backing up two computers

[Jo-Anne]

I'm currently backing up my desktop XP SP3 computer to two external hard
drives with Acronis True Image. I'm planning to buy the program for my new
laptop as well (currently XP SP2 but will install SP3 soon). How do others
handle backups from two computers? Do you dedicate separate external drives
to each computer or do backups to the same drives from different computers?
If the latter, do you just store the backups in different folders?

Thanks much!

Jo-Anne

 

[Big_Al]

I'm currently backing up my desktop XP SP3 computer to two external hard
drives with Acronis True Image. I'm planning to buy the program for my new
laptop as well (currently XP SP2 but will install SP3 soon). How do others
handle backups from two computers? Do you dedicate separate external drives
to each computer or do backups to the same drives from different computers?
If the latter, do you just store the backups in different folders?

Thanks much!

Jo-Anne

Actually whatever works for you. Not being smart, but whatever you
can understand the best. It does not make a difference. They are
just files.

Acronis allows you to put comments in the file when you are creating
them. And then when you try to pick from a selection of files to
restore, you can see the comment, it aids in picking which you want to
restore.
I personally store them with things like
Laptop_2008_08_11_C_Drive
Desktop_2008_08_10_C+D_Drive
etc

This way they sort alphabetically by Laptop/Desktop then by date. And
they are all in a single folder. But this method works for me. I
understand the logic, but it might not for everyone else.

 

[Meebers]

I alternate external HDD's and use a file name describing the type and date
to keep them seperate. i.e desktop-full-081208...

 

[Jo-Anne]

Thank you, Al! That'll work for me too.

Jo-Anne

Actually whatever works for you. Not being smart, but whatever you can
understand the best. It does not make a difference. They are just
files.

Acronis allows you to put comments in the file when you are creating them.
And then when you try to pick from a selection of files to restore, you
can see the comment, it aids in picking which you want to restore.
I personally store them with things like
Laptop_2008_08_11_C_Drive
Desktop_2008_08_10_C+D_Drive
etc

This way they sort alphabetically by Laptop/Desktop then by date. And
they are all in a single folder. But this method works for me. I
understand the logic, but it might not for everyone else.

 

[Jo-Anne]

Sounds good to me, Meebers! Thank you!

Jo-Anne

I alternate external HDD's and use a file name describing the type and date
to keep them seperate. i.e desktop-full-081208...

 

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[M.I.5¾]

I'm currently backing up my desktop XP SP3 computer to two external hard
drives with Acronis True Image. I'm planning to buy the program for my new
laptop as well (currently XP SP2 but will install SP3 soon). How do others
handle backups from two computers? Do you dedicate separate external
drives to each computer or do backups to the same drives from different
computers? If the latter, do you just store the backups in different
folders?

A backup isn't a backup unless it's backed up.

I backup 4 PCs and I use 4 external USB disc drives for the job. Each pair
of drives holds the backup for two PCs which reside in folders identified
with the PC's description. Every time a backup is made, it is made to the
least recently used hard disc. Thus I can restore the last image if I get a
problem. If there is a problem with the last image then I am able to use
the other drive of the pair and restore an image that is a couple of weeks
or so older (which is better than nothing at all). So far I haven't had to
resort to this as my primary backup has always been readable.

The only reason that I use a pair of drives for only two PCs is that the
size of the drives is inadequate to hold 2 full backups and all the
incrementals for all 4 PCs. What works best for you may be different.

There are two types of computer user: those that have had to restore a
backup, and those that are *going to* have to restore a backup.

 

[Lil' Dave]

I'm currently backing up my desktop XP SP3 computer to two external hard
drives with Acronis True Image. I'm planning to buy the program for my new
laptop as well (currently XP SP2 but will install SP3 soon). How do others
handle backups from two computers? Do you dedicate separate external
drives to each computer or do backups to the same drives from different
computers? If the latter, do you just store the backups in different
folders?

Thanks much!

Jo-Anne

Currently, I am only using one PC. However, I sometimes boot off an
insertable hard drive.

For the onboard, I use one external hard drive for image backups.
For the external, I use yet another external hard drive for image backups.
In each case, I keep the original installation as an image at the root of
each external backup hard drive.

Further, I use 5 separate folders for each week of the month on each
external hard drive for backups. As a result, I have a month's worth of
image backups at all times.

Using DriveImage 7 and firewire for backup external hard drives.

 

[Jo-Anne]

Thank you, M.I.5¾! My two external drives are pretty large. I've been
alternating them for my backups from the old computer. I'll do the same with
the new one.

Jo-Anne

 

[Jo-Anne]

Thank you, Dave! Are all your backups full ones, or do you do incrementals
too?

Jo-Anne

 

[Lil' Dave]

All imaging is of the current installation, and totally replaces the
original it overwrites in my case.

--
Dave

Thank you, Dave! Are all your backups full ones, or do you do incrementals
too?

Jo-Anne

 

[Jo-Anne]

Thank you again!

Jo-Anne

All imaging is of the current installation, and totally replaces the
original it overwrites in my case.

 

[Big_Al]

Thank you again!

Jo-Anne

Note Jo-Anne, he is imaging the drive, not doing backups of files and
folders. An image is IMO, a much simpler and thorough way to backup.
If he was doing backups, you could do incrementals too.

 

[Jo-Anne]

Thank you, Al! Actually, images are what I'm doing too--with Acronis True
Image. You can do incrementals with this program. I'm guessing that Dave is
cloning his drive; hence one image per drive (or, I've been told, per
partitition). I like the idea of being able to put multiple images on one
external drive and can only hope that they restore OK in an emergency.

Jo-Anne

 

[Big_Al]

Thank you, Al! Actually, images are what I'm doing too--with Acronis True
Image. You can do incrementals with this program. I'm guessing that Dave is
cloning his drive; hence one image per drive (or, I've been told, per
partitition). I like the idea of being able to put multiple images on one
external drive and can only hope that they restore OK in an emergency.

Jo-Anne

There is a verify function, not sure if it does much, but I've had the
same question. I use ATI to backup my AMD machine before SP3 since
AMD processors had a big SP3 issue. I tested that image to make sure.
I was paranoid, it was my wife's PC. I'd be dead if I messed it up.

 

[Bill in Co.]

Thank you, Al! Actually, images are what I'm doing too--with Acronis True
Image. You can do incrementals with this program. I'm guessing that Dave
is
cloning his drive; hence one image per drive (or, I've been told, per
partitition).

I think you mean one *clone* per partition (if and only if one is using
CLONING),
at least as I understand it. So if you were using CLONING to store
multiple backups from different dates, you would have to have a new
partition (and drive letter) for each one on that same backup drive (which
seems to me to be a bit of a nuisance).

OR you can use True Image and IMAGING, to put several images into ONE
partition (each identified with a different numbered filename), which is
what I've been doing, and is generally why I prefer imaging.

However, the tradeoff with imaging is you have to restore the image back to
the source drive to be able to use it. But, this way I never need to
remove the internal source drive for my software tests or experiments that
occasionally go astray. (Of course if the source drive were to die and I
wanted to replace it, a cloned disk would be simpler to get up and running)

 

[Jo-Anne]

I've used the verify/validate function, which takes forever (and the more
backup images on the drive, the longer it takes, since it apparently can't
validate only the current image--or so people on the Acronis forum say).
However, some people have reported that even validated images sometimes
don't restore. One way to check--and I haven't done it yet--is to mount an
image and copy some of its files to the hard drive to see if they open OK.
At least that gets closer to a true restore.

Jo-Anne

 

[Jo-Anne]

You're right, Bill! I did mean one clone per partition--and I agree that
imaging is easier over all. I have a friend who has used Acronis for at
least a few years and periodically has restored to a brand new internal
drive without a glitch.

Jo-Anne

 

[Big_Al]

I've used the verify/validate function, which takes forever (and the more
backup images on the drive, the longer it takes, since it apparently can't
validate only the current image--or so people on the Acronis forum say).
However, some people have reported that even validated images sometimes
don't restore. One way to check--and I haven't done it yet--is to mount an
image and copy some of its files to the hard drive to see if they open OK.
At least that gets closer to a true restore.

Jo-Anne

You should try. I did and image for SP3 and then tested it by restoring
a single image folder with about 20 sub folders and images. All of the
thumbs.db files in each folder were corrupted. Everything else was
okay. And I got permission issues on each and could not remove them.
Using ATI of course. Still, luckily I put it on a spare drive and
wound up formatting it to get those files off. Never tried to solve
the issue since format was too simple at this point.

 

[Jo-Anne]

Not good! Have you checked in with the Acronis user forum for suggestions?

Jo-Anne