Best Backup Solution?

[B@Th*nG]

Hi Guys,

I want to backup the files on my PC. I've currently got 2 1tb drives, one i've designated the "backup" drive and the other is split into 3 partitions; an XP partition, a windows 7 partition and a data partition with all my music, movies, games etc... on.

What is the best method of backing this data up? I've set off the windows 7 backup software but i'm concerned it's not really going to be a massive help as it doesn't backup all the installed software. What i want to do is effectively take a full image of all 3 drives and incremental backups there after with the ability to explore the "image" and copy out any files i might want. This will backup all my files and installed programs and allow me to repair the windows partition should there be any problems. Does such a program exist or would i need to use a combination?

Also, is this even the best course of action? is backing up the installed programs and things strictly necessary? My thinking is that if i backup the windows partition and i have to restore it then there will be loads of programs missing and it'll be a bit of a mess i'd have thought.

B@

 

[UKDTweak]

Whats wrong with the windows 7 backup, I use it to backup my windows partition in Full, and you can then load the image as a VHD in disc Managment if you want to restore individual files rather than the entire image.

 

[Sp00n]

Windows 7 backup is perfectly fine for a home user.

Don't bother doing program files or anything like that as you wont be able to restore them anyway, just stick to the critical stuff like your profile folder, game saves + favourites etc...

 

[Pho]

I've recently set-up a 'proper' backup, this is what I do, whether or not it's the best way I don't know:

I bought an external eSATA/USB 2.0 enclosure off the bay for £15 with delivery and put a 1.5TB drive in it. Backing up to another drive which is inside your PC is no good if your PC gets stolen, a virus wipes all your drivers or your power supply decides to nuke all your drives.

eSATA is miles quicker than USB (it should be roughly the same speed as a drive plugged directly into your motherboard) so I use it when backing up my PC as it has an eSATA port.

I used/use True Image 2010 Home to make an incremental backup of my main drive. This way I can take several backups and restore to any point in time, I also use this on my Laptop and another PC in the house. Because it's a snapshot of the whole drive I can restore Windows and all my programs and documents quickly if the drive dies - or I can just recover select files.

I used/use SyncBackPro (but the free one should do it too) to mirror all the files from my second, third and fourth drives to my backup drive too. I don't really feel the need to have incremental snapshots of these drives as they're mostly videos, music and pictures - I just manually double-check using SyncBack (it comes up before it starts mirroring) that what's being deleted/replaced on my backup drive is correct so I don't get rid of anything by mistake.

 

[CooK1E]

I'd suggest W7 backup will be fine, we have used it a couple of times at work when we have had nothing else. The above procedure seems like totall overkill for a home user, although I'd love to have the time to get something like that setup.

 

[B@Th*nG]

Ok, i've run the windows 7 backup on all 3 drives, the windows 7 drive, the XP drive and the installed programs and music, viedo's and games drive and i can mount the vhd of the 7 and XP drive, but there isn't one for the tertiary drive, why's that?

If my hard-drive fails i want to be able to recover it so it's exactly the same as it was before, and it doesn't look like i'd be able to do that with the windows 7 backup, is that right?

B@