What is everyone using for this? I was using Norton Ghost but since getting my new computer with the nvidia chipset, Ghost does not play well and I cannot get the custom boot disk to work. So, would like recommendations for a image program, Thanks!:)
For PC users only. I have been told (and I try to practice this) that you should have all of your data (docs, pix, etc.) in the folder "my Documents" This folder consists of "my Pictures", "my Videos" etc and resides in your C drive. Just copy and paste this folder "my Documents" into an external hard drive, another internal hard or burn it to a DVD or CD. (I try to maintain 2 copies of this data). This is assuming that you own copies of all your software and have a boot disc for your operating system. So, if (or when:eek:!) your computer crashes, you reboot the OS then reinstall all your software. This method takes up much less storage memory, it is maybe more time consuming to reinstall all of your software, but once you've done that, you just copy the contents of your "my Documents" back in to you main drive and into the (now empty) new "my Documents" folder. Having all of your data backed up this way is also very nice if and when you upgrade to another computer.
Acronis for imaging partitions/drives and SyncToy or Robocopy for folders and synchronizing.
For My Documents, a better practice would be to change the location to another folder on a separate drive. Keep your OS and program installs on one drive and all data on a different drive or partition. You can change it's location by right clicking on My Documents and selecting properties.
Nancy, I have a Mac and use Time Machine. It makes a backup of my hard drive to another drive each day. It allows the exclusion of any folders you do not want to backup. I have an external drive hooked up to my usb port, the backup takes place at 2:30 each morning, and I am totally unaware of it. The backups are regular files, not something that needs to be restored through a special program.
If you can find a PC program that acts similar you will be happy.
It all depends what kind of backups you want to do. If you're using a tool like Lightroom to do your import, you can also get lightroom to copy your images not only to your local PC, but to any other location as well. When I'm feeling switched on enough to do my job "properly", I will attach a USB drive (for backup data), then import into LR. That way all the images are duplicated in import, so protected to some extent from the get go.
I also have a RAID5 NAS for longer term storage, and backup my images there as well.
Software wise for full disk images, having battled for years with Ghost, I would in fact recommend Acronis TrueImage.
I have been burned with RAID in that when a problem occurs the problem is also duplicated on the second drive. I now do the following:
I run two 500 Gig HDs on my tower. The C drive is the primary and the D drive is the back up. I use Acronis to make a clone of the C drive on the D drive. I also make a smaller ".tib" file on the D drive with Acronis. The clone is done every few months and the .tib is updated every week or so.
In addition to this I back up all my images on an external drive.
In addition to this I have a large external drive which i have a clone of the C drive and a duplicate back up of all my images. I take this drive to my office to ensure I have everything in case of a robbery, fire etc.
Does this sound overly compulsive? Probably, but I am protected with multiple backups and an off site extra protection.
Well, i got Ghost working on the new machine. The thing is with Ghost is that I have used it for years and everytime I REALLY needed it, it worked perfectly, so really wanted to continue using it. After talking to Symantec support they suggested taking out 2 of my 4 gigs of ram. I know stupid! But, when I did that the boot disk worked perfectly. Apparently with XP pro there program does not like more than 2 gigs of ram while in the recovering environment. It does not matter otherwise. So, I took out 2 gigs tried out the disk, then put the 2 gigs back. Vista machines do not have this issue. I also now have two external HD's which I back up on also. It is just a comfort level with Ghost I guess and did not feel like getting familiar with a new program. Thanks all for your thoughts.
I don't care for Norton products and won't use any of them. I have four internal disk drives. C: is my system drive and D: is a clone of C: using Acronis. E: is my storage drive and F: is a backup for E: I use Synchtoy for backing up the storage drive. Works great!
Backup is always a potentially complex issue. The problem is eased by 1) cost of large scale storage; 2) endurable life time image formats like .DNG; 3) non-intrusive, invisible UI systems like Apple's Time Machine;4) sophisticated relational database technology for image management, like Lightroom and others; and finally 5) mirroring technology. I have been plagued by backup for years, and I must say that the above combination is needed for anything one does. One thing that is missing in my perspective, is blu-ray density disk formatted backup drives. It is, in my opinion, a absolute must. I have all but the latter, and I still fail in part, but I recover. For instance, one can misconfigure backup drives in RAID config's such that losing one will cause major headaches (even if mirrored). Personnally I have a lot more confidence in MAC based systems than in Gates-based bloated architecture for any backup whatsoever.
backup image software?
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