Personal Backup
Hello Experts,
Can anyone recommend a good and reliable personal backup system?
I need to back one PC: MS Office files, text files, and couple of databases (Access, MS SQL, MySQL). For the dbs, I can do my own script, so that's not vital.
Thanks.
Can anyone recommend a good and reliable personal backup system?
I need to back one PC: MS Office files, text files, and couple of databases (Access, MS SQL, MySQL). For the dbs, I can do my own script, so that's not vital.
Thanks.
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if due to a drive failure, the mirror would continue. you'd have to replace the bad disk eventually. if due to NAS chassis failure, you could pull the drives and connect to a USB cradle. a NAS is slower compared to a USB linked drive so that's one thing to be aware of before getting into it. If your purpose is to use it just for scheduled backups then it'll be great. if you want to use it to push/pull files through like a local volume, it's really a dog in that respect. pete
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Joe,
All SyncBack's products are affordable. So, price here isn't an issue.
With that said, which do you recommend and why? How are they with databases, and do you need the software to restore?
All SyncBack's products are affordable. So, price here isn't an issue.
With that said, which do you recommend and why? How are they with databases, and do you need the software to restore?
I realize you addressed that question to Pete, but you make a really good point, and that's why I backup to an onsite NAS, an offsite NAS, a 128GB SD card, a 64GB CF card, an external USB drive, an external firewire drive, and a drive in the docking station. In addition, three other computers reach across the network to backup the primary production machine. All backups are for all data, except the SD and CF cards, which are too small to house everything, so I use SyncBack's capabilities for those two devices to backup just the most critical folders. Regards, Joe
> With that said, which do you recommend and why?
As I mentioned earlier, I started with the SE version and it worked fine. I upgraded to the Pro version only because I wanted to support the company. At the time, I did not need any feature in Pro that wasn't in SE. I've been on Pro now for several years and I don't even know if I'm using any features in Pro that aren't in SE. I just took a quick look at the comparison matrix and the only thing that jumped out at me is the SFTP support in Pro (SE supports just FTP and FTPS).
I recommend the Pro version because 55 bucks is a small price to pay for what is among the most important pieces of software on a computer. Could you save 20 bucks with the SE version...or even all 55 with the Free version? Sure, but unless money is really tight, I'd go for the Pro version...one of the Pro features might save you some day. I can't begin to tell you how many times I have retrieved an older version of a file...before I messed it up. :) Of course, that feature is in all three versions.
> How are they with databases, and do you need the software to restore?
The backups are on a file level, so it doesn't really care if it's a database...it will get <*.sqlite> files, <*.frm> files, whatever.
You do not need the software to restore...they are simply files that are copied elsewhere. Even the versions are simply in a folder called $SBV$ (stands for SyncBack Versioning)...you tell it how many versions of files you'd like to keep...the number to keep can vary by backup profile and there can be an unlimited number of backup profiles.
Regards, Joe
As I mentioned earlier, I started with the SE version and it worked fine. I upgraded to the Pro version only because I wanted to support the company. At the time, I did not need any feature in Pro that wasn't in SE. I've been on Pro now for several years and I don't even know if I'm using any features in Pro that aren't in SE. I just took a quick look at the comparison matrix and the only thing that jumped out at me is the SFTP support in Pro (SE supports just FTP and FTPS).
I recommend the Pro version because 55 bucks is a small price to pay for what is among the most important pieces of software on a computer. Could you save 20 bucks with the SE version...or even all 55 with the Free version? Sure, but unless money is really tight, I'd go for the Pro version...one of the Pro features might save you some day. I can't begin to tell you how many times I have retrieved an older version of a file...before I messed it up. :) Of course, that feature is in all three versions.
> How are they with databases, and do you need the software to restore?
The backups are on a file level, so it doesn't really care if it's a database...it will get <*.sqlite> files, <*.frm> files, whatever.
You do not need the software to restore...they are simply files that are copied elsewhere. Even the versions are simply in a folder called $SBV$ (stands for SyncBack Versioning)...you tell it how many versions of files you'd like to keep...the number to keep can vary by backup profile and there can be an unlimited number of backup profiles.
Regards, Joe
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Hi APD_Toronto,
The comment by Amit prompts me to talk about another aspect of backups, which is cloning. In addition to file-level backups with SyncBack as I've discussed above, I also do full-disk cloning. I used Acronis previously for this...same product mentioned by Amit, but the True Image 2011 version, not 2014. Acronis is a fine product, but after some problems with the 2011 version, I decided to try something different for cloning rather than upgrading to a later version of Acronis. I've been using Casper for cloning ever since and am very happy with it:
http://www.fssdev.com/products/casper/
I run it every evening in the wee hours on several machines to clone the hard drives (a mix of HDD, SSD, and hybrid). It has an intelligent cloning mechanism so that it copies only the necessary tracks. The first run takes a while, but after that, it's extremely fast. It can clone to the same size drive or to a larger one or even to a smaller one, as long as there is enough space on the smaller one to house the used (non-free) space from the larger one. It also has an imaging capability such that it creates complete disk image backups as files, which can be stored anywhere, meaning you can maintain multiple, full system backups on a single device. But I've never used this feature, as I prefer full-disk cloning.
Casper is not free, but it's reasonably priced and worth every penny. The same disclaimer applies again...I have no affiliation with this company and no financial interest in it whatsoever...simply a happy user/customer. Regards, Joe
The comment by Amit prompts me to talk about another aspect of backups, which is cloning. In addition to file-level backups with SyncBack as I've discussed above, I also do full-disk cloning. I used Acronis previously for this...same product mentioned by Amit, but the True Image 2011 version, not 2014. Acronis is a fine product, but after some problems with the 2011 version, I decided to try something different for cloning rather than upgrading to a later version of Acronis. I've been using Casper for cloning ever since and am very happy with it:
http://www.fssdev.com/products/casper/
I run it every evening in the wee hours on several machines to clone the hard drives (a mix of HDD, SSD, and hybrid). It has an intelligent cloning mechanism so that it copies only the necessary tracks. The first run takes a while, but after that, it's extremely fast. It can clone to the same size drive or to a larger one or even to a smaller one, as long as there is enough space on the smaller one to house the used (non-free) space from the larger one. It also has an imaging capability such that it creates complete disk image backups as files, which can be stored anywhere, meaning you can maintain multiple, full system backups on a single device. But I've never used this feature, as I prefer full-disk cloning.
Casper is not free, but it's reasonably priced and worth every penny. The same disclaimer applies again...I have no affiliation with this company and no financial interest in it whatsoever...simply a happy user/customer. Regards, Joe
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Sorry guys, so many other things in life came up, but I will open this question again as a new one when I am ready. Hopefully next week.
Thank you for your patience.
Thank you for your patience.
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