What exactly does backup do? What gets backed up?

[AJFconsult]

I am having a frustrating disagreement with our paid IT consultants.

I am running XP with the usual PC software. All of my data files are
backed up to a network server.

I want to backup the entire C drive - with the built-in XP function,
or with a program that makes an image of the C: drive, etc. I want to
be able to restore the PC to a prior date should there be a serious
problem.

Our IT consultants insist this is not possible. That, if I have a
serious problem, my only choice is to restore to factory default
settings, loading all programs again from original installation CDs,
and then restoring the files backed up to our network server.

Yet other consultants who we have not hired, and friends working at
other organizations tell me that a restoration to a prior date - e.g.
from an image - restores everything, including the OS, and any
programs on the PC. Not just data files.

So, my question is - does restoring from a backup restore programs
(E.g. MS Office, Quickbooks, etc.) or only data files?

Please help.

 

[Big_Al]

I am having a frustrating disagreement with our paid IT consultants.

I am running XP with the usual PC software. All of my data files are
backed up to a network server.

I want to backup the entire C drive - with the built-in XP function,
or with a program that makes an image of the C: drive, etc. I want to
be able to restore the PC to a prior date should there be a serious
problem.

Our IT consultants insist this is not possible. That, if I have a
serious problem, my only choice is to restore to factory default
settings, loading all programs again from original installation CDs,
and then restoring the files backed up to our network server.

Yet other consultants who we have not hired, and friends working at
other organizations tell me that a restoration to a prior date - e.g.
from an image - restores everything, including the OS, and any
programs on the PC. Not just data files.

So, my question is - does restoring from a backup restore programs
(E.g. MS Office, Quickbooks, etc.) or only data files?

Please help.

Acronis True Image is an imaging software that will, in layman's terms,
take a snapshot of your drives or partitions on a drive and save it to a
file. That file (like a zip file) contains *everything* on that
partition(s) and will, with a boot disk you create, allow you to restore
*everything* back to that point in time.

I have used it a lot. I've even used it to switch drives in my laptop
by making an image, swapping the HD, booting off CD, and restoring the
image. Its just like an ISO file made of a CD if you know what that is.

So 'yes', it can be done. And Acronis is just one of several good
programs on the market.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I am having a frustrating disagreement with our paid IT consultants.

I am running XP with the usual PC software. All of my data files are
backed up to a network server.

I want to backup the entire C drive - with the built-in XP function,
or with a program that makes an image of the C: drive, etc. I want to
be able to restore the PC to a prior date should there be a serious
problem.

Our IT consultants insist this is not possible. That, if I have a
serious problem, my only choice is to restore to factory default
settings, loading all programs again from original installation CDs,
and then restoring the files backed up to our network server.

Yet other consultants who we have not hired, and friends working at
other organizations tell me that a restoration to a prior date - e.g.
from an image - restores everything, including the OS, and any
programs on the PC. Not just data files.

So, my question is - does restoring from a backup restore programs
(E.g. MS Office, Quickbooks, etc.) or only data files?

Please help.

You'd better change IT consultants. The ability to create an image of any
disk partition has been around for many years, and if you have such an image
then you can restore a Windows installation onto a completely blank disk.
Some of the traditional imaging programs are PQMagic, Ghost or Acronis
DriveImage. I do it all the time and so do lots of other contributors to
this newsgroup.

You can even create an image without any third-party software, e.g. by
connecting your disk as a slave disk to some other PC, then using a command
such as xcopy.exe or robocopy.exe to create a clone of the chosen partition.
It's a bit tedious but it works perfectly, provided that you use the
appropriate switches.

 

[Terry R.]

The date and time was 9/12/2008 2:27 PM, and on a whim, AJFconsult
pounded out on the keyboard:

I am having a frustrating disagreement with our paid IT consultants.

I am running XP with the usual PC software. All of my data files are
backed up to a network server.

Backed up or do they reside on the server? Do you work off a local copy
on the workstation? Do the servers have redundancy (RAID, tape backup)?

I want to backup the entire C drive - with the built-in XP function,
or with a program that makes an image of the C: drive, etc. I want to
be able to restore the PC to a prior date should there be a serious
problem.

The backup program on XP isn't that great. The only time I used it for a
restore of a drive I had to install Windows first and then restore the
backup. You can use Acronis Workstation which works MUCH better and easier.

Our IT consultants insist this is not possible. That, if I have a
serious problem, my only choice is to restore to factory default
settings, loading all programs again from original installation CDs,
and then restoring the files backed up to our network server.

That gives them a little more hourly work. ;-) But you usually have a
bit snappier workstation after a clean install.

It is possible, but an image is only as good as the last update.

Yet other consultants who we have not hired, and friends working at
other organizations tell me that a restoration to a prior date - e.g.
from an image - restores everything, including the OS, and any
programs on the PC. Not just data files.

But backing up a complete hard drive can take considerable time and
storage space. Backing up only the data is much faster and can be done
on a daily basis.

And if your last complete image was created a week ago and then
restored, your data would be out of date by a week.

So, my question is - does restoring from a backup restore programs
(E.g. MS Office, Quickbooks, etc.) or only data files?

Please help.

Restoring from a backup restores everything you configure it to save in
the first place. If you configure the backup just for data, only the
data can be restored. If you configure it for the whole drive, the
whole drive can be restored.

--
Terry R.

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[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

The date and time was 9/12/2008 2:27 PM, and on a whim, AJFconsult pounded
out on the keyboard:


Backed up or do they reside on the server? Do you work off a local copy
on the workstation? Do the servers have redundancy (RAID, tape backup)?


The backup program on XP isn't that great. The only time I used it for a
restore of a drive I had to install Windows first and then restore the
backup. You can use Acronis Workstation which works MUCH better and
easier.


That gives them a little more hourly work. ;-) But you usually have a bit
snappier workstation after a clean install.

If the image is taken right after the machine has been fully configured then
a machine restored from this image will be exactly as snappy as a rebuilt
machine.

 

[Terry R.]

The date and time was 9/12/2008 2:59 PM, and on a whim, Pegasus (MVP)
pounded out on the keyboard:

If the image is taken right after the machine has been fully configured then
a machine restored from this image will be exactly as snappy as a rebuilt
machine.

Minus the data... which is more important. The OP clearly wants to
know about complete images versus data backup, correct? So in order to
have that snappy image, they will also have to do frequent data backups.
It sounds like he wants to only do one, but I could be wrong.

--
Terry R.

***Reply Note***
Anti-spam measures are included in my email address.
Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.

 

[dadiOH]

I am having a frustrating disagreement with our paid IT consultants.

I am running XP with the usual PC software. All of my data files are
backed up to a network server.

I want to backup the entire C drive - with the built-in XP function,
or with a program that makes an image of the C: drive, etc. I want to
be able to restore the PC to a prior date should there be a serious
problem.

Our IT consultants insist this is not possible. That, if I have a
serious problem, my only choice is to restore to factory default
settings, loading all programs again from original installation CDs,
and then restoring the files backed up to our network server.

Yet other consultants who we have not hired, and friends working at
other organizations tell me that a restoration to a prior date - e.g.
from an image - restores everything, including the OS, and any
programs on the PC. Not just data files.

Dump your current IT consultants because they don't know up from down. Hire
somebody who told you that you COULD restore an image and that it WOULD
restore everything.

BTW, how much do the current consultants charge?

--

dadiOH
____________________________

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Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

The date and time was 9/12/2008 2:59 PM, and on a whim, Pegasus (MVP)
pounded out on the keyboard:


Minus the data... which is more important. The OP clearly wants to know
about complete images versus data backup, correct? So in order to have
that snappy image, they will also have to do frequent data backups. It
sounds like he wants to only do one, but I could be wrong.

Indeed - and this is why I consider it much better to have two partitions:
- Drive C:, containing the OS and all apps, with a new image created perhaps
twice a year
- Drive D:, containing all user data (including EMail files!), with some
backup program backing up files once every few days.

 

[RJK]

The date and time was 9/12/2008 2:59 PM, and on a whim, Pegasus (MVP)
pounded out on the keyboard:

....sounds more like the "IT consultants" don't want the customer to be able
to solve any major problems that arise - comparatively simply and quickly -
by themselves !!!

regards, Richard

 

[norm]

SNIP

Acronis True Image is an imaging software that will, in layman's terms,
take a snapshot of your drives or partitions on a drive and save it to a
file. That file (like a zip file) contains *everything* on that
partition(s) and will, with a boot disk you create, allow you to restore
*everything* back to that point in time.

I have used it a lot. I've even used it to switch drives in my laptop
by making an image, swapping the HD, booting off CD, and restoring the
image. Its just like an ISO file made of a CD if you know what that is.

So 'yes', it can be done. And Acronis is just one of several good
programs on the market.

Do you know the procedure in Paragon disk manager?
Is it Copy or Backup, and making a boot CD?
The manual is not easy to follow for the problem mentioned above.

thanks Norm