Jim
As you have heard, and no doubt will continue to hear, various
comprehensive backup programs will be recommended to you. There's a
bewildering variety of those programs "out there" - just do a Google
search on "vista backup programs" - and you'll see what I mean. Each user
has, for one reason or another, his or her own favorite.
Fortunately many of these commercial programs have demo or trial versions
of their products available, so a user such as yourself can give them some
sort of a "test drive" to determine if this or that one is more suitable
for one's needs. And whenever possible you should avail yourself of this
opportunity to work with these programs before making a final decision as
to which program you should employ/purchase.
Anyway, with that out-of-the-way, let me give you my recommendation along
with the ones you've already rec'd and probably will continue to receive.
Over the years (primarily with the XP OS) we've worked with a fairly large
variety of comprehensive backup programs. By "comprehensive" I mean a
program that will back up the *entire* contents of one's day-to-day
working HDD, i.e., the OS together will all programs & data. In effect, a
precise copy of one's "source" HDD.
The program we're particularly fond of is the Casper 5 program. Casper 5
is a disk-cloning program; it does not have disk-imaging capability.
The Casper program is extremely simple to use even for an inexperienced
user, reasonably quick in operation, and quite effective. There's
virtually no learning curve in undertaking the disk cloning process as one
navigates through the few easy-to-understand screens with a final
mouse-click on the button on the screen which will trigger the
disk-cloning process. After undertaking one or two disk-cloning operations
it should take the user no more than 15 - 20 seconds or so to get to that
point.
But the truly significant advantage of the Casper 5.0 disk cloning program
compared with other disk cloning programs that we're familiar with, e.g.,
Acronis True Image, is its ability to create *incremental* disk clones
following the creation of the original (first) disk clone. Employing what
Casper calls its "SmartClone" technology the program can create subsequent
disk clones of the source HDD usually at a fraction of the time it takes
to create a "full" disk clone. This results in a decided incentive for the
user to undertake frequent complete backups of his or her system knowing
that they can create "incremental" disk clones in a relatively short
period of time. Understand that this "incremental disk clone" is a
*complete* clone (copy) of the "source" HDD.
Bear in mind that the recipient of the clone - the "destination" HDD
(internal or external) - would contain the *complete* contents of one's
internal HDD (presumably the boot drive). Since that destination drive
would be a precise copy of the source HDD, its contents would be
immediately accessible to the user and potentially bootable. Naturally its
contents could be cloned back to a internal HDD should a restoration of
the system be necessary. Again, what better backup system can one have?
And again - because the Casper disk-cloning operation takes a relatively
short period of time to complete its disk-cloning operations there's a
strong incentive for the user to more frequently keep their backups
up-to-date than they might otherwise do. As an example, using the Casper 5
program, I recently backed up one of my HDDs that contained nearly 50 GB
of data to another internal HDD in the system. That "source" HDD has been
previously backed up, i.e., cloned five days ago. Naturally during that
5-day period changes had been made to the system - programs & data added,
deleted, modified, etc., etc., - more or less the typical type of changes
one makes to their systems over a period of time. It took me (or rather it
took Casper!) just about four minutes to complete the disk-cloning
operation. And now I have a precise copy of my source disk, my day-to-day
working HDD. Completely bootable & functional in all respects.
Again, I want to emphasize that the main advantage of the Casper 5 program
in comparison with other disk-cloning programs is its rather remarkable
ability to *routinely* clone the contents of one HDD to another HDD
(following the initial disk-cloning process) in a fraction of the time it
generally takes for other disk-cloning (as well as disk-imaging) programs
to complete the process. In my experience this is a strong incentive for
the user to back up their systems on a frequent basis - perhaps even once
a day or two or three times a week - knowing that the disk-cloning
operation will
take only a few short minutes to complete the process. And at the end of
that process the user will have at hand a "perfect copy" of their
day-to-day working HDD. Again, what better backup system can one have?
The Casper 5.0 program is also capable of scheduling the disk-cloning
process on a daily, weekly, or other time period selected by the user so
that should the user prefer he or she could arrange for automatic backups
at pre-determined times.
There's a trial version available at...
http://www.fssdev.com/products/casper/trial/ and although it's somewhat
crippled it should give one a good idea as to how the program works.
The downside to the Casper 5 program as compared with the Acronis and
most other disk-cloning programs is the cost of the program which comes to
$49.95 for the program + $9.95 for the "Casper Startup Disk" (the program
to create the bootable CD containing the Casper program - needed to access
the program in the event of a failed HDD when the user is unable to access
the installed Casper program). This "Startup Disk" is really an essential
piece of the program; I can't imagine a Casper user not having this media.
It's a pity that this "Startup Disk" is an added-cost option; in our view
it should be provided as part of the overall program and included in the
program's $49.95 cost. We have complained to the developer about this but
alas that additional cost for the "Startup Disk" is still present.
So the cost of the program is more expensive than the others. Be that as
it may, in our view it's still well worth the additional cost considering
its overall effectiveness and the fact that one will be using the program
many, many times over the weeks, months, and years ahead. We've introduced
the program to many users (including former ATI users) and I can't recall
a single person who regretted his/her purchase. AFAIK, the program is
available only through download from the developer.
One thing more...
You've indicated that you desire a "drag & drop" type of program
presumably for recovery purposes so as to return your system to a
bootable, functional state should that need arise. I'm not aware of any
comprehensive backup program that has that particular kind of capability
and that includes the Casper 5 program. But the process of disk-to-disk
(or partition-to-partition) cloning is a relatively simple process whether
for backup or recovery purposes so I really don't think you have to be
overly concerned about that aspect.
What *is* important in my view is that aside from the overall
effectiveness of the program (doing what it's supposed to do) and
simplicity of operation, is the speed of the backup operation so that the
user is encouraged to employ the program frequently in order to maintain
up-to-date comprehensive backups of his or her system. As I've described
above, it is this aspect that sets Casper aside from other
disk-cloning/disk-imaging programs that I've used. As a general
proposition, on a day-to-day basis, for nearly every PC user, it's the
backup speed of the program, not the speed of the recovery process that's
the crucial element involved here. Ordinarily one will be backing up his
or her system many, many times before one will need to invoke a
recovery/restore process.
One final comment...
I haven't had a great deal of experience with the Vista OS as compared
with the XP OS, however, from the little experience I've personally had
using Casper 5 with Vista and more importantly, the feedback I've gotten
from Vista users of Casper, I'm comfortable with recommending this program
with Vista.
Anna
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