Windows Backup Utility and "invalid selections"

[greensteak]

This utility can be very annoying at times, yet very useful.

Today, it's annoying.

I just ran a Normal Backup, which I plan to schedule incremental
backups from to run every week starting next Sunday.

After the two hour process, which included the formation of a 25 GB
..bkf file and it's subsequent verification, I immediately hit the
"close" tab button. While Windows Backup was still running, I went to
"Load Selections", and reloaded the previous selections used for the
normal backup, data-all.bks. I hadn't even closed the program, or more
importantly moved any files or directories, yet I got the "Invalid
Selections......" error message. There's no way that should come up!

The files backed up in data-all.bkf also exist on several smaller
backup .bkf files. I reloaded all of those .bks selection files, with
no problem. That tells me the selections were all still valid.

I went through the usual routine, closed the program and reopened it.
Reloaded data-all.bks, same thing, "invalid selections". So, I renamed
data-all.bks to untitled.bks, and no warning came up.

I have no choice but to wonder if this program is doing what it's
supposed to. I may need to buy 3rd party software for my backups.
Another hour shot to hell being a slave to "the almighty computer".


GS

 

[Rock]

This utility can be very annoying at times, yet very useful.

Today, it's annoying.

I just ran a Normal Backup, which I plan to schedule incremental
backups from to run every week starting next Sunday.

After the two hour process, which included the formation of a 25 GB
.bkf file and it's subsequent verification, I immediately hit the
"close" tab button. While Windows Backup was still running, I went to
"Load Selections", and reloaded the previous selections used for the
normal backup, data-all.bks. I hadn't even closed the program, or more
importantly moved any files or directories, yet I got the "Invalid
Selections......" error message. There's no way that should come up!

The files backed up in data-all.bkf also exist on several smaller
backup .bkf files. I reloaded all of those .bks selection files, with
no problem. That tells me the selections were all still valid.

I went through the usual routine, closed the program and reopened it.
Reloaded data-all.bks, same thing, "invalid selections". So, I renamed
data-all.bks to untitled.bks, and no warning came up.

I have no choice but to wonder if this program is doing what it's
supposed to. I may need to buy 3rd party software for my backups.
Another hour shot to hell being a slave to "the almighty computer".


GS

I would suggest you look to a different backup solution. There are
several approaches. One is to use an imaging program. This makes an
exact image of the partition which can be saved on CD/DVD or to another
drive - internal or external. Imaging to an external USB 2.0 / Firewire
drive works well. Then occasionally burning an image to DVD gives you
redundancy. Restores can be done of the entire partition or individual
files / folders. These work well and make it easy to recover from a
drive crash. Examples of this are:

Norton Ghost 10
Acronis True Image
Terabyte Unlimited's Image for Windows
CasperXP

The second option is a traditional backup program such as Stompsoft's PC
BackUP or Sonic’s Backup MyPC. They are good tools. There are other
good backup programs out there as well. This can do a complete backup
or backup individual files and folders to DVD/CD and other drives.

 

[greensteak]

I would suggest you look to a different backup solution. There are
several approaches. One is to use an imaging program. This makes an
exact image of the partition which can be saved on CD/DVD or to another
drive - internal or external. Imaging to an external USB 2.0 / Firewire
drive works well. Then occasionally burning an image to DVD gives you
redundancy. Restores can be done of the entire partition or individual
files / folders. These work well and make it easy to recover from a
drive crash. Examples of this are:

Norton Ghost 10
Acronis True Image
Terabyte Unlimited's Image for Windows
CasperXP

The second option is a traditional backup program such as Stompsoft's PC
BackUP or Sonic's Backup MyPC. They are good tools. There are other
good backup programs out there as well. This can do a complete backup
or backup individual files and folders to DVD/CD and other drives.

I'm actually using a combination of both.

I use Norton Ghost 10.0 to image the drive to an external USB 2.0 WD
hard drive, and do weekly incrementals to it.

I use Windows Backup to do incremental data-only backups that can be
stored on DVD, which I keep in a media safe.

In the event of a hard drive problem, I'll go to Norton Ghost and
restore the files and os if necessary from the external drive backups.
In the event of a fire or dual internal and external drive failures,
I'll put my data files that reside in the media safe onto a new
computer, provided I don't go up with the house.

I prefer to store backed up data on magnetic and optical media, so even
if the external drive would fit in my media safe, I'd still want DVD
backups. If Norton Ghost did individual file backups, I wouldn't use
Windows Backup at all.

Thanks for mentioning the other software. I'm most likely going to try
some out this week.

GS

 

[Rock]

Rock wrote:

I'm actually using a combination of both.

I use Norton Ghost 10.0 to image the drive to an external USB 2.0 WD
hard drive, and do weekly incrementals to it.

I use Windows Backup to do incremental data-only backups that can be
stored on DVD, which I keep in a media safe.

<snip>

Since you have norton ghost look at the Stompsoft or Sonic offerings