Need reliable back-up/restore program for Vista...

My Vista back-up/restore is starting to have problems. Does anyone know of a reliable and free program that I can use to back up such things as photos and documents about once a month or so? I have been backing things up to a dvd now and that seems to work for me.

thanks

 

I use Titan Backup on my Vista PC. Normally, it sells for $40 but has been offered for free on giveawayoftheday.com and other web promotions the past year.

Gizmo's Tech Support Alert newsletter recommends these three Vista-compatible free backup utilities:

Winbackup v1.86
Cobian Backup v8.4.0.202
FileHampster v1.5.2.0

The only one of the three I tried was Cobian Backup and it worked fine. Many people also use Karen's Replicator v3.6.5 available for free from karenware.com.

In addition to simple file/folder backup utilities, there are some reliable, free imaging programs available if you don't already have one. Paragon Hard Disk Manager 8.5 Special Edition is supposed to be Vista compatible. While I haven't used it, Paragon also offers Drive Backup 9.0 Express which works on Vista 32-bit and 64-bit OS. Macrium Reflect has a free version of its Vista-compatible imaging program. I use MR's full version without any problems. If you have a Seagate or Maxtor internal or external hard drive then Seagate offers a free version of Acronis True Image v10 which allows you to make manual, full (not incremental) backup images.

 

karen's replicator is what i use.
fantasic application!

 

CloneZilla is what I use. It's free. It works with XP, Vista, and Linux. Works with a second hard drive (if you have one connected) or a USB pendrive. It doesn't work with a DVDRW drive...at least not easily. With reference to a pendrive...an XP image saves at over 2 gigs (so you'll need at least a 4 gig drive) while a Vista image saves at just under 2 gigs. An Ubuntu Intrepid image saves at just under 1 gig. It's fast, dependable and I use it all the time.

 

Thanks for the info everyone.

 

I think you should continue to investigate as to why Vista is giving you problems.

 

Was never able to get it fixed. There was an error message which I googled and saw lots of Vista users with the same problem. Not sure if Vista back-up just stops running properly for some people after a while or not. There were a few suggestions which I tried but nothing worked.

Actually I thought about just saving all my photos and downloads and then reformatting the system back to its original specs to see if that would work. Maybe I will do that if there are more problems.

 

I have used East-tec for a while now and it is ok. Just getting some errors. I am considering using Comodo back-up. Anyone try it yet? Karen's replicator seems ok too but I hear it will not compress- is this true?
thanks

also- looking for one that does not save in a proprietsry format and can verify the integrity of the backup, by email or otherwise. East-tec does this.

 

Just curious... but why don't you want an application that saves in a proprietary format?

I recommend Shadow Protect Desktop. It is a bit expensive but worth every penny. Heck, it even works with Windows 7.

 

In all honesty, for that sort of backups I would either use DVDs or, more likely, a USB external hard drive, and copy/paste.

For a more systemic backup, I use Paragon Drive Backup.

 

I am saving my backups to a portable hard drive. I may have to take the portable hard drive to another computer that may not have the correct program/proprietary format. Anyway I am trying to avoid that situation.

 

I restore under a booted CD when using Paragon. I don't think I would trust a restore (other than copy/paste) that ran under the OS to which I was restoring.

 

If you are just backing up files/photos, then I'd recommend to just copy/paste (like what AKAJohnDoe said). It is certainly easier to do it that way.

 

For backups of specific files in various locations in their original formats, NTI Shadow has been working great for me (I use Paragon Drive Backup for full images).

Shadow can be set up with various backup rules to run at various times, and can be set to continually keep an extra copy immediately in multiple locations. It also keeps any number of prior revision levels. It is like an automated "Copy" function.