Best Recommended Linux/Windows 10 backup software/procedure

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Profile Tom M
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Message 1995638 - Posted: 28 May 2019, 18:16:46 UTC
Last modified: 28 May 2019, 18:17:09 UTC

I have noticed that the Windows 10 backup seems to only back up "data" and not the entire system.

What are you using for your weekly backup? I have the external drive just want to do the "best" backup I can.

Tom
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Message 1995639 - Posted: 28 May 2019, 18:20:10 UTC

I am running a couple of Linux systems 24/7.

I would like to back them up so I can "restore" them to where they were if/when the HD were to crash.

I have an external hard drive.

Does anyone have suggestions for "a procedure" or software to do a Linux backup?

Tom



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Message 1995643 - Posted: 28 May 2019, 18:37:18 UTC

Use one of the cloning utilities to make an image of the storage disk. That gets everything. Don't know what is the most popular Windows cloning utility currently. I remember something about Norton Ghost. Any of the utilities shipped with new SSD's would suffice since they are used to clone the old spinning rust drives to the new solid state drives.
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Message 1995644 - Posted: 28 May 2019, 18:42:29 UTC - in response to Message 1995639.  

Ubuntu comes with a default backup utility called deja-dup. You can find it in your Ubuntu Sources application. I use that for backing up /home. I also use TimeShift for backing up the system files. Takes a snapshot every hour. Never had to use Timeshift by need but did test that it worked as designed. I have used the deja-dup backup before to reclaim files after I mistakenly deleted them. Works as designed.
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Message 1995653 - Posted: 28 May 2019, 19:36:21 UTC

Another vote for deja-dup - it does what it says on the tin, and is easy to set up.
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Message 1995670 - Posted: 28 May 2019, 21:14:20 UTC

TimeShift worked well for me last weekend when I kept crashing my desktop trying to get Coolbits to work.

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Message 1995674 - Posted: 28 May 2019, 21:45:16 UTC - in response to Message 1995643.  

Use one of the cloning utilities to make an image of the storage disk. That gets everything. Don't know what is the most popular Windows cloning utility currently. I remember something about Norton Ghost. Any of the utilities shipped with new SSD's would suffice since they are used to clone the old spinning rust drives to the new solid state drives.

Hi Keith,

Acronis True Image is a very exceptional utility for backups. The one really nice thing about Acronis is that you do not need to have drives of equal space. The target drive just has to have enough space for the image. A 1TB can go on a 500GB as long as the data does not meet or exceed 500GB. If I'm not mistaken, I believe the the utility will tell you if there's too much data for the target drive.

Have a great day! :)

Siran
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Message 1995721 - Posted: 29 May 2019, 5:22:30 UTC - in response to Message 1995716.  

All my systems are Windows 7 or 10 (Pro).

All use Macrium Reflect backup software, Home (i.e., non-free) version. It can create image backups (full, incremental, differential) or file backups. It has never failed me even when having to do bare-metal restores for failed drives. It allows you complete control over all of the hows, whens, and wheres of your backups. We had Macrium Reflect deployed at my workplace for over 10 years and it saved us many times.

https://www.macrium.com/

I use various models of CyperPower battery backup units, with the battery capacities sized to fit the particular systems they protect. I have had few problems with them, but when I did, the company was responsive.

https://www.cyberpowersystems.com/products/ups/
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Message 1995745 - Posted: 29 May 2019, 8:42:48 UTC - in response to Message 1995716.  

thank you. on the info grant. looking into one for my main pc am using. its not even oc.....
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Message 2016034 - Posted: 20 Oct 2019, 13:18:03 UTC

If you are running Windows 7-10, it comes with built in backup imaging software that does indeed backup the entire system and not just files. It will even backup other drives if you select them.

In the Control Panel, select System and Security->Backup and Restore. On the left side panel click “Create a system image” and make your choices from there.

To restore the system you can boot from the recovery partition, or from a system repair disc which is a good idea to have for the cases of a failed OS drive.

The image will capture the OS installation, all installed applications and all files on the drive, plus whatever other drives you want. But I would only image the main OS drive this way, and backup external or secondary drives another way.

I’ve used windows image recovery many times over the years, both for restoring broken systems, as well as migrating systems to larger/new drives. Works as well as any other paid software.
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Message 2016051 - Posted: 20 Oct 2019, 14:39:36 UTC - in response to Message 1995638.  

I have noticed that the Windows 10 backup seems to only back up "data" and not the entire system.

What are you using for your weekly backup? I have the external drive just want to do the "best" backup I can.

Tom


I have been using Acronis to capture an image of my C drive or operating system drive on a weekly schedule (full image about once a month, incremental the remainder of the month). This is going to another Windows machine I have a 3 terabyte drive in as a secondary drive. Acronis also sends me an email once that backup is complete so I don't have to remember to check the status of that backup.

I have also used Macrium Reflect numerous times over the years to clone my OS drive when upgrading drives.

I'm also currently testing Backblaze to the cloud. This is a bit expensive but can back up entire drives to the cloud.

For my data only backups I'm using Cloudberry Backup Desktop Edition that backs up data to my Raspberry Pi, Google Drive, a Synology NAS, and an Amazon S3 bucket.
~Chris

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Message 2016070 - Posted: 20 Oct 2019, 17:07:00 UTC - in response to Message 1995643.  

Use one of the cloning utilities to make an image of the storage disk. That gets everything. Don't know what is the most popular Windows cloning utility currently. I remember something about Norton Ghost. Any of the utilities shipped with new SSD's would suffice since they are used to clone the old spinning rust drives to the new solid state drives.


For Windows, my reccommendation would be Macrium Reflect. It's free, and it works. I do an image backup of three pc's every night, works a treat.
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Message 2016079 - Posted: 20 Oct 2019, 18:35:06 UTC - in response to Message 2016070.  

Use one of the cloning utilities to make an image of the storage disk. That gets everything. Don't know what is the most popular Windows cloning utility currently. I remember something about Norton Ghost. Any of the utilities shipped with new SSD's would suffice since they are used to clone the old spinning rust drives to the new solid state drives.


For Windows, my reccommendation would be Macrium Reflect. It's free, and it works. I do an image backup of three PC's every night, works a treat.


Here is another vote for Macrium Reflect Free (or Home for just a few bucks). Excellent software. I use it on four Windows machines, not all SETI crunchers.

Does not work in Linux, though. In fact, it cannot because it uses VSS to capture an image of a live disk.
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Message 2016166 - Posted: 21 Oct 2019, 16:42:34 UTC

Windows has a built in Disc image program when you go into the backup section and it says "create a system image". well, thats it does a good job of cloning individual partitions, entire drives, or any combo there of. I use it once a week to make a backup of my entire computer. and have used it more then a few times save my bacon. best of all its built in so you wont need to download any questionable software. It also comes built into the windows recovery environment so you can boot from cd, dvd, thumb drive, or whaTEVER you can and restore it. Works across networks too...
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Message 2016221 - Posted: 22 Oct 2019, 6:32:43 UTC

@Tom M
I have Linux up 24/7 and do my backups (when I feel like it...) from the internal SSD to an external (via USB docking station) spinning hard disk. I didn't even look for a pre-built package to do it. Just made a script to do the process, and show me progress messages. I did look at the possibliites of a "clone" backup that would allow a direct swap in of the backup clone but decided that a replacement drive would NOT likely have the same size or partitioning and so opted to just make copies of all the directories. Here's the script pattern:
if [ -e /mnt/bintar.tgz ]; then rm /mnt/bintar.tgz
fi
echo "Archiving /bin/"
tar -czf /mnt/bintar.tgz /bin/

and repeat that template for the boot, etc, lib, root, lib64, sbin, var, tmp, and usr directories. It is assumed, for this script, that I have already "mounted" the external archive drive at the /mnt/ mount point. (For my likely "operator error" I've put in a check test for a real file system mounted at /mnt/ before the script can continue and a umount at the end of the process to exit cleanly.) The /home/ directory is handled a little differently, with the --exclude option in tar to not try to copy BOINC files since they may be changing at the time of the copy and cause an error condition. Easy enough to stop/suspend BOINC projects when convenient and do a tar/backup of that directory separately. So far I have not needed the full backup archive but occasionally needed to restore a file I accidently deleted, or needed to go back and look at a previous configuration file (for example) after intentionally changing it.
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Message 2016222 - Posted: 22 Oct 2019, 6:49:28 UTC - in response to Message 2016221.  

@Tom M
I have Linux up 24/7 and do my backups (when I feel like it...) from the internal SSD to an external (via USB docking station) spinning hard disk. I didn't even look for a pre-built package to do it. Just made a script to do the process, and show me progress messages. I did look at the possibliites of a "clone" backup that would allow a direct swap in of the backup clone but decided that a replacement drive would NOT likely have the same size or partitioning and so opted to just make copies of all the directories. Here's the script pattern:
if [ -e /mnt/bintar.tgz ]; then rm /mnt/bintar.tgz
fi
echo "Archiving /bin/"
tar -czf /mnt/bintar.tgz /bin/

and repeat that template for the boot, etc, lib, root, lib64, sbin, var, tmp, and usr directories. It is assumed, for this script, that I have already "mounted" the external archive drive at the /mnt/ mount point. (For my likely "operator error" I've put in a check test for a real file system mounted at /mnt/ before the script can continue and a umount at the end of the process to exit cleanly.) The /home/ directory is handled a little differently, with the --exclude option in tar to not try to copy BOINC files since they may be changing at the time of the copy and cause an error condition. Easy enough to stop/suspend BOINC projects when convenient and do a tar/backup of that directory separately. So far I have not needed the full backup archive but occasionally needed to restore a file I accidently deleted, or needed to go back and look at a previous configuration file (for example) after intentionally changing it.


Ok, but until such time you need to restore a backuo, for instance if your main HD failed, you don't know if it will work? Theoretically, you should always test to prove your theory/assumption works, otherwise you could be up the proverbial without a paddle ;-)

P.
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Message boards : Number crunching : Best Recommended Linux/Windows 10 backup software/procedure


 
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