Best backup software

If you are getting Win 7 Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate the built-in windows Backup will backup to and restore from network devices. That is what I use on my Win7 box. You can schedule the backup and even do a bare metal restore of your system with the Win 7 recovery disk.

Also, if you're only interested in backing up the data, you can use the supplied backup software (Memeo or NTI Shadow, depending on which ReadyNAS you have). Both have the ability to keep multiple versions of your data so you can effectively go back in time:

http://www.readynas.com/?p=34

http://www.readynas.com/?p=2586

Sorry to dissent...
I have tried the built-in recovery for NT4/2K/XP and found it really disappointing.
The first problem is a wider windows one, where files that are open can't be backed up using standard techniques. Unfortunately this isn't well reported by the tools.

I have never been able to successfully do a BMR (bare metal recovery) using ntbackup no matter how many System State backups/registry exports/special windows console installs I tried. And I kid you not - to do the recovery requires a physical floppy drive! Had to buy a USB floppy drive for my notebook in 2010. Threw away most of my floppies a decade ago and I'm a huge horder. In the end it was missing various files required to boot anyway - sigh.

It is possible that MS have finally got it right in Windows7. But unless somebody is prepared to swear black and blue that it really works now whilst I hold a large meat tenderiser over there left nut, in the full knowledge that I'll bring it down with all the fury a frustrated sysadmin can muster, well, then I might give it a try.

I have done BMR on Windows XP successfully (and easily) using EaseUS Backup. It builds a bootable CD for you too - no need to have original media (often not included these days) or a Floppy Drive!

I would use a different tool for my data files - in my case rsync scripts. But there are plenty of nice windows GUI tools out there.

If you don't mind spending some money... Shadow Protect does excellent BMR backups and handles incremental backups too - so also excellent for your data and it works well.

This subject is one you can be sure is filled with subjective feelings. Most old gray-beards having had sysadmin experience will probably tell you that there isn't a "best" backup software around, what you're looking for is the "least bad" one.

Personally, for my windows laptop and workstation (and the other three laptops in my household), I've chosen Acronis Backup and Recovery 10 workstation, based on the "it works" feature (having had the disfortune of testing it the hard way). I'd suggest getting the "With Universal Restore" option, that allows you to add new drivers during the restore (if your workstation becomes charred remains, you cannot be certain that the disk controller in the new workstation is the same. Being able to replace the disk controller driver during restore will save you a lot of trouble). I have no idea if other packages have anything like this, because quite frankly I stopped looking for alternatives when I had something that had the feature "it works". ;)

//Svein

I had this gem from Netgear support yesterday!

"My name is Pragyananda and I am following up on your support case.

I am sorry to inform you that the bundled version [NTI Shadow] is not compatible with Windows 7. hence, you would need to purchase an upgrade from NTI directly."

I have been robust in my reply!

A while back I was looking for backup software. I tried Memeo, and I certainly like the shadow backup feature and that it doesn't lock up the machine when you aren't connected to the network. On the other hand I found that the backup software puts a lot of directories above the backup and doesn't have a simple mirror function. Eventually I went to Syncback. It doesn't have shadow backup and instead uses a scheduled backup. It seems rock steady, doesn't use to many resources and backs up to almost anywhere you can conceive of. They give you a free version and a couple of paid versions. The "Pro" price is right if you are going to use it on more than one machine. I've been running it to my NVX for months without any problems at home and we are installing it at work on about 18 computers.

It's certainly worth a look in my opinion.

Alan

Good backup program offers a scalable backup for PCs capable of supporting more than 2,000 pieces in a backup server. This system uses a client triggered a backup of a backup requests are always initiated by the customer on a secure SSL channel. The administrator opens the door only one safe way for more than a server that remote users can safely back up a VPN or WAN. WAN optimization will automatically find a network to detect changes in latency and available bandwidth.

Virtual Appliance

I"m the developer of QuickShadow Backup.

I'll tell you what I do - having found pretty much everything else lacking.

Firstly, I use Clonezilla to do a "bare metal" backup of my PC to my ReadyNAS. This *is* user hostile, not being the most user-friendly of programs to run. But it does work, and it works very well. I have used this a number of times to restore a PC when there has been a disaster. For Clonezilla, you make a CD or DVD, and boot off that - this then guides you through the process of what you want to backup to where. It's text based, and you need to know what you are doing.

Next, I use my own QuickShadow Backup to take backups of all my data directories (eg s/w development, photos, documents). I don't bother to backup the Windows folders because I've never yet seen a successful restore work using plain-ole-file copies. QuickShadow will allow backup of open files, saves multiple versions on the backup device, and so on. It also detects files as they are changed, and copies them to the backup device within a minute or so, unlike doing a daily / scheduled backup - though you can do that too.

Finally, I have my ReadyNAS set up so that it in turn does a backup of its volume to a USB drive - at present I do this every day.

For me, this gives me layers of protection:

- If my PC main drives dies completely, I can restore the machine using the Clonezilla backup. My data will be out of date, and maybe even some of my installed programs - but not many if I remember to take these backups about once a month. Then I can restore all my data files as a 2nd step.

- If I lose, delete, corrupt, or just want to roll back to a prior version of a data file I have been working on, then I can just copy those back from the NAS pretty much any time.

- And if my NAS dies for some reason, I can also restore the backup it made to its external USB drive - of course if there were a complete disaster it might take a couple of days to buy another NAS, this is pretty unlikely though.

(I've also gone a step further and through some customisation of the NAS, I backup to Amazon S3 as well, but thats for the truly paranoid and I'm not suggesting you go there.)

I use BOTH syncback & the built-in backup in Win7. Syncback gives me the recovery over time of deleted files and such. Win7 has the bare-metal restore which I just used to restore my backed up & failed SSD to a standard hard drive... It works but did only use a portion of the new hard drive (much larger than my SSD. I also have been able to pick and choose from the SyncBack so the combo lets you have your cake and eat it too.

I purchased shadow 5 to back up multiple computers. The problem I am having is how do I back up without one computer deleting files from another computer backup? I have four folders, DOCUMENTS MUSIC VIDEO PICTURES. so for example I would like pictures from all of my computers to be in the PICTURES folder. Likewise for DOCUMENTS MUSIC VIDEO FOLDERS. Is this even possible? thanks for the help.
Rich