Recommend backup scheme for photos, music?

Absolutely! And as much as DVD isn't my favorite media it is one whose size and cost makes it a contender for this function. When I update the ones I have at a friend's house I just add the DVDs to the pile and make no effort to throw out the old ones - easy to keep and they might be very useful.

 

Have been trying to find some info on this. I have several IT clients and the way ALEGATOR has mentioned is the similar to what I do but would like any feedback in case someone has experienced drawbacks.

1. I CLONE their hard drive onto an identical internal SATA/IDE
2. Do a FULL WEEKLY BACKUP onto a separate external hard drive
3. Do a DAILY DIFFERENTIAL to the external hard drive
4. Not sure yet when to do next CLONE every month or 3 months(any advice..??)

Have just cloned my PC and ripped the old drive out and put the new cloned drive in and it
boots up just like new.

NOTE: ACRONIS DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS WAY .they recommend :

1. Note that in case for emergency we do not recommend to use this clone strategy. In case of that we recommend you to Back up your system hard drive (you can save an image file to any storage place - e.g. second HDD, external HDD, network shared folder etc.).

If your system will crash, you will be able to boot your computer from Acronis Bootable Rescue Media and select restore the image.

I cannot see this as an easier or safer way than the one I have explained, and less hassle!!

Would love to hear other people's view on this. Thanks

 

Cloning provides a backup but has the downside of utilizing an entire drive for essentially one backup copy of the system.

You do a FUll backup every week with daily differentials onto an external. So what is the cloned drive really giving you other than a single old backup. If you put in a new drive the first thing you would do is restore the most current Full and differential so what was the good of the clone other than as a second backup.

IMO, better stragegy would be to do 1 full and 6 differentials or incrementals for 1 week on external 1 and the next week do it on a second drive, external 2. In week 3 go back to external 1 and repeat the sequence.

Do not delete the old backups in case a recent one fails until the drive is full. You also have a good history of all files included in the series.

This removes the single point of failure that exists on your external between clones especially if the cloning interval is long and uses the same number of drives.

If you are one of the people that likes utilizing a clone right away as a test HD, you still don't have to clone, you can do an immediate restore to get the "new" drive. This is what Xpilot does with his no-verify/caddy technique.

 

Hi Sooty,

There are some who prefer cloning and some who prefer imaging ("backup") as a backup strategy for an entire disk. I prefer cloning. You will have to sort out which you feel is best for your own particular situation and need. Since i use a slideout drawer for my master disk, having a cloned standby will enable replacement in a very short time - about 1 minute to swap disks, not including boot time. Plus I have a proven standby disk so I can be assured of no problems if I have to use it. But I also do a certain amount of imaging (usually selected partitions only) in addition to the cloning. Here's my situation and strategy:

1. Master disk dual booting 98SE and XP Pro SP2. The OS partitions each have their own application software, some of which is the same. A dedicated partition for data. Another dedicated partition for photographs. Still another one for audio files. Plus another one for downloaded software. The data partition is shared by both OS and includes my personal work files, favorites, email stores, etc. - but not photos or audio.

2. An internal slave disk with a single partition dedicated for storing images and straight backups. This disk is used as follows:

a. Scheduled images (always full) of the two OS partitions and the single data partion. This is accomplished automatically about once per week at 2am - or whenever I decide to leave the computer on overnight.

b. Double click, non-proprietary, uncompressed simple backups of the data partition and the photo partition in their own folders. This is accomplished as often as desired, sometimes more than once a day, depending on perceived need. This could be automated also but I find the double click method using sync software to be preferable. This allows for quick and easy backup of files on an incremental basis (added, changed, deleted) in their native format. It's basically a semi-automated windows explorer copying procedure where you don't have to keep track of which files changed. The backup files can be directly opened, if desired, in the source application software.

3. I clone the master disk to an identical disk in an external firewire enclosure. This is done about once per month or whenever significant application software changes are made. It takes me about 35-40 minutes time to clone an 80gb disk that is about 1/2 full, including setup time. This procedure is always performed from the TI boot CD. I have absolutely no use for the TI secure zone and I wish to stay far, far away from the TI startup recovery manager. I have never invoked those unnecessary features and never will. After the cloning is completed, I swap out the master with the clone until the next time when the process repeats. That way, the clone gets proven and used immediately. It becomes the new master.

4. Every few months when I feel like it, I image all partitions on my master disk and move them to DVD as a last resort, additional means of recovery if ever needed. My photos and data partitions also get copied (not imaged) to DVD when I happen to feel like it, usually about once a month or so. For that, I use XXCOPY in a DOS batch file initiated by a click on a desktop icon. Copies go to DVD+RW on an incremental, changed basis. One of these days, I probably will replace XXCOPY with my sync program for that function since that's easier to setup or modify, being graphical with no command line switches needed. But the XXCOPY works just as well for the purpose.

As you can see, this does not agree with the normal recommendations from Acronis, especially the use of cloning as an OS/App backup strategy rather than a migration strategy. But it works for me, and works very well. Hard disks are cheap enough now that dedicating one as a complete working standby is a viable option. I like having multiple means of recovery from a potential disaster. The redundancy gives me a safer feeling . My work files are very important to me and many of my photos simply cannot be obtained again. I have several different means of recovering any of them should I ever have to. I also wish to avoid any reinstallation of OS and applications, especially the reconfiguration and customization of everything. I have spent much time and effort getting things setup the way I want. I don't want to attempt to go through that again. The redundancy allows me three different ways to recover all that also, even with a total crash of my master disk. Granted, they can be at three different times, but my OS and applications don't change that often - at least not significantly. The scheduled OS partition images that I keep on the internal slave, which are overwritten each time, are really not much different than what's on the standby clone. It's my work files that change on a daily basis and those are backed up to the slave essentially as they change so they're always quite up-to-date. Say I'm working on developing a particular spreadsheet file that may take days to complete. I will back that up several times a day to the slave by a simple click on the data partition desktop icon. That minimizes any lost effort in case of a crash. And I'm not relying on any cloning or imaging software nor on proprietary formats, nor on a fixed schedule to do it. In the spreadsheet example, If I have a master drive crash in the middle of working on it, I'll just pop in the clone disk and bring the file up directly in the source application from the slave drive, not the clone's data partition which would have an older version at best. I will be back in business quickly and will have lost very little work effort in the process. And if that fails for any reason (unlikely but possible), there's still another way to "get there from here". In the end though, you need to taylor your own recovery stategy to your personal desires and what you may consider as acceptable risks, considering the worst case failure scenario. That worst case scenario is likely to be a master disk crash and an untested older image (with no redundancy) that might not do what it's supposed to when it's needed the most. And if your only backup work files are in that huge, whole disk image, you could have a real problem. You can't mount an image and try to extract files from it using the TI boot CD - at least not with the TI-7 that I use.

Apparently, you have not experienced a disk ID problem when booting windows with two active C: partitions attached? Or do you physically disconnect the slave before booting? Whenever I clone to a drive in my external enclosure, I always shut down manually, then power down the enclosure after the cloning is completed and before booting the computer. I am going to swap the disks anyway so this is nothing extra for me. I want to avoid having windows see two C: drives on boot-up. Even if my computer can't boot from the external, the disk there is configured as master, as is the one in the computer. There may not be a problem if one disk is configured as an internal slave, I don't know.

Rod

 

Thanks SEEKFOREVER and RODH for replies.

That is alot of information for me to take in as this is quite new to me. I can't wait to get to grips with this.

I note on SEEKFOREVER's reply that what's the clone doing other than a single old backup - isn't it worth it as I don't have to rebuild windows and all the applications again and dig out all the disks and drivers. All I would do is swap the old drive with the cloned drive and restore all the latest data and emails etc from the external drive backups ?? The cloned drive thinks it's the master anyway. Please tell me if I'm talking rubbish! won't be offended.

ROD - I will have to digest your epissal so I will get back to you but your last comment I do physically remove the old disk and replace it he the cloned so don't have ID problem hopefully never! I have not done partitioning for different purposes like photo's and data, anybody fancy some part-time work!
This is all becoming a minefield.

Also I keep the clones at home and sometimes log onto the clients PC via GOToMyPC and sync the clients data with the cloned disk- any comments

Thanks again - will be in touch soon

Sooty

 

When you have the good sense to ask questions of any kind you certainly aren't talking rubbish.

You would save some time by being able to put in the cloned drive and then update it. However, you can put in a new drive and do a restore from an image of the disk and you would also be back in business. If the image is a current one (unlike your possibly much older clone) then you would be closer to being current. Since you are dealing with images you can store as many as space permits on the backup drive. One clone takes the entire drive.

 

I'm with you, that makes sense now, thanks for that. I can see why the image route is attractive. The term 'disaster recovery' can stretch and stretch, you can never seem to be backed up enough. Before Acronis I relied on other scheduling software which just stopped running and now hopefully I don't have to keep looking over my shoulder to make sure it's working ok ...but you can't take that risk!!


Cloning would suit me at home but I have remote clients in London which I cannot clone on a broadband connection so I guess Imaging to an external drive rather than backing up data is my best option ....would you agree?

You mention backing up onto 2 hard drives but if the master crashes I would have to buy a 3rd HDD to restore the images onto, why not do full image backups onto an external HDD everyday and check that the disk is not filling up by deleting full backups which are a week old say - would that be a good strategy?

What other things should I have in place to restore an image - just the Acronis bootable rescue media. I created one of those successfully but then I kept getting an error about the agent core so I had to uninstall the true image agent! I think this was after I tested the new clone which worked fine.

Am I right in thinking if my clients PC crashes and I can put an old clone in but then restore the data images as well onto the cloned drive?

Thanks for your help on this SEEKFOREVER, I just want the easiest less complicated way in case of emergency but then a way that will work on the day!!