Clueless about backup inlaw wants me to do it URGENT help!

[makeitcount]

I'm pretty much blueless about backup in the sense that I have read very little on the subject. My father inlaw wants me to do it.

He has an old X30 (or something not sure about exact number but 30 something) laptop which he uses as his main workstation and brings with him when he holds seminars and what not. He's worried that if it breaks down or gets stolen he will lose all his data. So I need to do a backup of it in some way. We are purchasing an EXTERNAL MyBook 500gb harddisk that will hold the backups.

Now what I am totally clueless is this:

1) Which software should I use to make backup as painless as possible for him? He's not very tech savvy.

2) I've heard about Acronis True Image, and if I understand it right it makes an image of the harddisk. But can you still access the individual information in the image, if I wanted to use the backup on for example a new laptop if his old one died? or just wanted to get the emails from the backup?


3) What would be the best way to go about backing it all up?

I have to do it on saturday before he goes away on a business trip, so any help or guideance would be greatly appreciated!!

4) Are there any problems with using an external harddisk for this?

[jdhurst]

For what you want do, NT Backup (which comes with every NT-based system) works just fine. It will do the backup and will let you recover individual files. ... JDH

[Kaervak]

For a full image backup, I recommend DriveSnapShot. http://www.drivesnapshot.de Here's the nice thing about it, it's free for 30 days. So you can make a complete drive drive backup, including MBR, partition table and every single file on the drive. Eventhough it will no longer make a backup after the 30 day mark, you can restore a backup past the 30 day trial at any time. I use this on my lone windows system and it works flawlessly. I make the backup and burn the backup file and the drivesnapshot.exe file to a bootable DVD. I've only had to restore once and it was very very easy. Restore instructions are here, http://drivesnapshot.de/en/restdos.htm I've never done a Windows restore, only a DOS restore. I've never had a problem with the program and it's always worked well for me. I also use it to make clean restore discs for computers that I setup for people. After I get the OS updated with the latest patches/security software I make a restore disc for them.

[carbon_unit]

Acronis will allow you to either restore individual files or the whole thing.

[mgo]

I'm pretty much blueless about backup in the sense that I have read very little on the subject. My father inlaw wants me to do it.

For backing up personal data and files I recommend SyncBack. There is a freeware version and it is easy to use and very fast, especially after the first backup.

As others have mentioned Acronis is the best for doing a complete backup (image) of the entire machine, including the operating system. It's a little more complex to use than SyncBack, but it really will save the day sometime should that old X30 get goofy

I have a X30 and it works fine, but old age can creep up on those older machines....

[RealBlackStuff]

My vote goes to Acronis TrueImage as well.

[DAH]

I would also suggest Acronis TrueImage and you can try it for thirty days free on any computer as well. I would also suggest that you install it on an old computer and use it. Learn how to backup that old computer and then wipe the disk and reinstall. Until you have actually done this you don't know the limitations of the software.

Rescue and recovery is included in the price of most IBM computers, I would also use this. Running two programs, and having the ability to restore from two different sources is a better option than one in my opinion.

[makeitcount]

which version should I pick then for him of acronis?

[RealBlackStuff]

Version 10.
The latest V11 seems to have a few bugs. Stay away until they bring out the first update.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r192786 ... -10-images

[carbon_unit]

RBS got it.