Easy Geek question

Can anyone recommend a good freeware program for making a constantly-updated
backup of my system? I just got a 200GB external HD, and would like to
install a program that keeps track of any changes I make to my internal HD
and keeps a mirror copy on the external HD, just in case I have another
total system crash like last year. I also want to backup SWMBOs system on
the same external drive, if possible, although hers would be backed up
intermittently (whenever I managed to bring the external HD over to her
office and update).

Thanks, and, uh....TL.

--riverman

"riverman" wrote: "Can anyone recommend a good freeware program for making a
constantly-updated backup of my system? I just got a 200GB external HD, and
would like to install a program that keeps track of any changes I make to my
internal HD and keeps a mirror copy on the external HD, just in case I have
another total system crash like last year. I also want to backup SWMBOs
system on the same external drive, if possible, although hers would be
backed up intermittently (whenever I managed to bring the external HD over
to her office and update)."

I don't know of any freeware but there are several out there that are not
that expensive less then 80 bucks. What you want is one that copies the
disk image and not just backs up your file. Some back programs will only
backup data and not the entire system. You should occasionally backup your
registry. Look for disk or drive image software.

Although I don't use it you may want to look at stuff from Norton called
Disk Ghost.

See this link for help: http://www.download.com/1200-2001-5067400.html

Sarge

"Sarge" wrote in
:


Although I don't use it you may want to look at stuff from Norton called
Disk Ghost.



Ghost is mostly for distribution of numerous identical PC's, not for
backing up one.

Scott

riverman wrote:
Can anyone recommend a good freeware program for making a constantly-updated
backup of my system? I just got a 200GB external HD, and would like to
install a program that keeps track of any changes I make to my internal HD
and keeps a mirror copy on the external HD, just in case I have another
total system crash like last year. I also want to backup SWMBOs system on
the same external drive, if possible, although hers would be backed up
intermittently (whenever I managed to bring the external HD over to her
office and update).

Thanks, and, uh....TL.

--riverman



I like Acronis TrueImage. It makes an exact compressed copy of your hard
drive and can be set up to do it automatically. If you have a problem,
like a hard drive failure, you can boot with the Acronis CD and restore
your system, files, program etc. from the backup to your new hard drive.
You can also do a partial recovery if you just lost data or just your
want to restore Windows. It also does progressive backups where it just
stores any changes to your disk since the last backup. Since I run my
business on the computer, I have it scheduled to do a backup upon
shutdown. When I'm ready to shut down for the night, the program starts
and shuts down the computer when finished. The ONLY drawback I've found
is that is does take up ALOT of hard disk space for the saves,
especially the initial "mirror", successive backups are MUCH smaller.
About once a month, I do a complete backup and delete all the old files.

There are others like Norton Ghost that does similar things but I KNOW
TrueImage works.

Willi

On Sun, 29 Aug 2004 17:43:25 +0100, "riverman" wrote:

Can anyone recommend a good freeware program for making a constantly-updated
backup of my system?

I don't use any of them, but Google "freeware mirroring" and you will find a
few packages that will probably do what you want.
--
Charlie...

"riverman" wrote in message
...
Can anyone recommend a good freeware program for making a constantly-updated
backup of my system? I just got a 200GB external HD, and would like to
install a program that keeps track of any changes I make to my internal HD
and keeps a mirror copy on the external HD, just in case I have another
total system crash like last year. I also want to backup SWMBOs system on
the same external drive, if possible, although hers would be backed up
intermittently (whenever I managed to bring the external HD over to her
office and update).

Thanks, and, uh....TL.

This is what I use for certain key workstations at work:
http://tinyurl.com/5lvya. It first creates a full system backup, then backs up
files to a network drive as they change on the workstation. If the network drive
is unavailable, as it is on some of the notebook PCs that come and go, files are
backed up to a secondary location on the notebook until the network drive is
again available. At that point, the temp location files are copied to the
network drive. Sweet. Also, it can keep up to five revisions of backed up files.
It's not free (well, I got mine *free* when I bought a $1,800 network drive),
but at $50 it's as good a value as they come, IMO.
--
TL,
Tim
------------------------
http://css.sbcma.com/timj