Acronis and Backups

[-pops-]

Can I urge anyone and everyone who thinks that a catastrophic collapse of their computer system will never happen to them, let me tell you that you're wrong. Sooner or later, disaster will happen and, if you don't have a backup of your system, you will join the (not inconsiderable number of) people desperately trying to recoever whatever bits they can from their now defunct machine.

All need not be lost if you act now and set up a system of backing up your computer. To do this you need backup software. A basic package is included in Windows but, to have a comprehensive and versatile backup, you really need an independent package.

To this end, Windows Forum has negotiated to offer subscribers to the forum a special deal on Acronis - one of the most popular and widely used computer backup systems.

Find out about this deal by clicking the blue Acronis tab at the top of the page.

Even if you don't wish to take up this offer, I urge everyone to ensure they have a full and up-to-date backup of their computer. Remember an out-of-date backup is no use at all.

[AlanHo]

I thoroughly endorse what pops has said - especially because for the last two months I have been having problems with my 12 month old computer and have had to use Acronis to recover the system on 3 occasions.

I have now found out what the problem was - a problem with an external hard drive which kept locking-up Windows and crashing the boot sequence - but at the time I was quite stumped and would not have been able to use the computer or access my data without restoring the Acronis back-up.

It really is money well spent and false economy not to have it.

As part of a "belt and braces" approach to data security, I also use a back-up programme called "Second Copy" which is set to back-up all my documents and settings (Just those that have incrementally changed since the last back-up) onto a second partition on my external hard drive. The back-up is carried out automatically every time the computer is closed down so I am guaranteed to have a copy of the latest version of every document and setting. The beauty of this programme is that it produces a facsimile copy of your data and can be browsed using Windows Explorer. It can also be set to keep an archive copy of changed documents in as many historic versions as you like. I am aware that in the latest version of Acronis you can make a back-up of documents and can schedule this to be done each time the computer is closed down - I have tried it - but it takes much longer than Second Copy and compresses the data into one back-up file which you need Acronis to browse or recover files from. It works - but to my eyes is not as user friendly.

I therefore use the legendary strenghs of Acronis to take weekly disc image files and can restore any complete disc or partition at will - plus a Second Copy of all changed data each time I shut down the computer. This means I am guaranteed to recover all my data at any time - whereas just using an Acronis disc image weekly will result in losing data changed since the last weekly backup.

[andsome]

Well said pops, may you long carry on going on at us. I have used my Acronis backup on more that one occasion. MUCH easier than reinstalling Windows.

[Thos]

I quite liked the idea behind AlanHo's post of having "Second Copy" as a belt to Acronis's braces and visited the site but, being a real meanie, I don't think my circumstances warrant paying the fee. I will rely on Acronis.

Thos.

[andsome]

If Acronis did have a problem, which is very unlikey, there is always a format and re-install, a bit of a pain but not the end of the world.

[D4\/!d]

I quite liked the idea behind AlanHo's post of having "Second Copy" as a belt to Acronis's braces and visited the site but, being a real meanie, I don't think my circumstances warrant paying the fee. I will rely on Acronis.

Thos.

Hello Thos, then try SyncBack Freeware V3.2.12

Scroll down to find the Freeware version (not SE). It works well enough for me :)

[Thos]

I quite liked the idea behind AlanHo's post of having "Second Copy" as a belt to Acronis's braces and visited the site but, being a real meanie, I don't think my circumstances warrant paying the fee. I will rely on Acronis.

Thos.

Hello Thos, then try SyncBack Freeware V3.2.12

Scroll down to find the Freeware version (not SE). It works well enough for me :)

Thanks for this. I have had a look, bookmarked it, and will try it out when I have a bit more time.

Thos.

[Irene]

I realise that I am resurrecting this post, but it seems to be touching on my present quandry...

My local C drive is 76gb, of which I am using 47gb. I recently purchased a 500gb EHD for photos etc. Also, I wish to backup all of my C drive which is in use, just in case it goes 'belly-up'. I am aware of the Windows backup facility. I have Nero, which I tried today to use its' backup wizard. However, after an hour or more it had only done 1% so I cancelled it. :(

So, how long would you expect a full backup to take? Am I using the wrong tool? I have noticed the references to Acronis, about which I know nothing at all. I followed an old link left I think by Chris, which took me to a web site telling me that the offer had now finished. so I had a look around and found that I could download a copy on trial for a month. The download is sitting on my desk top, not yet installed. Feeling a bit nervous about installing and trying to use a program about I am completely unfamiliar, I decided to ask the Experts!!

Any comments?? :)

[andsome]

My C drive is 80GB of which about 11 is used up. A full Acronis backup takes me about ten to fifteen minutes. After that adding incremental backups takes about seven or eight minutes. Pops is the Acronis expert, I am sure that he will be happy to answer any queries.

[-pops-]

Irene, depending on the speed of your machine, if it's fairly modern, a full Acronis backup should take about an hour for that amount of data.

There is a tab at the top of the page here to take you to a discounted offer for Acronis. It is for subscribers only but, even with the subscription, the cost is less than you can get it at most other places.

[Irene]

Thank you Gentlemen!

I am now a fully paid up member. I've been trying to purchase Acronis through the link at the top of the page. I get as far as entering my details, address etc., and it keeps insisting on me entering a State even though I selected Outside of US & Canada. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

[-pops-]

Ah! I had that problem. All I did was tell it I lived in California and everything went OK.

When you download the program be careful to load it to somewhere like My documents and then burn the whole of the download to a CD - to keep for future use.

Remember also to make a recovery CD when you've installed the program - this should be kept in a safe place in case the worst happens. I keep mine inside the computer case - well wrapped up to keep the inevitable dust away from it

[Irene]

Thanks pops, I've done the deed. Hope it's ok because my credit card address of course is not United States!! Already had an acknowledgment of the order, so I'll wait for the process to allow me to download.

[-pops-]

There was no problem with mine - I think the credit card goes by the post/zip code and not the country.

[Chris]

Thanks pops, I've done the deed. Hope it's ok because my credit card address of course is not United States!! Already had an acknowledgment of the order, so I'll wait for the process to allow me to download.

Did you get another email Irene?

[Irene]

Thanks pops, I've done the deed. Hope it's ok because my credit card address of course is not United States!! Already had an acknowledgment of the order, so I'll wait for the process to allow me to download.

Did you get another email Irene?

Hi Chris,

I am not at home at the moment, but when I checked my emails this morning there was one which contained the necessary for me to download etc. I will ge onto it later and hopefully will be up, running and backup done before long. Thanks for the interest. I'll le you know if I encounter any problems. :)

[andsome]

Do you have a good clean stable system to back up, or do you think a fresh start may be better?

[-pops-]

That's a good point that andsome has made. You do need a nice clean system to make the best of doing your backups. If you have a system full of errors, faults and grot (as all systems acquire over time) then this will be perpetuated in the backup.

[Irene]

Do you have a good clean stable system to back up, or do you think a fresh start may be better?

Well I believe I have. What would you recommend I do before I start?

[-pops-]

If everything is behaving properly and how you like it to be then that's the thing you want to backup.

[andsome]

If everything is behaving properly and how you like it to be then that's the thing you want to backup.

If not, then a reinstall would be in order. The beauty of Acronis, is that once you have backed up a good clean installation, then if you get a problem, you just return to that state, and all that remains is to update all the MS critical updates etc, and you are up and running again.

[Irene]

Many thanks.. I'll let you know how I get on! B)

[Irene]

Just an update...

I have a CD copy of the download.

I have a copy of the Boot CD in case of the worst!

I have the first complete backup of my entire C-drive onto my external HD, which appears to be in 6 segments ( 5 x 4,194,304KB and 1 x 2,031,968KB). It took approximately 1.5 hours.

Does this seem to be what one would expect?

Does the backup include the unused part of my 76gb local C?

[-pops-]

You have a lot of data on your machine, Irene, so 1.5 hours is quite reasonable.

The reason it is in six segments is (I think) because Acronis stores its backup in FAT 32 which has a maximum partition size of 4GB (4,194,304KB). This won't be a problem when it comes to restoring as it will sort everything out itself.

Now, don't you feel a lot more relaxed and secure knowing all your data is backed up and safe?

Remember, though, to regularly update. An out-of-date backup is well nigh useless.

The backup doesn't include the unused parts of your drive.

[Irene]

Hi pops.

I've downloaded the pdf guide, so I'll review what I need to do next in order to schedule an appropriate program of backup prodcedures. If you or anyone else has any further advice, I would be grateful to hear it. :)