Backup program for Windows 7/8

[JSWolf]

I'm looking for a good backup program that runs on Windows 7 & Windows 8. I want one that does the main system drive so that if it dies, I can restore to a different drive that would most likely be a different size.

How good is the backup program that comes with Windows 7 & 8 for backing up the system hard drive?

[jbcohen]

There are a lot of free software at freewarefiles.com that can accomplish this task The best backup software available for backing up your PC was made by Symantec but has been removed from the market by Symantec. These days they offer the ability to do this automatically on to an account that you pay for monthly.

Personally I really do not have anything on my laptops to backup. All the software is on a applications server and the data is on the file server so the computers only have the operating system, there is a copy of that in the boot strap of the software so if anything happens the most that could be lost is the OS, which is no big deal to replace.

[eschwartz]

http://clonezilla.org/

http://gparted.org/ (for resizing.)

How-To Geek: How to Create a System Image in Windows 7 or 8.x (Native Win7/8 solution)

You can also use "dd" on the linux command line. Where /dev/hda is your main HDD, and /dev/hdb is the new HDD:

dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb

Discussion:

http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtop...f=11&t=1153962

http://superuser.com/questions/44038...rom-hdd-to-hdd

http://superuser.com/questions/32164.../394953#394953


Your desire for something that runs on Windows does severely limit your choices. Most are linux tools.

And it is not really advised to try to copy a currently-running OS partition.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'm looking for a good backup program that runs on Windows 7 & Windows 8. I want one that does the main system drive so that if it dies, I can restore to a different drive that would most likely be a different size.

How good is the backup program that comes with Windows 7 & 8 for backing up the system hard drive?

I've been using Norton Ghost since version 5.x, back in the 90's, backing up to CD's, later to DVD, then to HDD's, and when it finally went Windows-only, I switched to Image for Linux as a follow-up, somewhere in 2008 or so. I bought version 2.01 for €21, and I still get updates (now at version 2.90).

"Image for Linux" just means that it's a Linux program, but it can backup any partition on any recognized hard drive as long as the program can boot.

There is an Image for Windows from the same company, but I don't trust it. Not because it could be bad, but I don't have any faith in programs that try to image a live system. I've got very bad experiences with the Windows version of Norton Ghost 2002 and 2003. I much prefer to boot from a CD, imaging a non-active drive or partition.

For backing up files, I just use rsync under Cygwin.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I've been using Norton Ghost since version 5.x, back in the 90's, backing up to CD's, later to DVD, then to HDD's, and when it finally went Windows-only, I switched to Image for Linux as a follow-up, somewhere in 2008 or so. I bought version 2.01 for €21, and I still get updates (now at version 2.90).

"Image for Linux" just means that it's a Linux program, but it can backup any partition on any recognized hard drive as long as the program can boot.

There is an Image for Windows from the same company, but I don't trust it. Not because it could be bad, but I don't have any faith in programs that try to image a live system. I've got very bad experiences with the Windows version of Norton Ghost 2002 and 2003. I much prefer to boot from a CD, imaging a non-active drive or partition.

For backing up files, I just use rsync under Cygwin.

And all those delectable free linux offerings I suggested?...

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

And all those delectable free linux offerings I suggested?...

CloneZilla was just released and unreliable at the time I was looking for a new program in 2007-2008. In the end I went for Image for Linux by Terabyte Software, as it got very good reviews.

I have the program already, it still gets updated, it still gets good reviews, and I know I can trust it to work. Even if they decide to go to version 3.00 from 2.99 and want some money for the upgrade (or even the full €21 again) I'd probably just do it. I'm not in the mood for switching away from a reliable imaging solution for the sake of switching or saving €21 in 7 years.

The one and only issue I ever had was that it does not seem to include the boot sector into its image if you just select only one partition and nothing else, but nowadays I just select "Entire Drive" to backup my SSD, so I never tested the correct selection to include the boot partition for a partially imaged drive.

Actually, CloneZilla looks like very old 1.x versions of Image for Linux. I wouldn't be surprised if Image for Linux is partially based off of CloneZilla, or if they have the same roots. Even so, in that case, I'd prefer a program with professional support for something like imaging, in case anything goes wrong. I did ask Terabyte some questions back in 2008 and 2009, and they were promptly and correctly answered.

If I'd switch to anything else, it'd probably be the native Windows 7/8.1/.... imaging solution.

[eschwartz]

Fair enough. You have the paid program already, so there's no reason to stop using it.

But you have no idea about the current state of the free offerings.

[eschwartz]

I'd think dd should work fine for cloning, and gPartED resizes them just fine in Ubiquity. Probably a little too low-level, though, even though it should be relatively failproof I'd think.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

But you have no idea about the current state of the free offerings.

True; I have not tested CloneZilla after 2008. Ever. I'd only do so if something happens to IFL, like the version I have not supporting a new computer for whatever reason, while a newer version suddenly costs €100.

In that case I definitely *would* test CloneZilla (and other programs), just as I did when Norton 2003 finally became unusable for me in 2007/2008.

PS: I did switch to GParted, after Partition Magic became defunct. In the past, I was always changing and upgrading computers (my own, and other people's), so I did need a partition resizing program, and GParted worked just fine. I use it very often, even today, to format >= 64GB sd-cards and USB-sticks and create partitions on them, which is sometimes needed.

[theducks]

I use Gparted to resize (live data) partitions all the time

For clone software: Maxtor and WD both include a drive clone utility in retail boxed drives (it does allow partitions to grow in the process), but I have had poor success with dual OS boot systems.

(note: the above software checks for their brand somewhere in the system (it does not need to be the new drive )

[ebusinesstutor]

To truly protect you, your backups have to be off site. Otherwise a fire will wipe out all your data or a burglar may also take your backup drive (happened to a friend of mine).

I use CrashPlan. Backs up online daily and I backup 4 different computers in my household for about $14 per month.

Works like a charm and is truly set and forget. I used to spend 2-3 hours a week doing backups so this is much more efficient and saves me money.

[Barty]

Paragon backup and restore. I use it on 7; don't know about 8.

It is free for personal use, or was free when I got it.

[JSWolf]

Thank you everyone. I'll have to reread and decide what I am going to use.

[latepaul]

For disk-image backups I've used PING (Ping Is Not Ghost) and like it. They do ask for an email address before downloading - which is annoying - but I've never had any spam from them. In theory it's not doing anything you couldn't do yourself with a Linux LiveCD (the guts of it is partimage) but it's already packaged for you. You'd want to use it with something like GParted to do the resizing after a restore.

For file backups I use the Win7 Backup tool. I used to use Areca which I liked because it was cross-platform. It also has a feature I liked where it would consolidate old incremental backups. However I found that as nice as that sounded in theory it took a lot of time to perform and since I rarely used it I eventually stopped using it. But I'm talking about my work PC here and since my job changed very little of what's on there that's important isn't backed up somehow anyway, and for that I can store stuff on a network drive that is.

At home I use BackInTime - which is an rsync frontend. It's trying to be a sort of Time machine for Linux and it's OK. I have had some issues with restoring files - I've found the GUI performs horrendously slowly with lots of files, so I wrote a little script for that. I do back up and restore semi-regularly as I use Mint where the standard upgrade advice is to back up your files and do a new install.

I tried Crashplan and liked it - simple to set up, free version is still very useful, cross-platform - my one qualm is that the backups are in some proprietary format. For file-based backups I like something I can go in and just grab the files individually if necessary.

[JSWolf]

The only drive I want to do non-file backup is my system drive. All the others I'm using Microsoft's SyncToy to manage the file based backups. I'll also do a file based backup from my system drive. But I do want to be able to restore the OS if needed.