Daniel - Sydney said:
Hi
I have XP Pro, having just survived a major crash, and losing data since
the
last backup, 5 days, I need to set up a daily backup that my wife can run
at
the end of each day, she takes care of the business end of things,
I need to have an icon on the desktop that can be double clicked and it
runs, is there a program out there that can do this that won't take over
the
PC and load a lot of stuff I don't want, I tried to set something up with
Windows backup but it does not run automatically for some reason.
All help appreciated
regards
Daniel
Daniel:
In addition to the Acronis True Image program that has been mentioned, you
might want to check out another comprehensive backup program to meet your
wife's needs. As a matter of fact it might even meet your needs!
I'm assuming you've had little or no experience with disk imaging/disk
cloning programs that are employed as comprehensive backup programs, so I'm
going to provide a substantial amount of background info as I describe this
particular program. The info I'm providing has been taken from a paper I
prepared for the members of a local computer re this program. So forgive me
if I'm including info that you're already familiar with re these types of
programs...
The program we've been working with over the past six months or so is the
Casper 4.0 disk cloning program. By & large we've been quite impressed with
this program and it's become our disk-cloning program of choice. Let me say
at the outset, however, that potential users should note that this is a
*disk cloning* program - not a disk imaging program - in the sense that the
program is designed to create (for all practical purposes) a bit-for-bit
copy of the HDD so that if the recipient of the "clone" is an internal HDD,
that cloned HDD will be bootable and its data immediately accessible, unlike
the situation where a disk image is created on the recipient HDD and a
recovery process is necessary to restore the image to a bootable,
data-accessible state.
Note, however, that should the recipient of the clone be a USB or Firewire
external HDD - since that device is not ordinarily bootable - its contents
(although accessible from the boot HDD) would need to be "cloned back" to an
internal HDD should the recovery/restore process be necessary to create a
bootable HDD. On the other hand, should the HDD encased in the USB enclosure
be removable, it could be installed as an internal HDD in the PC and thus
the user would once again have a bootable functioning HDD.
The Casper 4.0 program also has the happy capability of cloning individual
partitions on one HDD to another HDD, not merely creating a "disk image" of
the partition(s).
The significant advantage of the Casper 4.0 disk cloning program over other
disk cloning programs that we're familiar with, e.g., Acronis True Image or
Symantec's Norton Ghost, 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 users to
undertake frequent complete backups of their systems knowing that they can
create "incremental" disk clones in a relatively short period of time.
The Casper 4.0 program's capability in creating these incremental disk
clones results in a significant savings of time as compared to the usual
time it takes to create a cloned disk using other disk-cloning programs.
Knowing that this incremental disk cloning process will take only a
relatively short period of time provides the user with increased motivation
to back up their systems on a much more frequent & systematic basis than
they might otherwise do - a most desirable result as I think most PC users
would all agree. This feature, of course, would be particularly desirable
for someone like your wife who is interested in daily backups of the system.
And understand that when we're talking about "backups" in this context,
we're talking about a backup system that "backs up" the operating system,
all programs & applications, and all user-created data. What better backup
system can one have?
Also to be noted is that the Casper 4.0 program is capable of scheduling the
disk-cloning process on a daily, weekly, or other time period selected by
the user. So this would also be of particular interest to your wife.
Using the Casper program is simplicity itself. 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 which
will trigger the disk-cloning process. After undertaking one or two
disk-cloning operations it should take the user no more than 20 seconds or
so to get to that point.
Here's a more-or-less typical example of using the program to manually clone
the contents of one HDD to another HDD (internal or external)...
1. Access the Casper 4.0 program by double-clicking on its Desktop icon.
Just what you wanted, right?
2. Click on the opening screen's "Copy Drive" icon.
3. Click on the Next button on the "Welcome..." window.
4. Select the "Copy an entire hard disk" option, then the Next button.
5. The next window will reflect the HDD to be copied, presumably your boot
drive. Click Next.
6. The next window will list the "destination" HDD, i.e., the drive that
will be the recipient of the cloned contents of the drive you're copying.
Highlight that drive listing and Click Next.
7. A warning screen will appear indicating the destination HDD is "currently
in use" and that "all data on that disk may be lost if you continue". It's
just a cautionary note so click Next.
8. Since you're cloning the entire contents of your source HDD to the
destination HDD, just click Next on the next screen to accomplish that.
9. Select the "Perform the copy now" option and click Next and then Next
again on the following screen.
The disk-cloning operation will proceed with a final screen indicating its
successful conclusion.
And as I've indicated above, daily cloning of the day-to-day working HDD
should take only a few minutes depending, of course, on the amount of data
being cloned. Because of Casper's SmartClone capability the process is
unusually fast as compared to other disk-cloning programs.
The program is not particularly inexpensive as disk cloning programs go.
Cost for a single-license is $49.95. AFAIK, the program is available for
download only from the developer at
http://www.fssdev.com and this does not
include the "Casper Startup Disk" which sells for an additional $9.95. That
"Startup Disk" is a really essential piece of the program since in many
cases it would be the only way to effect a recovery of the system when the
installed Casper program could not be accessed from the Windows environment
because the program resides on a HDD that has failed or has become
unbootable. The usual scenario for using the Startup Disk is when the
recipient of the clone has been an external HDD - most likely a USB external
HDD - and the original source disk has become defective or dysfunctional
(unbootable) so that there is no opportunity to access the installed Casper
program. Since the USB external HDD containing the cloned contents of the
source drive is not bootable, one must use the Startup Disk in that
situation in order to clone the contents of the external HDD back to a
non-defective internal HDD in order to recover the system.
The developer does have a 30-day trial version available - see
http://www.fssdev.com/products/casper/trial/. The trial version is somewhat
crippled but should give one some reasonable insight as to how the program
works. However note that the trial version does not include the program to
create the "Startup Disk" described above.
Do take a look at this program before you make any final decision about
purchasing a disk-cloning program. And, of course, compare it with the
Acronis True Image program as well since a trial version of that program is
also available from that developer.
Anna
