Desktop Computer Backup

[travelover]

I know just enough to be dangerous about computers and recently proved it when my computer crapped out. I thought I was backing up the pictures, files, and email (Thunderbird) weekly on a portable HDD. As it turned out, only the files were adequately backed up. I bought a new computer and had a computer place reconstruct everything as best they could from recovered files on the SSD and my backup HDD.

I've ordered a Seagate 2T hard drive that I plan to back up the new computer. The new computer has a 1T HDD and a 250G SSD. Ideally, it seems like I'd just want to mirror both drives.

My question is how to best do that. My old backup program supposedly just updated any file that had been changed and left the other stuff alone, so a back up was relatively quick, as opposed to copying the whole drive over and over again. Suggestions on how best to proceed?

 

[Jerry1]

I have a RAID 1 set up on my DW’s computer that holds all of her pictures. RAID 1 is two drives that mirror each other continuously. If one drive goes bad, you just swap it out and keep going. Then, every couple months, I do a full backup of that drive. I don’t do a backup. I copy everything to the portable drive. No compression or special program needed to read it once the copy is made. I do use a backup program to make the copy.

As part of our Amazon Prime subscription, she also gets a ton of cloud storage. She has all her pictures on there two. If momma ain’t happy, nobody’s happy is true, momma would not be happy if she lost all her pictures. So, I do the best I can to ensure that doesn’t happen.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Honestly, as nice as that sounds, I would not do it. I would just backup your data files. Keep any source install software so you can re-install it from scratch on a replacement computer/drive, if necessary. Most software is now installed via the internet, so it’s even easier.

A complete computer backup from a Dell computer would not be good for a new replacement HP computer due to different hardware details. Even 2 Dells that are different models/years likely have different hardware and therefore need different things installed to properly run.

Rebuilding a computer (reinstalling all the software and then moving your data files back on to it) takes time and a little knowledge, but it’s still the best route to go, in my opinion.

If you truly want to “mirror” the entire computer, there are softwares to do that. I think they are less popular now due to internet backup and storage options now available. A software named “Ghost” used to be very popular. But I’m not sure if they still exist or not.

 

[jimbee]

I would switch to IMAP for my email protocol, letting the email server deal with maintaining my mail.

 

[Jerry1]

Honestly, as nice as that sounds, I would not do it. I would just backup your data files. Keep any source install software so you can re-install it from scratch on a replacement computer/drive, if necessary. Most software is now installed via the internet, so irs even easier.

A complete computer backup from a Dell computer would not be good for a new replacement HP computer due to different hardware details. Even 2 Dells that are different models/years likely have different hardware and therefore need different things installed to properly run.

Rebuilding a computer (reinstalling all the software and then moving your data files back on to it) takes time and a little knowledge, but it’s still the best route to go, in my opinion.

If you truly want to “mirror” the entire computer, there are softwares to do that. I think they are less popular now due to internet backup and storage options now available. A software named “Ghost” used to be very popular. But I’m not sure if they still exist or not.

Clarification - the RAID system is only on the data drive. The system drive is a SSD and I don’t even bother to back that up. DW has been taught that all data, pictures, etc, go on the data drive. Even if a program defaults to the system drive, we redirect the program to the data drive. She really doesn’t have that problem. My computer (which she uses for our records, . . .) has all our financial files on it.

 

[travelover]

Honestly, as nice as that sounds, I would not do it. I would just backup your data files. Keep any source install software so you can re-install it from scratch on a replacement computer/drive, if necessary. Most software is now installed via the internet, so it’s even easier. .........

This make sense. How do I back up the files and pictures without re-saving files that have not changed? And how do I go about about saving my Thunderbird files?

 

[Jerry1]

This make sense. How do I back up the files and pictures without re-saving files that have not changed? And how do I go about about saving my Thunderbird files?

Don’t worry about whether or not the process re-saves files. Worry about not losing files, especially pictures. Hard drive space is very cheap these days. DW’s system has a 4TB drive (two of them because of the RAID) which she uses around 2TB. I have a 4TB portable drive to do my backup onto.

 

[camfused]

Why not just use Google Backup and Sync, and set it to sync all your files on your desktop, Documents, Photos, etc? It does versioning of your files, and you can access the files from other PCs.

 

[Katsmeow]

For the past almost 2 years I have been doing complete backups (well, incremental each day) to iDrive which is online. One of the nice things about it is that I can sign into it on my second computer and download something that is my main computer.

That said -- I don't plan to renew it. Having a complete backup of programs and everything is really of limited value. This is particularly so in the modern world when you can easily reinstall stuff since most programs you download.

When I got my current Dell Alienware I used their migration tool to copy stuff from my old Alienware. While it is was certainly faster than manually doing everything, it wasn't necessarily better. I found that some information didn't transfer over. For example, Photoshop Elements and my pics transferred over. However my tags and organization that I had on my old computer did not.

I do back up my data regularly to an external SSD drive. I also put much of the important data on my Google drive and some of it is also in Evernote. I don't think that the daily backup is really all that useful for me.

 

[MC Rider]

I backup my data files to a second computer dedicated to backup and insurance, plus an external USB drive. Just copy them with Windows Explorer.

 

[MdaPetralia]

I wrote a DOS batch file script (.bat) that uses a zip utility to search for files under specified directories provided by me, compresses them into a single backup (.zip) and then encrypts with a password. The backup file is then copied to a secure drive in the cloud.

 

[Sojourner]

Check out the free version of Macrium Reflect. This is, IMHO, the best free imaging and backup software you can get for Windows PCs. I use it to schedule automatic full backups of my primary drive every few weeks. It only keeps the most recent two full backups and then overwrites. This way, I'm fully protected and can easily restore my system to perfect working order if the primary drive crashes. I also use the built-in File History feature within Windows to keep automatic backups of all my documents, pictures, etc.

 

[MTB4me]

I use Windows 10’s built-in backup utility with an external USB drive and Backblaze for off-site backup in the event of a disaster. The Win10 backup works well enough with a little tuning and doesn’t cost a thing. Backblaze is relatively inexpensive for the extra piece of mind it provides. Both are basically set and forget.

 

[Sunset]

I clone my entire drive that has OS and data on it, about once or twice a year.
This is so that if it fails, I don't have to spend hours putting the OS and installing and configuring all the software. It would spend a few hours at most updating as the software would be out of date at that time.

I tar up all my data files every now and then and save them to external encrypted drives. It's not as perfect as people who back up constantly or every day.

 

[pjigar]

This make sense. How do I back up the files and pictures without re-saving files that have not changed? And how do I go about about saving my Thunderbird files?

I don't know about Thunderbird but for over a decade I have been using good old rsync to do data backup on an external drive. The rsync was originally designed (in 1996!) to incrementally backup/copy data over network but it works equally well on local drives. The Linux and Mac OS has rsync built-in. Open source binaries are available for Windows. It is a simple command line: rsync -aZP --delete <source drive folder>/ <destination drive folder>/. Don't forget the trailing "/" character!


PS: Few reasons I have stuck to rsync for so long:
* It has been proven reliable and efficient
* No proprietary backup format. What you see if what you get!
* OS independent, drive format independent, etc.
* Dead simple!
* Free/built-in on every OS

 

[target2019]

I know just enough to be dangerous about computers and recently proved it when my computer crapped out. I thought I was backing up the pictures, files, and email (Thunderbird) weekly on a portable HDD. As it turned out, only the files were adequately backed up. I bought a new computer and had a computer place reconstruct everything as best they could from recovered files on the SSD and my backup HDD.

I've ordered a Seagate 2T hard drive that I plan to back up the new computer. The new computer has a 1T HDD and a 250G SSD. Ideally, it seems like I'd just want to mirror both drives.

My question is how to best do that. My old backup program supposedly just updated any file that had been changed and left the other stuff alone, so a back up was relatively quick, as opposed to copying the whole drive over and over again. Suggestions on how best to proceed?

There are two data states that require attention.
1) Your entire drive can be viewed as a complete environment that changes more slowly. This includes system, application and data files.
2) The data files considered alone change more frequently.

So your backup strategy can address these two states. There are those who've lost data, and those who will lose data. As you found out there are specialists who can recover your data files. But the system environment may be practically unrecoverable.

With experience of 20 years of supporting different businesses as a systems consultant, I rely on:
1) An image backup about every year. This requires a separate drive. You also have to schedule or remember to do it. That suffices for an average home computer.
2) Data files backup: daily, weekly, monthly, etc. It's your pick, but obviously has to give you peace of mind and should be automatic.

The software and discipline to run it, to maintain it, is another story. If you rely on only cloud backup, what do you do if you lose drive and internet? This brings me to:
3) Most important files like photos, music, financials, and so forth should have a local backup, call it an archive. No matter what happens, you can find another computer that can access these files, and for many that is sufficient.

So I have three approaches working to get me out of a jam.

What worries me is the fragile nature of the media, like the SSD or the HDD. The software is a concern also. I only use system utilities and file-copying utilities rather than paid external solutions. That is of course up to the individual to choose. One thing to be concerned about is allegiance to a single vendor. Once they got you, it's over. Keep paying forever.

Good luck with this.

 

[foxcreek9]

I backup our computers onto 2 portable HDs, one is kept at home, and the other at a safety deposit box at the bank. I rotate them every couple of months. The SD box is much cheaper than cloud based backup.

 

[arcyallen]

I backup our computers onto 2 portable HDs, one is kept at home, and the other at a safety deposit box at the bank. I rotate them every couple of months. The SD box is much cheaper than cloud based backup.

How much is the safe deposit box? I'd never considered one before. 100GB of Google Drive runs me about $20/year, which is enough for my critical backups of home movies and pics.

travelover: If you wan to keep it simple, this is what I do. Once a quarter I connect two external hard drives and manually just back up my important files from a handful of folders (music, pics, home movies, etc). I keep several quarters of backups on each drive "just in case". I keep one of those drives in a safer place in the house for fire/disaster reasons. I then backup my pics and home movies (the "irreplaceables") to Google Drive. 15GB free, $20/yr for 100GB. That way if my house explodes those files are still safe. AND, I've had two drives fail at the same time which is why I have some much redundancy. I would be incredibly upset if I lost my pics or home movies. It literally takes about two minutes four times a year, and if I set it up before I go to bed it's done in the morning.

 

[foxcreek9]

How much is the safe deposit box? I'd never considered one before. 100GB of Google Drive runs me about $20/year, which is enough for my critical backups of home movies and pics.

travelover: If you wan to keep it simple, this is what I do. Once a quarter I connect two external hard drives and manually just back up my important files from a handful of folders (music, pics, home movies, etc). I keep several quarters of backups on each drive "just in case". I keep one of those drives in a safer place in the house for fire/disaster reasons. I then backup my pics and home movies (the "irreplaceables") to Google Drive. 15GB free, $20/yr for 100GB. That way if my house explodes those files are still safe. AND, I've had two drives fail at the same time which is why I have some much redundancy. I would be incredibly upset if I lost my pics or home movies. It literally takes about two minutes four times a year, and if I set it up before I go to bed it's done in the morning.

$21 and I am currently backing up 1 TB of data.

 

[easysurfer]

I use Macrium Reflect to make daily and quarterly images of my system and daily and monthly images of my data. Automated images are done to an internal hard drive. Monthly and quarterly to external (hot swap) drives.

About 3 times a year, I may inadvertently delete a file or make a system setting ... Ooops! Good to know I have an image to easily restore too. Also, the ransomware threat isn't so big because even if my desktop is compromised, I can easily restore back to a very recent image.

 

[jim584672]

One Linux solution...

This will backup the files, adding new, and deleting those that have been deleted. Only updates the changed files, so it is very fast.

Put this in an executable file.

---------------
rsync -zavh --delete /home/username/Documents /mnt/backup
rsync -zavh --delete /home/username/Pictures /mnt/backup
rsync -zavh --delete /home/username/Music /mnt/backup
rsync -zavh --delete /home/username/Desktop /mnt/backup
rsync -zavh --delete /home/username/Public /mnt/backup
rsync -zavh --delete /home/username/Downloads /mnt/backup
rsync -zavh --delete /home/username/Videos /mnt/backup
---------------

Whole drive backup Clonezilla will do that.

 

[target2019]

I think OP is on Windows, maybe.

 

[jim584672]

I think OP is on Windows, maybe.

He could invoke the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) with the command:
wsl --install
That will give a command prompt to run Linux commands.
https://www.ubackup.com/windows-10/rsync-windows-10-1021.html

Also there must be native Win 10 rsynch executables some place.

 

[target2019]

He could invoke the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) with the command:
wsl --install
That will give a command prompt to run Linux commands.
https://www.ubackup.com/windows-10/rsync-windows-10-1021.html

Also there must be native Win 10 rsynch executables some place.

Excellent point. I wouldn't do that but maybe he would.

 

[travelover]

One Linux solution...

This will backup the files, adding new, and deleting those that have been deleted. Only updates the changed files, so it is very fast.

Put this in an executable file.

---------------
rsync -zavh --delete /home/username/Documents /mnt/backup
rsync -zavh --delete /home/username/Pictures /mnt/backup
rsync -zavh --delete /home/username/Music /mnt/backup
rsync -zavh --delete /home/username/Desktop /mnt/backup
rsync -zavh --delete /home/username/Public /mnt/backup
rsync -zavh --delete /home/username/Downloads /mnt/backup
rsync -zavh --delete /home/username/Videos /mnt/backup
---------------

Whole drive backup Clonezilla will do that.

Thanks. Did I mention that I know almost nothing about computers?


As a follow up, I just bought a Seagate 2T external drive and will use the Windows File History function to back it up weekly. I think if I'd done that before I would have been in a much better position to restore my files.