Backup Your Pc!

[radridd]

My PC crashed Sunday. That backup I have been putting off for the past 2 years is biting me in the butt. Managed to save all of my pics and some of my itunes but most was lost. Bad thing is this is not the first time it has happened to me. SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER! Maybe I should get off of here and back up my files?

 

[jeffsg4mac]

Good advice, PC or MAC hardware will fail. If you want it, back it up!

 

[rnatalli]

I back mine up once a week. It only takes a couple of minutes and well worth it.

 

[bandphan]

mirror raid

 

[Shock]

When i built my new PC I was forced to format my hard drive that had my other windows install on it. I lost everything even though it was partitioned. I was pretty bummed until I realized that I pretty much only use my PC for playing WoW and surfing the net.

Pics and tunes are always hard to lose, but most were stored on my mp3 player anyways. All the good ones anyways....

 

[jeffsg4mac]

I lost some photo's once. Never again. I run time machine once a week at least now.

 

[deedubb]

Good advice. Time machine FTW.

 

[Shock]

I lost some photo's once. Never again. I run time machine once a week at least now.

What's it like in the future?

 

[gholt]

What is Timemachine?

Right now for my backups, I make a copy of my data and then paste it to another hard drive. Then when I make the new backup, the following week, I delete the old backup and paste the new backup.

If there is something that could make this faster, I would be all ears. I have Windows 7.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Time Machine is Apple OS-X Backup app, Windows 7 comes with one built in.
In fact it'll remind you to use it once in a while.
Get usb external drive (1tb for about $100) doesn't have to fastest or fancy.
Good luck.

 

[gholt]

I use an external drive through USB, it takes about 2 - 3 hours to to the copy. But it is up to me to make the copy of the data.

So, how reliable is the backup feature of win 7?

I have heard that making an actual copy of the files may be better than doing a backup and restore. Is that still the case for win 7?

I may get a bigger external HD 1 TB would cover my data and the program files as well. though. Maybe I should have two backups just to be sure. Every year, my hard drive seems to fail for one reason or another. My last fail was in Dec and I had my backup from Oct 15. So, I lost a bit and the wife was a bit upset.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Windows 7 Backup allows to use previous file version - which is really neat - basically free point-in-time restore.
Few good reads:
http://lifehacker.com/5144757/first-look-at-windows-7s-backup-and-restore-center
http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/01/18/windows-7-windows-backup-overview

 

[Fenix]

For Win XP I had to download a kit from MS that would install a function called Robocopy, then create a batch file that would run the command. Basically it would backup all the files that I wanted then each night would automatically run and only update files that were added or updated.

I haven't checked yet to see if Win 7 has that same command in it, but I think it could be handy, because you could just create the batch file (just a file created in notepad and renamed with the extension .bat) then set your scheduler to run the file every week, or every night and it would be very quick.

The only thing is, though is that you would need to know the paths that all of your files are saved in.

I haven't tried the Win 7 backup system yet, but that is only becuase I have 2 computers with 5 HD's, so I tend to keep copies of my stuff on the other comp.

 

[krzywica]

Start Here.

For Win XP I had to download a kit from MS that would install a function called Robocopy, then create a batch file that would run the command. Basically it would backup all the files that I wanted then each night would automatically run and only update files that were added or updated.

I haven't checked yet to see if Win 7 has that same command in it, but I think it could be handy, because you could just create the batch file (just a file created in notepad and renamed with the extension .bat) then set your scheduler to run the file every week, or every night and it would be very quick.

The only thing is, though is that you would need to know the paths that all of your files are saved in.

I haven't tried the Win 7 backup system yet, but that is only becuase I have 2 computers with 5 HD's, so I tend to keep copies of my stuff on the other comp.

Robocopy is built into W7.

You could create a batch file and run it as a cron job but thats not really necessary....

But if you want it would look something like this...

C:\>robocopy \Users\User Name Here d:\backups /xo

Copy that and modify the "usernamehere" part with your username and the "d:\backups" part with the destination folder you want. You can also specify a network location for the destination if you want, IE \\servername\sharename\foldername.

Now create a new text document and paste that info into it. Now rename the text file whateveryouwant.bat. You should now be able to run the file and it will copy the folder over....

The /xo switch will exlude any files that are older....depending on how you want to structure your backup this may be wanted or not.......there is also /b for backup mode...hit me up if you have any questions....

Also look here.....

 

[Fenix]

There is also the /MIR command which will mirror the data from the original location, so if you deleted anything you didn't want, it would delete it as well on the backup, and basically just make an exact copy of the file trees you have in place.

I figured it would be included, but wasn't sure as I hadn't checked it out yet.

Also since it is on Win 7, there should be some sort of readme file associated with it that you could pull up and read to find all of the commands you can use.

 

[krzywica]

Also since it is on Win 7, there should be some sort of readme file associated with it that you could pull up and read to find all of the commands you can use.

robocopy /?

 

[jeffsg4mac]

What is Timemachine?

Right now for my backups, I make a copy of my data and then paste it to another hard drive. Then when I make the new backup, the following week, I delete the old backup and paste the new backup.

If there is something that could make this faster, I would be all ears. I have Windows 7.

Here is time machine in action. I deleted a folder then scolled through the available days to back up from. picked the most recent and restored the file. Very fast and very slick.

http://web.me.com/jeffrey8mm/Test_movies/Movie.html

Here is apples link as well to show how it all works.

http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#timemachinebasics

 

[krzywica]

Here is time machine in action. I deleted a folder then scolled through the available days to back up from. picked the most recent and restored the file. Very fast and very slick.

http://web.me.com/jeffrey8mm/Test_movies/Movie.html

Here is apples link as well to show how it all works.

http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#timemachinebasics

He doesn't have a Mac I don't see how this helps.....

Windows has had this for years (previous versions or shadow copies). However shadow copies and Time Machine only apply when you have deleted/modified a file in error and need to restore it. Not going to help very much if your HDD fails.

 

[gholt]

So, should buy another external drive and run the backup file and also do my copy and paste as a 2nd backup?

 

[jeffsg4mac]

He doesn't have a Mac I don't see how this helps.....

Windows has had this for years (previous versions or shadow copies). However shadow copies and Time Machine only apply when you have deleted/modified a file in error and need to restore it. Not going to help very much if your HDD fails.

I did not say it could help him just talking about back ups in general. And so wrong you are unenlightened one(said with Yoda voice) Time Machine will restore your entire computer OS as well if your HD fails. I just restored my system a while back because of that very issue. I was back up and running in less than an hour including my copy of XP that I run under VMware

Another good option for mac users carbon copy cloner. It is free and will dupe a drive very quickly. You can set schedules too.

Also, windows has never had anything like apples time machine. Not even close. Not built in anyway. Good software to buy but not with the os, and never as elegant or as easy to use.