beginner question number 2 :)

I have made my first full backup (hurray) and hope I never have to use it. Let me first say that I am not making changes to my system daily, I may change contact infor on outlook or a few pictures to adobe weekly.

I guess I need only do a differential backup going forward since I would not need to go back to a specific date but really only need to go back to my last back up. Am I correct that diff is the way to go? If I use DIff backup then does it only keep that backup and not each one going forward?

Thanks
Steven

 

What gets kept depends on how/where the archives are stored. There are rules for the Secure Zone and the TI10 Backup Locations. I use neither, I just put my archives where I want them and delete the ones I don't want when I see fit.

The differential backup is the one you want if you want to restore only the most recent. You can achieve the same thing with the incrementals but you have to restore the chain of incrementals.

You only need to keep and restore the original image and the last differential to be able to restore to the latest state archived. There is a bug in the ointment though, if you want to be able to Validate the archive ALL of the intermediate differentials must be present. Acronis is aware of this rather silly situation but it still exists AFAIK.

BTW, if you are only going to be making occassional backups consider just doing a Full each time. Less fooling and a lot safer.

 

You don't say where the image is stored and whether you have validated it, if it is stored on the only drive you have and that drive dies you won't be able to restore.
Make the rescue cd and validate after booting from it, the rescue cd uses Linux and some uses have found that it does not work with their hardware.
There are a number of users who restore the image to a spare hard drive to make sure that it is good.

 

The image is being stored on my external hard drive.

 

I assume you restored from it successfully? (The best way to test it).

 

I have not restored, I am scared to try it plus I am not very computer literate, I would do it only if I had too.

 

Until you have done a test restore on your PC you haven't achieved a real backup. It may work but you don't know until you try it.

I fully understand your reluctance to blow away your working system to do a test and you sound like you wouldn't have a spare HD and wouldn't know how to connect it into the PC. There is one thing you can do (if you haven't) to get increased confidence that the backup will work.

Create the TI recovery CD. Boot your PC with the recovery CD and select the Full option. Select the Validate option and validate your archive on your external drive. In addition, you can go through the Restore Wizard, selecting the archive, destination drive, etc and then cancel it when you get to the final screen with the Proceed button on it.

The above doesn't guarantee that you can do a restore but it is pretty good. This is better than just doing a Validate in Windows because it ensures you can boot and run from the Recovery CD, the Linux recovery environment does run on your PC and you do see your external and internal drives, and you can actually read the data properly from the external drive. And for the last time, it is not as good a test as actually doing a test restore.

 

I might try the full restore tonight to see if it works. After a drink though

 

Good luck. Do my "tests" using the TI CD first though if you haven't because if they don't work, the restore won't either.

 

Will do, thanks for your help.

 

I have a Dell machine that has a separate partion on it to restore to the way it was when it was shipped from the factory. I have not backed that partition up only what was on my C: drive. If I restore the image will I lose what I have on the hard drive fromm Dell regarding the original settings restore?

 

Yes you will. If thats important to you then re-do the backup to include the complete disk.

 

No issues backing up FAT files, I believe that is what the other partion (dell restore files) is not NTFS

 

Yes it is usually FAT. If you don't back up the whole disk when you restore that partiton will be gone.

 

I plan on doing a restore this evening. I have everything backed up on an external HD and I have also created a bootable DVD. Should I boot up with the DVD in the drive or should I restore after windows starts and just select restore image from the list of options in the TI main menu?

 

Use the DVD. Now is the time to make sure that the rescue environment can see your USB drive. This is how you would do it if your hard drive had to replaced.

 

ok, will do it that way, keep your fingers crossed for me

 

Hi

I would read these guides first
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=168165

I am assuming you have only one internal drive plus one external USB drive.

Note there is always a risk restoring to your working drive as the first action is to blow way the working drive. You can minimise that risk by following the advice of Seekforever. i.e boot from the CD, validate the image on the USB drive and go to just before the proceed button. That will give you some confidence that the Linux based CD will see all your drives especially SATA drives and read from the USB drive. Note it is very likely it will be a lot slower than the Window based imaging.

An even better way of minimising the risk is to do a test restore to another drive, replace the working drive with the newly restored drive and reboot. That way you know it will work (and you will still have your original working drive if anything goes wrong) However you said you were not computer literate so you may be unable to

Of course if the working drive is broken or corrupted then there is nothing to lose by trying a restore to it.

Unless I had nothing to lose I personally would try a restore to another drive first (internal or USB), then replace the working drive with that drive (assuming same type of connection) and reboot.

I tested my "system for restoring" by restoring to a second internal drive from my USB drive, disconnecting the working drive and rebooting from the second internal drive. Once I found that was working I am willing to live with the risk of only validating each backup I do weekly rather than testing each backed up image by restoring it as some on this board do.

Note I use a BARTPE disk to boot from instead of the Linux CD as I find the USB drives too slow under Linux and have problems with restoring to SATA drives in my system. I also keep two rotating versions of my system disk to make sure I have two viable backups, one on an external drive stored remote from the computer and one on my third internal drive.

Hope all goes well

 

Hi

After following these forums for several weeks I think I've found the answer to my worries.

I make very few system changes and all my important files are stored on an external hard drive but I ran into dreadful problems with incremental and differential back ups (rapidly running out of storage space).

I therefore recently started doing full back ups once a week where True Image automatically overwrites the old file with the new one but up until now I couldn't find anyone suggesting this is a sensible option.

Can you confirm that for most ordinary people like me this type of back up is a reasonably safe option as any subsequent restore would never put me back further than one week ?

Many thanks

 

I make a full backup every night on both my machines. Using incremental/differentials is personal choice.

 

1 I assume these are copies or backups, if these are your only and the external drive dies you have lost everything

2 I would not feel safe with this set up, if the latest image is corrupted you won't have one to fall back on.

3 See 2 above, I would keep at least two or three images then you would be able to go back more than 1 week

 

I am happy to report that my restore went well. I inserted my bootable cd and followed the instructions. One thing though, it took 5 hours to restore a 80 gig hard drive with two partitions, I also selected verify, perhaps that is why it took so long?

Steven

 

Basic rule is always have more than one backup in case it is faulty for some reason. Second rule is use a diversity of media/location.

For my external drives, I have two and alternate them for backups. I only backup my C drive every week or two to the external but I also have the same images stored on a second internal drive. I always have around 4-5 old images available.

My data files are backed up to a second internal and the HD by straight copy, not by imaging or by a program that writes them out in a proprietary container file.

I also copy selected images and copies of my data files to DVD that I store at a friend's house every few months. I plan on never having to use these but should I get robbed or the house burns down they are available.

 

would verifying a full image restore make the process take 5 hours for an 80 gig HD with two partitions?

 

Verification will certainly increase the time but the drivers on Linux based rescue CD are probably contributing also. You may want to consider using BartPE Begginer's Guide to Creating a BartPE CD which is windows based and uses windows drivers. A significant improvement will be noticed. You will need one of Mustang's BartPE Plugins or the plugin included with TIV9 and V10.