My current backup software (BackUp MyPC from Sonic Solutions/Roxio) is
not compatible with Vista. Are there good backup programs out there
that are compatible with Vista?
Thanks for any tips.
Charlie
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Charliec
I'm partial to BounceBack which comes as free software with several
external hard drives (like Seagate's externals) as a freebe that's
throw in. You can upgrade to a more robost version for a small premium
or buy it directly too.
The topic of "backup" often is misunderstood and spans a fairly broad
range I've broken down into three main categories, which isn't meant
to be all inclusive, but does cover the majority of reasons people
"backup".
1. Image burning --- This is where a hard drive partition is
"mirrored" where you create a "mirror image" or a byte by byte
copy. This is useful for restoring your system if Windows some day
refuses to start up or some similar disaster that can save your
bacon.
2. Burning to disc --- Similar to above and may employ the same method
but you take it a step further where you make copies of all your
important data files, depending on much "stuff" you have typically
burned to a bunch of CDs or DVD's, sometimes to another partition.
These two methods while effective can get grow tedious especially if
you need to set up elborate rules of what to "mirror" and you got
better things to do with your time then feed your computer a stack of
DVD's to burn backbacks up on a regular basis. Because of this reason
the typical user over time grows lax and just doesn't backup as often
or as completely as you should. Then is sorry afterwards. ;-)
3. File duplication --- This is where you make physical copies of
files and then store them typically offsite, or at least on another
hard drive out of harm's way. Frequently to some removable hard
drive that's run as a external or if you have a lot of internal
drives to one or more of those.
This method assumes you have LOTS of free disk space to put the
duplicates on. It is my preferred method since I have gobs and gobs of
storage, over 3 TB total and that is a "t" as in terabyte or trillions
of bytes. You can still use this method of your needs are far less.
Better, it can be as simple as pushing a button on some external hard
drives (like some Seagate Models*) and the backup software will do the
rest while you're busy doing something else.
The reason I like BounceBack is rather then pushing a button, another
option is to have it do what's called a compare. In just minutes it
will scan your entire system regardless how complex it is, all your
drives, one at a time for folders you tell it you want to "backup" and
report back file by file what if anything has changed since you last
backed up, what you may wish to purge (delete) and what as yet hasn't
been backed up.
This method forces you to actually look at your data and make more
intelligence decisions on how and what you are backing up. If
disaster should strike, the name says what it does. You quickly bounce
back and restore your system from the backups with it copying things
back to how they were.
* I haven't tried the automatic "push button to backup" in Vista since
I much prefer the compare list method so don't know if the driver that
controls that feature still works in Vista, it did work fine in XP the
few times I tried it.
