I am looking for recommendations for a reliable backup utility to use
at home on a WinXP Pro SP2 system.



Here are my requirements for what I'm looking for:

1) Must be able to make a bootable CD and run the utility from there
and be able to see all my drives including external

2) Verification must process the entire backup and report at the end
of the process (not stop at first error)

3) Must be able to backup to hard drives (internal/external), CD, DVD

4) Must be able to do file backups & hard drive images (image of
entire hard drives including partitions)



Here are backup utilities I have used:

A) Veritas (aka Symantec Backup Exec) - used at work on our
Fileserver; incremental, all files accessed in the last 7 days, to DLT
tape

B) Win Backup (aka NTBackup.exe) - at work for weekly full backup to
external hard drive, and occasionally on my work desktop to my folder
on Fileserver

C) GHOST - used at work & home, file backups and images

D) NERO's BackItUp - used at work on a product we ship for a recovery
CD

E) Acronis True Image 10 Home - presently using at home



My evaluations:

Veritas - This is a server utility and not good for home use (also
very $$). Fails my requirement #1 but excellent in every other respect

Win Backup - fails requirement #1

GHOST - Boot CD, the GHOST install CD which is used for recovery,
would not recognize my external drives.

NERO's BackItUp - Same problem as GHOST plus found NERO uninstall
useless. NERO knows this because when I contacted them about
uninstalling, they gave me a link to download a special NEROUinstall
application. Note that NERO updates fail for the same reason, update
attempts to do an uninstall first and it fails. Also, this was a
downloaded version of NERO, my be different for a out-of-box CD
install.

Acronis True Image 10 Home - excellent, except it totally fails
requirement #2! Their verification process stops at the first error
then reports with a very cryptic "Tag" which gives you no idea of what
went wrong, not even a filename.


So, can anyone recommend a another backup utility that you have used
and *fulfills my requirements*?


--
======== Tecknomage ========
Computer Systems Specialist
San Diego, CA

True Image

"Tecknomage" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>I am looking for recommendations for a reliable backup utility to use
> at home on a WinXP Pro SP2 system.
>
>
>
> Here are my requirements for what I'm looking for:
>
> 1) Must be able to make a bootable CD and run the utility from there
> and be able to see all my drives including external
>
> 2) Verification must process the entire backup and report at the end
> of the process (not stop at first error)
>
> 3) Must be able to backup to hard drives (internal/external), CD, DVD
>
> 4) Must be able to do file backups & hard drive images (image of
> entire hard drives including partitions)
>
>
>
> Here are backup utilities I have used:
>
> A) Veritas (aka Symantec Backup Exec) - used at work on our
> Fileserver; incremental, all files accessed in the last 7 days, to DLT
> tape
>
> B) Win Backup (aka NTBackup.exe) - at work for weekly full backup to
> external hard drive, and occasionally on my work desktop to my folder
> on Fileserver
>
> C) GHOST - used at work & home, file backups and images
>
> D) NERO's BackItUp - used at work on a product we ship for a recovery
> CD
>
> E) Acronis True Image 10 Home - presently using at home
>
>
>
> My evaluations:
>
> Veritas - This is a server utility and not good for home use (also
> very $$). Fails my requirement #1 but excellent in every other respect
>
> Win Backup - fails requirement #1
>
> GHOST - Boot CD, the GHOST install CD which is used for recovery,
> would not recognize my external drives.
>
> NERO's BackItUp - Same problem as GHOST plus found NERO uninstall
> useless. NERO knows this because when I contacted them about
> uninstalling, they gave me a link to download a special NEROUinstall
> application. Note that NERO updates fail for the same reason, update
> attempts to do an uninstall first and it fails. Also, this was a
> downloaded version of NERO, my be different for a out-of-box CD
> install.
>
> Acronis True Image 10 Home - excellent, except it totally fails
> requirement #2! Their verification process stops at the first error
> then reports with a very cryptic "Tag" which gives you no idea of what
> went wrong, not even a filename.
>
>
> So, can anyone recommend a another backup utility that you have used
> and *fulfills my requirements*?
>
>
> --
> ======== Tecknomage ========
> Computer Systems Specialist
> San Diego, CA

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing...age/index.html
peter
"Tecknomage" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>I am looking for recommendations for a reliable backup utility to use
> at home on a WinXP Pro SP2 system.
>
>
>
> Here are my requirements for what I'm looking for:
>
> 1) Must be able to make a bootable CD and run the utility from there
> and be able to see all my drives including external
>
> 2) Verification must process the entire backup and report at the end
> of the process (not stop at first error)
>
> 3) Must be able to backup to hard drives (internal/external), CD, DVD
>
> 4) Must be able to do file backups & hard drive images (image of
> entire hard drives including partitions)
>
>
>
> Here are backup utilities I have used:
>
> A) Veritas (aka Symantec Backup Exec) - used at work on our
> Fileserver; incremental, all files accessed in the last 7 days, to DLT
> tape
>
> B) Win Backup (aka NTBackup.exe) - at work for weekly full backup to
> external hard drive, and occasionally on my work desktop to my folder
> on Fileserver
>
> C) GHOST - used at work & home, file backups and images
>
> D) NERO's BackItUp - used at work on a product we ship for a recovery
> CD
>
> E) Acronis True Image 10 Home - presently using at home
>
>
>
> My evaluations:
>
> Veritas - This is a server utility and not good for home use (also
> very $$). Fails my requirement #1 but excellent in every other respect
>
> Win Backup - fails requirement #1
>
> GHOST - Boot CD, the GHOST install CD which is used for recovery,
> would not recognize my external drives.
>
> NERO's BackItUp - Same problem as GHOST plus found NERO uninstall
> useless. NERO knows this because when I contacted them about
> uninstalling, they gave me a link to download a special NEROUinstall
> application. Note that NERO updates fail for the same reason, update
> attempts to do an uninstall first and it fails. Also, this was a
> downloaded version of NERO, my be different for a out-of-box CD
> install.
>
> Acronis True Image 10 Home - excellent, except it totally fails
> requirement #2! Their verification process stops at the first error
> then reports with a very cryptic "Tag" which gives you no idea of what
> went wrong, not even a filename.
>
>
> So, can anyone recommend a another backup utility that you have used
> and *fulfills my requirements*?
>
>
> --
> ======== Tecknomage ========
> Computer Systems Specialist
> San Diego, CA

> So, can anyone recommend a another backup utility that you have used
> and *fulfills my requirements*?

May not meet your needs, but I'm trying out the free DriveImage XML -
http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm

Or you can get Windows Vista Business/Ultimate and use the built-in
Complete PC Backup and Recovery/Restore, which does an image backup
Go Microsoft!

"Tecknomage" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> My evaluations:
> GHOST - Boot CD, the GHOST install CD which is used for recovery,
> would not recognize my external drives.
>
I have no trouble with Ghost 2003 recognizing my external drives.

DL, did you read my evaluation section.

I am using Acronis True Image now, and it's verification sucks. This is why
I posted my msg in the first place.

In all other respects Acronis True Image is very good.



"DL" wrote:

> True Image
>
> "Tecknomage" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> >I am looking for recommendations for a reliable backup utility to use
> > at home on a WinXP Pro SP2 system.
> >
> >
> >
> > Here are my requirements for what I'm looking for:
> >
> > 1) Must be able to make a bootable CD and run the utility from there
> > and be able to see all my drives including external
> >
> > 2) Verification must process the entire backup and report at the end
> > of the process (not stop at first error)
> >
> > 3) Must be able to backup to hard drives (internal/external), CD, DVD
> >
> > 4) Must be able to do file backups & hard drive images (image of
> > entire hard drives including partitions)
> >
> >
> >
> > Here are backup utilities I have used:
> >
> > A) Veritas (aka Symantec Backup Exec) - used at work on our
> > Fileserver; incremental, all files accessed in the last 7 days, to DLT
> > tape
> >
> > B) Win Backup (aka NTBackup.exe) - at work for weekly full backup to
> > external hard drive, and occasionally on my work desktop to my folder
> > on Fileserver
> >
> > C) GHOST - used at work & home, file backups and images
> >
> > D) NERO's BackItUp - used at work on a product we ship for a recovery
> > CD
> >
> > E) Acronis True Image 10 Home - presently using at home
> >
> >
> >
> > My evaluations:
> >
> > Veritas - This is a server utility and not good for home use (also
> > very $$). Fails my requirement #1 but excellent in every other respect
> >
> > Win Backup - fails requirement #1
> >
> > GHOST - Boot CD, the GHOST install CD which is used for recovery,
> > would not recognize my external drives.
> >
> > NERO's BackItUp - Same problem as GHOST plus found NERO uninstall
> > useless. NERO knows this because when I contacted them about
> > uninstalling, they gave me a link to download a special NEROUinstall
> > application. Note that NERO updates fail for the same reason, update
> > attempts to do an uninstall first and it fails. Also, this was a
> > downloaded version of NERO, my be different for a out-of-box CD
> > install.
> >
> > Acronis True Image 10 Home - excellent, except it totally fails
> > requirement #2! Their verification process stops at the first error
> > then reports with a very cryptic "Tag" which gives you no idea of what
> > went wrong, not even a filename.
> >
> >
> > So, can anyone recommend a another backup utility that you have used
> > and *fulfills my requirements*?
> >
> >
> > --
> > ======== Tecknomage ========
> > Computer Systems Specialist
> > San Diego, CA
>
>
>

Merlin, note my specification is the Boot CD used in recovery.

I used Ghost 2003 and the boot CD did not recognize my external Firewire
hard drive.

Ghost run from the desktop did see the external of course. For disaster
recovery, your C: goes by-by, you need to boot to a recovery CD that will
restore your C: image to a new drive, if the image is on an external hard
drive and the boot CD cannot see it.....


"Merlin" wrote:

>
> "Tecknomage" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> >
> > My evaluations:
> > GHOST - Boot CD, the GHOST install CD which is used for recovery,
> > would not recognize my external drives.
> >
> I have no trouble with Ghost 2003 recognizing my external drives.
>
>
>

The only time I've had problems with TI, it was caused by a memory module

"Tecknomage" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:F51846AD-2D25-4ED9-887A-(E-Mail Removed)...
> DL, did you read my evaluation section.
>
> I am using Acronis True Image now, and it's verification sucks. This is
> why
> I posted my msg in the first place.
>
> In all other respects Acronis True Image is very good.
>
>
>
> "DL" wrote:
>
>> True Image
>>
>> "Tecknomage" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> >I am looking for recommendations for a reliable backup utility to use
>> > at home on a WinXP Pro SP2 system.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Here are my requirements for what I'm looking for:
>> >
>> > 1) Must be able to make a bootable CD and run the utility from there
>> > and be able to see all my drives including external
>> >
>> > 2) Verification must process the entire backup and report at the end
>> > of the process (not stop at first error)
>> >
>> > 3) Must be able to backup to hard drives (internal/external), CD, DVD
>> >
>> > 4) Must be able to do file backups & hard drive images (image of
>> > entire hard drives including partitions)
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Here are backup utilities I have used:
>> >
>> > A) Veritas (aka Symantec Backup Exec) - used at work on our
>> > Fileserver; incremental, all files accessed in the last 7 days, to DLT
>> > tape
>> >
>> > B) Win Backup (aka NTBackup.exe) - at work for weekly full backup to
>> > external hard drive, and occasionally on my work desktop to my folder
>> > on Fileserver
>> >
>> > C) GHOST - used at work & home, file backups and images
>> >
>> > D) NERO's BackItUp - used at work on a product we ship for a recovery
>> > CD
>> >
>> > E) Acronis True Image 10 Home - presently using at home
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > My evaluations:
>> >
>> > Veritas - This is a server utility and not good for home use (also
>> > very $$). Fails my requirement #1 but excellent in every other respect
>> >
>> > Win Backup - fails requirement #1
>> >
>> > GHOST - Boot CD, the GHOST install CD which is used for recovery,
>> > would not recognize my external drives.
>> >
>> > NERO's BackItUp - Same problem as GHOST plus found NERO uninstall
>> > useless. NERO knows this because when I contacted them about
>> > uninstalling, they gave me a link to download a special NEROUinstall
>> > application. Note that NERO updates fail for the same reason, update
>> > attempts to do an uninstall first and it fails. Also, this was a
>> > downloaded version of NERO, my be different for a out-of-box CD
>> > install.
>> >
>> > Acronis True Image 10 Home - excellent, except it totally fails
>> > requirement #2! Their verification process stops at the first error
>> > then reports with a very cryptic "Tag" which gives you no idea of what
>> > went wrong, not even a filename.
>> >
>> >
>> > So, can anyone recommend a another backup utility that you have used
>> > and *fulfills my requirements*?
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > ======== Tecknomage ========
>> > Computer Systems Specialist
>> > San Diego, CA
>>
>>
>>

"Tecknomage" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:6869756C-BE4B-4678-A5D9-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Merlin, note my specification is the Boot CD used in recovery.
>
> I used Ghost 2003 and the boot CD did not recognize my external Firewire
> hard drive.
>
> Ghost run from the desktop did see the external of course. For disaster
> recovery, your C: goes by-by, you need to boot to a recovery CD that will
> restore your C: image to a new drive, if the image is on an external hard
> drive and the boot CD cannot see it.....
>
>
> "Merlin" wrote:
>
>>
>> "Tecknomage" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> >
>> > My evaluations:
>> > GHOST - Boot CD, the GHOST install CD which is used for recovery,
>> > would not recognize my external drives.
>> >
>> I have no trouble with Ghost 2003 recognizing my external drives.
>>
>>
>>


Yes, I've restored my HDD from my external usb drive using my recovery cd,
no problem at all. I don't run Ghost from my desktop.

Thanks. I'll have to see if I still have my Ghost CD and check again, but my
external devices are Firewire which *may* be the problem.

If I could get Ghost to work I may go back to using it.


"Merlin" wrote:

> "Tecknomage" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:6869756C-BE4B-4678-A5D9-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Merlin, note my specification is the Boot CD used in recovery.
> >
> > I used Ghost 2003 and the boot CD did not recognize my external Firewire
> > hard drive.
> >
> > Ghost run from the desktop did see the external of course. For disaster
> > recovery, your C: goes by-by, you need to boot to a recovery CD that will
> > restore your C: image to a new drive, if the image is on an external hard
> > drive and the boot CD cannot see it.....
> >
> >
> > "Merlin" wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> "Tecknomage" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> >> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> >> >
> >> > My evaluations:
> >> > GHOST - Boot CD, the GHOST install CD which is used for recovery,
> >> > would not recognize my external drives.
> >> >
> >> I have no trouble with Ghost 2003 recognizing my external drives.
> >>
> >>
> >>
>
>
> Yes, I've restored my HDD from my external usb drive using my recovery cd,
> no problem at all. I don't run Ghost from my desktop.
>
>
>