Best way to back up

[chrisxuk]

Hey
Looking up at backing up my current programs/documents as just wanting to make a new partition and install Windows 7. Want to back up just incase anything goes wrong. Got an external 400gb HDD that can be used to store everything on.

Whats the best thing to do?

Thanks

 

[Scythe]

What did we learn in ICT? Standard ways of working!

Look at some imaging programs, not sure if they're any free versions similar to Norton Ghost.

 

[Chronictank]

For complete disk copies:
Clonezilla is a good one for sector based copies

Windows has a free file based one you can use in Windows CE
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc507842.aspx
but bear in mind it doesnt copy partition tables

I use allway sync for folder backups


All the above are free (allway sync is only free for personal use)

 

[samuria]

Acronis is the best you can normally get a free copy of their old version from their site but its not dear to buy. remember if you back up with any software you will need the same software to get it back. So copy files you may need like docs pics separate as a straight copy. Dont forget web links emails etc

 

[bledd]

acronis true image for system & apps etc
robocopy for user files

 

[chrisxuk]

Thanks for the suggestions, Acronis seems to have worked

Also created a new partition and it all worked fine

 

[Guest2]

Acronis true image and clone for the primary to the external, if all everything goes wrong, just boot from the external then clone back to primary

 

[ukgazman]

dropbox for all my documents and everything else is on a raid 6 qnap NAS box

 

[hegemon]

acronis true image for system & apps etc
robocopy for user files

This.

Richcopy (also from Microsoft Technet) is a more up to date utility than Robocopy GUI and may suit your needs better, it is also linked from the original Robocopy GUI on Technet.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2009.04.utilityspotlight.aspx