Backup software recommendations - WinXP

[Cyclone]

I have a friend who runs a small business from his home. He asked about setting up automatic backups for his WinXP PC. He had an old Travatan tape drive which seemed to live on from PC to PC, but its tapes could only hold a Gig or two.

Well, I used a "MyBook" external Hard Disk for my wife's PC, so I recommended this to him. He found a 500GB model on Amazon for about $120 (sweet!). When it arrived I went over and setup the WinXP backup software (which is on the CD) to run a file backup. Unlike my wife's PC where I only backup data files, he wants to backup his entire PC.

Since his C: Drive only has 20GB of used space, I figured that we could get plenty of full image backups on his 500Gb MyBook. I used the backup software and created a new backup. This new one points to a file on the MyBook Drive (F and is for a full system image.

Well, we ran the backup and it choked at 4GB Fat32 filesize limit. So the backup could not complete. I also could not find a way to have the software automatically break up the backup file into smaller pieces. What a shame.

Does anyone know of some good backup software (hopefully free) that is good for making a full system backup?

Thanks

 

[mike123abc]

Reformat the the external HD to be NTFS, then the XP backup program can write its 11gb file without issue.

 

[datwell]

Cyclone: We have Acronis True Image 10 on 1 machine and Norton Ghost 10.0 on another - both are Win XP. They both do the job, but True Image is less troublesome. Your destination drive should be NTFS. Note that both packages will do a full system restore and their CDs are bootable for a clean install to a new drive in the case of a major HD failure - essential for business needs. You can also use both packages to upgrade to a larger HD.

--Doug

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Check out carbonite.com

 

[NightRyder]

I use the following. A basic version came with my Seagate USB drive, but I upgraded to the Professional Version.

CMS BounceBack Professional Backup and Disaster Recovery Software

NightRyder

 

[Cyclone]

Check out carbonite.com

I just tried it and now he's stuck.

I had considered the online backup, but I since I talked him into getting the external Hard drive, I want to get that working first.

 

[8bitbytes]

Data Recovery Software - File System Utilities

 

[mastermesh]

There are free backup programs out there that actually do a good job. If all you need to backup is stuff that you normally save in a folder Backup-2-zip should work fine for you. Free Backup Software - Back2zip Details - just set it to save to external hdd late at night when you aren't on computer - and off you go.

 

[mdram]

symantec backup exec, originally by seagate. works great.

for a business i suggest a redundant system, daily, weekly, and monthly. and keep tapes in a secure fireproof location.

there is also a ms software called previous version, but i think its for servers only, real nice, it stores backups on the same hd based on parameters you setup

 

[Cyclone]

Cyclone: We have Acronis True Image 10 on 1 machine and Norton Ghost 10.0 on another - both are Win XP. They both do the job, but True Image is less troublesome. Your destination drive should be NTFS. Note that both packages will do a full system restore and their CDs are bootable for a clean install to a new drive in the case of a major HD failure - essential for business needs. You can also use both packages to upgrade to a larger HD.

--Doug

I ended up going with the Acronis and its looks like exactly what I was hoping to find. I haven't tried out its restoration properties yet thought.

Thank you to call who have replied.

Don.

 

[harshness]

Due to the number of "open files" in Windows, you need a product that will handle open files to back up the boot drive. The cloning programs often do this by shutting down the system and booting into Linux (or some other operating system that will fit entirely in RAM).

If you can't shut the system down, you need to seek out a program that has some sort of open file manager. I've used Genie Backup Pro with success.