mikex Posted December 27, 2006 Report Share Posted December 27, 2006 I have a client who wants something to back up to beside cds. I pointed her to a 160G HDD. She will ask about what backup software to use. She in on the bottom side of novice when it comes to software apps. She is running XP Pro, it has a backup util if needed. I just wanted to get opinions here first.I will recommend the drive be partitioned into at least 2 drives. One as a place for whole drive backup the second for her to drag and drop things she may want to pull back and forth.HDD on her machine has in the neighborhood of 20gigs used if I had to guess.M Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shanenin Posted December 27, 2006 Report Share Posted December 27, 2006 If she just needs to backup one folder, like "my documents", I would reccomend synctoy. If she wants to mirror her whole OS. I would then recconmend acronis true image. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
lefty1953 Posted December 28, 2006 Report Share Posted December 28, 2006 I have a client who wants something to back up to beside cds. I pointed her to a 160G HDD. She will ask about what backup software to use. She in on the bottom side of novice when it comes to software apps. She is running XP Pro, it has a backup util if needed. I just wanted to get opinions here first.I will recommend the drive be partitioned into at least 2 drives. One as a place for whole drive backup the second for her to drag and drop things she may want to pull back and forth.HDD on her machine has in the neighborhood of 20gigs used if I had to guess.MFor a backup Hd I use a External 160 GB WD My Book. Easy to use, and Windows has the backup software on it. If you want to backup files only, just drag and drop them. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
thesidekickcat Posted December 28, 2006 Report Share Posted December 28, 2006 I'm pretty much a non techie, so simple works very well for me. Depending on whether she has her OS disks, to do a reinstall, rather than mirror the os onto a second drive, and depending on how much stuff she wants to backup, she might just be able to get away with a flash drive or two or three...I have seen sale packs of 3 (1 gig each) for about 30 to 40 dollars. Also with Xp she has system restore for minor glitches and hopefully her os disks for major ones. I just back up essential stuff to my flash drives every month, alternating the flash drives so I always have a for sure backup in case one flash drive bites the dust. Every six months I backup stuff to cds. Ok so I don't trust technology...Ha! With bigger and bigger flash drives available now, backups are so simple to do and that helps me feel like doing it regularly. If I had specific good size folders to do, I'd dedicate a flash drive or two to just that and stick the drive in an envelope with a note about what's in it. Or use flash drives for daily backup to carry stuff offsite. Many ideas to choose from. Only thing to remember is the disconnect via clicking flash drive icon in taskbar to safely disconnect. Oh by the way Symantec's backup software name has changed in past few months, in case you think about that one.PatGod bless everyone Quote Link to post Share on other sites
sethook Posted December 28, 2006 Report Share Posted December 28, 2006 (edited) Give Second Copy a look. It's cheap and will auto backup what you want to where you want it, when you want it done. I've used it for a couple of years now and have never had a problem with it. Every Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m. all my important files are backed up like clock work to a DVD-RW. Soon it will be backing up to my NAS. Edited December 29, 2006 by sethook Quote Link to post Share on other sites
thesidekickcat Posted December 29, 2006 Report Share Posted December 29, 2006 Something I thought of while rereading this thread, with auto backup programs...if you got hit with a virus or other bad junk...wouldn't your auto backup be transferring that virus or whatever to the other hard drive? Perhaps scheduling a full scan/cleanup of computer before the backup would prevent damage to stuff on second hard drive. I always scan with my F-Secure Internet Security before doing any backups...to flash or to cd just to be as sure as I can that what is backed up is clean enough to replace anything I lost for whatever reason.PatGod bless everyone Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mikex Posted December 29, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2006 Something I thought of while rereading this thread, with auto backup programs...if you got hit with a virus or other bad junk...wouldn't your auto backup be transferring that virus or whatever to the other hard drive? Perhaps scheduling a full scan/cleanup of computer before the backup would prevent damage to stuff on second hard drive. I always scan with my F-Secure Internet Security before doing any backups...to flash or to cd just to be as sure as I can that what is backed up is clean enough to replace anything I lost for whatever reason.PatGod bless everyoneThe I told my client to schedule the backup about 2 hours after the autoscan. I think she uses Norton Internet Security. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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