Hard Drive Backup

[crazylegsreilly]

Hi everyone,

I need to backup my whole hard drive on a daily basis. The PC runs on XP and isn't networked. Can anybody suggest an efficient and practical way of doing this?

Also, if I backup the hard drive without completing a daily snapshot, will all of the order details be saved?

Thanks,
Darren

[mjohn]

Backup

Norton Ghost, runs in a dos prompt and will back up the whole drive. You can even boot from the backed up drive in an emergency. The executable for this can be run from a floppy disc.

MJ

[rodmc]

My first question is why the full hard drive on a daily basis, seems a bit much to me.
My second question is what do you intend backing up to? another HDD, tape?

Do some research on the subject, its worth the time and effort to ensure your data is safely backed up.

[pinbrook]

We do a back up to tape everynight using Veritas Backup Exec. We back up data only. The backup takes about 1-2 hours. We used to do a weekly full backup, followed by daily incrementals, but at present we can get all the data we need to backup onto one tape, hence full daily backups. We also keep a monthly tape for 12 months (just in case)

Although the Veritas software isn't cheap it is very functional. We choose which folders to back up and schedule it to run overnight. Restoring is quite straight forward too.

Go for the best solution you can afford, there will always be a day when you will be so pleased you implemented a sensible and reliable backup procedure.

[NormanRouxel]

I need to backup my whole hard drive on a daily basis...

There are LOTS of different backup scenarios and solutions. The right one will depend somewhat on why you need this full daily backup.

Could you elaborate. E.g. PC is in a location where it might get stolen / fire risk / erratic power supply / etc.

Also the amount of critical / non-critical data may determine what's cost effective.

PS Full marks for considering this right now. These forums are littered with posts of the "I never bothered to make any backups and my hard disk just died. What do I do now?" variety.

PPS Answer to above invariably is - "Start from scratch".

[crazylegsreilly]

Hard Drive Back Up

I want to back my hard drive up for that very reason! I don't want to end up with nothing if my PC gets burnt/stolen.

In terms of data, we will have all of the following on a single PC:
business design docs (future development projects - not easy to replace)
cash flow - accounts
usernames and passwords for various business accounts etc
Actinic orders - customer data (should really be top of the list)

Maybe I'm being a bit too drastic? I obviously want to take this data off site, away from the PC it was originally copied from. My aim is to, in the event of having to buy a replacement PC, be able to have a replica up and running in a short space of time.

I'm grateful for your comments so far. Any further info would be much appreciated. Of course, I have to keep a budget in mind!

Thanks,
Darren

PS: Norman - I haven't forgotten about your donation ware pop up program... just waiting for my bank to make a few transfers. I should have donated by mid Feb. Apologies for the delay.

[rodmc]

I want to back my hard drive up for that very reason! I don't want to end up with nothing if my PC gets burnt/stolen.

In terms of data, we will have all of the following on a single PC:
business design docs (future development projects - not easy to replace)
cash flow - accounts
usernames and passwords for various business accounts etc
Actinic orders - customer data (should really be top of the list)

Maybe I'm being a bit too drastic? I obviously want to take this data off site, away from the PC it was originally copied from. My aim is to, in the event of having to buy a replacement PC, be able to have a replica up and running in a short space of time.

I'm grateful for your comments so far. Any further info would be much appreciated. Of course, I have to keep a budget in mind!

Thanks,
Darren

PS: Norman - I haven't forgotten about your donation ware pop up program... just waiting for my bank to make a few transfers. I should have donated by mid Feb. Apologies for the delay.

get a removeable HDD and caddy, use Norton Ghost as mentioned by someone else. Quick, easy and relatively cheap. But remember to put the HDD in a safe place i.e. fireproof safe or the preferrable option, take it of site.