Thinkpads Forum

Looking for some assistance or feedback from others...

Currently, I have a T60p w/ the 100GB 7200rpm drive and an external 250GB Seeagate Pushbutton backup drive.

Based on the amount of info - mostly pictures, work documents, etc - I have most of this stored only on the external drive. So, I need to back up the info on the external drive as well as backup my ThinkPad regularly.

I would like a backup sw that allows me to look at backup documents and be able to pull out a file, picture, etc - not a 'packaged backup' that only allows me to restore files. Additionally, I find that some software cumulatively adds to backup - delete some files on your computer and they are only added to on the drive, eventually you have a backup of everything that's been deleted/moved, etc.

Any recommendations for a good backup option at this point? Thinking about a larger Seagate FreeAgent Pro Drive that I can regularly backup ThinkPad and other external for dual backup.

Anything else you would advise, NAS, easy to use software (based on my preferences), etc?? I only have 1 computer to backup and 1 other drive that I will use as a secondary backup (actually, the majority of the info will not be stored on my computer, just drives).

Thanks for your help!!

I use Acronis TrueImage http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/pr ... trueimage/(mentioned elsewhere in these forums). It has saved my bacon more than once: a few years ago when my Dell C drive died, and again on another desktop HD. I backup my R61 every few weeks with it. (Do luv ma' R61 mucho mucho )

TI is very simple to use. You can back up to external USB or FireWire drives. The first backup is of course a full BU of a partition (eg, C). Then you can make incremental or differential BUs on to the first. These are separate files. Incremental is a series of small BU files that depend on ALL of the earlier ones, whereas differential is a larger file that refers to only the first/full BU file. I prefer the differential because it is faster.

TI also lets you "plug" an image of any previous BU. For example, you can select a differential you made 3 weeks ago, and it will be "mounted" as a new drive letter that you select. You can mount more than one. The latest version (v 11) also allows you to delete files from the backup -- at least that is what I understand, altho never tried it.

Acronis TI creates a boot CD you use to recover. And you can also create an "Acronis Secure Zone" on your laptop HD. This is a separate partition where the TI recovery sw (same as the boot CD) resides -- press F11 on boot to activate. This way you don't need the boot CD. If you have a big enough drive, the secure zone partition can also be used for backup & restore -- but generally this is not a good choice given the low cost of USB drives versus the small size of laptop HDs.

The latest version of TI also has a wonderful "Try and Decide" feature. (It works very much like Microsoft's SteadyState freebie.) With T&D enabled, ALL changes to the C drive are actually made to the Secure Zone partition. The C drive is COMPLETELY protected from all kinds of file operations: it remains "untouched." When you shutdown, or when you "Decide," you have the choice of applying all changes to the C drive, or discarding them. T&D gives you a sandbox, or virtual machine-like feature.

TI also has disk cleaning utilities. One will securely erase the HD with multiple passes. Another will securely erase the unused portions of your partition.

As you can tell, I love this app. Now I have a question: How do I permanently get rid of the Win XP Backup and Restore files, and how can I remove the Thinkpad recovery sw & services?

OK, here goes with my backup/data availability methodology ...

My main machine is a desktop with my old T30 as a "hot spare" machine. Both machines disk partitions are set to,
C: System volume with installed applications
D: ALL my user data

I have two external USB devices (Buffalo Drivestation) partitioned as follows,
R: T30 C: volume Rescue and Recovery backups
G: XCOPY incremental data backup from the D: volume on desktop

S: True Image backups of C: from the desktop
H: XCOPY archive data backup from the D: volume on desktop


On the desktop,
I run a True Image weekly backup - C: -> S:
Almost daily I run a DOS batch file which incrementally backs up D: -> G:
Weekly I run a DOS batch file which incrementally backs up D: -> H:

On the T30.
Monthly I run a full system volume backup using Rescue and Recovery - C: -> R:
Weekly a run an incremental system volume backup using RnR - C: -> R:
Weekly I run a DOS batch file which incrementally restores my user data to the T30 - G: -> D:


Monthly or after a major software change, I also clone my desktop hard drive to another internal HD (hot spare within the desktop).
The data partition on the hot spare drive is kept in step, almost daily, with a DOS batch file which mounts the hot spare drive second partition, XCOPY's D: and then dismounts the hot spare again.

Using the above, I achieve the following,
I can quickly re-boot the desktop if the main HD fails.
I have my user data backed up in three different locations and available on a hot spare machine (my T30).
I can easily keep my T30 in-step with the desktop regarding my user data.
I do not require proprietary backup software to recover any of my user data as it's all backed up using XCOPY
Both the external USB devices are bootable with the correct software for the backup type used.

Here's a tool that may be a bit easier to use than XCOPY. It's DSynchronize at http://dimio.altervista.org/eng/

I like it because it has lots of handy options: Preview, Copy only newer files, Bi-directional (superset), Do not delete any files, and other useful options. You can create a list of synchronize actions. With this list you can pretty well back up a variety of folders to various external drives. I have two external USB drives that I use for frequent data backup, and use Acronis TI for the whole C drive.
TI allows you to exclude file types and folders, which reduces the image file size. So I use DSynchronize for frequent data updates and TI every few weeks for apps and the system.