Wanted: new backup SW & schedule--advice?

I'm running XP on an old system whose CD burner is kaput for the time being & doesn't even have a DVD drive. I need to back up to an external drive or flash drive, but being of an old-school mentality, I'm still thinking that I need to do incremental backups so I can fish out the right files to restore, not just burn an image of the whole thing (though that has its place, too). I do have a 2nd (physical) drive in my PC that could be used, but I prefer the idea of physically separating the backups so the same power outtage doesn't fry them both

There's just way too much software out there for me to sort through. I'm willing to handle my songs & photos/videos separately if that makes it simpler, but I need not just docs saved but templates, etc. (I'm a writer.) And I'm not even sure I have CDs for restoring software (or the OS!) if I ever needed to.

My (perhaps old-fashioned) ideas come from sysadmin days a couple decades ago(!) But I thought perhaps I would approach it thus: first make an image on a dedicated device. Then do a monthly backup on a single device, updating anything that has changed each month. Also a weekly backup, alternating weeks (week A, week B devices), and then daily backup devices (or every 2 days). This way I can always restore something within a day or two of the loss date.

But this plan involves a lot of hands-on, and my schedule is VERY flexible, so there are days I do no work & don't even touch the computer but I'd still need to physically start the backup.

Would love to hear good systems/schedules for dealing with this, especially if they are foolproof (yes, I'm the weak link in the chain). Then which software would perform just what I would need for such an arrangement.

 

Sounds laborious but I understand your concerns, especially being a writer.

You can use Acronis to create a true image and to create incremental backups. How often you go about that would depend on how much work you save to the hard-drive daily/weekly/monthly etc. The grand-father, father, son approach is always a stable one if you cannot afford any data loss whatsoever.

 

Lev,

Thanks!

That sure sounds like what I'm after! Now I'm trying to figure out how to alternate media for incremental backups--just how many [insert backup media objects here ] will I need to be juggling to be sure that I don't lose a recent previous file?

Do you know (or does anyone else reading this know) whether the software reads changes since the "last full backup" from the device or the software itself? In other words, can I have an A backup and a B backup running alternately, or will it automatically update B to the latest changes since A's previous backup, resulting in a single backup stream?

--ZenPup

 

ntbackup is also an idea for you if youre not looking to actually image your hard drive. its pre-installed on windows. then you can use scheduled tasks for automation.

 

Good! I'll have to check that out, too.