Technology Get the latest on technology, electronics and software…

Best Backup software for home?

Thread Tools
 
Old Aug 6, 2007 | 05:58 PM
  #1  
fdl's Avatar
fdl
Thread Starter
Senior Moderator
 
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 21,672
Likes: 1
From: Toronto
Best Backup software for home?

I've got an external drive, and was wondering if there was any particular software package I should use to run regular backups. I think windows XP has something built in, but I am hesitant to use it for some reason. Thoughts?
Reply
Old Aug 6, 2007 | 06:17 PM
  #2  
alex2364's Avatar
Three Wheelin'
25 Year Member
Liked
Loved
Community Favorite
 
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,670
Likes: 72
From: Northern VA
If you want to spend money, Acronis True Image is pretty good. http://www.acronis.com/
Reply
Old Aug 6, 2007 | 06:20 PM
  #3  
TSX CSI's Avatar
LOUD NOISES!!
 
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 967
Likes: 0
From: NY
What about for a mac?
Reply
Old Aug 6, 2007 | 06:26 PM
  #4  
fdl's Avatar
fdl
Thread Starter
Senior Moderator
 
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 21,672
Likes: 1
From: Toronto
Originally Posted by alex2364
If you want to spend money, Acronis True Image is pretty good. http://www.acronis.com/

I don't mind spending a little money, but honestly my preference would be some free utility, if such a thing exists.
Reply
Old Aug 6, 2007 | 06:31 PM
  #5  
fdl's Avatar
fdl
Thread Starter
Senior Moderator
 
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 21,672
Likes: 1
From: Toronto
Also, incremental backups is a must. I dont want to have to backup my entire hard drive every time.
Reply
Old Aug 6, 2007 | 06:55 PM
  #6  
Beelzebub's Avatar
Race Director
20 Year Member
Photogenic
Liked
Loved
 
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 10,929
Likes: 1,051
From: Long Island, NY
I use a corporate version.

But for me it was free as I work for the company that writes it.
Reply
Old Aug 6, 2007 | 09:34 PM
  #7  
alex2364's Avatar
Three Wheelin'
25 Year Member
Liked
Loved
Community Favorite
 
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,670
Likes: 72
From: Northern VA
I'm pretty sure Acronis True Image can do incremental backups.
Reply
Old Aug 6, 2007 | 11:06 PM
  #8  
Hojo061782's Avatar
Cause of power outages...
 
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 1,586
Likes: 0
From: Champaign, IL
Meh...just use the Windows Backup. Otherwise you'll end up spending too much and use too few of the features.
Reply
Old Aug 7, 2007 | 01:59 AM
  #9  
Whiskers's Avatar
Go Giants
20 Year Member
Liked
Loved
Community Favorite
 
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 70,003
Likes: 1,260
From: PA
Originally Posted by Hojo061782
Meh...just use the Windows Backup. Otherwise you'll end up spending too much and use too few of the features.


Backup only stuff that can't be recovered such as photos, documents, etc.
Reply
Old Aug 7, 2007 | 07:06 AM
  #10  
rza49311's Avatar
Drifting
iTrader: (1)
 
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 3,072
Likes: 8
From: Southern VA
Some i've looked at are:

acronis true image
r-drive image 4.0
paragon drive backup 8.5

Been a while but with the versions I saw, I think all of these offer real time backups meaning you could snap a full drive image without even rebooting your computer.
Reply
Old Aug 7, 2007 | 07:37 AM
  #11  
gatrhumpy's Avatar
Chapter Leader
(Northeast Florida)
20 Year Member
Liked
Loved
Community Favorite
iTrader: (1)
 
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 35,532
Likes: 1,654
I was looking for a utility like this too.

I want to back up everything on my computer to where I can boot from it if necessary.
Reply
Old Aug 7, 2007 | 08:20 AM
  #12  
Hojo061782's Avatar
Cause of power outages...
 
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 1,586
Likes: 0
From: Champaign, IL
Originally Posted by rza49311
Some i've looked at are:

acronis true image
r-drive image 4.0
paragon drive backup 8.5

Been a while but with the versions I saw, I think all of these offer real time backups meaning you could snap a full drive image without even rebooting your computer.
This is practically a RAID 1 solution. At that point, there's really no reason for a home user to run backups on a RAID 1, except on the most important things (but you can just replicate that stuff to another computer, if anything).
Reply
Old Aug 7, 2007 | 09:44 AM
  #13  
YOTH's Avatar
Thriller
 
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 3,449
Likes: 0
From: NY
I use Acronis True Image also.
Reply
Old Aug 7, 2007 | 11:16 AM
  #14  
fuzzy02CLS's Avatar
Senior Moderator
iTrader: (2)
 
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 16,847
Likes: 223
From: South FL
Originally Posted by Hojo061782
Meh...just use the Windows Backup. Otherwise you'll end up spending too much and use too few of the features.
Same here, I added it to task manager so it does it automatically every 2 weeks. I picked what files I want to backup.

I
Reply
Old Aug 7, 2007 | 02:35 PM
  #15  
TheWeez's Avatar
I Wanna Beer
 
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 2,151
Likes: 109
From: Minneapolis, MN
Originally Posted by TSX CSI
What about for a mac?
SubRosaSoft.com's CopyCatX is the best drive duplication product around. It uses block-copying instead of file-copying so it's faster then other products. CopyCatX can also recover data from a failing drive or one with bad blocks. Try that with other products (including Disk Utility) and they will fail. It'll even allow you to recover data from a drive that won't mount. I've used it many times on client's drives that refuse to mount, drives that are starting to do the click of death, and use it to make exact duplicates of drives (it's the only product that I've seen that can copy a drive including the Boot Camp partition on an Intel Mac.
Reply
Related Topics
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
Marcelechka
Home & Garden
188
Sep 11, 2022 11:53 AM
Jimmy_D
5G TLX (2015-2020)
31
Oct 7, 2015 11:52 PM
hashbrown
4G TL (2009-2014)
2
Sep 29, 2015 12:13 PM
thegipper
3G TL (2004-2008)
5
Sep 28, 2015 01:01 PM
dirleton
2G RDX (2013-2018)
5
Sep 28, 2015 07:05 AM




All times are GMT -5. The time now is 12:40 AM.