Desktop Computer Backup

[jim584672]

I tested out on Win 11.

From a command prompt:
------------------------------------

wsl --install
wsl -d ubuntu
rsync --version
rsync -zavh --delete /mnt/c/Users/username/Documents /mnt/c/.....path of folder for backup...
------------------------------------
Explanation

wsl --install - Installs the Windows Subsystem for Linux.
wsl -d ubuntu - Starts the WSL distro called Ubuntu.
rsync --version - See that rsync is installed and the version number.
rsync -zavh --delete /path1 /path2 - Run the command for the backup.

 

[Davidhelp]

Bvckup2 backup program

I bought the Bvckup2 backup program.
Pro for Workstation $49.99
https://bvckup2.com/features

How it looks: http://davidswebsite.com/stuff/bvckup1.png

Bvckup2 locations are backed up to internal drive and a external drive and to a cloud location if you want. It can be set to backup automatically any period of time. It copies and pastes your files so no proprietary format.

I backup my files from my Desktop and for my Thunderbird email and Firefox bookmarks to a internal drive and a external usb drive.

C:\Users\your username\Desktop\
E:\8TB Backup\Bvckup2\
Backup to E drive Desktop files

C:\Users\your username\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\
E:\8TB Backup\Bvckup2\Mozilla backup\
Backup to E drive Firefox bookmarks

C:\Users\your username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\
E:\8TB Backup\Bvckup2\Thunderbird backup\
Backup to E drive Thunderbird email

-----------------------------------------------

External drive "J"

C:\Users\your username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\
J:\Bvckup 2 Pro Backup\Thunderbird email\
Seagate Bvckup 2 Thunderbird

C:\Users\your username\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\
J:\Bvckup 2 Pro Backup\Firefox bookmarks\
Seagate Bvckup 2 Firefox bookmarks

C:\Users\your username\Desktop\
J:\Bvckup 2 Pro Backup\Desktop\
Seagate Bvckup 2 Desktop files

 

[Davidhelp]

EaseUS Todo Backup Home is what I use to make a Image file.
https://www.easeus.com/backup-software/tb-home.html


That is in my case Windows 7 and all the software when first installed. Instead of hours to install everything it takes less then 30 minutes.
Next I copy my personal files back.


EaseUS Todo Backup Home also can do incremental backups of your files. You can restore that image and have everything back in a longer period of time depending on how many files you have.
The only drawback is the incremental backups can take up a lot of space.

 

[DrRoy]

You can sort the files, photos, etc. by date, and then backup the most recent ones to the external HDD.

 

[target2019]

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.

This article discusses the limitations of Windows File History backups:
https://redmondmag.com/articles/2020/05/05/windows-file-history-backup.aspx

 

[OldShooter]

I am not a believer in backup systems that require regular user intervention to run a program, plug in a USB hard drive, etc. We users are IMO not a very reliable system component.

We have a mirrored 6tb Synology NAS box. All the automatic Acronis backups go there. I also have Synology "Drive" on that box and on DW's and my computer. This works pretty much like Dropbox with the "cloud" copy of our data being on the local Synology NAS. We use this local cloud for storing things like our Lightroom database and other files that we both want to be able to use. The result is that files in the cloud folder are stored three places: on the NAS, on DW's computer, and on my computer. As long as we are on the home network, Synology takes care of the synchronization. When we are disconnected, like now at our lake home, the synch happens when we get home and reconnect. So ... lots of backup for those files, including Synology keeping a few old versions, all with essentially no effort on our part.

 

[GenXguy]

I wrote a script that copies my data files to my home theater PC, so they are redundant. Most are on my secondary (data) hard drive. I also make occasional backups of my entire system drive to a separate hard drive to keep offline that I can just plug in and go, and I make occasional full offline backups of my data drive also. If you ever get ransomware, it's important not to have all your drives online.

If you have a drive which is suspect, such as giving SMART errors, don't even try to use it for backup purposes.

I've seen RAID or mirror mentioned a few times here. Please note that RAID 1 (or greater) gives redundancy against a hard drive failure, but it's not the same as a backup. Data can be deleted, overwritten, corrupted, encrypted by ransomware, etc. And if all you have is RAID, you are SOL.

And then you should have a recent backup outside of your home, such as cloud storage.

 

[Davidhelp]

#12 Thanks for the tip on "Macrium Reflect"
I tried out the trial version of "Macrium Reflect" today.
I backed up an image file set for incremental backups.

Size: 1.16TB... many movies....
Time to create initial backup was 2hrs 32min to a internal hard drive.
I added 1 extra file and the time to do a incremental was 2mins 20sec for 1 small image file.
For 1 mp4 movie clip of 103mbs it took 2mins 34secs.

I have 30 days to try out before deciding to buy or not. It is $69.95

I just ordered a "USB C to Micro USB 3.0 Cable" for my Seagate 14TB external drive.
This should make the backup finish much faster so I have 2 backup locations.
I presently have a USB 3.0 A to Micro B cable so slower transfer.
Even so the backup looks to be done in 1hr 30mins (still going on as I write this. Faster then the internal drive for some reason...

 

[target2019]

I've used the free version of Macrium in the past. https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

I may try it, but it lacks incremental imaging, so less useful for ongoing backup. For my infrequent image backups it may work.

Q: Where is it useful?
A: It is useful for one off backups and clones. We don’t recommend it for continuous / scheduled computer protection. In particular, it does not include:
Features needed for fully featured ongoing protection of a computer
Ransomware protection of backup files (Macrium Image Guardian)
ReDeploy to ensure a restore will boot on new hardware
Technical support

 

[mountainsoft]

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 prefer image backups as these not only backup your important files, but all of your settings for Windows and each application too. Consider how much time it would take to reformat your hard drive, reinstall Windows, reinstall all your applications, and reconfigure all of your settings (if you can even remember how you had everything set up). In contrast, I can restore my backup in an hour or so and be up and running again as if nothing ever happened.

I use Macrium Reflect to perform an image backup every night using the "incremental forever" mode. This only backs up changes to the drive, so once I have done a full backup, the nightly update usually only takes a few minutes. (Mine is automated, so I don't care how long it takes). The incremental forever mode consolidates the nightly backups so the backup drive doesn't fill up.

If you only need to restore a single file (such as "oops, I deleted that") you can mount the Macrium Backup image and restore any individual file or folder as needed. That overcomes the biggest limitation image backups used to have.

I have also restored full image backups to new hard drives. For instance, last year I replaced my old 1TB hard drive with a new 2TB SSD. I backed up the old drive, restored to the new drive, and was up and running in no time.

I leave my backup drive connected to my computer full time so backups can take place every night. However, this does leave the backup vulnerable to power surges, computer viruses, etc. So about once a month I swap that drive with a second backup drive I keep in our safe deposit box. That way even if my backup drive is stolen, or we have a fire, flood, etc. I still have the other backup drive to restore data from.

Also, the backup drive will eventually fail too, so it's wise to keep multiple backups anyway.

Just to add a little redundancy I occasionally burn important files to a blu-ray disc too. Mostly financial records (on an encrypted drive), photos, etc.

 

[kcowan]

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.

Yes and use an alternate just in case, like OneDrive or DropBox.

This is just for Laptop, because the iPhones and iPads are copied onto the iCloud.

 

[catii]

KISS

Let me start by saying that I owned a computer consulting company for more than 30 years, & I've seen it all! There are so many gremlins that can foul things up, that I finally moved to the simplest possible way to make sure that my data weren't lost.

First, set all of your programs (applications) to save to My Documents. It should be doing that anyway, but double-check.

Second, set up an external hard drive (it may connect via USB, Thunderbolt, or something else - that doesn't matter, as long as it's reliable)

Third, copy the My Documents subdirectory to that external hard drive. There are a million ways to do that, but, the only 100% reliable way is to do the copying MANUALLY!! That means using Windows Explorer to show both drives, & then drag-&-drop c:\My Documents onto the external hard drive. When Windows asks if you want to replace files, just answer YES. You're done!

Now, I do have more than one external drive, so I copy to both, & then I physically disconnect that second external hard drive. That way, ransomeware can't touch my files, & I can park that drive somewhere else to protect against fire, theft, etc. This manual backup process takes me all of 30 seconds, so I do it whenever I think about it, as well as having my calendar remind me every week. Keep It Simple, See?

 

[RetMD21]

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 just copy my data directories to the HD. When windows sees duplicates it asks me if I want to overwrite or skip and there is a check box for apply to all. Besides the monthly backups to the hard drive I have cloud backup.

 

[gooddog]

Agree with Jerry1. That is the easiest way to go long term. You don't have to do anything, it is all taken care of in the background after setting up the RAID array.

 

[mountainsoft]

First, set all of your programs (applications) to save to My Documents. It should be doing that anyway, but double-check.

Second, set up an external hard drive (it may connect via USB, Thunderbolt, or something else - that doesn't matter, as long as it's reliable)

Third, copy the My Documents subdirectory to that external hard drive. There are a million ways to do that, but, the only 100% reliable way is to do the copying MANUALLY!

You risk losing a LOT of personal data and settings if you are only backing up "My Documents". Such as the C:\Users folder, applications that install to the root directory of the C: drive, additional drives used for storing data, older applications that don't know about My Documents, etc.

Also, anything requiring MANUAL interaction is something that will be forgotten or put off until it's too late. "I'm busy, I'll copy that folder tomorrow."... Computer crashes tonight. At the very least create a simple batch file and schedule it to run automatically.

I personally have three main drives. C: is mostly just for Windows and applications, D: is for the majority of my personal data, and W: is where I keep video files I am working on. I back up all three drives AUTOMATICALLY every single night. I don't save ANYTHING to "My Documents".

You are correct about KISS though. Keep it simple. Set it up once, automate it so it gets done every day, and rotate multiple backups periodically. The BEST backup is a backup that actually gets done!

 

[KarenF]

I back up various folders on my computer to Google Drive. I do make sure they are there on Google drive. I do a separate synce with my photos to Google photos so I have double back up of my folders.

 

[mountainsoft]

Agree with Jerry1. That is the easiest way to go long term. You don't have to do anything, it is all taken care of in the background after setting up the RAID array.

Just remember, RAID can help prevent data loss, but it is not a backup solution:
https://blog.storagecraft.com/5-reasons-raid-not-backup/

 

[mountainsoft]

I back up various folders on my computer to Google Drive. I do make sure they are there on Google drive. I do a separate synce with my photos to Google photos so I have double back up of my folders.

And how do you retrieve your folders from Google Drive (or any online backup service) if your computer crashes or your internet connection is down? Usually that means reinstalling Windows, all of your applications, and reconfiguring all of your settings.

Restoring an image backup from a local hard drive is so much faster, easier, and more reliable. It's also cheaper than cloud based backup services.

I know I sound like a broken record, but I hear from customers every day who lost data they thought was being backed up and/or they forgot to backup regularly.

 

[KarenF]

I can get to my files through Google drive on my iPad and my phone but if my laptop dies I will go buy another laptop with Windows installed and download the files. They are in the Computer tab in Google drive and set up in the same file structure as my current computer. It seems simple to me. I have made sure every folder and file I want to back up is actually there in Google Drive - trust but verify. I will also restate what we all know - local hard drives can fail and are subject to the same disasters as the original computer, which is why cloud based backup is better.

 

[PJHawk]

OneDrive

I’ve moved everything to the MS Cloud. I’m a retired IT PM and after visiting MS and learning that OneDrive has a data retention level of 12 Nines, meaning they will have your data 99.999999999999% of the time, I knew my home backup retention could not cover that. Bundled with O365 annual subscription it made sense.

 

[imnontrad]

Whenever I get a new computer, I take the HD in the old computer and turn it into a external "slave" of my computer system. And that is where I keep my photos and documents. If I ever need to evacuate suddenly (wildfire, etc), all I have to do is grab that HD and leave the rest of the system.

 

[fire161007]

I have an internal drive and external usb drive that I store in a fire safe.

I use syncback free to backup monthly to both.

 

[jim584672]

Cloud storage has one downside, they will scan all your data. So encrypt or lose your privacy. Also whatever method you use be sure to test that it works and is recoverable. Nothing worse than thinking you are backed up only to find your method is a fail.

 

[catii]

Backing up Thunderbird files

This is easy, if you know the trick. First, Thunderbird is an offshoot of Eudora, one of the very-earliest e-mail clients. I've used Eudora since the late 1980s, because the way to back it up, is by copying the entire Eudora (or Thunderbird) subdirectory.

I have close toone million messages on Eudora, but the size of its subdirectory folder is only 2.04 GB. That's easy to copy, & I keep it on OneDrive, so I can access all my messages on any compter that's lgged in to my Microsoft account.

Simple, & foolproof.

 

[target2019]

OS uses the profile folder for several important items. For instance, Thunderbird and other apps have files in there. This is the C:\Users|youloginname folder.

If another uses the folder then you need two profile folders (but make sure the backup app or procedure can copy the folder of another user.

One thing to point out is that the folder contaianes some measure of useless data too. You should really peruse the user folder and look at what is in it, and select folders one by one--Desktop, MyDocuments, and so on.

For more-important apps, be sure you identify the folder where the data is stored.