How best to BackUp my laptop

[sampedrena]

I am planning on buying a portable hard drive to use to backup my laptop - and have a query about how BackUps work. In the past I have used Windows 7 BackUp program and put it onto dvd's - but it is now too large to fit!

Although some of the portable hard drives come with software, I don't know whether that is the best to use, as I can't find out much about it. Alternatively, I could just get an Extension portable hard drive and get hold of some software.

I have seen some free software (EASEus todo backup) which does Incremental Backups, which I don't think the Win7 will do - and I am thinking of downloading and using EASEus. I have read the User Manual online and it seems to give various choices - System BackUp, or File BackUp being the ones I think I need to start and then probably Incremental BackUp afterwards.

My query is - does System BackUp also make copies of all the files, photos, etc from the laptop? Might it be useful to also do a File BackUp?

Any help or advice would be very welcome - but, please don't make it too technical or you're going to lose me straight away!

Many thanks.

[El Cid]

Just plug in an external disk and setup Windows Backup. You can do scheduled system image backups (good for restoring a total disaster) and data backups for all your data.

No additional software is needed, but make sure the disk is formatted to NTFS not FAT32 if you want to do a system image backup.

Sid

[dxf]

Hola

I have a 2Tb backup drive but have organised all my personal stuff (documents, music, pictures and the like) on my laptop itself into one top level folder called "Grandads Laptop". There are several folders under that, and subfolders under those BUT all I do is to copy "Grandads Laptop" to the 2TB drive with a date and I have a very simple backup / restore should I need to buy a new computer / hard drive etc.

Davexf

[Enrique]

Hola Grandad AKA dxf................

A good start ..but you possibly need an Image Backup to Restore the complete system should a disk fail, or the system get screwed up with a bad Update from Bill.

The Backup mentioned by the OP looks to be a way to go...........

http://www.easeus-backup.com/review/win ... backup.htm

I'll be having a more in depth look at this one later.............

Most of the Paid for Backup programs are getting bloated these days and have lost the plot.

I'm currently running Acronis 2014, 2010 was the one I started with and that was a good version. To many bells and whistles on the latest ones that are not needed............

[dxf]

Hola
Quite a number of laptops can go back to "Out of the box" because they have a recovery partition. My laptop is lightning fast again compared to how it was before I reinstalled Windows. Yes it takes more time especially for the 250+ updates it did but the number of files has gone down phenomenally.

Davexf

[Lyric]

I use the Easeus total backup free and it seems to have worked, trouble with these things is until you try it in anger you never KNOW .........

[alpineSi]

Personally, I don't save any of the system files. My theory is that if the computer crashes then the system is to blame, so I want to reinstall that and start afresh. That leaves documents, music, photos and the personalised files created by software which are not saved in the My Documents folder but scattered around the drive somewhere (e.g. my French tax software always saves to its own directory), and anything you might leave lying around in your Downloads directory.

The question here is how much space do you need?
Spreadsheets and documents take up very little space, I'd estimate well under 1GB for most people.
Music and/video can be huge, my current is 40GB for music and a few hundred GB for films.

You can buy a hard disk for very little money now, ones called SSD are a safer bet but cost a lot more. Many come with their own software to facilitate backups. Check Amazon for best prices and detailed reviews that often explain how the included software works (or doesn't!)

The disadvantages with a second drive is that they can fail or are just as susceptible to theft or fire as your original computer.
There are now many viable online storage options with excellent security. Some create a new folder on your computer, and everything that you copy into that folder is automatically copied to the internet (thanks to a little software you download from them). You may have to tell your computer programs that you have 'moved' your files to this new folder.

This is the case with DropBox, Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. They are very simple to use but not really a backup in the sense that if you delete the file on your computer it will also be deleted online. Think of it as a mirror. You do have the option to share these files with other people too, so instead of e-mailing photos to the family you can just email a link to the photo (or an album).

A more advanced (but just as easy to use option) is something like Mozy Online Backup. It will also download some software and run quietly in the background (only going online on a schedule, if you wish) but it keeps versioned backups over time meaning if you delete or change a file on your drive by mistake you can still download a previous version from their server (how many versions you save is your choice).

All these services off a free, home user package. Mozy and Dropbox both offer 2GB with all the syncing/backup options you need. Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive currently offer 15GB free each. So none of these will be enough for everything on the typical drive, but there are quite cheap upgrade plans offering acres of online space. They all offer mobile or tablet applications allowing you to access your files anywhere you can get internet access.

Personally, I let Mozy's free version run in the background to update my working documents, it's currently at 1.7GB! I then pay Google 2€ a month (roughly £1.70) for 100GB of online storage which handles the music and photos. If you're thinking of subscribing to Microsoft Office 365, it comes with 1TB of online storage as part of the deal...

Hope that helps a bit, if I lost you anywhere just ask!

[LaFlaca]

Word of caution: If you plan to buy an external hard drive, make sure when you get it, and BEFORE you back anything up, you change the default admin name and password. Ditto with routers, wifi access points etc.

We are all a bit casual about these things.

[Enrique]

Hi LaFaca,

"If you plan to buy an external hard drive, make sure when you get it, and BEFORE you back anything up, you change the default admin name and password"

Don't follow this ..........please further details............

[markwilding]

I use Drop box as my backup for photos and documents.
AlpineSI commented that he uses Dropbox more as a mirror than a back up. However, I have the files on both my computer native file system and Dropbox.
If you drag the file into Dropbox, it will simply move and you still only have it one place on the PC. If you copy and paste the file into Dropbox it will remain in its original folder and will also be in your Dropbox folder so if you delete one by mistake, you still have the backup of the other copy.

[sampedrena]

Thanks for all your replies. I have chosen a Seagate Expansion portable drive and EASEus todo backup free. I have created 2 Backups: 1) File Backup 2) System Backup. The system backup took about 5 hours to create and then, for both, I ran their "Check Image" - both of which say they have "no errors". I hope this is correct! It was quite a lot quicker than the Win7 BackUp and Restore program, but not without a few snags. At one stage - during the Check Image for the System backup - the program just "hung" and I had to reboot the laptop without being able to Safely Remove HD - Fortunately the actual backups were already saved, so no harm was done! I later was able to do the Check Image - it took about 3 hrs! - but reported all to be okay!

Just one question now remains - having done the File and System backups, do I need to do a Disk/Partition backup as well? (as offered in the program) Or will that just cover what I have already Backed Up?

So, thanks for your help so far - and any ideas re this would be great. Many thanks

PS - re Dropbox. Very interesting comments! I use it to make a copy of photos - but have never understood why sometimes they moved and sometimes they copied. It clearly depends on how I carry out the operation - so thanks for explaining that. As I do want to have in both places - otherwise it doesn't feel "secure". Another IT mystery solved!

[Enrique]

Hi sampedrena,
Some pointers on EasyUS Todo............yes I had/having a play........

1) Expand the Logs as they report Successful even when the job Fails..............
2) The Backup run time is slow compared to other Free/Paid Backup programs... not a problem if you run overnight. You can then give backup option for High Performance as you will not be using system.
3) The Compression on Normal is not as good as other Backup programs... Example a disk of 290GB used space comes out at 137GB on EasyUS and 87GB on Acronis, if you opt for higher compressions then backup will take longer.

Have you made a Bootable recovery disk..........

I would do a Disk/Partition backup instead of a System Backup as you will want to restore back if you have a total disk fail. Would depend if you have more than one Partition on your HDD.

What they say about it................

http://kb.easeus.com/art.php?id=10005

[Lyric]

Morning, this is suddenly becoming very pertinent as my laptop wouldn't boot this morning, with the HDD clunking until I hit it
Now, I have Easy todo backup free and have a system backup about a month old. My laptop has a 'hidden' system partition which seems to have been backed up too to the external drive to a separate partition.
I propose to go and get a new internal drive this morning but do not know how to proceed. My copy of Easyus todo is already on the external backup drive, I thought that prudent.
I suppose that first I need an emergency boot disk ? then to restore my backup. I propose to renew my backup overnight tonight but don't really know how to proceed from there.

[Enrique]

Hi Lyric,
If your laptop is up and running you could get a backup of the Disk as of today. That would give you two backups to play with.

Creating the Recovery disk takes some time........well it did on my old PC...........

Then using Windows 7 DVD/USB tool to get the .iso file on to a USB pendrive/memory stick

Might be worth having USB for recovery disk..........

You can usually fit larger capacity internal drives to laptops.

Added Later in the Day @18:00..............
Finding the software very clunky..............had several attempts to create Recovery Disk, had to switch systems to get things to work............ Didn't come cleanly out of the Recovery Disk .iso procedure, required Reboot.

The Windows 7 DVD/USB Tool failed so had to use Rufus to create Bootable USB.

Macrium Reflect Free seems to be a better bet for Free backup software.............

[Enrique]

Free backups........
If EasyUS Todo is your choice and it creates Backups and the Recovery Disk without ANY hangs then you should be ok , if any of the procedures hang then have a look at Macrium Reflect Free.

Having spent the past 48 hrs doing Backups and restores with the above two mentioned I would go for Macrium Reflect, its also twice as fast as EasyUS Todo. I got to many procedure hangs with EasyUS....



http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

[Lyric]

The story so far ;
I have what W7 calls a system repair disc, it seemed to find all the files it required without going to the Internet.
I have an Easyus todo generated emergency boot iso, yet to be burnt to DVD, it does not seem to want to let me put it onto a stick.
I have a disc/partition backup created overnight, it tells me successfully.
I have a new HDD double the size of the original.
Laptop is working normally, but it hasn't been turned off.
What I don't have iis a W7 iso, I can't have one with this OEM copy of windows it seems, and I do not have any disc that came with it, as nothing did.
The cowboy that sold it to me has gone out of business too.

[Enrique]

Ok Lyric from this cowboy that's not in Business ........

Burn the Recovery .iso onto the DVD.........I did put it on a USB using Rufus.........

Check DVD boots up if you have your backup disk connected it should show you it can recover the backup.

Remove old disk, install new disk, Boot up Recovery DVD with Backup Disk connected and Recover Backup to new disk.

Should you want to have a "new" D: partition on this new big disk you can do this later.

[Lyric]

That is what I had planned. Which 'recovery' disc do you refer to, the W7 'repair disc' or the Easy recovery disc, methinks the latter.

[Enrique]

Hi Lyric,
Yes the EasyUS recovery DVD you created plus connect external disk where the EasyUS backup is located.

Check your EasyUS DVD Recovery disk boots up and shows the Recovery option for your Backup. Before doing Disk swap.

[Lyric]

I am not ignoring this advice Enrique but am lacking the permission and the time to do it at present until needs must. As ever it has worked since I bought a new HDD

I WILL report experiences when done.