I'm looking for a good backup utility

As XP home doesn't come with a backup utility like XP Pro does, I am wondering if anyone can suggest a good backup utility.

My criteria?

1. Easy to use
2. Does it's job well
3. Can backup to CDR/CDRW
4. Not a memory hog (small footprint)

It can be freeware/shareware/paid only, that doesn't matter to me. It doesn't need to be fancy. Just a dependable, basic backup utility.

 

Hello,
Acronis True Image, perhaps?
Mrk

 

If money isn't a concern, buy an external USB 2.0 harddisk.
Using CD/DVD's for harddisk backup is asking for trouble.

 

bounceback pro is easy to use.
http://www.cmsproducts.com/product_bounceback_software.htm

 

Genie BackUp Manager looks quite impressive

http://www.genie-soft.com/products/gbm/features.html

 

I'm currently trialing Paragon Drive Backup 8.0.

It works and it doesn't!

They are very slow on support in the presales stage, so I'm thinking it will be worse if I bought it.

SO IF I WERE YOU I"D ADD VENDOR PROMPT SUPPORT TO YOUR CRITERIA.

 

if you like the windows xp professional back up utility, it is available for windows xp home edition also. it is not installed during a normal install of windows xp home, but if you have the windows xp home installation cd, you can go back into it and install the backup utility if you want it.

 

for all kinds of backup, i recommend acronis true image aswell

 

Odd I have always found them pretty good

 

I'd go for True image or Drive Backup - although Syncback and Genie backup are nice file based solutions

 

Would ERUNT be useful?

Jerry

 

@ejr

Read this:
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=133283

This is an exhaustive investigation into what I believe are two of the best utilities ever for back-up and instant restore.

There are a number of threads in the FDISR forum about various combinations and an increasing amount of info re the remarkable capabilities of FDISR

Another fave:
http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/

As per E-A: get a second internal or external HD.

Regards.

 

For basic backups, if you have Nero 6 or 7, it includes software for backing up files to optical media. Seems to work pretty well to me. (Admittedly, Nero has a really big footprint. So it would be understandable if you don't have it. )

I also use free SyncBack for non-optical disk backups.

For complete images, I use Image for DOS from Terabyte Unlimited.

(FWIW, (IMO) if the backup software can perform verification, writing backups to optical media should not be an issue. I have been using CDs and DVDs for quite a while and have never had the first problem.)

 

Handy Backup meets all 4 of your criteria. Also, unlike some of the other alternatives, it is truly an unbloated "dependable, basic backup utility."

 

I use "Backup My Pc" by from Sonic. You can download it from the web site. It's not cheap about $65 but it's a keeper.

 

Free and nice:

Features Cobian Backup is a multi-threaded program that can be used to schedule and backup your files and directories from their original location to other directories/drives in the same computer or other computer in your network. FTP backup is also supported in both directions (download and upload).
Cobian Backup exists in two different versions: application and service. The program uses very few resources and can be running on the background on your system, checking your backup schedule and executing your backups when necessary. Cobian Backup is not an usual backup application: it only copies your files and folders in original or compressed mode to other destination, creating a security copy as a result. So Cobian Backup can be better described as a "Scheduler for security copies".
Cobian Backup supports several methods of compression and strong encryption.

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Latest version: 8.1.0.162

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