What Backup Software Do You Use? - VRForums - SITEX 2009

xrM · Sep 13th, 06, 05:25 PM

Noticed quite a few people in here use software to back files up. I personally just drag and drop into my external hdd.

So state what you use!

xrM · Sep 13th, 06, 05:25 PM

Btw, any backup software that does an integrity check to make sure there are no errors when data was being transfered over from one place to another?

orca · Sep 13th, 06, 08:06 PM

Norton Ghost for my OS partition. Creates drive image, bootable, decent compression and verification.

(See, you can't copy the registry and certain system files normally.)

Copy and paste for my personal data. I like to keep my stuff organised manually.

The only "integrity check" I use for copy-pasting is to select all files copied and check the number of files and bytes in properties, see that they tally.
I haven't got any data corruption in the many years I've been backing up my stuff.

I tried looking around for stuff like MD5-checksum programs once, but came up empty handed.

John_Chee · Sep 13th, 06, 08:10 PM

Basically i copy and paste. Like the files that I want to save on my external HDD then i copy to my desktop then when i'm done i on my HDD and start copying to the respective folders.

So some of my folders are exactly the same as my external HDD. Cos the files are copied to my main drive as well. Don't really trust those backup software actually. I read that there are some software that can sync with the computer folder. Means which file you add or delete it will be same as your backup HDD. But it can be quite difficult to use especially when you edit the files, make new folder then the software might screw up on you. Best is i do by myself.

trekker99 · Sep 13th, 06, 09:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John_Chee

So some of my folders are exactly the same as my external HDD. Cos the files are copied to my main drive as well. Don't really trust those backup software actually. I read that there are some software that can sync with the computer folder. Means which file you add or delete it will be same as your backup HDD. But it can be quite difficult to use especially when you edit the files, make new folder then the software might screw up on you. Best is i do by myself.

I know how you feel. A lot of excellent backup solutions are designed for enterprise environments so a) they are overkill b) too expensive. Many windows backup software are by small timers and I always wonder how good they are. SyncBackSE is what I am using for now based on someone's recommendation here. I used to use the power toy by MS but it didn't do a good job after a while.

xrM · Sep 13th, 06, 09:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by orca

Norton Ghost for my OS partition. Creates drive image, bootable, decent compression and verification.

(See, you can't copy the registry and certain system files normally.)

Copy and paste for my personal data. I like to keep my stuff organised manually.

The only "integrity check" I use for copy-pasting is to select all files copied and check the number of files and bytes in properties, see that they tally.
I haven't got any data corruption in the many years I've been backing up my stuff.

I tried looking around for stuff like MD5-checksum programs once, but came up empty handed.

Yeah, thats how I do it too, but I'm afriad some of the bits might be copied wrongly but the numbers still tally.

The MD5 checks are great, just that they can't calculate for folders, only files

trekker99 · Sep 13th, 06, 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xrM

Yeah, thats how I do it too, but I'm afriad some of the bits might be copied wrongly but the numbers still tally.

The MD5 checks are great, just that they can't calculate for folders, only files

I plan to use the Windows version mentioned in the article when I get the time to try it out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rsync

I only need synchronisation between two directories so this is ideal for me.

If you need versioning, maybe cvs or svn can be used too? Not sure if there is any form of verifcation for that though.

shadowandy · Sep 13th, 06, 10:21 PM

For me I just backup files from my laptop to a network drive as well as portable hdd using SyncToy from microsoft. One of the powertoys for XP

trekker99 · Sep 13th, 06, 10:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadowandy

For me I just backup files from my laptop to a network drive as well as portable hdd using SyncToy from microsoft. One of the powertoys for XP

That's the one I used which didn't work properly after a while. It didn't correct sync all my files. It was designed for photos, so maybe that might be a reason.

shadowandy · Sep 13th, 06, 10:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trekker99

That's the one I used which didn't work properly after a while. It didn't correct sync all my files. It was designed for photos, so maybe that might be a reason.

there is an option for checking the contents of files.

trekker99 · 11:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadowandy

there is an option for checking the contents of files.

I used that. It takes damn long too. I had more than 10 GB of data to sync. Most of it don't change.

* EDIT *

Sorry to clarify most of the data doesn't get modified by me. Odd files here and there do.