Confused - Images vs File-Level Backups

PiKe

PiKe

PiKe

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I'm using Acronis True Image Home 2009 but I'm confused about the backup methods available, the documentation doesn't really clarify it either.

It says that a good backup strategy consists of both creating images and file-level backups but I can't see why.

Can anyone put it into something I can understand why one might be better than the other?
 
Image: takes an exact copy of all that is important off your disc and stores it enabling you to restore the disc copied in this manner back to its original state (so an OS disc will be bootable as this also copies the boot sectors, registry etc.)

File-Level: individual files are copied and stored, when restoring them they may not go back to the exact position they were in before the backup (thus you cannot make a Win-OS backup using file-level copy)

HTH,
André
 
^^ what he said.

basically, it makes sense to have file level backups of documents, and media files (since media files don't compress well as they're already compressed)

and make a image of your OS + programs.

this is why it's a good idea to set your documents & media on a seperate partition, makes backing up & restore a simpler task
 
Ok I understand that.

Another question then, I have several hdd's and want the same information on each, but only wish to incrementally backup, do I have to create 2 'tasks' one for each drive?
 
the whole OS image thing I think is largely pointless these days... PCs are so fast if it gets foobared just reinstall windows / apps.. 2hrs work tops

use a little batch file with robocopy to do mirroring of folders or even drives for backups use, it's works very well and free from MS. it will take a while first run, but then because it works with archive bit only modified files will be copied over on subsequent backups.

something like..

robocopy "c:\my data" "d:\data backup" /mir /R:1 /W:1 /a /z
robocopy d:\ e:\ /mir /R:1 /W:1 /a /z

makes a nice backup of your c: drive stuff to d: then after it's got a up to date copy mirrors the d: backup disk to a 2nd backup drive (e)
 
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^i use robocopy for my documents & media..

robocopy /e "D:\Music" "B:\Music"
robocopy /e "D:\Steam" "B:\Steam"


that would in the first run, copy all from Music > Music, on the 2nd and recurring runs, it would only copy files that have been updated or newly added -making subsequent runs really quick :)

the steam one gets modified a bit, so they tend to take longer than music backups
 
Only problem with that is you've no ability to backtrack through backups.
 
I'm not working on a home machine :) (I know the software is the 'home' version)
 
ahh :)

need to use some proper backup software then I guess, but I prefer good old command line stuff, even on our works servers as it gives full control of whats going on.

you could drop the /mir switch then make you copy of project folder.. then I think there is a 'datedir' freeware cmd line proggy you can name a folder to the current date.. that would give you a rolling daily backup, automated.
 
What i've got is thousands of image files, some of which change when meta data is edited. It might become a pain to find an image if they're all in different folders?
 
damn, just spent about 15-20 mins writing this 7zip backup for you..

it's perfect for a 'documents' folder back, not really images though

http://bleddyn.co.uk/creations/7zipBackup.zip

there's a text file and a bat file in there, you'll need to get 7za.exe from the 7zip website, read and edit the bat to your needs -only need to edit 'dest' and 'source'


basically.... when run it'll backup the source to destination, but it'll put them in a 7zip file with max compression

the first run in a day would create..

b:\backup\backup file 2009-01-30a.7z

next run in that day would create..

b:\backup\backup file 2009-01-30b.7z

then c, all the way to z, so you could have 26 different backups in one day of said folder, all nicely placed in easy to read dated filenames..

-very good for keeping many full backups of folders that are likely to chagne




i can only recommend this for office type documents, or say a website directory that you're working on

do not use this for media files as you'll get loads of huge backup files :)
 
Flukester said:
the whole OS image thing I think is largely pointless these days... PCs are so fast if it gets foobared just reinstall windows / apps.. 2hrs work tops
Click to expand...
Depends how valuable your time is and how often you like to restore a clean image to keep things running smoothly. A complete restore of a backup image can take less than a minute if you don't have many apps. You also don't have to go through the tedious process of changin all the settings in various apps to get things running the way you like.

I have a dual-boot setup on my system where I can double-click an icon on my main OS, which results in the system shutting down, booting into the other "recovery" OS, restoring my backup image and then rebooting back into my main OS. This is completely automated and takes about 6 mins in total, and would be even quicker if I had my backup image stored on a separate physical drive. :cool:
 
PiKe said:
What i've got is thousands of image files, some of which change when meta data is edited. It might become a pain to find an image if they're all in different folders?
Click to expand...
It sounds like SyncBackPro might suit you - it will synchronise to another folder in a different location with the option of copying changed files only, and you can also enable versioning in the destination folder, giving you a rollback capability if you need it.

The "fast copy" option is also useful, as it avoids having to scan the destination folder every time you sync folders (handy if you have thousands of files and/or if you're backing up over a network, for example).

It's not free, but I haven't yet found anything similar that works as effectively.
 
My 2 cents regarding backups

My Disc Layout:
30Gig primary OS partition (with my documents pointed to another drive) Only

I keep my games on a different hard drive and yet another drive has my backups
With acronis I do something like this

1. Install OS ( just basic windows install nothing else)
2. Install acronis
3. Take a full acronis image of this OS partition.
4. Install my chipset / LAN / graphics / etc drivers ( driver roullette)
5. Customize system / user / security settings. ( point docs to different partition)
6. Take an incremental acronis image of OS partition again.
7. From this point onward I install apps and every 8 or more apps I take another incremental image.

That way if some software screws up something on my system I can take a step back.
I also after installing any game I take a copy(export) of any registry keys it uses ,
so if I restore my OS partition to when before the game was installed I can still get the game to work.

I keep file copies of my docs contents on another partition and a copy on my nas ,
Nas also has copies of all my acronis backups.
 
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