Emerald2004
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What is the best way to Performing Routine Backups on WinXP
I am trying to get as much info as possible for saving my data.
What is the best way to do data backups. My plan all these years has been to back everything up onto CDs, which would take 12 CDs to do. Surely there must be a more efficient way.
I know Xp has a backup function built-in, but is it any good? Or is there better software out there?
I am looking for some detailed information on how to do the backups, pros/cons...
Thanks!
What is the best way to do data backups. My plan all these years has been to back everything up onto CDs, which would take 12 CDs to do. Surely there must be a more efficient way.
I know Xp has a backup function built-in, but is it any good? Or is there better software out there?
I am looking for some detailed information on how to do the backups, pros/cons...
Thanks!
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I Have One More Idea.. Ever Heard About RAID
There are 2 type of Raid .... RAID 0 and RAID 1
0 is for Hard Disk Perfomance Increase while Raid 1 is For Data Security
If U really sacred N dont mind spending ....Go For RAID 1
In Raid 1 U need 2 identical Hard Disk if its WD160Gb The 2 Of those, Check if ur motherboard Supports Raid.... if Yes BooM!!!!!
In this case If one of ur hard disk fails ur comp will run as usual but will alert u that one is failed ....here even if ur hard disk in whc ur windows is installed if failed....will stil run normally For More Info u can search Google For RAID..Best Of luck
There are 2 type of Raid .... RAID 0 and RAID 1
0 is for Hard Disk Perfomance Increase while Raid 1 is For Data Security
If U really sacred N dont mind spending ....Go For RAID 1
In Raid 1 U need 2 identical Hard Disk if its WD160Gb The 2 Of those, Check if ur motherboard Supports Raid.... if Yes BooM!!!!!
In this case If one of ur hard disk fails ur comp will run as usual but will alert u that one is failed ....here even if ur hard disk in whc ur windows is installed if failed....will stil run normally For More Info u can search Google For RAID..Best Of luck
RAID IS NOT BACKUP. RAID CANNOT PROTECT YOU AGAINST CORRUPTION, ACCIDENTAL (OR INTENTIONAL) DELETION, FIRE, THEFT, OR OTHER DISASTER.
This doesn't mean you shouldn't use RAID if your data is important, but it's VERY FOOLISH to rely on RAID as your only backup or even your primary backup. RAID protects against hard disk failure - there are MANY OTHER WAYS for you to lose data and RAID will do NOTHING to protect against them.
This doesn't mean you shouldn't use RAID if your data is important, but it's VERY FOOLISH to rely on RAID as your only backup or even your primary backup. RAID protects against hard disk failure - there are MANY OTHER WAYS for you to lose data and RAID will do NOTHING to protect against them.
Yes, I would do both of the following:
(1) Get external hard drive for daily backups.
(2) Get writeable DVD drive so you can make occasional archival backups, and store them in a different location.
i.e. you need both of the above, not one or the other.
RAID-1 is probably not necessary for the average XP workstation, but can be considered if being down for a couple of days would be disastrous. Like leew said it is not a good way to do backups, just a quick-recovery tool in case the system disk dies.
(1) Get external hard drive for daily backups.
(2) Get writeable DVD drive so you can make occasional archival backups, and store them in a different location.
i.e. you need both of the above, not one or the other.
RAID-1 is probably not necessary for the average XP workstation, but can be considered if being down for a couple of days would be disastrous. Like leew said it is not a good way to do backups, just a quick-recovery tool in case the system disk dies.
i would like to add this :
if you want to make backups on a regular basis (dayly -weekly), i suggest to make the backups on Rewriteable DVD's.
The backup will take 2 DVD's per backup, have 1 set ready for each day, or at least 3 sets.
Then you can rewrite the oldest backup, and have always 2 recent backups available.
if you want to make backups on a regular basis (dayly -weekly), i suggest to make the backups on Rewriteable DVD's.
The backup will take 2 DVD's per backup, have 1 set ready for each day, or at least 3 sets.
Then you can rewrite the oldest backup, and have always 2 recent backups available.
ASKER
Hello to everyone and thanks for the multitude of information.
I dont have an external USD HD, and I may consider it in the future, but I do have multiple hard drives, 3 of which are external. I usually swap them in my computer as a slave drive. So, with this information, do you think there is a good backup utility to which I can use to send backups to a secondary slave drive?
leew: You mentioned NTBackup...is this what comes bundled with XP? How would I backup to another HD? Any good tutorial links?
Mr Madcowz: What dont you like about Norton GHOST? I have an older version (I will have to check to see which one). I would love to know the pros and cons to it....and what it takes a ghost image, what all is entailed? Just the software, or software and data, or do I specify? Also, if I do a ghost image from XP, what if I wanted to put that image on another hard drive like VISTA. Would this work? Or can I copy a ghosted image to a freshly formatted HD (and in this case, wouldn't it be illegal since I only have one XP license?) Sorry, I know, a lot fo questions, I am just clueless in this area and I dont like to experiment since I have little time to do so, and I get frustrated by comptuers when I just take a guess.
KCTS: I like your solution as well. I guess I would have to know the exact location of the files though. I generally have them on the C and D drives in various folders. Could you explain what the atributes mean? (xcopy d:\documents x:\DocsBackup /e /r /y /i /c /z /m)
And yes, I have heard of RAID, but that is a bit of an extreme solution in my case. Currently, most of my stuff is saved to various CDs over the last few years, and just being freshly off maternity leave, I havent been using my comptuer for so long. Nothing to important on my new drive. :)
I dont have an external USD HD, and I may consider it in the future, but I do have multiple hard drives, 3 of which are external. I usually swap them in my computer as a slave drive. So, with this information, do you think there is a good backup utility to which I can use to send backups to a secondary slave drive?
leew: You mentioned NTBackup...is this what comes bundled with XP? How would I backup to another HD? Any good tutorial links?
Mr Madcowz: What dont you like about Norton GHOST? I have an older version (I will have to check to see which one). I would love to know the pros and cons to it....and what it takes a ghost image, what all is entailed? Just the software, or software and data, or do I specify? Also, if I do a ghost image from XP, what if I wanted to put that image on another hard drive like VISTA. Would this work? Or can I copy a ghosted image to a freshly formatted HD (and in this case, wouldn't it be illegal since I only have one XP license?) Sorry, I know, a lot fo questions, I am just clueless in this area and I dont like to experiment since I have little time to do so, and I get frustrated by comptuers when I just take a guess.
KCTS: I like your solution as well. I guess I would have to know the exact location of the files though. I generally have them on the C and D drives in various folders. Could you explain what the atributes mean? (xcopy d:\documents x:\DocsBackup /e /r /y /i /c /z /m)
And yes, I have heard of RAID, but that is a bit of an extreme solution in my case. Currently, most of my stuff is saved to various CDs over the last few years, and just being freshly off maternity leave, I havent been using my comptuer for so long. Nothing to important on my new drive. :)
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ASKER
Thanks for all the input. I am going to try a couple of the suggestions and will likely rewards points next week. Of course, if anyone else has anything to add, I will welcomeany new suggestions or additional advice.
Why refund ?
Lots of valid suggestions - asker has not closed the question
Lots of valid suggestions - asker has not closed the question
The Western Digital My Books are good and cheap, and small enough to take off site in your bag.
That is probaly the easiest and cheapest way to do it.
Are you just going to use the built in backup app or buy something like Norton Ghost?
While I am not a great fan of ghost, it does allow me to take an image of a drive and if needs be apply that back over any PC.
Today for example I have taken a ghost image and applied it to 3 new desktops.