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Backup software recommendation

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groovyjon

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Jun 12, 2008
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New year resolution is to get better at backing up all our data!

Can anyone recommend some decent backup software. Don't want to spend a fortune on something with millions of features, the following is our basic requirements:

- Schedule backup to run in early hours of each morning
- Specify whole folders on network drives to back up
- Incremental backups, so just back up what's changed
- Nice n simple interface

I think that's about it.
 
groovyjon said:
New year resolution is to get better at backing up all our data!

Can anyone recommend some decent backup software. Don't want to spend a fortune on something with millions of features, the following is our basic requirements:

- Schedule backup to run in early hours of each morning
- Specify whole folders on network drives to back up
- Incremental backups, so just back up what's changed
- Nice n simple interface

I think that's about it.
Click to expand...

I've tried all the fancy ones, but still find the best is Karen's Replicator - does everything you require, and is donaware, so contribute what you think it's worth.


Karl Limpert
 
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A simple windows bat file scheduled to run at x hours will do all that for you. You really don't need any special software.
 
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groovyjon said:
the following is our basic requirements:

- Specify whole folders on network drives to back up
Click to expand...

computer storm said:
Why not use the one built into windows xp called NTBackup, this will do everything that you want and it is free.
Click to expand...

J-Wholesale said:
A simple windows bat file scheduled to run at x hours will do all that for you. You really don't need any special software.
Click to expand...

I don't use Windows Backup, partly because I didn't think this include networked drives. With the program I use, as soon as (or at an early hour of the morning if preferred) the laptops are back on the local network all changes to files/folders are backed up.



Karl Limpert
 
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Thanks for all the advice guys. Just looked at Karen's Replicator which seems nice and easy to use.

One thing that concerns me is if I'm baking up all my files on, say, a nightly basis, then each backup file gets overwritten with the new version. So if I accidentally select all content in a vital document and hit delete, then that now blank document will overwrite the backup and I've lost everything.

Is there any backup software that keeps say the last 6 versions of a document so you can roll back to whichever you want? (I thought that's what I meant by "incremental backups" but now I think that just means backing up files that have changed). Or if not, how does everyone else solve this problem?
 
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R1Soft is a fantastic system for all sorts of backup scenarios - we use it for our customer hosting and internally for our own data. Our critical data is backed up every few minutes!
 
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as said earlier you can do this for free with a simple bat script from xp.

I use this on my pc's, basically use the xcopy command to backup selected folders on various sources to copy data to a file with the system date so they dont overwrite each other.

I also set my bat script to shut the PC down after the backup completes, can be run off the windows scheduler or (as in my case) I just run the script and walk away from the pc when im done for he day.

let me know if you want help on creating the script which is quite easy
 
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Would the batch script method copy everything though, even if it hasn't changed? We have gigabytes of files that aren't going to change much so I wouldn't want to keep creating copies of those needlessly.
 
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if you use the xcopy switch /d it wont copy modified files (after the first backup). However with backups, archiving etc good organisation is the key.
You can schedule different scripts to run on different days, seperate reference files from "changing files" therefore reference files only need duplicating and storing instead of backing up etc

an example is as follows

xcopy c:\folder1 c:\folder2 /e /d

type the above into notepad and change the file extension to bat
create the folders and put in some dummy data to test
to run just dble click the bat file

it should take 3 minues to test and wont cost you a thing google xcopy and bat files for more info

add
shutdown -s -t 30
to shutdown the pc in 30 seconds (giving you chance to close any apps or abort the shutdown by typing shutdown -a in a command prompt)
 
Upvote 0
Cobian.
You can specify files, floders, incremental, differential, complete backups. You can definew how many backups to keep, automatically delete old backups and even specify a full backup after however many incremental backups.
dead easy to use. Works with networks, ftp etc. and best of all, free!
Just google Cobian backup
 
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After 3 dead PC's I now keep all my programs and files on external hard drives. Save stuff in the right place and you don't need to worry about back-up's at all.

(someone who uses many USB ports and can't quite get a PC large enough to do everything I need all at once!)
 
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groovyjon said:
New year resolution is to get better at backing up all our data!

Can anyone recommend some decent backup software. Don't want to spend a fortune on something with millions of features, the following is our basic requirements:

- Schedule backup to run in early hours of each morning
- Specify whole folders on network drives to back up
- Incremental backups, so just back up what's changed
- Nice n simple interface

I think that's about it.
Click to expand...
You may be interested in this page about the 5 best backup tools for windows:
http://lifehacker.com/398229/five-best-windows-backup-tools
 
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My own company will soon be launching a business continuity package for the SME whereby remote data back up is just one feature. As such we carried out a great deal of research into the subject of all types of data back up software.

At the high end is mirrored off-site data protection which offers all the features you could ever want including ' versioning' which you can set yourself. Basically incremental and open file back-ups take place as you work. At the end of the week they are then rolled up to week 1 then 2 - 3 - 4 etc. At the end of week 5 week 1 is then rolled over into the 1st week in month 1. You can normally do this for up to 6 months and then start archiving files.
In summary. Versioning works like a daily - weekly and monthly diary.

Now some of the free and very cheap on site software offers most of this but the best that I came across was Genie for the simple reason it has a great intuitive interface and allows for ICON selection of files as well as directory. What's more like the Iphone there are a huge number of applications for free download.

In business for instance there is an Icon for your PIM. Another for Photoshop.Another for your Email or Chat.

Anyway as said too many scripts to mention here and all free. The software itself about £35 quid and in my personal opinion well worth it.
 
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Well I've installed Cobian and it really is excellent so I have all my important files incrementally backed up daily now. Only downside is that it doesn't seem to support SFTP, just FTP. I've only just moved away from FTP for security reasons so don't want to go back!
 
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groovyjon said:
Well I've installed Cobian and it really is excellent so I have all my important files incrementally backed up daily now. Only downside is that it doesn't seem to support SFTP, just FTP. I've only just moved away from FTP for security reasons so don't want to go back!
Click to expand...

I didn't even know Cobian supported FTP. Thanks for the heads up.....off to play!
 
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