Wallace said:
I'm presently using Windows Backup to shadow copy my hard drive. But
I know there are commercial alternatives out there, which (sadly)
cost money.
What are the advantages of going to such a product when Windows
Backup is free? Alsop what are the best non Microsoft alternatives to
the Backup utility?
At present I need to backup about 100 GB of data, but it's still
chugging away at 270 GB and expects to be about 340 GB total. Can
someone explain why it's increased in size by 240 GB.
Not many details here, but ... is the location of the saved backup by
any chance on the same drive letter as the data being backed up? If so,
then you are likely in a "cyclic copy" mode. In other words, it backs
up the files, finds the program you told it to back to, finds it changed
because you've added files, checks again, sees it changed again and
tries to back it upagain, see it changed, and tries to ... .
Try being sure the backup destination is to a different drive letter
than the data you are backing up, OR, in the details settings, remove
the backup folder so it won't be backed up.
I don't know for sure that's your problem, but it's a possibility.
Never include the backup istelf in the backup or you'll get into that
looping situation. You'd think the program would take care of that, but
apparently not. This is the third instance I've seen of this sort of
thing in about a month.
Other than that; no idea.
As for other backup software, there are a few 3rd party programs around
on the 'net. Perhaps someone will jump in here with URLs for them; I
don't use them so don't feel qualified to recommend one.
The MOST IMORTANT thing to watch for with backup programs is to be
certain they use the VSS (Volume Shadow Copy is what it's usually
called), or it will not back up files in use, which means it can not
back up your operating system.
IMO the best options, though they are pay-for, are Ghost and True Image.
Both are good, Ghost costs a little more but you'll never run into a
cyclic problem with them and the bells & whistles are definitely worth
while to have. Those are known as imaging software. Casper is another
that gets talked about sometimes.
HTH,
Twayne