Author Topic: a backup solution that uses winRAR (Read 27,008 times)

urlwolf · « **on:** May 17, 2006, 11:55 AM »

Just found this 'one click backup':
http://www.acritum.com/ocb/index.htm

I haven't tested it exhaustively, but it could be very nice. I have seem people here complaining that most backup software use zip...

If incremental backups are possible this could be a killer solution.

f0dder · « **Reply #1 on:** May 17, 2006, 02:48 PM »

Hm, it uses an external copy of WinRAR... so you'll need both this copy + preferably a registered WinRAR version. WinRAR itself is a pretty solid piece of code, but I wouldn't recommend it for backup jobs as such - it does have some in-use-file support, but... meh.

For backing up my source code, I used to use two batch files. One for a weekly "full" backup, and one for a daily "incremental" backup.

FULL: c:\programs\winrar\rar a -os -tsm,c -agYYYYMMDD-HHMM -ac -k -m5 -md4096 -r -rr5p -s \\server\backup\source_full@.rar *
INCREMENTAL: c:\programs\winrar\rar a -os -tsm,c -ao -agYYYYMMDD-HHMM -ac -k -m5 -md4096 -r -rr5p -s \\server\backup\source_inc_day@.rar *

But IMHO, backup solutions that depend on a normal generic-purpose archiving software are going to have shortcomings of one form or another.

thunder7 · « **Reply #2 on:** May 17, 2006, 07:54 PM »

I am currently using Acronis "True Image" http://www.acronis.com/
I Love it.

f0dder · « **Reply #3 on:** May 17, 2006, 08:01 PM »

Quote from: thunder7 on May 17, 2006, 07:54 PM

I am currently using Acronis "True Image" http://www.acronis.com/
I Love it.

I'm pretty fond of it myself for drive imaging (sure beats the crudd Ghost has become, even if older Ghost versions are still decent), but for the ~12-client installation at my work, the file-based backup of TrueImage is not appropriate.

Sometimes, files that aren't (or at least shouldn't have been) modified are backed up - resulting in some way too huge incremental datasets. I will need to upgrade the diskspace in the backup server soon, partly because of this. Also, sometimes the daily backups aren't done - and it's hard to troubleshoot why. And there isn't a cleanup/rotation setting for the incremental backups, which means I have to hand-trim the datasets every now and a while.

Genie Backup (discussed in numerous threads around here) seem to be more capable at file-based backup, even if it uses the inefficient ZIP file format. I haven't tested it thoroughly yet, but my initial impressions are that I purchased the wrong backup software (Acronis) for the cheery ol' folks :/

thunder7 · « **Reply #4 on:** May 17, 2006, 09:13 PM »

Yes I also have this problem as well.
Best I can do is find everything created that day or 3 days ago copy paste it to a DVD.
Which is ok for me I move around a lot Which can easly fill up a DVD.

Not the best solution but there is not a lot out there that works well.
It needs a high compression ratio, lots of options.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #5 on:** May 17, 2006, 09:36 PM »

If you want a basic file backup program which includes scheduling why not use Windows Backup ??

Start > Accessories > System Tools > Backup

It's free 'cos it is in Windows and it does incremental backups of any set of files you like and also compacts the backup too.

swing · « **Reply #6 on:** May 17, 2006, 09:43 PM »

I recently stumbled over this excellent piece of software, you might wanna check it out

http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm

it's only usefull for full-drive backup, but for that purpose it is the best i have seen, and it's free

urlwolf · « **Reply #7 on:** May 18, 2006, 12:39 AM »

dixml sounds like quite a finding.
Just the day after I bought acronis...
but with a CC, that can be fixed...

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #8 on:** May 18, 2006, 12:44 AM »

I am intrigued to see they store backups as XML files ... won't that make them huge?? If you try it let us know what you think please.

Have you read the FAQs - it looks a bit on the picky side - plus you need to download and use other software to restore a trashed system, so you need to download and setup a WinPE Rescue CD with the restore routines installed there otherwise you would have to have enough space to install windows on another partition to run the restorer and still have enough space to make a partition at least as big as the original you backed up (it won't allow you to restore a small amount of data from a large, mostly empty, partition to a smaller partition).

You also need a big enough partition to make the backup and then manually burn, with third party software, DVDs, CDs etc. This is the way some like to work anyway.

swing · « **Reply #9 on:** May 18, 2006, 12:56 AM »

There is an option to compress as you can see from the attached screenshot

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #10 on:** May 18, 2006, 01:12 AM »

I'd be interested to know what degree of compression you can get. Have you got a small partition that you can backup both uncompressed and compressed and then post the size of data on the original drive and the size of the backups?

zridling · « **Reply #11 on:** May 18, 2006, 06:55 AM »

Carol's right in that Windows XP Backup is one of its hidden gems. I use Acronis for disk imaging, but merely sync my files to another drive and copy them to DVD using DirSync, which I've found to be highly accurate.

thunder7 · « **Reply #12 on:** May 18, 2006, 07:50 AM »

I have (3 hdd's) the 3rd is a 250gb hdd, I back up alot of data there
my 2nd hdd is software and sorting.
my 1st is RAPTOR 10,000RPM 74GB my root.

urlwolf · « **Reply #13 on:** May 19, 2006, 05:46 PM »

Ok, I returned acronis and got a full refund.
thanks for the post, some donation credits going your way, swing!

thunder7 · « **Reply #14 on:** May 19, 2006, 06:18 PM »

some donation credits going your way, swing!.
I already have.

Black Mamba · « **Reply #15 on:** May 19, 2006, 07:47 PM »

Another very good choice would be Cobian Backup.

It's freeware.

thunder7 · « **Reply #16 on:** May 19, 2006, 09:50 PM »

Cobian Backup I had trouble with Cobian Backup working on my PC.

Tekzel · « **Reply #17 on:** May 19, 2006, 09:59 PM »

I use Abakt - http://www.xs4all.nl/~edienske/abakt/. It doesn't do a system state backup, it is more of a data backup util. You can set up profiles and then execute them as groups ( I have about 9 profiles, in 3 or so groups). It has built in zip support, but it also can use 7zip if you have it installed. This is what I use.

urlwolf · « **Reply #18 on:** May 19, 2006, 10:03 PM »

the problem that I can see with windows backup is that you cannot search in the backup (like the catalog option in genie backup). Or can you? BTW, I like genie backup less and less each day. Very buggy. Is the compressed file produced by windows backup a simple zip file?

I haven't tried recovering a backup from dixml.

I don't think they store all the partition in xml. What they do is similar to the .CUE and .BIN formats for music. The partition is the .BIN, and the xml tells you where each file/directory starts and ends. Which is very smart, if that's what they do.

f0dder · « **Reply #19 on:** May 19, 2006, 10:07 PM »

What are your problems with Genie? I'd be VERY interested in hearing this, as I'm considering a ~15 license purchase for it!

Genie backups are zip files with a few extra entries, windows backups are proprietary.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #20 on:** May 19, 2006, 10:51 PM »

Windows backup may be proprietary but it has been included in ever version of Windows ... I would be very surprised if it wasn't included in future versions of Windows and backward compatible.

f0dder · « **Reply #21 on:** May 19, 2006, 10:55 PM »

Quote from: Carol Haynes on May 19, 2006, 10:51 PM

Windows backup may be proprietary but it has been included in ever version of Windows ... I would be very surprised if it wasn't included in future versions of Windows and backward compatible.

Yes, but can you restore from one windows version to another? That's what I'm worried about considering proprietary.

Tekzel · « **Reply #22 on:** May 19, 2006, 10:59 PM »

Quote from: f0dder on May 19, 2006, 10:55 PM

Yes, but can you restore from one windows version to another? That's what I'm worried about considering proprietary.

I seem to remember not being able to restore a backup on one version from another before, but if so it was a long time ago. I personally wouldn't use a backup like the Windows backup, its kind of lightweight and I dislike the proprietary format being potentially tied to a specific version of windows.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #23 on:** May 19, 2006, 11:19 PM »

Quote from: urlwolf on May 19, 2006, 10:03 PM

the problem that I can see with windows backup is that you cannot search in the backup (like the catalog option in genie backup). Or can you?

You can certainly look at the folders and files in the backup. Just double click the backup file, go to the restore tab and use double clik to open up each layer of the tree in the archive. It shows folders and files at each level.

You can restore anything you want either to its original location or somewhere else if you want.

OK it isn't as slick and feature rich as some apps but it works and its free.

Quote

BTW, I like genie backup less and less each day. Very buggy.

What bugs have you found ???

Quote

Is the compressed file produced by windows backup a simple zip file?

No it is Windows .BKF format (which has three levels of compression)

Quote

I haven't tried recovering a backup from dixml.

I don't think they store all the partition in xml. What they do is similar to the .CUE and .BIN formats for music. The partition is the .BIN, and the xml tells you where each file/directory starts and ends. Which is very smart, if that's what they do.

From the Drive Image XML home page ... it says "Images are stored in XML files, allowing you to process them with 3rd party tools. Never again be stuck with a useless backup!"

It is worth reading the FAQs etc. on the site because there are quite a few restrictions on what you can and can't do with DIXML which aren't immediately obvious or intuitive.

urlwolf · « **Reply #24 on:** May 20, 2006, 12:49 AM »

Sorry, didn't want to alarm you with Genie. I found duplicate files (e.g., .dbm and C001)... when only one dbm should exist (for small incremental backups of 1 day ~ 150 mb). Their tech people couldn't replicate it so they offered a refund (very corteous). It might be pretty rare.

Quote

From the Drive Image XML home page ... it says "Images are stored in XML files, allowing you to process them with 3rd party tools. Never again be stuck with a useless backup!"

It is worth reading the FAQs etc. on the site because there are quite a few restrictions on what you can and can't do with DIXML which aren't immediately obvious or intuitive.

What are the non-obvious restrictions that worry you?