BackUp on Vista

Danger Phoenix · 17 Apr 2008 at 03:32

I want to backup my Windows Vista profile (C:\Users\[NAME]), which includes My Documents, Outlook PSTs etc etc to another hard drive on a daily basis.

I had used Acronis in the past, but after the most recent batch of Vista updates it has stopped working.

I cannot seem to find any other program that will make differential backups for X days, followed by a full backup and then merge the previous differentials.

I have been playing around with:
Nero BackItUp3
SyncToy
Norton Ghost
Paragon Drive BackUp

But none of these seem to be any good, so has anyone got any advice?

m4cc45 · 17 Apr 2008 at 08:17

Have you tried Vistas inbuilt backup? That would do what you want all be it to a flat file.

M.

rpstewart · 17 Apr 2008 at 09:09

Danger Phoenix said:
I cannot seem to find any other program that will make differential backups for X days, followed by a full backup and then merge the previous differentials.

So rather than one exact mirror of the source you're looking to keep multiple instances of changes between the full backups?

bledd · 17 Apr 2008 at 09:27

robocopy daily
7zip that robocopy folder once a month

that's what i use

so I have full 7z compressed monthly backups and robocopy does the other backups daily

all using bat files, 2x exe files and task manager

Danger Phoenix · 17 Apr 2008 at 12:20

I would like to at least keep the last 5 days backups in case I need anything from them. Anything before that can be deleted as new backups are made.

We are talking about C:\Users\[NAME] being 26GB in size, so it needs to be differential or incremental (but I prefer differential).

The Windows Backup Tool seems pretty useless to be honest

bledd · 17 Apr 2008 at 12:36

You'd be better off backing up only certain folders under %userprofile%\ like docs, pics, music, videos, downloads (or whatever else)

there's a lot of temp folders and application data that you'd be needlessly backing up if you did the whole folder

robocopy /E %userprofile%\Documents X:\Backup\Documents
robocopy /E %userprofile%\Music X:\Backup\Music

etc etc, run that once a day

then set every 5 days for 7zip to backup X:\Backup to X:\7zBackup

or similar

Danger Phoenix · 17 Apr 2008 at 12:57

bledd. said:
You'd be better off backing up only certain folders under %userprofile%\ like docs, pics, music, videos, downloads (or whatever else)

there's a lot of temp folders and application data that you'd be needlessly backing up if you did the whole folder

robocopy /E %userprofile%\Documents X:\Backup\Documents
robocopy /E %userprofile%\Music X:\Backup\Music

etc etc, run that once a day

then set every 5 days for 7zip to backup X:\Backup to X:\7zBackup

or similar

Even excluding the temp files etc, the space required is around 25GB

NathanE · 17 Apr 2008 at 13:03

What ever you do, don't use Vista's built in backup. It's crap. Doesn't let you select which files/folders you want. It only lets you select an entire drive. Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.

Bring back NTBACKUP is what I say!

bledd · 17 Apr 2008 at 13:14

you need to manage which files you need a monthly backup of

some (like say music, pictures & videos) you can probably just have an ongoing robocopy of (only copies new & updated files)

wheras your documents folder, you may want monthly backups of also.

use JDiskReport to show you exactly where the bigger files are, incase you can delete some. http://www.jgoodies.com/downloads/index.html

you need the java runtime installed first http://jdl.sun.com/webapps/getjava/BrowserRedirect?locale=en&host=www.java.com

Danger Phoenix · 17 Apr 2008 at 18:35

I would rather keep a daily backup of the last 5 days or so as I think a monthly backup is too infrequent. However, I only have around 70gb to play around with for backups

BruceLee · 17 Apr 2008 at 20:03

tried syncback, i use it, not to the extent you want to but IIRC it will do what you want, I use it to manage backups of my docs and pictures (which are around 80gb) and it does it pretty quickly for the amount of files it has to look at etc.

SE version is free too.

You can add exclusions etc etc to it to minimise size.

Also check you arent copying the AppData hidden folder to your backups, I've found that that can be over a few GB sometimes.

Danger Phoenix · 17 Apr 2008 at 20:07

BruceLee said:
tried syncback, i use it, not to the extent you want to but IIRC it will do what you want, I use it to manage backups of my docs and pictures (which are around 80gb) and it does it pretty quickly for the amount of files it has to look at etc.

SE version is free too.

You can add exclusions etc etc to it to minimise size.

Also check you arent copying the AppData hidden folder to your backups, I've found that that can be over a few GB sometimes.

I will give that program a go and see how it works out.

I actually want to copy the AppData folder as it contains my Outlook, Firefox, Azureus etc files...

Danger Phoenix · 18 Apr 2008 at 16:56

Well it seems that SyncbackSE seems to do the trick

Cheers BruceLee

Greenlizard0 · 18 Apr 2008 at 17:13

Danger Phoenix said:
Well it seems that SyncbackSE seems to do the trick

Cheers BruceLee

Yeap I use this program very successfully. It's a good little find.

BruceLee · 18 Apr 2008 at 17:25

Danger Phoenix said:
Well it seems that SyncbackSE seems to do the trick

Cheers BruceLee

Excellent, glad it works for you, it is a very useful little app

Danger Phoenix · 18 Apr 2008 at 17:29

BruceLee said:
Excellent, glad it works for you, it is a very useful little app

Hey, I just noticed you live in Leamington... I am a Warwick student and lived in Leam 2 years ago, just above Viallis and Sandhu Estates

BruceLee · 18 Apr 2008 at 17:31

Ha, yeah I used to live a bit further down the road past the railway bridge but moved further out now. Must have been a bit noisy living there but at least its in spitting distance of the pubs (well Jug & Jester & Robins Well) and town.

Think there are a few people on here that are at Warwick Uni and live in Leam. Small world