1 TB WD External Hard drive and backup questions

[Reece]

I do want some kind of backup system that checks for changed files daily and backs them up

Ghost is not suited for daily backups of individual files, it just backups the whole drive in case of HDD crash, damaged sys files, virus's etc, you can however use ghost explorer to restore individual files or folders from the backed up image. However I use an old 2003 version, it may differ now.

[NeonSamurai]

Ghost (and other drive backup programs) is basically a drive backup. It creates an image file of what ever drive you select (or portions of the drive) including formatting and everything. This lets you do a complete restore of the drive (and os if you backed up that drive) in one shot (and way faster).


Personally i use a program like Norton ghost in the following way. I will do a clean format and reinstall of my os, then i will install all drivers, os patches and fixes, and applications/utilities i always use (no games though). Then i will create a "ghost" (other image type in my case, i dont use ghost) image of that drive.

Once that is done i can restore the ghost at will and have a clean new install on that system in about 30 minutes or more (depending on the speed of the drives, where it is stored etc). Otherwise such a reinstall by hand talkes 1-2 days.


These programs can also usualy do incremental/differential backing up, and work ok at it too, but your better off setting up a separate image specificly for that kind of backing up and only back up specific areas (like my documents etc). They also often come with scheduler programs so you can specify to back up when your asleep (if you leave the computer running 24/7)

[longam]

For data file replication I use second copy.

[Digital_Trucker]

Just to throw something else at ya, I use PING. It's CD (Linux) based, so there's no software to install and the cost is perfect ($0,000,000,000.00). It'll backup to a local or network hard drive, CD or DVD and will back up BIOS information as well.

[Onkel Neal]

Man, I've been reading up on Ghost, True Image, Second Copy,,, cannot make up my mind.

True Image sounded great and I almost ordered it, until I read this review.

Norton Ghost 14, it has almost as many terrible user ratings as excellent. Quite a few people there recommend an earlier version, Ghost 2003.

I am also reading up on NTI Shadow 3.7.1, Genie Backup Manager Pro 8.0, and Second Copy 7 (readers give this one high marks).

There does not seem to be a clear choice. I guess I will go with Ghost.

[NeonSamurai]

Ya i haven't gotten ghost since 2003 (good edition). Never heard of the other ones but that doesn't mean they arent worth a look.

Paragon drive backup is also pretty good, other then it only will back up full drives and partitions (it can at least update those backups though).

This one also sounds like it might be good, shadowprotect desktop 3.1 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2254465,00.asp

Btw got me one of those my book drives yesterday, 1tb also.. nice drive though its taken almost 16 hours to transfer over 400gb from my other drive, and a new laptop which will replace my desktop.

[Reece]

Yes I have to admit that the 2003 edition is great, just shove a floppy in to create an image and the same to restore an image!!
Must find out how to put a bootable system on a CD one day, would be even better than a floppy!! I have (Genuine copy) of Norton Ghost 12 but never used it, easy enough to create an image but not sure on restoring.