Replies

Maybe this is off topic, but I’m not sure where to ask it. Windows 7 has an image utility. Is there any reason why I would want to use Acronis on Windows 7? Thanks for any comments, and sorry if this should be a new topic.

Thanks, Rittenhouse, for your comments. Do you buy a copy of Casper for each PC ( about $30 in a multipack license) ?

Perhaps this discussion requires another thread, but JG Weston said in a previous note:

“I have changed my server to run on Win 7 which backs itself up nicely automatically”

I don’t have a server but have often wondered whether it would be helpful. What do you mean by:

“changed my server” – did you change hardware? or run some other software server product?

“Win 7 backs itself up nicely” – did you use the Microsoft provided backup software or something else? did you back up to an external disk drive or elsewhere?

thanks for any response and if these questions should be in another thread, please help me start one.

Thanks !!

Ray,

I also had a BSOD (bugcheck 9), consulted many websites, and found the best information and advice at:

General Technical Support for Windows 7
http://www.techsupportforum.com/microsoft-support/windows-vista-windows-7-support/

and

Discussion of BSOD kernel dump analysis
http://www.techsupportforum.com/microsoft-support/windows-vista-windows-7-support/452622-bsod-kernel-dump-analysis-discussion.html

My BSOD turned out to be caused by an intermittently failing DVD drive. Dell replaced the DVD drive (under warranty) and my BSOD’s disappeared.

Good luck !

Thanks for responses above. What about fiber optic or infrared devices that provide a non-electrical gap in the line? I don’t know if such devices are available or cheap, and I don’t know what to call them if they are available, but it seems possible and foolproof since there would be no electrical connections between the two sides. Has anybody ever heard of such things?

mercyh, thanks so much for both those suggestions. I will check them out.

Thanks, mercyh, for your additional comments. I have checked at TechSoup but couldn’t find any disk image options that looked possible. Thanks, Karl Whisennand, for the suggestion of Karen’s Replicator. I do in fact already use that for file/folder copy and it works pretty well, although rebuilding a disk (which I have to do twice) is time-consuming with just file/folder copy. I guess what I’m really looking for is a reliable cheap/free disk image maker for non-profits. If it could ALSO do individual file/folder backup/retrieval, that would be great so that I wouldn’t have to use two systems. Thanks again for any other comments.

mercyh,

I support a small non-profit which has a half dozen PC’s on an adhoc network. Each PC has a different function, some are laptops, both Windows 7 and XP. There is no server, no paid technical support (I’m a volunteer), and no budget for fancy hardware. That’s why I’m looking for some sort of backup solution that is easy to use (hopefully for a non-technical secretary) and cheap/free for a business situation.

Thanks for any additional suggestions.

But for business purposes, what’s the best and cheapest alternative? Acronis costs $49.95 (or something like that) for EACH PC, as far as I can tell. Most free versions are only for home use. Is there any alternative for doing any of this in a small business that is cheap or free?

Thanks for any comments.

2010 09 06
Thanks to everyone who made previous suggestions in this discussion about backup options. I have learned a lot and studied the various options mentioned. However, most of the options mentioned as “freeware” don’t seem to be free for business applications. Of course, I could go ahead and use them anyway, but I’m not sure I want to do that.

For example, Macrium Reflect free says it is Free for Home use only; otherwise $39.95 for each PC
Almersoft says it costs $29.
Driveimage XML says that a commercial license for 5 PC’s is $100.
XXclone $40
HDClone 20 euros

I did run across Comodo, which says it is completely free,
http://www.brighthub.com/computing/smb-security/reviews/53047.aspx
but nobody mentioned that, so I don’t know how reliable it might be.

So is there any reliable backup alternative that is in fact free for all uses, including commercial or business uses ? (I have a small business system of 3 or 4 PC’s on a network, as well as a small home network of 2 or 3 PC’s; I would of course prefer to use the same backup procedure on all of these various PC’s (both XP and Windows 7).

(by the way, I tried Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium backup and discovered:
1. I couldn’t select a folder on my USB external hard drive for the backup data. The backup data folder was put in the root directory without any apparent option to put it elsewhere on the drive. This might be workable but it’s not very convenient.
2. I couldn’t make a backup disk image at all because my (old) USB external hard drive was not formatted in NTFS. )

Thanks for any response.

Mercyh,

Please expand on your reply. Do you have several different Windows 7 machines all of which backup using the Windows 7 backup to the SAME USB external disk drive? And can you keep several successive copies on this USB external drive? That’s what I want to do, but haven’t tried to figure it out yet.

And is there any way to test the Windows 7 restore to see that it works?

Thanks for any response.

Does anybody have any experience with Bounceback Essentials ($29.95) ? They advertise “Instant Recovery”, that is, you are supposed to be able to boot your PC from the backup external USB disk. It also sounds easy to test; just boot from the backup disk and see if the system comes up, but I haven’t yet decided if I want to spend $29.95 to find out. Information at:

http://www.cmsproducts.com/detail.aspx?ID=1354

Does Almersoft work on Windows 7? The webpage reference above doesn’t say so, although Vista is listed.

Also, is there any way to test that the restore mechanism works correctly? I have used backup programs where the backup procedures seemed to work correctly, but then the restore procedure did NOT.

Thanks for any additional info.

Thanks Ted for your reply.

I suppose it could be related to MS Office 2003, but I didn’t find any mention of Office versions in the Microsoft site that you mentioned, so I don’t know how to verify that…..

Roger

Thanks for previous comments affirming the reliability of Nirsoft utitilies. I think I will go ahead and try them. In addition, the Nirsoft website contains explanations about why this happens which were helpful. But this situation does raise the question of who you trust. Since viruses and trojan horses are by nature deceptive, it seems unwise to trust the website that they came from. But if Microsoft Security Essentials gives false positives, then they can’t be trusted either. The other option is the community of users here and elsewhere, but there’s the obvious possibility for errors or misleading comments here also. And I don’t really have the luxury of trying a utility if I’m not quite sure whether or not it contains malware. So I’m not sure how to answer the question of reliability in the general case but I guess I have an answer in the specific case of Nirsoft. So thanks again. (For reasons I don’t understand, I only got one notification of responses to this topic even though there were several others after I checked after the first one.)