‘archiving’ software help

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I have a bunch, (and I mean probably many DVDs worth ) of files in subdirectories that I would like to archive to DVD. In some cases, 2 DVDs for redunancy of backup. Additionally, I want these files “flagged or “listed” or “remembered” in some way, so that I can easily delete them from the hard drive. (I have thousands of files in hundreds of folders, so what I’m looking for is someway to keep track of what files have been archived where). And I don’t want a traditional backup program, because the individual files on DVD, not a bit BAK file.

Does this make any kind of sense?

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Jim,
Look at TRUE IMAGE

You can do a complete image OR you do just selected Documents or files.

You can store backups on almost any PC storage device: local hard drives, network drives or a variety of IDE, SCSI, FireWire (IEEE-1394), USB (1.0, 1.1 and 2.0) and PC Card (formerly called PCMCIA) removable media drives, as well as CD-R/RW, DVD-RW, DVD+R/RW, magneto-optical, Iomega Zip and Jaz drives.

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Hmm. I just bought that for the office, but I haven’t had a chance to install it.

It can back up files to DVD, leave them as files (not a monolithic backup file) and keep track of what’s been backed up so I can safely delete only things that have been transferred to disk?

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That’s one of the features.
You can select just what files and name them what ever will be useful to you or leave the name intact.
You can also image just your mailbox and or address book, fully or as an incremental.
You can image just an application and it’s settings, same way.

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You can also image just your mailbox and or address book, fully or as an incremental.

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I haven’t tried this feature myself since I find no need to do so since my “outlook.pst” file is accessible by Mounting any of my backup images. But from what I have read on the True Image support board, this feature doesn’t work correctly for some – many. Acronis has acknowledged that there is a problem and is working on a solution. Of course, despite the fact that True Image works well for 90+% of those who use it and 99% of the features work as advertised, there are still those who will decry the product as being a scam, useless, a total waste of money, etc.

Jeff

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Hi Jeff,
I’m one of those of the large majority, I guess.
I have used just the mailbox and address book image and it works fine for me. I find it’s a quick and easy way to keep those two things current ( along with Favorites ) so if I HAVE to Image back to an earlier date, I can then restore the Mail, address and favs to be right up to date.

Those earlier problems with mail back ups were mostly during the beta period and seem to have been addressed ( pun) well with V10.

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Bob,

Like I said, I have not tried to use the “Outlook” backup feature myself. I will have to give it a shot though just out of curiosity,

The feature to do this was introduced with version 10, if I’m not mistaken, which is what I am using too. The myriad complaints that this feature is not working correctly on the True Image board is thus from those running version 10. Personally, my experience with True Image has been 99.99% positive starting with version 6. I simply don’t run into the problems others seem to have. But, I’ll try the “Outlook” mail backup feature and report back what happens later on.

Jeff

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so what I’m looking for is someway to keep track of what files have been archived where

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[/indent] You could read your back-up DVD’s into a catalog program, i.e. like Advanced Disk Catalog 1.51 (shareware). That makes finding and retrieving files from DVD very easy.

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You might like Robert Vasicek’s – Cathy – “An extremly small, very fast and easy to use media cataloging tool.”

ware and well regarded – User reviews for Cathy at SnapFiles.com – Quality Software Downloads

Alan

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IF a cataloging program with super fast searching, etc. is all that is needed, then I would recommend taking a look at: SuperCat. It isn’t free but it isn’t expensive either. I’ve been using it for about 7 years and find it indispensible. There is a Trial version you can download too. Try it…… you’ll like it!

Jeff

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