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  • #2261769

    Good BackUp Software

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    by natelanman ·

    Hello All,
    One of my roles at the company I work for is to migrate an employee’s data from an old machine to a new machine. You would think this is relatively easy to do, but we have some hardware limitations. Most of the older computers do not contain a DVD burner. I think I’ve temporarily solved this problem by creating an image file and storing it on the server. Once they get the new computer, I’ll load the image onto the new machine. If possible, I would like to purchase software that will allow me to see ALL of the files that are being backed up. Many of these users have documents that they have worked on for, in some cases, years, so it is important to have these old files stored somewhere before their old machine is decomissioned. Does anyone have a good recommendation for data migration/back up software?

    Thanks,
    Nate

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    • #2529801

      Restoring an image to an different model

      by charliespencer ·

      In reply to Good BackUp Software

      If you’re going to restore the image of an older computer to a newer one, be sure you download all the drivers for the new one first. You’ll need them when the restored Windows starts complaining about the changes in hardware. Be sure to check the Hardware Manager to be sure everything is working correctly.

      You may be better off spending $100 or so for a USB DVD burner to copy the data to disk. Obviously this assume the older computers have USB. There may even be some burners still out there that connect to the parallel port. If not, you may want to look for a tool like LapLink. This is a utility that includes cables to connect two computers via the parallel or serial ports. You install the software on both computer then use one to manage the file transfer from the other.

      Yet another option is to stick an spare hard drive in the older machine as a secondary drive. Copy the data to it, then stick it in the new computer and copy the data off it. Or just remove the original hard drive from the old computer, add it as a second drive in the new one, and copy the data.

      Most newer imaging tools will allow you to view the files within the image and restore them individually. You could make a couple of CD or DVD copies of the image, store one locally, and store the other off site.

      • #2542161

        CA’s Desktop DNA Migrator

        by david.doucette ·

        In reply to Restoring an image to an different model

        Ghost backs up the entire OS, drivers, etc, which is overkill if you only want to transer user settings.

        Desktop DNA Migrator is a user-based backup and restore. Copying files, settings/bookmarks, etc. I know a lot of people who have used the software, but fortunately, I haven’t had a situation where I needed it yet. More information at:

        http://www.ca.com/smb/product.aspx?id=5289

        For open disclosure, I work for CA.

    • #2530442

      Personal “Drive”

      by jim.spring ·

      In reply to Good BackUp Software

      We have an IT policy prohibiting users from storing files on the local workstations. This may sound very restrictive until one of your users looses his or her data after a hard drive crash. Instead, we provide them a personal “drive”. You may already know how to do this. If not, it’s very easy to do: First, I’ll assume you are using Windows Server OS. On your server’s production partition create a folder called Personal or whatever. Share it and make sure Everyone has full rights to it. In Active Directory Users and Computers, right-click on the user and go Properties. In the User Properties, click on the Profile tab. In the section called Home folder, click on the Connect radio button. Select a drive letter not used by anyone in the office. Then in the To: text space type “\\servername\Personal\%username%”. (no quotes, servername is the name of your server and Personal is the name of your shared drive. This will create a secure folder in the Personal folder and map this drive letter to whatever workstation they log into. It is secure because only that user (and the net admin, of course) will have access to whatever is stored in that folder. From here, you have set the foundation to do all sorts of stuff like setting Office applications to use this drive as default save to, etc.

      • #2583101

        Personal “Drive”

        by lori wagoner ·

        In reply to Personal “Drive”

        My IT Manager has requested I find out how to prohibit users from storing to the local workstations. We already use the concept of the “personal” drives, but users are still bypassing this and storing locally.

        Could you tell how you successfully “locked” down local hard drives without causing problems with applications still needing to write there?

        Thanks!

        • #2583016

          When I

          by dumphrey ·

          In reply to Personal “Drive”

          set up a computer, I set permissiosn to read and travers only, they can writ to My Documents only, and that has been copied through GPO to a network drive for backup and redundancy. Downside is, I have to do any and all updates and installs. Upside is, I have to do any and all updates and installs =/.

    • #2541303

      Roaming Profile

      by llsilverll ·

      In reply to Good BackUp Software

      Dear Nate,
      i believe it will be much easier to use roaming profile, & store the users profiles on a server if u r facing that the users computers are being changed, this way, you will not need to do any backup or images for the user profile…hope this will help more

      • #2541297

        Agreed ….

        by jp ·

        In reply to Roaming Profile

        Roaming profiles if set correctly will make your life alot easier. You can even create msi’s for all your apps to roll them out over group policy as well. All we do when migrating a user to another PC is tell them “Sit over there use that one….” granted there first logon might take a while depending on how many apps your are rolling out.

    • #2541291

      Genie Backup Manager is what you need

      by maha.amro ·

      In reply to Good BackUp Software

      Dear Nate,

      I have been using Genie Backup Manger(GBM) for years now. It is a great software that allows you to backup your emails, folders, files, programs, and program settings to virtually any storage device. Why i am recommending it to you is because you can backup without compression enabling you to see the documents backed up from windows explorer. Also you can make your backup in .exe so you can restore on any computer without the need of installing the program.

      I heard that they had plans to release a migration tool, but i dont know if the product is out yet. You can check their site or ask their sales to find out.
      http://www.genie-soft.com

    • #2541273

      Things to consider beyond migration

      by rstoebe1 ·

      In reply to Good BackUp Software

      If you have users that have years of documents stored only on their local hard drive you have bigger issues than migration. You say you have a server and I would assume you have a backup program for. The users should store their important company related documents on the server and not their local drive. Then you backup them up as often as the server. If both old and new PC exist at the same time use the Windows XP migration wizard. It can be run directly from the CD on non XP PCS. As long as all data is contained in the users profile it will all get copied to the new PC. Look for other save areas on the PC to be safe.

      • #2541257

        F.A.S.T.

        by thomas.clymer ·

        In reply to Things to consider beyond migration

        Although the File and Settings Transfer Wizard is a nice idea in theory, I would warn against using it. I have seen it work fine, but I have also seen it corrupt the data and make it UNRECOVERABLE. There are several good solutions for your situation. All you have to do is pick one.

    • #2541245

      Roaming profile has a delay in user logging.

      by umeshkmr ·

      In reply to Good BackUp Software

      Hi Nate,
      I would suggest you to use backup software tool such as (genie-soft) which accurately meets your requirements.

      I will not recommend “roaming profile” because it consumes more time for user logging, i.e whenever a new user logging to a Pc although the user profile stored in the network shared drive it also creates the profile in the local machine.

      • #2541216

        Roaming profiles use network storage for non-essential data

        by charliespencer ·

        In reply to Roaming profile has a delay in user logging.

        It’s much cleaner to set up a personal directory on the server and set the user’s profile to default to that directory.

    • #2541242

      IDEA

      by adamklshw ·

      In reply to Good BackUp Software

      My guess that you would be best carrying a portable hard drive with you (EXTERNAL) that way you save all the data required to that drive for the time being and relocate it to another desktop or laptop PC by reinstalling it that way its easy not always fast but it works thats just an easier solution than using a server and more compact its just an idea for your thoughts

      ZAXTHEGREAT

    • #2541235

      Altiris – Personality Capture Wizard

      by bmagurn ·

      In reply to Good BackUp Software

      Take a look at altiris’s Personality Capture Wizard. I haven’t used it myself, as like many posters, we don’t allow users to save to the C drive. (We do use Altiris for many of its other powerful features).

      This tool is intended to do exactly waht you are saying, but even on a large scale. (ex. capture the “personality” of the user’s machine, drop in a new vista PC (or reimage the existing) and then restore the personality back to the same machine).

      http://www.altiris.com

    • #2541224

      Acronis True Image

      by naughtymonkey ·

      In reply to Good BackUp Software

      I use Acronis True Image in situations that require that, but you should try to defer users from using their local drive as storage for important documents. I also put the old hard drive in users computers as a secondary if they feel they need to copy files from it.

    • #2541219

      Good Sync

      by craig ·

      In reply to Good BackUp Software

      I looked for a long time before I ran across this inexpensive and effective application. They have a free version that lets you see how you like the interface. Really simple and easy. I back up about 2 Gigs of files once a week and it takes only 5 or six minutes (after the first backup). Stores the files just as they were on the original machine (ie you don’t need the app to read some propritary data format).

      Craig

      • #2542439

        Microsoft SyncToy Will Also Do The Job

        by aakash shah ·

        In reply to Good Sync

        Try SyncToy from the Windows XP PowerToys.

    • #2541206

      Good ideas

      by divekeys ·

      In reply to Good BackUp Software

      There are several good ideas posted here. I don’t think there’s a clear picture on how large your environment is so its hard to say whether AD or roaming profiles will benefit you.
      An external USB hard drive is great for small operations if you are unable to copy your migration data to your network. You can use the USMT or File Settings and Transfer Wizard built in to XP for free. Depending on the make of the new hardware, many vendors supply free migration tools such as Lenovo’s System Migration Assistant, HP/Compaq’s (Altiris) PC Transplant.
      Imaging the PC usually only works when you are transferring the contents to the same or similar PC model. Problem with that is that is copies the hard drive verbatim so you are copying the drivers, SID, local SAM etc. If used on a different chipset there’s a good chance it wont even boot. If you use an imaging tool the image you make should generally be applied to the same or very similar model.
      If you have a network share move your data there. If not an external hard drive. If you are using a migration tool, try using a few first to get a ‘feel’ for them.

      File Settings and TRansfer Wizard (in OS)
      http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/mgrtfset.mspx

      USMT
      User State and Migration Tool (in OS)http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321197)

      If going to an IBM (if migrating to IBM)
      http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/think/thinkvantagetech/systemmigration/index.html

      Pay (If you want to pay for migration tool)
      http://www.altiris.com/Products/PCTransplantSolution.aspx

      There are a bunch out there, Google away (carefully) Good luck.

      • #2542187

        Status

        by natelanman ·

        In reply to Good ideas

        Thanks for the responses! To answer a few posters replies, our supervisors are shying away from storing files on the server. Everyone here does have a personal folder on the server that they can save files to, however there is limited space.

        I liked the idea of having a portable external drive so I made one slight modification to that idea. I purchased an external networkable hard drive that connects to the server. We are going to create private individual folders that the users can store their important files to. I’m also researching backup software that can scan the drives so our employees know what is being backed up. This is a very small office (only 10-20 people locally), so I believe this will work.

        My dad had this excellent software utility he used to migrate his old data, but unfortunately the company was bought out by Microsoft and they are discontinuing the entire line!

        Nate

    • #2541158

      I will swear by…

      by eacote55 ·

      In reply to Good BackUp Software

      … the DR recovery capabilities of the Norton Ghost app. I’ve been in IT for 20+ years and Ghost has been always reliable. We make an image of the old PC when it’s retired, use Ghost Explorer to extract the user’s data and simply copy to the newly QC imaged new system. If we get the image, we have everything the user has placed locally.

      • #2542183

        Ghost?

        by natelanman ·

        In reply to I will swear by…

        Will Ghost work on significantly different machines? In most cases, we are upgrading from a 3-4 year old Dell, to a new Dell. Same operating system. I’d imagine the file structure would be exactly the same, but I don’t want to take any unnecessary chances.

        Nate

        • #2542093

          Ghost explorer

          by dumphrey ·

          In reply to Ghost?

          simply extracts the selected file(s) from a ghost image. Where you put those files aftewards is up to you. So if you ghost an oold win 98 machine, set up a user on a win xp machine, and they realize they forgot to put some important file on the network share, you open up the ghost image and extract their file.

    • #2542150

      No silver bullet

      by larry the security guy ·

      In reply to Good BackUp Software

      For my company, there is no single solution; rather, we employ a variety of tools, controls and policies that make our workday more secure overall.

      We generally do not make an image of a to-be-retired workstation. We have “default” images to support our hardware base (we buy one kind of workstation), and we have add-on packages to support the unique needs for each department.

      User data is, for the most part, stored by default on the file servers (all our servers are backed up daily); we use roaming profiles and define server shares as My Documents, Favorites and the like.

      For larger files, it’s sometimes more efficient to work on them from a local folder, but we usually save them to the server share at the end of the day. But in case we don’t we also use a backup solution (Connected)that makes diff archives every day and throws them onto a backup server. Backups can be performed via the Internet because the data stream is encrypted.

      To help reduce workstation failures due to malware, we don’t allow software that hasn’t been inspected, tested and approved. We don’t allow thumb drives because there is a potential they can carry malware, but also becauswe deal in sensitive data (we do full-disk encryption, but that’s a different topic).

      We’ve been pretty lucky overall in that few workstations fail for reasons other than hardware end-of-life. And for those that do fail, recovery is fairly painless.

      • #2542116

        Re: Silver Bullet

        by natelanman ·

        In reply to No silver bullet

        Hi Larry,
        Your post was very informative and sounds similar to my situation. Several of our people have “sensitive” information stored on their hard drives. Many of them also work at multiple facilities and have requested thumb drives to ease transferring documents from one computer to another.
        Are you using a tape backup as well?

        Nate

    • #2542131

      Ghosting

      by tfsimpkins ·

      In reply to Good BackUp Software

      I have to agree that ghosting a PC is a waste of time in some cases. If you’re supporting all of the same PC models, OS’s, sys config’s, it can do wonders. If one system crashes, you can have it back up within the hour. But if you take an image of one model and push to a another, you can have conflicts within the system’s settings. Drivers, chipset configurations; it basically takes an image of everything. It can potentially bring a system down worse than its previous state. Once you push the image to the new destination you will still need to re-configure it as if it were a new PC. This is not the answer you were looking for but I can only offer the advice of what is unecessary.

      • #2542119

        Ghosting to different model

        by nhahajn ·

        In reply to Ghosting

        We use Ghost alot to move a user to a different model, we jud Ghost it to the new PC and do a Repair of the new computer using the Windows disk. You still have to reinstall all of the updates and service packs, but generally works without errors. A least all the software, documents and favorites they had on the old computer are already installed on the new one, it saves a lot of time.

        • #2542080

          Re:

          by tfsimpkins ·

          In reply to Ghosting to different model

          Nothing beats a clean install when considering anything of Microsoft’s. I still look at a repaired OS as a temporary fix. I’ve just had bad luck w/ ghosted machines really. My clean installs seem to be more stable in the end. This is off the beating path of just relocating Documents, emails,etc.

        • #2542074

          Only in emergencies

          by charliespencer ·

          In reply to Ghosting to different model

          I usually reserve this for emergencies: no longer have the installation media for a vital application, an app was installed or configured by a expensive vendor, dead system and no identical hardware replacement available. Otherwise, putting a ghost of one model onto a different model is more long-term trouble that it’s worth. If you do it a second time (from model B to model C) you’re probably going to lose any benefits of upgrading the hardware.

    • #2542052

      Folder redirection

      by tnesmith ·

      In reply to Good BackUp Software

      We use a combination of roaming profiles and folder redirection. The profiles are stored in a seperate share for each user and backed up nightly with ntbackup. The Application data, My Documents, and Desktop folders are directed to another share which is backed up nightly and weekly with ntbackup.

      This seems to work very well. We never have to worry about saving a user’s work for them. Also, if a user accidentally deletes something, you will have a backup to restore from.

    • #2541988

      Simple Microsoft tools

      by gis bun ·

      In reply to Good BackUp Software

      You can use the tools built into windows. File Settings & Transfer Wizard or User State Migration Tool. Both have had updates that came out since Windows XP was released. Both allow yhou to save the “output” to remouvable storage or a network drive.

      Microsoft also has a tool in beta that will actually migrate applications themselves from Win XP to Vista [only] if you’re going that route.

      Any files that need to be kept but unlikely to be used except as a reference should be burned olnto DVD [or CD] twice. Once copy available locally if needed and another copy off site.

    • #2541931

      BKP Software

      by rrobescu ·

      In reply to Good BackUp Software

      Hi
      I use Veritas because I can extract files from archive with ntbackup .I prefer to keep archives on storage and when they need some old files I just extract those files. they ask me to do this maybe 10 times in one year (700 users).
      Good luck
      Robert

    • #2540480

      Backing up data

      by pjboyles ·

      In reply to Good BackUp Software

      There are several products that can image the drive. Acronis True Image and Symantec Ghost are two good ones. Each application also has a tool to extract files from the image. A big plus. They both have the ability to restore to different hardware if you purchase the option or version that provides that capability. Restoring to different hardware is great for disaster recovery, with the intension of rebuilding the system later. A clean install is so much less likely to have “quirks.”

      As to migrating information and settings, Acronis, Altiris, Symantec and CA have migration tools. There are also many others available. So long as your users place files in a known standard location these are great. It is when data is scattered over the drive that things get difficult.

      I would recommend performing a clean windows install on the new hardware and then restoring the data. Either from a transfer tool or extracted from an image file. If you are extracting the data, you should export favorites and cookies from IE on the old system first so you can import them on the new systems (something the transfer utilities do for you).

      As a safety measure, retain the old hardware for a short time or an image of the system so that you can recover any data that was missed in the transfer.

    • #2540478

      try this one

      by vinitogupta ·

      In reply to Good BackUp Software

      hi,

      try DriveImage XML it is best tool for migration.

      thanks

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