My backup method, whats yours?

Phil2008

Phil2008

Phil2008

Soldato
Joined
17 Dec 2004
Posts
8,743
Ive just done a restore and Im bord, so I'll tell the method I use:D

Install windows,drivers,apps on c drive......... put music and install games on d drive........ scandisk, defrag both drives........ backup c drive with true image..

When I want a fresh install, I just restore that backup image on c drive, update drivers and windows. Delete games off d drive that I put on after the backup and reinstall them....... Job done:D

Plus I set true image up to automatically backup c drive twice every week,, and I backup drive d when I remember cos that rarely changes.
 
Windows Home Server does regular image backups.
Mozy does offline data backups.
Scheduled Robocopy does a regular data backup to external HDD.
Manual Robocopy for data to a portable HDD.
 
Poor!

It used to be install Windows and have an image of that using Acronis Trueimage. Then install the basics (drivers mainly) and have an image of that.

Currently though I have no backup of anything (well I have my music backed up to DVD, but that's about the full extent of it.

I have a Synology NAS DS410j, but for some reason I wouldn't trust it for a second as a backup.

Problem is a need to good, simple solution asap (shame blu-rays are quite expensive, else that would be a very good route for me) because I am very aware about data loss and a few years ago lost quite a lot from a tape backup, so I don't need a repeat of that one!
 
My dad runs a business so I have to back up a lot of important data. I've lost my own personal data in the past so i'm quite careful these days and make sure I have at least two copies of anything i can't afford to lose.

Every week our 5 computers image the OS partition with windows 7 built in backup to a secondary drive.

Also, every hour a robocopy script runs and backs up any new files to an encrypted drive on a server in our garage (separate building which protects against fire). Shadow copies are enabled so i store 2 months worth of changes should anyone delete a file by accident.

What I would like is an old cheap tape drive so I can take a copy of everything ever 6 months or so and store it - but it covers most bases.
 
I don't keep any data on the PC's themselves (other than secondary copies of media files which are synced on the HTPCs). All data is kept on either the QNAP NAS or the Linux fileserver.

Both the NAS and the Fileserver are configured with RAID to protect from single disk failures (but remember RAID isn't backup folks). Backups are performed either to USB drives (large unimportant data like media files) or for important stuff via rsync over an SSH tunnel to a Linux server at my parents which is scripted to run in the early hours of the morning.
 
i was thinking about this recently - I would install windows, drivers and any programs i need etc, make sure its working then make an image...........any problems and I can reload the image with my files stored elsewhere but this is only for a home desktop and not a business setup!
 
My backup/hard drive setup:
2x 250GB drives in RAID 0 - this hold purely the OS and installations. Nothing I want to keep is on this array.

1x 1.5TB Storage - videos, documents, music, profile (I've redirected my entire profile using a junction)

1x 1.5TB backup - backup of the above - incremental taken every night with Acronis. New backup created after 5 incrementals.
 
I just do an image backup of my C drive once a week using the Windows 7 built in backup. Probably not the best tool in the world but its fine for me and does the job:) It does incramental backups so I have about 5 images on my USB drive I can restore from.
 
I have a external hard drive which I manually copy a image of my operating system and my documents drive using Acronis.

I periodically backup pictures and music to dvd.
 
I robocopy my music / videos / photos to my server, and to an external drive.

I used to do it with Steam too, but now I just have it on 3 machines here anyway, so always have a good copy
 
Each of my workstations/laptops/servers in the house run a daily image to secondary hard-drives in each machine. These images are then copied to another HDD in my server.

Really important stuff such as documents and photos have been backed up to computers in my brothers house. I used to backup to my web hosting but with 800kB upload speed it took far too long.
 
Daily incremental backup of my user folders to a secondary disk. I don't bother with a disk image as I don't have that much stuff installed and I can install Windows in my sleep. Finding drivers isn't even an issue anymore.

If the PC gets nicked/struck by lightning then I'll be goosed but in that event I ain't gonna be crying about a few lost iTunes. Really important stuff is in the cloud somewhere.
 
I back up a system image to an external 2.5" HDD.

I also have a pure clean install system image that I took after installing Windows and Office which I keep separately on another external 2.5" HDD and I copy data files periodically to this HDD.




Rgds
Binty
 
In my attic I have my vSphere server, which has 6 drives in it of various sizes. I have a full backup of each virtual server on a different drive within the same unit, and a copy of the domain controllers backup is also copied down to my desktop. It doesn't protect against fire - but its a reasonable solution for protection against a disk or two being lost.

For my documents, whenever I lock my screen, or go for a shutdown and a few predefined triggers it is all copied up to a share on one of my VMs.

This gives me two copies locally within two machines of all my documents and pictures. The virtual machine (windows 7) also has mozy at home installed and at 00:00 each night it backups up to mozy for an off site backup. I've got about 55GB currently of documents and pictures, and I'd dread to loose them!

My file server has two virtual drives of 500GB which using robocopy twice a day is synced up - I'm not so worried about this as it only contains downloaded applications and a few ISO images. I didn't want to RAID the full physical drives (1TB) as it woiuld have been too restrictive. The file server doesn't get much usage, files hardly change on a daily basis so at most the drives are out of sync by only a few hours.
 
My Win 7 box has a 1TB drive in 4 partitions - C: OS, D: personal data, E: set-up files and drivers, F: temp files. I then manually back-up partitions D and E onto an external hard drive once a fortnight, which I keep off site.
 
Phil2008 said:
Install windows,drivers,apps on c drive......... put music and install games on d drive........ scandisk, defrag both drives........ backup c drive with true image..

When I want a fresh install, I just restore that backup image on c drive, update drivers and windows. Delete games off d drive that I put on after the backup and reinstall them....... Job done:D
Click to expand...
similar to what i do.

but after i install windows i do a backup of that without any driver/apps installed with true image 10.

windows on c & i drive, games & blu-ray movies on g drive, music & backup apps & drivers on d drive, more blu-ray movies on e drive, video files on f drive, backup of d drive on j drive
 
metalmackey said:
I just do an image backup of my C drive once a week using the Windows 7 built in backup. Probably not the best tool in the world but its fine for me and does the job:) It does incramental backups so I have about 5 images on my USB drive I can restore from.
Click to expand...

same as me. the windows image, works well.
i have a 160gb with os.
then i have an extra 500gb hard drive partitioned into 2x250gb. labeled games and backup.
i do an image save to the backup partition and also to an external 500gb hard drive as well.
i do these once a week
 
gareth170 said:
similar to what i do.

but after i install windows i do a backup of that without any driver/apps installed with true image 10.

windows on c & i drive, games & blu-ray movies on g drive, music & backup apps & drivers on d drive, more blu-ray movies on e drive, video files on f drive, backup of d drive on j drive
Click to expand...

i would get lost with all that :p
 
I keep it simple, Install every program that I'm going to use on drive C, then defrag it and make sure there's no temporary files on drive C. Then, once I'm confident that nothing else will need adding, I do an image backup. All the data and game saves that I have are stored on drive D. Then when I want a fresh install, I simply reload the system image, with the documents folders looking at drive D for the information.

It's a simple way to keep the system up to date and quick.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom