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Backup software

I am currently searching for a backup software solution that will be able to backup a multi-boot system consisting of several bootable HDD partitions each containing a separate OS.

Any ideas?

Cheers,
Justin

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Thank you all for your help so far. In answer to klover's question, I need to back up data from partitions containing: win95, win98, NT4, MS DOS, Linux, win3.11 and possibly OS/2 and windows2000 in the future. I will be using a DDS2 DAT drive.

As for partition types, I am not sure how the disk will be partitioned (someone else is doing this for me). I believe that several bootable partitions will be created using fdisk and an OS will be loaded into each partition but I couldn't tell you much more than that.

Cheers,
Justin

$Avatar of frache$

frache

In my opinion, no way with backup software ...
-> With several OS, you need one backup software per OS.

Another way :
Tools like Norton ghost ... cheaper : 50$ US

jj_mako

there is software out there that will backup your drive to an image file. the ones i have heard of are Replica by Stac and Snapback. these make an exact copy of your hard drive and write it to the tape. if the drive fails, you use a boot disk to access the drive and run the restore procedure. i don't know if this will work with several os'. you may want to check out their websites or give 'em a call.

sorgie

Drive Image.

You can transfer drive to drive
You can make compressed or uncompressed backup images of your drives.
Suppports Zip drives,ls120 CDR.
Not sure how many OS are supported

$Avatar of frache$

frache

Tools like Norton ghost = tools who make an drive image. Multi-Os.
With Ghost from symantec you boot with a command.com,you launch ghost and you restore Image.

Backup device : CDrom Writer, ZIP, LS120
or tape ?

klover

It depends on the operating systems, but you can backup other OSes from one OS. If you have NT and Win98 with FAT partitions either one can backup the other. Even Linux can read FAT partitions. So we need to know which OSes you are using and their partition types, as well as your destination media in order to answer your question.

In the simplest scenario, WINNT and WIN98 with FAT, any tape backup or removeable media drive you would buy would come with software that you could use to backup both in one shot.

jobee

Like some of the above comments, I would recommend Ghost. It can support FAT 12, FAT 16, FAT 32 and NTFS.

For home use:
http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/ghost_personal/

For office use:

http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/indexB.html

jobee

Backup media depends on the size of what needs to be backed up. You can span multiple CDs with a CD writer. You can also choose to buy a DVD writer that will offer you, I think, 4 GB. How much do you want to spend to backup your data.

Also, Ghost offers image compression.

jtp101

ASKER

Edited text of question.

jtp101

ASKER

Edited text of question.

klover

You will probably have to use a combination of Ghost and regular backups. Ghost will create an image of any partition, but can only restore individual files to Windows partitions. So lets say you are working in Linux and you realize you've deleted a file. You have an image backup, so you can only restore the entire image. Ghost under Windows would allow you to restore individual files. But don't worry, Linux has it's own backup utility - tar.

Check out ghost...
http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/ghost_personal/features.html

klover

Ghost Enterprise Edition supports Linux - but is probably way to pricey.

jtp101

ASKER

klover,

Ok, so if I am going to use a combination of normal backup software and drive image software, which normal backup system should I use?

My DAT drive comes with some free backup software from Veritas, is this any good? and will it be able to back up my DOS partition?

Cheers,
Justin

jtp101

ASKER

jobee,

I'm currently planning to get a DAT drive because backing up 13GB using any other system would either take to long or the media would be too expensive.

If know of a cheaper way to achieve the same level of performance I would love to hear about it.

Cheers,
Justin

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klover

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jtp101

ASKER

Thank you all very much for your help. I feel I owe you all some points, but as I can only accept one answer I am going to award the points to klover.

Cheers,
Justin