Backing up to external hd

audiobliss

I've never backed up my computer before, but with all the music, movies, photos, etc that I have on it, I thought it would be a good time. So, I just took delivery of my new Samsung F4 2TB HD and paired it with my Antec Veris external enclosure. Now to backing up.

W7 (I'm running W7 Pro 64-bit) popped up asking if I'd like to back up, so I actually used Window's program, selected what I wanted to back (also opting to save an image of Windows), and it's still going at it. I'm aware this can't be the best method of going about things, but just decided to go ahead and give it a try while I found a better way.

How would be the ideal method? I've heard a lot about using Acronis for imaging the system partition, and am very fond of the idea of just restoring an image when the system gets bogged down instead of having to reformat and reinstall everything (at least as far as I understand it). Would that also save me from having to reinstall all my programs? I have all my games (for Steam) installed on a separate HD. Would those work fine after restoring an image of my system? Is that a good way to do it?

How would you recommend backing up all my files? Just copying and pasting? Using Windows' backup program? Another similar program to monitor and backup files?

Also, I have no eSata ports on my computer, but the Antec enclosure came with a connector to turn a Sata port on the MOBO into an eSata accessible on the back of the computer, so I'm currently using my external through this connection. I had to reboot in order to get my computer to see the drive, though. Is there something I can do so my computer will see it as soon as I turn it on? I read something about switching to RAID/AHCI, but I'm not sure what kind of affects that would have.

Any input you could toss my way regarding any of this backing up would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!

bigaudiofanatic

I used western digital drives and their included software works great. For my mac I use time machine and I think if you good there is a cloning software out there.

My backup goes like this:

1tb WD drive time machine which continues to save changed to the drive and create a timeline that I can go back at anytime to.

Second partion on it gets just photos and music folders.

500gb passport drive mirror image of drive

EndersShadow

Eh, I just let Windows 7's utility backup everything to a second internal HDD of the same size as my OS drive....

Does it once a month since I dont add too much in the way of programs/music to my computer...

blockatvalpo

Not sure this really helps you, but I wanted to give you another option if your willing to spend money.

I tried back my computer up using an external harddrive and didn't like the way it worked, so I went with a network attached storage devise for my back-up. I bought this one: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Book-World-WDH2NC20000N/dp/B001RB2L44/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1295468191&sr=8-5

It comes with a program that you install on every computer in your house and it backs them up automatically when they are turned on. I set mine up for mirroring, so I get one terabite for storaging stuff (back-up or network folders i.e. picture folders we can all share) and one terabite of backing up the data. Since the data is mirrored, my information is backed up twice.

ryanjoachim

Windows 7 actually does a pretty bang-up job of backing up. It's very fluid, and fairly efficient.

If you want to spend money, I would recommend Acronis TrueImage. Very robust program, that allows you to create backups that are specific to your system. For instance, you can do a complete image of your Windows install, create separate backup jobs for your music folder, picture folder, and movies folder. All these jobs can be set to run whenever you want, and however often you want.

You can also password protect your backups, set different compression levels, and a plethora of other options.

And if your computer crashes randomly some day, Acronis has an option that allows it to run it's own BartPE version of the program before Windows loads, so you can save any files you need saving, and restore an older image. Or you can create recovery cd's and/or Flash drives.

nguyendot

The win 7 backup is pretty good, it's imaged based and can do incrementals. I use it in Server 2008 all the time and it's much better than the old NTbackup.

WilliamM2

The Windows 7 image backup will work just as well as Acronis, it's an image of the entire windows system and all installed programs. Make sure you create the restore CD, this allows you to boot to the CD and restore the image if the C: drive fails completely and has to be replaced.

I usually create a seperate partition for Windows and all installed programs, and another partition for files. That way the system image isn't too large. The image and all the files go on another drive in the system, and really important files and the image also get copied to a removable drive I keep at work. That way you will still have files even if the system is stolen, or the house burns down.

maximillian

I used to use Syncback from here:

http://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/index.html

It seemed to work fine backing up to a NAS. The Win 7 solution is probably easier assuming you have Win 7.

LessisNevermore

I can vouch for the Win7 backup dvd. My new-ish laptop crapped itself, the backup I made saved me, because there was no accessing the old drive.(there was no Windows disk supplied)

I ran the restore, and it worked like a charm. I only had to reinstall programs that I had put on since the backup.

For what little time it takes, it's well worth it.