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WANTED: Good Backup Solution

Operating System, Common Application & ThinkPad Utilities Questions...
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thomase13
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WANTED: Good Backup Solution

#1 Post by thomase13 » Tue Aug 11, 2015 3:14 pm

Hello,

I'm looking for a new backup solution. I've been using the "ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery" program supplied with my IBM ThinkPad T60p (my main computer at the moment.) It is supposed to basically create disk images, but it is very flaky, poorly supported, and has completely stopped working as of late, i.e., it will not be able to complete a new backup even after leaving it overnight. I've looked at a few other disk imaging programs, but I wonder about peoples' experience with "NTBackup" (shipped standard with Windows NT pre-Vista). Does this really create a disk image? Does it matter? The "Automated System Recovery Wizard" sounds pretty swell. Is it all it's cracked up to be?
Alternatively, I was thinking of something like DriveImage XML.

Let me know what you think!

Thanks,
Thomas

RealBlackStuff
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Re: WANTED: Good Backup Solution

#2 Post by RealBlackStuff » Tue Aug 11, 2015 4:21 pm

Acronis TrueImage get's my vote.
Been using it for donkeys years.

pkiff
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Re: WANTED: Good Backup Solution

#3 Post by pkiff » Wed Aug 12, 2015 9:19 pm

I've recently started using AOMEI's Backupper:'
http://www.backup-utility.com/free-backup-software.html
and AOMEI's Partition Assistant:
http://www.disk-partition.com/free-part ... nager.html
for my backup and partitioning needs in Windows.

I haven't fully tested the backups yet by doing a bare drive recovery, but everything looks good so far. These are both free products for non-commercial use and seem to be getting reasonable reviews in the last couple years.

Acronis True Image is the tried and true paid choice for many on this forum - I used to use them as well, and found the software very solid and efficient, but I let my license lapse, so went looking for free-as-in-beer alternatives.
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emeraldgirl08
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Re: WANTED: Good Backup Solution

#4 Post by emeraldgirl08 » Thu Aug 13, 2015 9:55 am

My two-cents. Macrium Reflect Free Edition. In terms of image backup and restore it has not failed me yet.
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thomase13
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Location: Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada

Re: WANTED: Good Backup Solution

#5 Post by thomase13 » Wed Aug 26, 2015 8:23 am

Thanks all; I'll be sure to check these out!

Khipata
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Re: WANTED: Good Backup Solution

#6 Post by Khipata » Wed Aug 26, 2015 9:37 pm

Acronis True Image all the way! :)
Nothing is better for cloning or backing up your drives in my opinion!
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jedisurfer1
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Re: WANTED: Good Backup Solution

#7 Post by jedisurfer1 » Fri Sep 25, 2015 3:47 am

Are there a lot of major or delta changes between backups?

Most of my important stuff is run a on virtual machine and I just snapshot it if need be.

For the host laptop where my vms reside I just clonezilla or Acronis and just clone the whole drive and if something happens I can just pop in the backup drive and be up and running again in 2 min.

If it's really important I'd say have another backup in the cloud or put your cloned backup drive at another location like your parent's place.
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thomase13
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Re: WANTED: Good Backup Solution

#8 Post by thomase13 » Fri Sep 25, 2015 4:31 am

There probably isn't a lot of difference between backups which is why I want incremental capability.
Why do you run things in a virtual machine? Wouldn't that be slower? I only do that when I seriously screwing around and don't want to mess up my actual installation!

jedisurfer1
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Re: WANTED: Good Backup Solution

#9 Post by jedisurfer1 » Sat Oct 03, 2015 7:45 am

I like a vm because backups and snapshots are super simple. I also like it that I can use any vm on almost any laptop of mine, the host hardware is irrelevant. I keep my work vm, my browsing vm, my experimental vm, my finance vm all separate.
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JaySol24
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Re: WANTED: Good Backup Solution

#10 Post by JaySol24 » Mon Oct 12, 2015 7:52 pm

R&R 4, "4.23.0017.00", I save to a USB hard drive. Works here. Multiple TPs, two OSes. That version is likely still to have if you poke through the Lenovo site enough.

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