Backup software - options?

[thepharcyde]

I used to have a image file of my old HTPC based on MCE2005 using Norton Ghost. My version is no longer supported in Vista.

What software is out there that you recommend. I basically want to put a CD in the drive which will then pull the backup from one of my backup hardrives incase I am unable to get into the Windows environment to restore that way

Thank you

 

[marcdbl]

Definitely Acronis TrueImage

 

[Maxamus]

Definitely Acronis TrueImage

Yep! Thats the one i use. It gives me the freedom to experiment with my system and if it screws up i just restore it to a likeable state

 

[Uridium]

What version of Vista are you running? I ask as Vista ultimate has imaging built in to the OS. it's in the backup utility

 

[thepharcyde]

What version of Vista are you running? I ask as Vista ultimate has imaging built in to the OS. it's in the backup utility

I do yes, just gone into it now is it "complete PC backup"? thx

 

[wkc]

Definitely Acronis TrueImage

Another vote for Acronis. Makes easy work of migrating to a new HD also. You can mount a backup image and restore files to your heart's content. You can also make incremental backups also.


Regards

 

[Stephen Neal]

Can highly recommend Acronis True Image. I've just used it to migrate my Vista Media Center set-up from a 500Gb to 1Tb hard drive - just installed both drives - set it running and it took a couple of hours.

If I were starting from scratch (which I may well do!) - I'd create a small OS partition that got backed up (which would be a lot quicker, and smaller to store)- rather than having a single partition for the entire drive!

 

[Uridium]

I do yes, just gone into it now is it "complete PC backup"? thx

Yep that's the one. no need to bother with Acronis/ghost etc.. anymore for imaging. If your OS becomes goosed you can just boot from the Vista CD, choose repair then complete PC restore.

I run this one time after creating a clean stable build I'm happy with then move the resulting image file to a spare USB hard drive as a 'master' backup.

Then create a scheduled task that runs each night to create an up to date copy on a on my main bckup hard drive on daily basis. That way all bases are covered.

To create as a scheduled task the exe you need to run in task scheduler is "wbadmin"

then the arguments i use to backup just my C:\ partition to my G:\ partition are

START BACKUP -allcritical -backuptarget:G: -include:C: -quiet

 

[thepharcyde]

Thank you for all the replies, going to use Vistas own image software as it's free and looks as if it looks exactly what I am looking for

Cheers Uridium