External Hard Drive Questions

[JD]

I installed a Maxtor mini external hard drive, and completed a full system
backup. I'm unclear about a few things.
1. Each time I do a backup, is the previous one "overwritten"?
2. What if I only want to back up a few docs that have been edited since the
last backup?
3. What does the "sync" option mean?

 

[Holz]

I installed a Maxtor mini external hard drive, and completed a full
system backup. I'm unclear about a few things.
1. Each time I do a backup, is the previous one "overwritten"?

If you set it the overwrite, then yes. When you create a backup job
there is an option to choose, overwrite or append.

2. What if I only want to back up a few docs that have been edited
since the last backup?

Then you you have the choice for incremental or differential.
Incremental only backups up modified files since the last backup, it is
a space saver however takes loner to recover, since you need to restore
every backup set. Doing differential requires more space however all you
need in order to recover is your last full backup set and last
differential set.

3. What does the "sync" option mean?

Where do you see that option? On the mini drive? If so, I assume it
syncs the last version of the modified file, keeping the newer one. I
think you can choose how many version you can keep.

 

[JD]

I don't see the "overwrite or append" or "incremental or differential"
options.
Since I had in mind running the backup no more frequently than once a week,
I set it to manual. When I connected it today and cliked "Backup," I was
surprised to see it take less than a minute. I used Explorer to view the
backup files on the external disk and only see the existing My Documents
sub-folders. I assume that the modified files were overwritten and no
"incremental" backup was created. Sound reasonable?
Not clear how incremental is a "space saver," if it leaves the full backup
set in place and adds a new one. It would seem that overwriting the full
backup set would be the "space saver." If incremental only backs up files
modifed since the last backup, then what is "differential" backing up?

 

[Bill in Co.]

I think he meant incremental is a time saver, not a space saver.

It would also be nice to know if any incremental/differential options are
available for partition sector-by-sector copying, too - and not just for
files. I can't remember what we determined in that regard. (getting old)

 

[Holz]

I think he meant incremental is a time saver, not a space saver.

It would also be nice to know if any incremental/differential options
are available for partition sector-by-sector copying, too - and not
just for files. I can't remember what we determined in that regard.
(getting old)

Time and space saver if you now and fully understand the difference.
Any way, I wold recommend that uses Windows XP backup if he can, it is
an excellent utility.

 

[Bill in Co.]

Time and space saver if you now and fully understand the difference.
Any way, I wold recommend that uses Windows XP backup if he can, it is
an excellent utility.

You mean for files - yeah, ok.
But it doesn't do partition backups (AFAIK), but then again, he probably
doesn't want or need that.

 

[Holz]

You mean for files - yeah, ok.
But it doesn't do partition backups (AFAIK), but then again, he
probably doesn't want or need that.

if the OP cares about his data he should get some imaging software like
Acronis. Combined with ntbackup it is as close as possible to bullet
proof disaster recovery.