PC Backup Recommendations

[T-Will]

Hey everyone, I've been using the Handy Backup demo for a while and it seems to work great, and it even works past their demo time as long as no network share settings change. Recently I setup a Linux box for my backup and it's a little difficult getting the old XP sharing settings to match up with the Linux box so I figured I might as well actually purchase some backup software.

I'll basically be doing an incremental backup every night to a network share. Handy Backup works really good, but is there any other software you guys would recommend before I dish out money for Handy Backup?

Thanks!

[Jon Westfall]

Well, Sprite Backup is my program of choice, but if you're looking to do incrementals, you'll probably only be able to do that with handy backup. I just love Sprite's self-restoring backups. I do daily/semi-daily backups to PC and weekly self-restorings so in case of emergency, I can rely on the self-restore and then the pc restore later to be up to date.

Jon.

[Zack Mahdavi]

dadarkmcse, I think he was talking about Windows backup software.. :)

TWill, you could buy a backup program, or you could just set up Samba on your Linux box. Then, you'll be able to connect via the regular "My Network Places" from your XP box.

Check out www.samba.org for more information. If you want a quick start, look at this unofficial samba guide. (http://hr.uoregon.edu/davidrl/samba.html)

It's not hard at all to set up, so give it a shot.

[T-Will]

Oh yeah I've got Samba all up and running, it's just my trial is over for Handy Backup (been over for about 3-4 months now), but it still runs the backup jobs I had programmed into it, the problem is I can't add/delete/modify jobs since the trial is over.

So I'm just wondering if there's anything else out there I should check out before purchasing Handy Backup.

[Jon Westfall]

Sorry, got PPCs on the brain..... continually.

For windows backup I use NTI backup Now. I've successfully backed up to a samba share that was mounted as a drive.

Jon.

[Janak Parekh]

TWill, you could buy a backup program, or you could just set up Samba on your Linux box. Then, you'll be able to connect via the regular "My Network Places" from your XP box.
Yep - this is the way to go. A backup program with a "Linux backup agent" is going to be expensive. I've been comparing the pros and cons of Samba vs. Linux agent-enabled-backup programs for some time now. While permissions and such are nice to backup, it's just not worth the $500 extra to me.

As for programs to do backup with, I've been recently looking closely at Dantz's Retrospect Pro (www.dantz.com/en/products/win_professional/index.dtml). It supports CD, disk, and tape; has a really smart incremental scheme; and is generally pretty slick. I haven't bought it yet, but I'm probably going to once I get it working perfectly. It seems to have gotten pretty good reviews too.

--janak

[Zack Mahdavi]

Oh yeah I've got Samba all up and running, it's just my trial is over for Handy Backup (been over for about 3-4 months now), but it still runs the backup jobs I had programmed into it, the problem is I can't add/delete/modify jobs since the trial is over.

So I'm just wondering if there's anything else out there I should check out before purchasing Handy Backup.

Handy Backup seems to be an interesting program, but do you only use Handy Backup to back up to the Samba server?

If so, why not just use a cheaper solution like rsync on windows (http://optics.ph.unimelb.edu.au/help/rsync/rsync_pc1.html)? Have you looked into that?

Basically, I'm wondering what the advantages of buying a backup program are to creating your own scripts? What else do you use Handy Backup for?

As a student system administrator, I'm used to using "dump" and "mt" commands as my backup program. :)

[Zack Mahdavi]

T-Will, I'm in the same boat as you now. Did you end up purchasing Handy Backup, or did you find something better?

[Jacob]

I'm in the market for PC backup software too.

Did you end up getting HandyBackup?

[Zack Mahdavi]

I'm in the market for PC backup software too.

Did you end up getting HandyBackup?

I've been trying it out. It's a nice program, but it hasn't been updated at all since August 2003. Either the program is just that good, or the developer has stopped developing it.

I found a freeware backup program called Syncback (http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/syncback-hub.html). It seems really well made, has a ton of features, and backs up files much faster than Handy Backup does. I think I'm going to stick with SyncBack. I highly recommend it.

[Jacob]

That looks cool, but the one feature I'm really looking for is the ability to create a backup that has folders the size of a DVD/CD so I can back it up to DVD occasionally without having to manually do it.