Questions about backups

Tinky · 20-09-2009, 19:10

Well here I go, about to make a complete prat of myself once again. Yesterday decided to do a backup (well how difficult can that be, I thought?) So started with the first disk at 8.20am, but first I was told it had to format the disk, and that must have taken in the region of half an hour. It kept on asking for another disk,and each one had to go through the process of being formatted. I was at it most of the day, running back and forth to see what stage it had got to. By 5pm and on disk no 5 decided to call it a day. Today I thought I would start anew, surely I must have done something wrong. First disk went in at 8.44am I am now on disk no 8 and it's still going strong!!

This seems a ridiculous amount of time to spend for a simple backup, no?

Incidentally, the last 3 disks the format was unsuccessful, what's up?

Update:- The fourth disk has failed to format.

Taf · 20-09-2009, 19:28

What type of disk is it trying to format?

Are you trying to backup an entire hard drive?

Tinky · 20-09-2009, 19:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taf

What type of disk is it trying to format?

Are you trying to backup an entire hard drive?

It's a CD-RW Taf, and not the entire hard drive, least that's not what I ticked.

Update:- I have had to abort the backup.

Matthew · 20-09-2009, 20:12

It took me a good 12 hours to use NTBackup to back up around 258GB of data and verify it to my USB hard drive the other week, didnt think it would take that long!

20-09-2009, 20:19

this is why I always advocate operating system and main program files on one drive and all your files and data on different hard drives. My OS back up is a massive 25 gig

---------- Post added at 19:19 ---------- Previous post was at 19:17 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tinky

It's a CD-RW Taf, and not the entire hard drive, least that's not what I ticked.

Update:- I have had to abort the backup.

cd rw is way to small you need to be using dvd rs or you will be using millions. Open my computer and see how much dat is on your drive and divide that into 650 meg chunks and you will get an idea how many you will need. For my 25 gig you are looking at 35+ cd rws. PLus you wont have to format a dvd r

Tinky · 20-09-2009, 20:24

I was under the impression a backup was a simple thing, when we are always being told to backup before we do anything different. But if it's going to take in excess of 8 disks, and over half a day to do it, then I will have to think again. Wonder why I couldn't format my disks, they were brand new?

Ah! Just read the above post, didn't think to use DVDs. May try that next. Can't do the maths either Zing, but can guarantee that my little pc is no match for your mighty machine lol.

20-09-2009, 20:39

but if all your eggs are in one basket it might be fuller than one of my baskets

Incidentally its always a good idea to run full disc cleanup and delete all but last system restore points to save on backing up unnecessary data

idi banashapan · 20-09-2009, 22:04

buy an external hdd and run a backup to that using something like 'SyncToy 2' (free from the Microsoft site) if you are just after things like Photos and music. set the job up as a contribution and away you go. you can then leave the external drive locked in a work draw or something until you next run a backup. this means it is off-site, so if your house burns down, you still have the important data elsewhere. you buy external 2.5" hdd nice and cheap these days. although backing up to media such as dvd/cd-rw does away with mechanical failure on its part, it is very unlikely that 2 hard drives will fail at the same time, meaning you lose everything. plus, it's sooooo much faster to run the jobs and much less hassle.

I also agree with Zing on having a physical drive for OS and a separate physical drive for data. I have done that since around 1998 and would never change that.

Mick Fisher · 20-09-2009, 22:30

If you are using TruImage and only have a single HDD don't forget about making a backup to a Protected Partition. Simply activate the "Manage Secure Zone" wizard and follow the prompts to create a protected location to save to. Using this method a back up of the Operating system only takes about 20 minutes.

Other possibilities for back up locations are creating a new "Data" partition or acquiring an external HDD.

Of course if your internal HDD goes down so does your backup.

External HDD's are relatively cheap and so get my vote.

Tinky · 21-09-2009, 09:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by zing

but if all your eggs are in one basket it might be fuller than one of my baskets

Incidentally its always a good idea to run full disc cleanup and delete all but last system restore points to save on backing up unnecessary data

Lol Zing I think I can safely claim that my 'baskets' are definitely fuller than yours! Seriously though, good idea to run a full disc cleanup, haven't tried that one yet (sigh)! Didn't realise that I could delete system restore points, yet another thing I have learned on CF. Many thanks Zing!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bender

buy an external hdd and run a backup to that using something like 'SyncToy 2' (free from the Microsoft site) if you are just after things like Photos and music. set the job up as a contribution and away you go. you can then leave the external drive locked in a work draw or something until you next run a backup. this means it is off-site, so if your house burns down, you still have the important data elsewhere. you buy external 2.5" hdd nice and cheap these days. although backing up to media such as dvd/cd-rw does away with mechanical failure on its part, it is very unlikely that 2 hard drives will fail at the same time, meaning you lose everything. plus, it's sooooo much faster to run the jobs and much less hassle.

I also agree with Zing on having a physical drive for OS and a separate physical drive for data. I have done that since around 1998 and would never change that.

Wish I was as clever as you guys, you make it all sound so simple. Thank you Bender for your help.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mick Fisher

If you are using TruImage and only have a single HDD don't forget about making a backup to a Protected Partition. Simply activate the "Manage Secure Zone" wizard and follow the prompts to create a protected location to save to. Using this method a back up of the Operating system only takes about 20 minutes.

Other possibilities for back up locations are creating a new "Data" partition or acquiring an external HDD.

Of course if your internal HDD goes down so does your backup.

External HDD's are relatively cheap and so get my vote.

Unfortunately for me Mick, I (on reflection) stupidly uninstalled my copy of TruImage. I simply use the backup facility of my OS. At the moment I will have to content myself with only one HDD, Mr Tink thinks I already spend waaaay too much on my pc. Will have a crack at what Zing says about disk cleanup, and also use DVDs for backup, see how that goes. Thank you for your interest and your help.............................and now for my next problem

**Maggy** · 21-09-2009, 09:22

Tinky I too am not technically minded and I too had trouble with backing up(especially with my 3D art work which can take Gazillions of space on a hard drive)with CD Roms and DVDs so I purchased an external HD which has worked out well so far AND I got a second HD fitted to my present PC when I bought it.

Thus I have double the back up and somewhere to keep a TruImage copy as well as my art work and all the resources necessary for my hobby.HD are not as expensive as they once were.In fact it seems to me that for the amount of space you get they are well worth investing in as a back up.

Tinky · 21-09-2009, 09:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maggy J

Tinky I too am not technically minded and I too had trouble with backing up(especially with my 3D art work which can take Gazillions of space on a hard drive)with CD Roms and DVDs so I purchased an external HD which has worked out well so far AND I got a second HD fitted to my present PC when I bought it.

Thus I have double the back up and somewhere to keep a TruImage copy as well as my art work and all the resources necessary for my hobby.HD are not as expensive as they once were.In fact it seems to me that for the amount of space you get they are well worth investing in as a back up.

Thank you Coggy for that, maybe I could ask for one for Christmas. Ooops I said that word again!

dragon · 26-09-2009, 23:26

I backup to another machine on my Lan

But I also backup the photos.etc to an online backup service, which actually is probably more updated than the local backup since it's configured to just go and do it by itself and well i'm rather forgetful