Discussion on:

What you should already know about Windows XP Backup

Windows Backup is one possible solution for backing up sensitive data, but it is by no means the only application available.

What is your preferred data backup application? How often do you back up? Do your clients and/or users back up their data regularly or do they lapse from time to time?

I currently implement NT backup for a small buisness. 2 servers 30 GB backups each done Monthly with System State every week and incrementals done daily. All backups are moved to offsite storeage immideatly and onto Blu Ray disks (3 totaling 150 GB for the whole shebang). Shadow Copy is in place for users to recover there own files for a period of time (save's many headaches once they can do that, I sure don't have the time to recover every file Joe the accountant accidently deletes)

I have used other apps but NTbackup actaully works and for recovering it's allready installed (one less step)


The Exchange store is also backed up on a good schedule as a day without emails for these guys would mean a huge loss of income.
Cheers,

See microsoft article

HOW TO: Install Backup from the CD-ROM in Windows XP Home Edition

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q302894

somehow it was included in my sp 2 update

I use Karen's Replicator and recommend it. Very flexible and easy to use.

I use Karens Replicator 3 times per week. It will even complete if there are errors and then it will show you where the errors are.

This free backup utility is fast and furious in backing up a copy of, say, your entire C:\ Drive to an external HDD (mine is I:\) The settings are simply, and include a daily backup of everything new since the last full backup. An excellent and very uncomplicated way of making copy backups. Highly recommended.

Perhaps someone can explain why it's necessary for all these steps. I have a second drive and every 11 pm, C copies to D with CasperXP or ViceVersa Pro or any number of programs. And Casper takes about 6 minutes on a 20gb drive. A third external drive is copied once a week or so, depending on new installs. It just seems that backup methods are way too complex compared to a live, bootable, real copy.

In a business environment you have to deal with open file issues. An open file won't copy.

Also there's the email issue. You can't copy the Information Store in Exchange with the services running. Nevermind trying to bakcup individual mailboxes.

For a single-user, copying is certainly a viable option though.

It all depends on what your needs are.

A simple copy will not backup system files such as the registry that are constantly in use. With a simple copy it would be necessary to completely rebuild a system before restoring the data.

Bill

Ghost and Cobian backup.


I use Ghost on my machine monthly and on my two other family machines every six months or so. Very little changes on those two machines and for the folders that do change we run Cobian backup to a separate drive everyday.


Note: I'm just a home user who has learned the value of having backups. For some data that doesn't change, our 143GB music collection for instance, we have that copied to another drive, a Ghost image stored and also have it stored on DVD's. I update the DVD's as I add music but don't necessarily grab a new Ghost image though I do update the separate drive.

I'll never be a fan of backing up data over LAN/WAN links. I would rather have a server-located user profile implementation. You could also have expounded a bit more about selecting the data for backing up, and the RESTORE routine.

NTBackup is what I use to replace the overly-simple Vista Home Premium backup. Works well but you do have to check the 'disable shadow copy' box.

In regard to the comment "The same holds for technology professionals in small or medium-size businesses who opt for using Microsoft tools." So many people got burned by using the MS DOS based backup that was not supported by Windows, nor Windows 3.x backup not supported by '98, and '98 backup not supported by XP that most reasonable people moved on the 3rd party or home grown methods.
If there was proof that XP Backup is supported by Vista and will be supported by the next big OS for those sitting out of the Vista swamp, then this blog tip might be worthy of attention.
But to say that "The same holds for technology professionals in small or medium-size businesses who opt for using Microsoft tools." just isn't so.

I loved the built-in windows backup of Windows 95 which seems to be the same as the one in XP, but one cannot read each other's backup files.

I have backup tapes by Iomega that are worthless now. I used Windows 95 religiously. My Windows 95 computer crashed and moved on to Windows 98, but at the time, my tape drive by iomega crashed and they stopped making them.

You have to face the music and realize that if you use anything Microsoft for backup, it's only good for that point in time.

I love Novabackup, but after using them for over a decade, moved to Windows Vista. Sad thing, their older version wouldn't run properly on Vista and second, their new software wouldn't read the old version's backup!!!! I did manage to get it to work once where I was able to restore the files, but after that, the older novabackup software cratered and stopped working.

It frustrates me that there's no compatibility between old and new with a lot of these backups and you don't know it until you are in that situation.

The best type of backup is one that can backup to a DVD or Blue-Ray as zip files. Think ahead when you are wanting to replace your backup software and if you have anything old, think about converting the old backups into the new migrated format. If they are on tape, restore to a spare HD and re-backp with the new software. Do this while you have the chance to!

My words speak volumes, but most people, including myself, don't have the time to heed these words because of the massive amount of time it takes to backup data. The ONLY way around this is if the computer industry would put more emphasis on speed between devices rather than CPU speed. I know tape backup drives have made significant changes, but these drives are costly and something you don't upgrade every time a new model comes out.

I think the pains you are talking about are the difference between backups and archives. I see backups having a finite life span, but archives are for the long haul. I've seen brand new hard drives from the early 90's just loose data. You had to use a utility rewrite each bit to keep them good.
The trouble of third party backups is exchanging information; we would have clients reformat a 4mm DAT using Windows Backup, so we could read the backup they sent to us. We'd also have them shut off compression for the same reason. Of course those backups were not full system, just application data.

Question: My computer (with Windows and HP)does not have the backup utility installed why might this be ? and how can I get it ?
hawiko

What is the consequence of the difference between incremental and differential backup? It says one is marked as backed, the other not. But what does the end user see with this difference?

I only recommend Windows backup for people who otherwise would be doing no backup.

The first time I came across someone asking for just one accidentally deleted file is when I realized that if you want to do that you will be paying a third party for the software.

Why MS can't read their own archives is, alas, another glaring example of the MS business model: build it and they will pay, especially when they hit a critical wall.

The importance and size of the mission vs budget obviously precludes "one size fits all," but I have the closest thing going in a number of locations. When some smaller outfits caught wind of this setup, esp.that all the software is free, they wanted it.

I set up a Linux server to sync each user's /Documents and Settings/user folder to a directory on the Linux machine. I have scripts that log in to the windows machines with sshfs, which makes the file system appear local to the Linux system's eyes. Then I run rsync, the most efficient tool for this task to be had. The script unmounts the windows boxes between syncs, but that's not really necessary.

Then other scripts rotate the sync on the Linux machine, copying to an archive folder, deleting the two week old copy, renaming the last week's to ".old," (eg wed.old) renames the new copy (which is the user name at this point) to "wed" in this eg, and so on.

That gets done once at the end of the day. The other runs are as often as the users want, usually once an hour.

The only drawback is storage, but that's gotten cheap enough that for the peace of mind everybody's been willing to shell out for whatever they needed.

The upside is there are plenty of copies (incl burned to DVD for off-site) and the file systems are uncompressed... you CAN get that one file, and for free...

I even have one that also syncs to a remote server, also over sshfs... encrypted that is. =)

And best of all it's 100% automated and doesn't consume tones of bandwith or clock cycles. The ONLY thing the user needs to do is check that the backups are running. We have a clever method for this, too. In my documents we have a file called "1" When the party charged with a given computer thinks of it they edit this file to reflect the current date and time. It will show on the server after a successful sync, so checking is open the network share (the root of the main sync copy), descend into my documents and read the contents of "1."

LINUX TO BACKUP WIN MACHINES WORKS WONDERFULLY.
AND IS ALOT MORE CONTROLABLE AND SCALABLE.
ALSO MOST COMPLETE BECAUSE I HAVE IT IN REALTIME AS USERS CHANGE FILES, THEY CHANGE THE DAY BACKUP.
THE STORAGE IS USED FOR ARCHIVES AND IS RETREIVABLE INCREMENTLY = COOL.

Is the linux backup capable of backing up in use files such as the registry or emails stores? If not then it is of limited capability and in many cases (or I would personally say most cases) would not be sufficient for business needs.

Minute by minutes backup may be cool, but is usually unnecessary for most small and medium businesses.

Bill

"In my documents we have a file called "1" When the party charged with a given computer thinks of it..."

The copy process may be automated, but your method for verification isn't. I would think that logging they rsync process would be better.

Bill

I went out and bought Acronis to back up my system really never knew that this was there. Learned something today.
Anyone know of a disk mirror utility that will replicate a disk drive for XP Professional? I know of Ghost but last time I used this it did not like USB drives for some reason.

I want to make sure that if my HDD goes bad, I want to have a bullet-proof copy so that I can restore.

Will the XP backup utility give this peace of mind?

Unfortunately Windows Backup is NOT a disk imaging package like Ghost or PQImageCenter (Now supposedly defunct/purchased by the Ghost people).
There are a number of other freeware packages that can do disk imaging. I would suggest you look at the various freeware sites for a list under their disk utility areas.

Thanks. Do you remember NT? NT used to come with a disk mirror utility. Would be nice if MS kept that utility moving forward instead of us trying to find something that works.

You can restore a full drive from the XP backup. if you include the system state. The restore process starts with a clean install of XP, then restoring from the backup files, including system state. At the end, you are forced to reboot, and the system looks just like the backup.

Depending on how critical your data is, you definitely want to keep more than one backup copy.

Also of note -- some of the backup programs which are free or included with USB drives use a different approach. They copy changed files to the backup disk individually. This may or may not meet your needs, since a full restore would include re-installing all of your programs before copying the files (documents, etc.) back to the system. The advantage is that many of them keep historical data, and the files can be retrieved on another system without restoring the entire backup.
MS backup can restore a single file, but it can be time consuming waiting as the program scans a large file of 20 GB or more.

I occasionally restore individual files using NT backup. If the restore is off of a tape drive then it can take a great deal of time (well because it's a linear storage method), but off of a HD it only takes a couple of minutes (depending on the size of the file being restored). I have restored individual files from data stores ranging from 30 to 190 GB.

Bill

I use ATI for images...at least until I started receiving SATA drives in the desktops that I install. Something about ATI does not like the Serial Drives.

Have never had a prolem with USB drives. Make sure they are connected BEFORE booting otherwise they might not be recognized. We image about 1200 workstations a year. We use Bart PE to boot with.

I've used Ghost and have recently switched to Acronis True Image. The last time I reviewed available free software it didn't compare in ease of use and features. Anyone care to suggest a free package that they use?

Beware.
I purchased True Image for my laptop's Vista backups. One of the selling features was the ability for Acronis to manage a Backup Space by deleting oldest backups when necessary. This feature is not currently working for me.

I opened a support ticket to Acronis, and at first received email responses. The last response I got (9/18/2008) indicated "I have esclated this matter to my senior level support and they will get in touch with you directly."

I have not heard a thing since. I have sent more emails - nothing. I have tried phoning their head office; it has an automated attendant I have been unable to get past. I even tried their pre-sales Online Chat. They dropped me after my initial message describing my problem.

I can find no way to resolve this technical issue.

I have to wonder if the company is going under? This utter lack of being able to reach a human (any human, in any department) is deeply worrying.

They have my money, and I have a product that does not work as advertised.

Use extreme caution if you select their product.

Good Luck,
-craig

Restoring is tricky. The catalog of the backup cannot be extracted from the .bkf file

Just click Tools->"Catalog a backup file"

Having been burned by XP backup. I used it to backup my data (data only) and when my HD crashed even though I kept windows XP when I installed the new HD, Windows XP did not seem to recognise its own backup. Fortunately I was able to have the data recovered from the dead HD. I have since bought Genie Backup Manager Home Edition V8.0. Does anyone here have experience with this. So far it has been running the backups. I just hope that if I have to restore I do not have a problem. I know some of you might think it is a bit late to ask but better late then never. I am a home user.

Erik,

I just wanted to mention that it's nice to see somebody out there who understands the difference between the noun "backup" (as in, "Did you make a backup of those files?") and the phrasal verb "to back up" (as in, "Did you back up those files?"). It's a rare thing indeed to find this written correctly and consistently, especially on the internet.

Everyone else,

Just remember that if you can conjugate it and/or split it into pieces with other words in the middle, it's a verb. For example, "Did you back up those files?" has the words split because you can answer, "Yes, I backed those files up!".

Anyway, I'm glad I finally found an appropriate place (I hope!) to rant about that. It's been driving me nuts for years because it's a pet peeve of mine.

Now I just need to find somewhere to rant about when and when not to use an apostrophe in the word "its" (see previous sentence for an example).

"It's as used by you is incorrect english. "It's stands for "it is". To say "it is been driving me nuts" would not be good english. I of course assume you mean "it has been ....". You should make sure you rant about correct things.