best way to backup files and folders

~~gregferd~~ · 12-01-2006, 03:08 PM

Hi,

I just recently lost some information on my computer so know I plan on backing up all important information. What is the best way of doing this? With 60 gigabytes of stuff that I will need to backup each time and I will probably have to do it 2 times a month inorder to keep up to date I would like a fast method of doing this.

What is the best equipment for this? Would a removable hard drive work best and setting a task to run in the backup utility be the best. I will have to indicate what I want to backup and when I want to backup in the utility. Will the backup delete the previous backup each time so I don’t run out of space. thanks

**linderman** · 12-01-2006, 05:15 PM

Hello & welcome to TSF:

there are two easy ways I like and use both

cloning:

http://www.techsupportforum.com/arti...-c-drives.html

Imaging:
http://www.techsupportforum.com/arti...-os-drive.html

~~gregferd~~ · 12-02-2006, 03:13 PM

What is this pushbutton backup stuff that they are blabbing about. Searching around for external hard drives as mentioned In the article and I ran along this. Do you know what it is. Here is a link http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/s...491&sk=MC51419 . Thank you

booyah188 · 12-02-2006, 06:18 PM

so what exactly is the difference between cloning and imaging?

**linderman** · 12-02-2006, 09:18 PM

cloning makes an exact copy of your boot drive or any other drive or partition you may have. Its immediately bootable and usable, you have the option to choose between booting into your original boot drive or cloned drive. Clone only copies data; no empty sectors (xxclone that is!) clone consumes less hard drive becasue it only copies data, you can incrementally back-up (adds any changes from the Source drive (original) to the Target Drive (clone)

Image is an exact copy of whatever partition you wish to copy; this method copies sector by sector empty & data this method you can employ or restore over and over. Say if you install a video card driver which completely kills your OS boot drive so it wont boot, you can restore your drive very easily with the image program, then if you install the bad driver again (becasue you are not yet sure thats whats killing the OS >>>>> simply restore again)

both kinds work excellent >>>> both are easy to do

image takes more free space to make an image file >>>>> you need a free space on a hard drive at least one half of the size of the partition you want to back-up

example to image a 40 gig drive you need 20 gig of available space on a hard drive to store the image file

dont hesitate to ask more questions

~~gregferd~~ · 12-02-2006, 11:18 PM

Can anybody explain those push button external hard drives. http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/s...491&sk=MC51419 They claim you can back up your hard drive with the touch of a button. Looks almost to good to be true though. Mayby this is a very simple question. Don't know how good they perform. Would be nice to just be able to push a button inorder to back everything up though. :) Thank you

**linderman** · 12-03-2006, 07:15 AM

Dude: that is a "chunk" of money to spend on an external hard drive.

You can buy internal 250 gig drives for about $80.00 on newegg & cheaper on ebay

And do you really need an external ????? or does the external drive part have an allure for you?

a good external enclosure is another $40.00

you could buy a 300 gig drive and install it "internally" use drive image (free) to do your auto back-up images ?????

there is nothing special about that package its just a common old external drive enclosure with a hard drive in it with a image back-up program installed

~~gregferd~~ · 12-03-2006, 12:02 PM

I found the Seagate Pushbutton Backup Ext HDD, 300GB for a place at 145.00. The person who wrote the article got a Seagate 320 GB external drive for around 150. I don't know what the pushbutton is for. Maybe it just lures incompetent computer guys like myself. Getting an external seems good because you can take it with you to places if you need it.

I really don’t know much about computers as is probably obvious. I suppose you cannot really partition your hard drive and keep all important information on both drives. Would that work? Maybe that will protect some but not if the whole computer crashes. thanks

**linderman** · 12-03-2006, 05:59 PM

hello:

my gut feeling tells me the push button part is really a software button you push to make a new back-up image

and yes, you can make partitions and keep files redundantly on both drives or partitions

this approach will even protect you if the whole computer crashes!

its a decent set-up without a doubt, its far cheaper than waiting until you have a boot drive meltdown and then the tech bills will cost you more than that and you will have no data!

BTW: both hard drive enclosure & hard drive are top shelf components!

dont hesitate to ask more questions

xTraz · 12-08-2006, 06:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregferd

I really don’t know much about computers as is probably obvious. I suppose you cannot really partition your hard drive and keep all important information on both drives. Would that work? Maybe that will protect some but not if the whole computer crashes. thanks

I can recommend you to use disk imaging software like Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image. Both of this programs is good enough but I prefer True Image because it is works faster both while backup data and while restores it. Here is the link to a free True Image 7.0. And here you can read a review.

~~gregferd~~ · 12-14-2006, 04:48 PM

Hey,

Just got the external drive in. I can't get to the cloning and imaging page anymore. Whats up?

**linderman** · 12-14-2006, 06:59 PM

I will check into it the links I gave you were from a "pending" articles now I think they have been moved to the "final" articles section

i will double check this and reply

~~gregferd~~ · 12-17-2006, 02:16 PM

Linderman, any word on those lost articles. Thanks as always for your help

**linderman** · 12-17-2006, 04:17 PM

Gregg:

I sent off another inquiry to the "articles" team the original author John The Pilot had them submitted for "final" a while ago, so I expect them to be put up and day for general membership viewing I am checking again

what programs have you looked into so far ????

**linderman** · 12-17-2006, 04:52 PM

Gregg

the hard drive back-up threads will be in the Daily planet within 24 hours
http://www.techsupportforum.com/arti.../daily-planet/

if you need assistance with anything please just us a holler

**linderman** · 12-17-2006, 05:13 PM

http://www.techsupportforum.com/arti...e-another.html

**linderman** · 12-17-2006, 06:35 PM

http://www.techsupportforum.com/arti...ard-drive.html

~~gregferd~~ · 12-18-2006, 01:24 PM

I haven't checked into any others. I figured that you'll would know what is best. Thanks

freykatt · 12-19-2006, 04:07 PM

Hey Lindermam, I tried to access the Imaging and Clone links you posted above, but it wouldn't allow me , stating I didn't have enough "Privalages", what the heck???? I was getting ready to post for info on "what do I need to backup"" in particular.

chauffeur2 · 12-19-2006, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by freykatt

Hey Lindermam, I tried to access the Imaging and Clone links you posted above, but it wouldn't allow me , stating I didn't have enough "Privalages", what the heck???? I was getting ready to post for info on "what do I need to backup"" in particular.

http://www.techsupportforum.com/arti...ard-drive.html

Try click on the thread link above now and see if it works for you.
If you have problems, PM either myself or Linderman and we'll see what we can do.

12-01-2006, 03:08 PM	#1 (permalink)
~~gregferd~~ Troubled Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 10 OS: XP	best way to backup files and folders Hi, I just recently lost some information on my computer so know I plan on backing up all important information. What is the best way of doing this? With 60 gigabytes of stuff that I will need to backup each time and I will probably have to do it 2 times a month inorder to keep up to date I would like a fast method of doing this. What is the best equipment for this? Would a removable hard drive work best and setting a task to run in the backup utility be the best. I will have to indicate what I want to backup and when I want to backup in the utility. Will the backup delete the previous backup each time so I don’t run out of space. thanks

12-01-2006, 05:15 PM	#2 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,437 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	Hello & welcome to TSF: there are two easy ways I like and use both cloning: http://www.techsupportforum.com/arti...-c-drives.html Imaging: http://www.techsupportforum.com/arti...-os-drive.html __________________ I still know nothing and I respect that fact, striving to improve and, along the way, help anyone that comes from the place that I used to be! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial Last edited by linderman; 12-01-2006 at 05:17 PM.

12-02-2006, 09:18 PM	#5 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,437 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	cloning makes an exact copy of your boot drive or any other drive or partition you may have. Its immediately bootable and usable, you have the option to choose between booting into your original boot drive or cloned drive. Clone only copies data; no empty sectors (xxclone that is!) clone consumes less hard drive becasue it only copies data, you can incrementally back-up (adds any changes from the Source drive (original) to the Target Drive (clone) Image is an exact copy of whatever partition you wish to copy; this method copies sector by sector empty & data this method you can employ or restore over and over. Say if you install a video card driver which completely kills your OS boot drive so it wont boot, you can restore your drive very easily with the image program, then if you install the bad driver again (becasue you are not yet sure thats whats killing the OS >>>>> simply restore again) both kinds work excellent >>>> both are easy to do image takes more free space to make an image file >>>>> you need a free space on a hard drive at least one half of the size of the partition you want to back-up example to image a 40 gig drive you need 20 gig of available space on a hard drive to store the image file dont hesitate to ask more questions __________________ I still know nothing and I respect that fact, striving to improve and, along the way, help anyone that comes from the place that I used to be! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

12-02-2006, 11:18 PM	#6 (permalink)
~~gregferd~~ Troubled Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 10 OS: XP	Can anybody explain those push button external hard drives. http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/s...491&sk=MC51419 They claim you can back up your hard drive with the touch of a button. Looks almost to good to be true though. Mayby this is a very simple question. Don't know how good they perform. Would be nice to just be able to push a button inorder to back everything up though. :) Thank you Last edited by gregferd; 12-02-2006 at 11:21 PM.

12-03-2006, 07:15 AM	#7 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,437 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	Dude: that is a "chunk" of money to spend on an external hard drive. You can buy internal 250 gig drives for about $80.00 on newegg & cheaper on ebay And do you really need an external ????? or does the external drive part have an allure for you? a good external enclosure is another $40.00 you could buy a 300 gig drive and install it "internally" use drive image (free) to do your auto back-up images ????? there is nothing special about that package its just a common old external drive enclosure with a hard drive in it with a image back-up program installed __________________ I still know nothing and I respect that fact, striving to improve and, along the way, help anyone that comes from the place that I used to be! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial Last edited by linderman; 12-03-2006 at 07:17 AM.

12-02-2006, 03:13 PM	#3 (permalink)
~~gregferd~~ Troubled Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 10 OS: XP	What is this pushbutton backup stuff that they are blabbing about. Searching around for external hard drives as mentioned In the article and I ran along this. Do you know what it is. Here is a link http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/s...491&sk=MC51419 . Thank you

12-02-2006, 06:18 PM	#4 (permalink)
booyah188 Registered User Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 59 OS: xp	so what exactly is the difference between cloning and imaging?

12-03-2006, 12:02 PM	#8 (permalink)
~~gregferd~~ Troubled Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 10 OS: XP	I found the Seagate Pushbutton Backup Ext HDD, 300GB for a place at 145.00. The person who wrote the article got a Seagate 320 GB external drive for around 150. I don't know what the pushbutton is for. Maybe it just lures incompetent computer guys like myself. Getting an external seems good because you can take it with you to places if you need it. I really don’t know much about computers as is probably obvious. I suppose you cannot really partition your hard drive and keep all important information on both drives. Would that work? Maybe that will protect some but not if the whole computer crashes. thanks

12-03-2006, 05:59 PM	#9 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,437 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	hello: my gut feeling tells me the push button part is really a software button you push to make a new back-up image and yes, you can make partitions and keep files redundantly on both drives or partitions this approach will even protect you if the whole computer crashes! its a decent set-up without a doubt, its far cheaper than waiting until you have a boot drive meltdown and then the tech bills will cost you more than that and you will have no data! BTW: both hard drive enclosure & hard drive are top shelf components! dont hesitate to ask more questions __________________ I still know nothing and I respect that fact, striving to improve and, along the way, help anyone that comes from the place that I used to be! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial Last edited by linderman; 12-03-2006 at 06:02 PM.

12-14-2006, 04:48 PM	#11 (permalink)
~~gregferd~~ Troubled Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 10 OS: XP	Hey, Just got the external drive in. I can't get to the cloning and imaging page anymore. Whats up?

12-14-2006, 06:59 PM	#12 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,437 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	I will check into it the links I gave you were from a "pending" articles now I think they have been moved to the "final" articles section i will double check this and reply __________________ I still know nothing and I respect that fact, striving to improve and, along the way, help anyone that comes from the place that I used to be! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

12-17-2006, 02:16 PM	#13 (permalink)
~~gregferd~~ Troubled Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 10 OS: XP	Linderman, any word on those lost articles. Thanks as always for your help

12-17-2006, 04:17 PM	#14 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,437 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	Gregg: I sent off another inquiry to the "articles" team the original author John The Pilot had them submitted for "final" a while ago, so I expect them to be put up and day for general membership viewing I am checking again what programs have you looked into so far ???? __________________ I still know nothing and I respect that fact, striving to improve and, along the way, help anyone that comes from the place that I used to be! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

12-17-2006, 04:52 PM	#15 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,437 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	Gregg the hard drive back-up threads will be in the Daily planet within 24 hours http://www.techsupportforum.com/arti.../daily-planet/ if you need assistance with anything please just us a holler __________________ I still know nothing and I respect that fact, striving to improve and, along the way, help anyone that comes from the place that I used to be! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

12-17-2006, 05:13 PM	#16 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,437 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	http://www.techsupportforum.com/arti...e-another.html __________________ I still know nothing and I respect that fact, striving to improve and, along the way, help anyone that comes from the place that I used to be! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

12-17-2006, 06:35 PM	#17 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,437 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	http://www.techsupportforum.com/arti...ard-drive.html __________________ I still know nothing and I respect that fact, striving to improve and, along the way, help anyone that comes from the place that I used to be! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

12-18-2006, 01:24 PM	#18 (permalink)
~~gregferd~~ Troubled Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 10 OS: XP	I haven't checked into any others. I figured that you'll would know what is best. Thanks

12-19-2006, 04:07 PM	#19 (permalink)
freykatt Registered User Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: snowland Posts: 13 OS: win 98se, DSL (new to Linux)	Hey Lindermam, I tried to access the Imaging and Clone links you posted above, but it wouldn't allow me , stating I didn't have enough "Privalages", what the heck???? I was getting ready to post for info on "what do I need to backup"" in particular.