here: www.maximumpc.com/article/news/seagate_amd_demo_6gbsec_sata

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