Susan wrote:
> On Sat, 07 Feb 2009 04:05:10 -0800, spamme0 <> wrote:
>
>> The tests I did originally were on a beta version of vista.
>> Last night, just for you, I did a backup on Vista SP1.
>> The backup proceeded without a hitch.
>> Then I swapped in a hard drive and tried to restore it.
>> Since the drive was a few MB smaller than the partition I backed up,
>> it would not restore. The partition was plenty big enough to
>> hold the restored backup, just wouldn't do it.
>> So, I can't tell if it would have worked.
>> Another problem I'd forgotten was that the backup was not compressed.
>> So, I wouldn't use it even if it did work. Having twice the media around
>> is a deal breaker for me.
>
> Compression isn't important here but hdd size might matter.
>
>> My vista boot partition is only 16GB. My compressed boot partition
>> image fits on one DVD. And it will restore on any partition that is
>> at least as big as the resultant restored data.
>> I find that exceedingly convenient.
>> Acronis True Image 10. Free download if you
>> hurry...
>> http://www.acronis.co.uk/mag/ati10pe
>> mike
>
> I almost started using Acronis when I discovered Windows Backup looked
> like it did all the tricks I needed and have been happy with it so
> far... But I can't risk testing the restore--if it doesn't work I'm
> doing a clean install from scratch and right now I just hate that
> thought.
That's why it's so hard to evaluate backup programs.
I have plug-in drives for that very reason.
Vista SP1 is working great.
>
> This thread subject doesn't seem to be drawing in other comments so
> let me ask you directly one more thing I've tried to cover...
>
> Do backup programs, Vista Ultimate Backups and Acronis in particular
> remove deleted or uninstalled programs from their incremental backups
> or is this why one must periodically create new backups?
The only place for an accurate answer is the vendor.
Short answer is, "I don't know."
But that never stopped me from giving a long answer.
A WORKING backup program MUST result in your system being restored
to the EXACT state it had at the last backup...PERIOD, NO EXCEPTIONS.
There are several ways to approach that. Question is, "does it work?"
Probably does 99% of the time. Are you feeling lucky?
Even if the program works, you may not be operating it
to get the result you want.
YOU MUST TEST IT ON YOUR SYSTEM!!
Back when backup media was expensive, I used differential backups.
That way, there's only one iteration to worry about. If you're not
making huge system changes, the total amount of backup storage you need
can be less than incremental backups.
Never trust advice from a random idiot you encounter on the web.
Take it as input, but VERIFY.
Never backup your system while any microsoft program is running.
M$ makes periodic changes to the operating system and attempts
to force them down your throat. That's often a good thing...
until some system change six months ago broke your backup process.
It's important to protect your intellectual property from
pirates, but those efforts often impact the boot process
and can have disasterous implications
for the rest of us.
You want a STABLE platform for your backups. Actually, you want
a stable platform for EVERYTHING, but that ain't gonna happen.
I wrote the following in response to backup issues in another group.
If you do the "better way", you can easily do a full backup of your
C: drive every time.
************************************************** ******************
You don't have a backup problem, you have an organization problem.
But, before you do anything else, go here and download the free Acronis 10.
http://www.acronis.co.uk/mag/ati10pe
Don't wait, it may not be there for long.
Google and download ImgBurn also.
The easy way...
Organize your stuff.
Don't put ANYTHING in the default location.
Build yourself a directory tree in the root directory
and put your stuff there...ALL of it. Don't put anything
in My Documents or MY downloads or MY anything. It will
get lost in all the other crap that the OS puts there.
And you'll really like the ease with which you can move
that directory next time you reinstall the OS or update
the os. And you never have to worry about where M$
hid your files this time...or the next time they move it.
You're gonna have several subdirectories.
The media subdirectory will have a large amount of stuff that
never changes. Back it up in chunks as it arrives. When my media stuff
gets to 5GB, I burn it on a DVD and erase it from the HD.
Save the few emails you want to keep into your directory tree.
Delete the rest from your system. Your ISP typically provides you
gigabytes of backup email archive. Use it.
Get yourself a USB thumb drive big enough to hold the anticipated
growth in the non-media subtree. Periodically, sync your
directory to the thumb drive. Somewhat less periodically,
burn a DVD of the thumb drive contents and prune the stuff you
really don't need online. You now have your data backed up
and a historical record on a set of discs.
I like ImgBurn for burning data files to a cd/dvd. It's a free download.
Now, you want to be able to recover from a total system meltdown.
The way to do that is to image your C: drive. The Acronis you just
downloaded will take care of that very nicely.
Problem solved...in theory.
Problem is that you probably have WAY more c: drive than will fit on
a DVD, much less a CD. Where are you gonna put it?
You can burn the image to a set of DVD-RW discs...but after the first
time, you'll develop procrastination habits. It's just too time
consuming...so you won't do it.
Do the math...If you have 100GB of stuff and it compresses to 50%,
you still need 10 DVD's EVERY time you image your C: drive.
You don't want to even think about how many CD's that takes.
YOU WILL NOT DO IT OFTEN ENOUGH.
So, What's your data worth to you? What's your time worth?
Can you find a Benjamin in the mad-money jar?
Go buy yourself a 1TB external USB hard drive. Use that for
all your regular backups and drive images. Every once in a while,
copy a set of image files to DVD or 10 just in case everything melts down
at once.
No, you really don't need a TB of external storage today, but if you
watch for a sale, that's the current sweet spot for cost/bit.
Wasn't very long ago that people who had a 100MB zip drive were
flush with storage capacity. Gigabyte wasn't even in our vocabulary.
Soon, we'll be looking back at 1TB as the "old days".
That was the easy way.
Now, the better way.
Repartition your hard drive. Put the OS and critical M$ programs on
c: Put your media and bloated programs on D: along with your mp3's,
pictures, videos, ebooks, mapping databases, porn collection...
There is stuff that absolutely has to be on C:. Stuff that requires
activation or that verifies licenses when you use it must go on C:.
Put everything else
elsewhere. You still have to backup the stuff on D:, but a simple
file copy will work.
Organize your personal files on c: as above so you can just copy
a single directory to save your personal stuff.
You can probably get by with a C: of under 16GB and the rest on D:.
Now, you can use Acronis TI to image your C: partition directly to your D:
partition. It's quick, painless and you'll do it. That's the important
part.
And you can archive a disk image, it fits on ONE DVD.
No backup plan works if you fail to execute it. It MUST be easy.
You still have to periodically copy stuff to DVD. To protect against
total drive meltdown, you still should spend the Benjamin on an external
backup drive. But your life will be simpler in the long run.
There are a lot of options that depend on the size of your hard drive,
the size of your budget, Whether you have the real full install cd
for the OS and all the other licensed M$ programs,
the amount of fixed data you have, how much
time you have available for backups and on and on and on.
Are we having fun yet?
mike
>
> Thanks.
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