2010 Home - Backup Settings??
I'm pretty good with computers but the setup instructions for 2010 home are very unclear. Can anyone suggest the best setup I should use for backup?
I think I should schedule a disc image of 3 drives - C: (125G) F: (250G for Video) and G: (1T for Photos, Music, etc.)
I have a 1.5T drive (H:) that I am backing up on.
I did a full backup of the 3 drives. Now my question is - what is the best way to continue - updating the backup and how can I keep it from growing so large that I run out of space?
Should I use incremental backup? or just do full backups each time and overwrite the prior one?
And should I use something called automatic consolidation - to limit backup space?
Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance for your advice!!!!
Bob
Thank you Grover!
There are 3 separate drives - C and F are internal, G is external - USB. The backup drive (H) is also external. And I am using Windows XP.
The data to be backed up - aside from c drive registries, programs, etc - is video, photos and music as well as document files, etc. Most of it is static - but occasionally added to.
I will read #12 as you suggested. Thanks!!
I should have also asked how much used space on each of the 3 drives.
Used Space is:
C: 110 G
F: 205 G
G: 517 G
Total 832 G
Thanks !!
Hey Grover:
Any other thoughts??
Thanks!
My apologies for not responding to your postings--busy with the holidays. Hopefully, you have read some of my prior reading suggestions. No time to respond now. Hopefully tomorrow.
The bottom line is that only you can decide what it is you need. Only you know the contents, how you store it and how important your data is. Here are some ideas you might consider.
1. I would use the 1.5TB drive as a safety disk and maintain a second copy of your videos, photos and music. This copy would be an identical copy stored in their original format and not part of a backup program. You could use a program such as Karen Kenworthy's Replicator to create a second copy onto the 1.5TB drive. When new or changes are made to this type data, I would use Replicator to copy the changes. This could be scheduled or random. Using a program such as this enables you to quickly copy just the new or changed to this backup drive. Data of this type is already compressed so backing it up with a backup program will not reduce its size and may even create larger files so I am suggesting that a backup program not be used on this type data.
2. A regularly scheduled backup should be made of your system Disk C and I am assuming that drive also has your documents files. TrueImageHome does an excellent job and creating a disk option backup which you can use to create a new drive should you a disk failure or virus. Having such a backup means you would not have to reinstall your programs but if the need arose, you would restore a backup onto our old or new disk. Depending upon the frequency of change your could schedule a disk option backup on a regular basis such as weekly and daily differential backups the other six days(1 full with 6 differentials) If that is too frequent, then you could schedule a disk option backup on a monthly basis with a differential once each week. (1 full with 3 differentials). You are the one to determine the frequency of your needs.
3. Your drives F & G would be your originals and your safety copy would be the 2nd copy you have stored on your 1.5TB. If your data has real importance and cannot be duplicated, you might even consider another disk such as a 2nd 1.5TB for additional safety so you have some additional duplication of your photos, videos or music. You may even want to burn some items to DVD should you feel a need.
4. You must access what it is you want to do and the frequency of backups and how you want your photo, video & music stored. It is usually better to store these on a device where you have easy access and can easily create single copies of the item in question. Backup software puts everything in a proprietary format requiring the backup program to access the data inside the backup. This is not what you want for this type data.
5. Your reading item #12 was intended for you to get ideas as to the best way of having duplcation of your original data. If the data doesn't change much, it would be a waste of time to make backup copies over and over of the same data when you can make a one time second copy and provide the same coverage.
6. Many photographers choose to have multiple disks--all with the same data in its original format. But really, the decision is yours and my suggestion may or may not be appropriate to your needs. What I have provided in just the recommendation of one person and others might offer completely different advice. Good luck and always keep your data protected.
Robert,
I completely agree with GroverH. I am a little bit in the same situation as you are, but with less volume of data. Here is what I do:
- regular weekly disk/partition image of C:\. Differential backup, reset to full every month.
- file backup (as in "mirroring") of all the non-changing content. Karen's replicator is an excellent suggestion.
These would be your core backups.
If you have to preserve versions of some of your files, you can consider Genie Timeline Free edition and use it for only these folders that are changing. You would have to purge the backups from time to time to save space. This would be in addition to the Replicator.
Mirrorfolders is also a good program but you have to purchase it. It would accomplish the combination of the replicator and version keeping.
Once this is in place, and you have a good routine for your C:\system backups and verification of those, you could turn off the windows system protection, if you use it, to free up some space on your system disk.
Thanks guys so much for your advice during this busy holiday season!!!
This makes sense but are you saying I should get another Drive to store my disc image backups with Acronis and use the 1.5TB drive to replicate my video/photo/music drives?
And does that mean I don't use Acronis at all for my video/photos, etc.
Also - I was unplugging my backup disc to protect it from any viruses that might infiltrate my drives - do you agree with this? Obviously I would then have to do all my backups manually.
Happy New Year!
Bob
Robert,
The advice about using another 1.5 TB drive (or bigger) is about redundancy of backups. I use redundant backup technologies (ie software) across different media (ie disks) and storage locations (ie onsite, offsite).
If your data is highly valuable and not replaceable, you might want to use redundant backups. For example, you have one disk at home and your leave one disk at the office/family/etc, and you rotate the disks.
If you use the data replicator or a simple file copy, you don't have to worry about using another technology. If you use more sophisticated backups (ie imaging, incremental/differential with or without consolidation, non-stop backup, etc.) I recommend you have redundant backups that use different technologies. For example, if you use non-stop backup, or frequent differential/incremental for your system partition, use a full image in addition.
If you use Acronis to image all your video and photos, use Karen's replicator for a secondary backup in another location.
I think you get the idea.
are you saying I should get another Drive to store my disc image backups with Acronis and use the 1.5TB drive to replicate my video/photo/music drives?
Yes
And does that mean I don't use Acronis at all for my video/photos, etc.
Yes. They will not compress is size and a standard Windows copy can be accessed more easily than one inside a proprietary backup file. Just make sure you always have more than one good copy of these items.
I was unplugging my backup disc to protect it from any viruses that might infiltrate my drives - do you agree with this? Obviously I would then have to do all my backups manually.
My preference is to have external attached only when needed. You can use an assortment of reminders to remind you to attach the external just prior to backup. One easy way is to use MudCrab's Drive Notify. Check my signature below for more info about DriveNotify.
Thank you guys so much for all your insight and help! I am going to get a few more drives and proceed as you suggest.
Best regards,
Bob