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Looking for pros and cons on either program.
Nero Back It Up included in my Nero software vs. Acronis True Image 10.
Would like to back up entire system. And be able to do incremental backups on photo and video files. With the later being very important. I have my photos and vids on both hard drive and an external drive but if anything ever happened to both, ie; power surge/spike I would be in big time trouble! Have about 130G combined total.
Any and all comments welcome.
Thanks!
I would recommend Acronis True Image, version 10 (certified for Vista). IMO, this is the best backup product. It works like a champ. You can schedule your backups.
I would also recommend purchasing Disk Director which is the Acronis Disk Partitioning product.
The following has been a membership benefit for those individuals who are members of a PC Users Group. Essentially, this website with provide you the software with approximately a 50% discount. If you want a copy on CD, they can provide that as well but there is a small additional charge.
BTW, I have dealt with the CEO of the company for over 10 years. He has given me permission to post this informtion on VirtualDR.
http://www.ugr.com/
Cheers,
Linda
wojo629: For basic backups of data, IMO, Back It Up works fine. Just be sure to check the option box for verification. That way, the disk you've just burnt won't be a coaster. (FWIW, I'd keep the last two data backup copies in case something goes haywire with the most recent version.) I have not used Back It Up to a hard drive but I know of no reason why it wouldn't work.
As far as partiton/disk imaging programs (for entire system backups), there are several to choose from. They all run at their fastest speed and have the best file integrity if you backup to another hard drive. (Now that very large storage capability USB or firewire external hard drives can be purchased for a small cash outlay, this should be something most of us should consider owning and using.) I do NOT recommend ever backing up a system image to a 2nd partition on the same drive. If the hard drive fails, you have nothing. No Windows, no imaged copy.
Images burnt directly to DVD are an option but such images can take quite a bit longer to perform. One option that might work better for time management would be to create an image to a 2nd hard drive and then every once in a while (say once a month or two) burn that already created image to DVD. The advantage of DVD storage is that it/they can be stored in a fireproof safe or even better, offsite for disaster recovery. (I realize that you have a ton of files, so DVD imaging is probably out for you.)
As far as imaging programs, there are lots of them to choose from. Most work pretty well. Some require installation into Windows. Others do not (my preference. I often grow weary of the bloat our computers suffer from. Besides, it makes sense to me to image Windows when it's not running. Less chance for data corruption.)
The one thing that many imaging program users do not follow through on is to test the restore function. And this is where some of these programs don't always cut the mustard. (Be aware that nearly all imaging programs restore from outside of Windows. So you would normally need to create a bootable CD from the imaging program that will provide the restoration environment the program needs to run from.) So no matter which program you go with, backup your data (using Nero), make sure you have everything you need to do a complete re-install (in case the image restore fails), take an image and then immediately restore from it. Anything less than fully passing this test would mean that you'll never really know if your PC is backed up or not.
Which programs would I recommend? (The ones I'm listing are ones I've owned/tried/worked with.)
I would not recommend Norton. At one point, they were THE imaging program (Ghost.) But IMO, those days are long since past. (I ran Ghost 2003 and it was ok. But I later moved to Image for DOS and found it much more to my liking.)
True Image is ok. (I've helped a couple of my friends use it.) Most users seems to get along with it fine. The most recent version seems to be the best yet. TI's website is here http://www.acronis.com/ If you want to read about it or ask specific questions, the official support forum is here http://www.wilderssecurity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=65
If a very basic, no frills approach appeals to you, the products from Terabyte Unlimited are very reliable. http://www.terabyteunlimited.com Support for IFD (including a newsgroup site http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/supportimg.html ) To the point, I really like Image for DOS. It's strictly a bootable disk type program (IOW. no installation into Windows.) It works very well with either hard drive stored images or burned DVD's. I used IFD for 2 years before switching to the next program.
The last imaging program I've used is the one I have switched to and now recommend. ShadowProtect http://www.storagecraft.com/products...rotectDesktop/ (Support and support forum links on that page.) ShadowProtect is a product essentially aimed at the commercial/business market but it also works very well at home. It can be installed and ran from within Windows or it can be a standalone CD based program and ran totally outside of Windows (which has been my choice.) It is designed to create partition/drive images to other partitions or hard drives. (It does not directly support burning of DVDs but you can later burn the files to DVDs.) SP runs VERY fast. When running IFD into an external USB hard drive, it would take me approx. 20 to 25 minutes for 9GB. The same PC (and external drive) using SP takes less than 7 minutes. Restorations times are about the same. As you can imagine, when creating an image takes so much less time, I don't put off doing it nearly as much! Plus, where IFD was a bare bones interface, the bootable environment of SP is a very easy to use GUI. I was able to create my first image using SP without reading the manual.
If you are interested, a couple of informative threads on imaging, TI, IFD, SP and much more are located here http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=139716 and here http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=167964 (Be aware these threads are VERY LONG! :eek: )
LindaHewitt & HAN, thanks for the input and ideas. Sorry I haven't responded sooner, work has been busy.
Will start playing soon!