Author Topic: What to use to back up 1:1 ? (Read 18229 times)

Curt · « **on:** May 18, 2010, 07:40 AM »

For a very long period of time, I would settle with Windows' backup/recovery solution. I have been 'lucky' and have not yet needed any thing else. From time to time I have purchased a back up program when the price was right (Acronis Truemage Home 12, Avanquest PerfectImage 12, Backup4All Pro 4, Paragon Harddisk Manager 2010, R-Drive Image Backup). Unfortunately none of these seems to offer the solution I want; they all want to compress and back up in a proprietary format, or to create an image which I see as just another proprietary format. I don't see compressed containers as a safe mean - and safety is what back ups are about - and I don't want to be enslaved by some proprietary format.

I used Acronis TrueImage Home 12 to clone my C drive, only to realize that Acronis doesn't offer incremental back ups ~~for~~ to such. A full cloning takes 8 hours.

I want an image but I don't want an "image" file format; it too is proprietary, I imagine (sorry!). I want a 1:1 copy; a clone (not of the drive sectors, but of the files)! Preferably it should offer automatic, silent, incremental updates of the back up. What should I use?

Edited:
I can only back up to external USB hard-drive (2x500 GB).

gruppebillede fb.jpg

kfitting · « **Reply #1 on:** May 18, 2010, 07:50 AM »

MirrorFolder has worked great for me:
MirrorFolder

Curt · « **Reply #2 on:** May 18, 2010, 07:57 AM »

MirrorFolder comes very close!

However:

Note that MirrorFolder does not support mirroring entire system drive on external removable and network drives at present.

https://www.donation....msg205868#msg205868
-500

kfitting · « **Reply #3 on:** May 18, 2010, 08:16 AM »

Hmmm... yeah I never tried to do that... wonder if you could just back up all folders in the root. Dont know.

tomos · « **Reply #4 on:** May 18, 2010, 09:11 AM »

I used Acronis TrueImage Home 12 to clone my C drive, only to realize that Acronis doesn't offer incremental back ups ~~for~~ to such. A full cloning takes 8 hours.
-Curt (May 18, 2010, 07:40 AM)

Hi Curt, I'm not clear there - do you mean Acronis doesnt do incremental - or doesnt offer them to the C drive?
I have Acronis 10 & it can do incremental backups...

A full imaging of 15GB or so takes maybe 10 - 20 mins here. (You can exclude files (& filetypes) but I dont know can you exclude folders)
Either you have everything (& a lot of it!) on C, or, it's not working as it should if it's taking 8 hours (maybe you have compression set to highest level or something)
I have restored selected files from an image and found it no problem (the restored files can also be copied elsewhere than their original location).

OTOH I can understand your preference for non-proprietary formats but you're gonna need a lot of space for all those uncompressed backups if you do find a solution..

AndyM · « **Reply #5 on:** May 18, 2010, 10:07 AM »

I use Acronis Home 11 and have an older version on another machine. I don't use it for incremental backups, simply do a full image of each of my two hard drives every few days.

Each drive has around 20g, the .tib files are around 10g each. It takes around 15 minutes to image each drive and around the same to verify the backup. Total time around an hour.

I've had to restore backups to each computer a couple of times, no problem. Plus it's been easy to retrieve individual files/folders from the .tib files.

superboyac · « **Reply #6 on:** May 18, 2010, 10:50 AM »

It sounds like you want Super Flexible File Synchronizer:
http://www.superflexible.com/

It has a gargantuan amount of options. It can create a mirror of your files however you like. I use it to keep multiple copies of my files on a couple of backup drives. I also have a simpler program called DirSync that does the same thing, with much fewer poweruser features, but more pleasant to use:
http://www.archersoft.com/

Now, as far as doing incremental updates, that's a somewhat different story. SFFS can do incremental backups. Of course, setting it up is more complicated than just mirroring files. But it's capable of doing it, and since SFFS is such a fantastic program, you know it will do it well.

Personally, I also use Genie backup Manager in addition to SFFS. While SFFS backs up ALL my files (mirroring on multiple drives), Genie does an incremental backup on just my documents (like Word files, presentations, homework, etc....but NOT large files like videos, music, installers, etc.). Also, SFFS backs up the Genie incremental backups.

As you can see, there are multiple things going on. In case you haven't read it yet, you should read mouser's very detailed article on how to backup and the importance of it:
Power User Backup Guide

I also have written a little something on backing up, but mouser's is much better for you:
https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=7940.0

And finally, a while back, I created a flowchart showing my backup philosophy. I created this based on a discussion with mouser (see the original post here):

superboyac · « **Reply #7 on:** May 18, 2010, 10:55 AM »

Also, I want to freak out anyone who doesn't back up, to motivate them to backup. This is an excerpt from my article I posted above. I just remembered how close I was to another disaster because I didn't used to backup:

-------------------
-----EXCERPT-----
I started Windows and everything was fine (it takes a little longer to boot while the SATA adpater does something). I formatted the drive with NTFS using Windows default administration tools. I set up DirSync to transfer the information over and after double-checking several times, I started the process. It took a while (a few hours?) but when it was done, it was all very good. I checked to see if the data was properly backed up and everything. I was happy, and took a couple of hours off for good behavior. I came back to the computer to do some other stuff, was browsing the internet, and, BAM, everything freezes on the screen. I couldn't do anything, I couldn't even reboot or type, move the mouse...nothing. I thought, "No big deal, the computer just crashed." When I restarted, the BIOS would not recognize my old Seagate 300 GB storage drive. It was gone. That was a disaster. I was so freaked out and devastated that I had to go on my bed and just lie down for a minute. You see, I had forgotten that I had just backed up all the data only hours before! It took me a few minutes to remember that fact, but when I did, I was relieved a little. However, now, I was on pins and needles because my data was still only in one location on the new Seagate. Just to be safe, I pulled the drive out and was not intending to use it again until I receive the replacement drive from Seagate. THAT'S WHY YOU WANT THE 5-YEAR WARRANTY; THAT OLD DRIVE WAS COVERED UNTIL 2010!

Curt · « **Reply #8 on:** May 18, 2010, 11:29 AM »

It sounds like you want Super Flexible File Synchronizer:
http://www.superflexible.com/

It has a gargantuan amount of options.
-superboyac (May 18, 2010, 10:50 AM)

gargantuan
adj.: enormous, immense, huge, gigantic
-Babylon

Yes, it sounds as this really may be it.

To get a full impression of the available features, it is recommended to download and try the software and take a direct look at the available options.

I will take it for a (30 days fully featured) spin. Thanks for telling!

tomos · « **Reply #9 on:** May 18, 2010, 01:04 PM »

It sounds like you want Super Flexible File Synchronizer:
http://www.superflexible.com/

It has a gargantuan amount of options.
-superboyac (May 18, 2010, 10:50 AM)

gargantuan
adj.: enormous, immense, huge, gigantic
-Babylon

Yes, it sounds as this really may be it.

To get a full impression of the available features, it is recommended to download and try the software and take a direct look at the available options.

I will take it for a (30 days fully featured) spin. Thanks for telling!
-Curt (May 18, 2010, 11:29 AM)

there is a Beta of Version 5 on their download page - Darwin was saying a while ago that it was working for him without problem (build 35 now, so it's been worked on a bit). I've downloaded it but unfortunately it's still sitting in my 'Install' folder..)

rjbull · « **Reply #10 on:** May 18, 2010, 02:17 PM »

SyncBack?

sajman99 · « **Reply #11 on:** May 18, 2010, 03:28 PM »

Puresync?

Curt · « **Reply #12 on:** May 18, 2010, 03:31 PM »

... Super Flexible File Synchronizer ...., setting it up is more complicated ...
-superboyac (May 18, 2010, 10:50 AM)

You can say that again... Methink the 30 days of trial, all will be needed!

superboyac · « **Reply #13 on:** May 18, 2010, 03:35 PM »

... Super Flexible File Synchronizer ...., setting it up is more complicated ...
-superboyac (May 18, 2010, 10:50 AM)

You can say that again... Methink the 30 days of trial, all will be needed!
-Curt (May 18, 2010, 03:31 PM)

Yes, but it's worth it. Definitely the best program in it's class.
Here's my little review:
http://aram.dcmember...e-file-synchronizer/

jeromg · « **Reply #14 on:** May 18, 2010, 04:30 PM »

+1 for SuperFlexible!

I've been using it for years for synchronisation between several PCs, backup to external drive and backup to AmazonS3 (using AES 256 bits encryption) and I'm still discovering new customisation options!

Cheers /jerome

Darwin · « **Reply #15 on:** May 18, 2010, 10:34 PM »

+1 for Super Flexible from me, too. The latest build of 5 beta is rock solid. I also use both Acronis Backup and Recovery 10 and Genie Timeline Pro 2 (Acronis for C: drive - my system backup), Genie to backup and keep earlier versions of all of my work files and SFFS to sync my music, video, and photo files, none of which change very often..

joby_toss · « **Reply #16 on:** May 18, 2010, 11:38 PM »

You seem to know a great deal about synchronization!
How does SFFS compare to FreeFileSync?

MerleOne · « **Reply #17 on:** May 19, 2010, 03:43 AM »

XXClone is maybe what you want, if you want a perfect, file-based, yet bootable 1:1 clone of your system partition. However, reading the forum messages for xxclone, I suspect there are a few issues.

If you accept a proprietary format, I would recommend Macrium Reflect : it's one of the fastest, both in full and incremental or differential mode. they also have a very efficient support.

You mentioned Backup4all as having a proprietary format : it uses .zip, a de facto standard on a windows machine.

tomos · « **Reply #18 on:** May 19, 2010, 05:02 AM »

You seem to know a great deal about synchronization!
How does SFFS compare to FreeFileSync?
-joby_toss (May 18, 2010, 11:38 PM)

that looks nice but is pretty different to SFFS.
It looks like it's intended more for once off or occasional jobs.
SFFS on the other hand, is heavy duty in the sense you can set up a job with almost any imaginable variation possible. Really it's a backup programme, with everything you would expect from a backup prog (& more)

Have a look at their features page (there are two versions, only thing I'd miss in the basic version would be partial file updating - check the purchase page for differences) [see edit!]

[edit] I had missed this:

I should add that the standard version of Super Flexible File Synchronizer doesnt support zip compression,
nor:
-tomos (May 30, 2010, 01:11 PM)

[/edit]

Curt · « **Reply #19 on:** May 19, 2010, 07:43 AM »

XXClone is maybe what you want, ... However, ..., I suspect there are a few issues.
-MerleOne (May 19, 2010, 03:43 AM)

I remember trying XXClone back then, around 2007, and I think to remeber that the problem was that it doesn't fully support Unicode; Most of the way, but not all of the way.

-----

Regarding zip, etcetera: I want to be able to browse my backup, in Explorer, just as you would brose your every day hard drive. Further more I download several zip files each day, so I *know* first-hand that they are much too fragile for back up jobs. There is not a month without "container may be broken, etc...". This is unacceptable for a back up. So in general containers are not wanted, zip containers in particular.

MerleOne · « **Reply #20 on:** May 19, 2010, 08:44 AM »

Regarding zip, etcetera: I want to be able to browse my backup, in Explorer, just as you would brose your every day hard drive. Further more I download several zip files each day, so I *know* first-hand that they are much too fragile for back up jobs. There is not a month without "container may be broken, etc...". This is unacceptable for a back up. So in general containers are not wanted, zip containers in particular.
-Curt (May 19, 2010, 07:43 AM)

Then you could use OCB, which relies on winrar, to perform backups. It's some kind of front-end, with all winrar options (almost all of them) that is really nicely done. The free version is very usable, the pay-version adds some features like CD/DVD burning.

With winrar as archive format, you can specify an added amount of redundancy that protects your archive in a very nice way.

Minor drawback : you have to get a registered winrar version. I know there are some gievaways for the 3.80 version here and there.

OCB : http://acritum.com/ocb/

Shades · « **Reply #21 on:** May 22, 2010, 03:32 PM »

Personally I use a small, free and portable piece of software called: Pathsync

The link leads you to the review from this software on the freewaregenuis site.

Does exactly what I want it to do in a nice, simple and clean interface. One thing though, delta copy support is not there

Curt · « **Reply #22 on:** May 22, 2010, 04:51 PM »

It was my impression that Pathsync not is supporting Unicode.

Shades · « **Reply #23 on:** May 23, 2010, 01:57 AM »

You are right, Curt. After my post I started to read some more about PathSymc and saw that unicode was not supported.

Darn, by now I should know the correct order of things (proofread first, then post on the forum). Sorry about forgetting that particular requirement.

Innuendo · « **Reply #24 on:** May 30, 2010, 09:21 AM »

I want an image but I don't want an "image" file format; it too is proprietary, I imagine (sorry!). I want a 1:1 copy; a clone (not of the drive sectors, but of the files)! Preferably it should offer automatic, silent, incremental updates of the back up. What should I use?
-Curt (May 18, 2010, 07:40 AM)

If you want an actual backup program and not a file synchronizer you may want to look at Genie Backup Manager Home. While it has an 'image' file format you don't have to worry about proprietary file structures because the images are easily converted into standard zip archives whenever you wish.