Is there a solution to trying to backup laptops wirelessly?

We installed a 1 TB Buffalo device in the basement of a home. 2 desktops and 2 laptops each have True Image Home 11 on them. Each is set to do a full backup 1x a week, then do incrementals the rest of the week. and I keep 5 weeks worth of data

the desktops work fine. the 2 laptops are problems. they both connect wirelessly. 1 is a kid's machine with minimal files and changes.

the other laptop has 60 GB of data (music) that doesn't change much / adds / deletes.

being laptops, and just the way they want to use the machines, they want to shut the machines down when they are done with them - 1 hour or so - at a time.

I want to backup (image) the entire PC in both cases, because outlook, etc are in different places, they may add other apps, etc.

I am paranoid that if I back up just my docs, favorites, etc., I may miss something (they have 4 users on each machine) and / or they add an app that puts data somewhere else and they don't have me update the backup locations.


and the 60 gb of music - there's realistically minimal changes, only some adds.

But I want to do a full and then incrementals repeatedly because of (unwarranted?) paranoia that if 1 incremental is corrupt, then all the stuff after that is NG? (if there's not that many days between fulls, then if this weeks is corrupt, we can go back to last week. and why not differentials? They will continue to grow and the problem of long / incomplete backups with just be delayed.

while the amount of data to backup is minimal on both machines, the window to backup the machines is too small for true image / full image of the drives.

any other suggestions?

 

If you are not concerned with imaging the laptop operating system and all data, and only want to backup the data, you can use a number of free programs that can be run manually or at boot up of the laptop which will synchronize a set of folders you chose with those on other machines or on you disk store. I do this with my laptop because I want to keep a variety of folders in sync so that I always have the same material on both the desktop and laptop. I use Microsoft's free SyncToy to do this, and use the Task manager on the laptop to start it one minute after bootup. It only takes a few minutes to keep about 20 gigs synched because it only moves the changes - either way.

You can set it for one way if you want - it's very flexible.

I use Karen's Replicator, also free, to do internal backups between folders on the same machine so that if I mess something up I have a copy that is no more than an hour old.

Then I do image backups at less frequent intervals.

I wouldn't try to do a 60 gig image across a wireless network. You probably would spend several times what they actually use the machines to do that.

To image the laptops, connect an external usb drive it will do about a gig a minute - much faster than a wireless connection.

Good luck.

 

I use Karen's Replicator.

I've never thought of using more than once a day as, IMHO, it would take up too much processor time.

Do you just schedule it to cover a limited number of folders?

Tony

 

wanderings: you talk about ' only want to backup the data'. That's really what i want to do, but the data can be all over - my docs, favorites, hidden folders in the hidden local settings folder, some apps put files in their program files folder by default (Olympus camera software and quicken come to mind.

I am setting this up for others, so a) They and I don't want me to have to keep tweaking it as they add apps / users and b) they want to get a confirm that the backup was complete. does Karen's do that? And what about having Karen's back up the entire hard drive to play it safe to not miss anything? Does that take too long?

Thanks!

 

not007,

A couple of pages to help you decide what to do next. They discuss separating your data from the OS to make backup more efficient.

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/notes.htm#13

http://www.windowsbbs.com/windows-xp/49222-moving-windows-xp-default-folders-rev1.html

 

thanks for the links, but even if you put my docs and favorites on the D drive as the first link suggests, and move outlook location as the 2nd, it doesn't address any other apps, requires you to do things to each current user account and then come back for other user accounts / apps that are created later.

I'm looking to not tweak the PC - just take it the way it is and back it up speedily, without missing data from any app they install.

 

Leaving aside My Documents etc, just moving the 60 GB of music to a data drive would be a huge time saver. The Data drive only needs to be fully backed up once and Karen's Replicator would take care of extra files on a scheduled basis. No input needed from you. You would need to image the OS partition (frequency up to you) but at least it wouldn't contain 60 GB of music to be imaged each time. The images could be done on a schedule, so no extra work for you.

 

How long?

My C drive contains about 80 gig.

Each night at nine I do an Acronis full back up to a USB hard drive and it takes about 40 mins to back and another four hours to 'verify'.

At 4.00 am I use Karen's Replicator on the same drive and it updates in around 40 mins.

All dead time for me so the computer might as well do something usefull.

Why two backups. The Acronis one is there in case the full drive C goes down. The Karen one is there to recover the odd file or folder from yesterday - as Acronis can do it, but makes a meal timewise.

Tony

 

Tony - I';;m dealing with a NAS, not USB drive and they don't want the machines on all the time : (

(I have to admit - I am not sure what situations that scheduled tasks would run when you choose power saving in the screen saver page

System running - yes, scheduled tasks would run
screensaver running - yes scheduled tasks would run
turn off monitor - scheduled tasks would certainly run
turn off hard drive?
Standby ?
Hibernate - I'd say no, but would anyone else know?
Off - scheduled tasks would not run?

so I don't think the machines would wake up overnight? (and that's with windows scheduled tasks, not the TI task manager, which I think I read here is less featured than windows scheduled tasks?