I have been using memeo autobackup for about a year but I can't say that I am all that happy with the program. I currently have 3 1TB WD external drives that I backup my images in triplicate (one drive is the main folder and the other two are copies)
I would like a program that has a user friendly interface and that reliably backs up files that have been changed as they are saved or added to a folder.
Can anyone recommend some software for me??
One of the programs that I have come across besides memeo is second copy 7 Anyone have any experience?
Acronis looks interesting, particularly the part about "Backup Consolidation". I have a decent back up program now that allows for incremental back-ups, but it puts those changed files in a new location, not in the file location of the original unchanged file. I know, I know, it's to prevent overlay of the original file, but what if I WANT to overlay the file? Trying to find a changed file through all the incrementals is an impossible task. Does this "backup consolidation" feature of Acronis allow for this "backup to original location" on the back-up disk?
Jo, this is a little more info to the PM I sent to you (from Acronis):
* Consolidation of backup files – you can create a consistent copy of the archive while deleting selected backups. This allows you to delete the backups you do not need anymore from any archive without harming that archive.
* Automatic consolidation – you can set limitations for backup archives, namely maximum archive size, maximum number of backups, and maximum storage period for the archive files. In case any of the preset limits is exceeded, Acronis True Image Home will combine the first full backup with the next incremental one into one full backup which will be dated the later backup date. Then, if necessary, this backup will be combined with the next, until the occupied storage space (or number of backups) decreases to the preset limit. Thus, the archive integrity will not be affected, in spite of the fact that the oldest backups will be deleted. This procedure is called automatic consolidation.
Thank you all for your suggestions I really appreciate your time in posting.
I have been looking at reviews on CNET and PCworld but I really wanted suggestions from fellow photographers as some of the magazines suggestions seemed great on paper but I wanted to hear from real world experience.
Jason Ambler wrote:
Three lost disks?!? I think my heart would stop cold.
I wasn't thrilled.
I recovered some stuff from memory cards, internet sites etc - but I lost a lot too. Certainly concentrates the mind on backing up onto media not supplied by the same power supply!
Ouch... that sucks. Just goes to show the importance of having off-line backups in place.
I'm thinking about picking up a hardrive docking station like this this and keeping raw drives in static bags and doing a weekly rotation of the drives. Keeping an offsite backup is important too. Having a dock and then just swapping the actual drives out would be cheaper than having each in it's own enclosure and wouldn't tie up too many ports.
stillresonance wrote:
...keeping raw drives in static bags and doing a weekly rotation of the drives. ... Having a dock and then just swapping the actual drives out would be cheaper than having each in it's own enclosure and wouldn't tie up too many ports.
It definitely seems like another option...
Can you create a specific drive location for each external disk that the computer will remember when you plug it onto the docking station? I know you can do this with static USB connected HD's and internal HD's but what about this situation?
I haven't looked too much into it yet but there should be some way to set it up, perhaps when formating the drives setting the drive letter to something that would be past the normal series of C,D,E,F etc. Setting the drive letter to something like W at the time of formating may work, since you wouldn't have more than one of them docked at a time it shouldn't interfere, I haven't tested it yet. I wonder if there is a type of backup software out there that is designed for hot swapable drives, I'm looking at this from a perspective of having worked with tape backups in IT enviro. The tapes and devices would be assigned to a "media pool" for backup purposes and then when media in that pool was available it would be able to write to it. This was using ArcServe software and Symantec software for running the backups. I'm not sure what a more consumer equivalent would be, but it's something to look into.
On an Apple computer their Time Machine program seems to do a great job of regular, automated backups.
I used to have a great little program by PowerQuest but Symantec bought them out and threw it away. Even Microsoft has (or had) a long history of making its new backup/ recovery programs incompatible with old backup files. Having been caught out with both approaches and also stung when a Norton Ghost backup could not be recovered when I finally needed it, I chose to manage my own backups on a combination of normally-off-line drives and DVDs as well as using a mirrored RAID system for short-term on-line backups.
Love it! Set it and forget about it or if you need to make changes it is very user friendly even for a dummy like me
I use, or hesitate to use, Acronis TI 10.0. I am "backup challenged" to the max and find this to be very cumbersome to me! The "how to" instructions are for engineers and very tedious.
You have to develop paths for the main computer to b/up to 2 off line external hard drives and then, nothing is "mirrorred". I use mirrorred because I want to just click on my 2 ehd's and click on the backed up images ther but it is so cumbersome.
Maybe TI 2010 is better. I am investigating.
But my main point that being "challenged" makes it very hard to some to religiously backup all my 20K+ digital images.
Acronis seems to make an excellant product.
Dan
Dan, I wish I could give you some info on the mirroring part. I do know that the backup wizard makes setup pretty easy. Have you seen the free trial link?
rachp wrote:
Dan, I wish I could give you some info on the mirroring part. I do know that the backup wizard makes setup pretty easy. Have you seen the free trial link?
Yes Rachel..thanks. I have a call into Acronis for some tech support help.
Appreciate your PM and advice...and FMers..dont think my mental challenges here reflect on the Acronis product. It is a fine package!
Dan
