Poll on Backup software

Bree · Sep 8, 2022

cereberus said:
I make frequent backups to a second internal drive as it is fast and convenient BUT periodically (say once a month), also backup to an external drive....

I make a Full back up of all my machines each Patch Tuesday. For my laptops with drives of 128GB or smaller I back up to an external HDD. For those that have more space, I back up to a local D: data partition first, then copy the image to the external HDD. That way I can save time by having multiple machines backing up simultaneously, while still having the security of all images being kept on external storage.

firas465 · Sep 8, 2022

I used to use Macrium

BUT i dont do backups anymore :)

still got my vote

cereberus · Sep 8, 2022

Bree said:
I make a Full back up of all my machines each Patch Tuesday. For my laptops with drives of 128GB or smaller I back up to an external HDD. For those that have more space, I back up to a local D: data partition first, then copy the image to the external HDD. That way I can save time by having multiple machines backing up simultaneously, while still having the security of all images being kept on external storage.

Sure - in the end, each user should devise a strategy that suits them. I only really have one main active device and my lesser used travel laptop, and backup laptop.

Only minor problem is my main laptop (W11) is slowly diverging from backup laptop (W10) but the backup laptop has my main apps, so in an emergency, I could use the older laptop. When I get a moment, I might port my W11 installation to backup laptop, but I then have to bypass W11 limitations as old laptop is not W11 compatible. Easy enough to do, when I get enough spare time.

TraderGary · Sep 8, 2022

Just days after installing my new adventure with Macrium Reflect Home (paid edition), I get an unexpected update already! And it lists all these bug fixes. That's a bit unnerving.

Bree · Sep 8, 2022

TraderGary said:
Just days after installing my new adventure with Macrium Reflect Home (paid edition), I get an unexpected update already! And it lists all these bug fixes. That's a bit unnerving.

No, it's reassuring. Almost every fix is for a fault that only a very few see, plus a few tweaks to the UI.

Just unlucky timing on your part, you bought days before the latest update. The previous update was just over two months ago, and you'll likely wait as long again to see another one.

http://updates.macrium.com/reflect/v8/v8.0.6979/details8.0.6979.htm

TraderGary · Sep 8, 2022

Bree said:
No, it's reassuring. Almost every fix is for a fault that only a very few see, plus a few tweaks to the UI.

Just unlucky timing on your part, you bought days before the latest update. The previous update was just over two months ago, and you'll likely wait as long again to see another one.

http://updates.macrium.com/reflect/v8/v8.0.6979/details8.0.6979.htm

Well, so far, so good. I've installed Macrium Reflect on my computer and on my wife's computer. I've made the requisite Rescue Media for each. And I've made a couple of Backup Images for each of us stored on our individual Samsung 2TB Portable T7 SSDs,

And this is in addition to our individual OneDrive real-time mirror of all our data kept in off-site cloud OneDrive.

And in addition to nightly File History backups alternated between two Samsung 2TB T7 SSDs.

That's 3 separate concurrent backup plans for each of us.

I don't think one can have too many backups.

I think/hope I'm ready for anything now. :hug:

Bree · Sep 8, 2022

TraderGary said:
That's 3 separate concurrent backup plans for each of us.

I don't think one can have too many backups.

I think/hope I'm ready for anything now.

Well done. I always say you can never have enough backups

Ready for anything? Almost, but not quite. What if the house burned down?

Even my backups have backups. In addition to the two external drives I keep my backups on, alternating them at each month's full backup, I have a copy of all the current latest images on a 3rd drive. That one is earmarked for off-site storage as soon as I find somewhere suitable. In the mean time it's the only thing I'll grab as I flee the fire :wink:

TraderGary · Sep 8, 2022

Bree said:
Well done. I always say you can never have enough backups
Ready for anything? Almost, but not quite. What if the house burned down?

Even my backups have backups. In addition to the two external drives I keep my backups on, alternating them at each month's full backup, I have a copy of all the current latest images on a 3rd drive. That one is earmarked for off-site storage as soon as I find somewhere suitable. In the mean time it's the only thing I'll grab as I flee the fire

I'm apparently more ready than you are. I don't have to think to grab backup drives as I flee a burning house. All my data is saved real-time to Microsoft cloud OneDrive as I work!

If I were away from home and my house burns down with everything in it, my PC's, my backup drives, everything is gone! All I need to do is buy a new PC, log in to my Microsoft Account, and BAM, all my data is instantly there on OneDrive as if nothing ever happened.

I've bought new PCs any number of times and it really works. I log in to my Microsoft Account on my new PC and all my data, my photos, everything, is instantly there waiting for me! All I've got to do is reload my apps! It's reliable and it works! I love Microsoft OneDrive!

Bree · Sep 8, 2022

TraderGary said:
I'm apparently more ready than you are. I don't have to think to grab backup drives as I flee a burning house. All my data is saved real-time to Microsoft cloud OneDrive as I work!

It's not so much the data, it's the system images of more than half a dozen PCs each configued to my needs, that I'd want to preserve.

Should they all go up in smoke I could restore them to replacement hardware and have everything working just as before within hours.

TraderGary · Sep 8, 2022

Bree said:
It's not so much the data, it's the system images of more than half a dozen PCs each configued to my needs, that I'd want to preserve.

Should they all go up in smoke I could restore them to replacement hardware and have everything working just as before within hours.

You can always build new PCs. As you just said, what if all your PCs and backup drives with Macrium Images were destroyed in the fire?

Irreplaceable data and especially precious family photos cannot be replaced if all your images and backup drives are destroyed in the fire.

A well-designed backup system MUST also have off-site storage.

Bree · Sep 8, 2022

TraderGary said:
A well-designed backup system MUST also have off-site storage.

As I said, I have the off-site drive ready, just haven't found a convenient 'off-site' to keep it yet :wink:

hdmi · Sep 9, 2022

Bree said:
ready

man00 · Sep 9, 2022

We can always hope for the return of the Iomega 100mb zip drive (click click click)

texastig · Sep 9, 2022

Free Veeam Endpoint Backup is good.

pparks1 · Sep 9, 2022

Bree said:
It's not so much the data, it's the system images of more than half a dozen PCs each configued to my needs, that I'd want to preserve.

Should they all go up in smoke I could restore them to replacement hardware and have everything working just as before within hours.

Yeah, having backups is crucial and keeping at least one offsite is also a great idea.

I don't keep my system images off site as they aren't that terribly important to me. In the event of a true "disaster" at my house, having my pictures of my kids, and my data files are really all that I would hate to have lost. Reinstalling my OS's and installing some applications wouldn't be a major hassle. I don't use tons of customizations or software, so my specific example may be unlike others. The worst case for me would be having to redownload the handful of games that I play and chew up my monthly bandwidth cap (2.5TB).

I also use OneDrive, so all of my pictures and videos and such from my phones automatically go to OneDrive for myself, wife and kids. Most of my documents too are in OneDrive, so they are pretty safe from disaster.

Bree · Sep 9, 2022

pparks1 said:
In the event of a true "disaster" at my house, having my pictures of my kids, and my data files are really all that I would hate to have lost. Reinstalling my OS's and installing some applications wouldn't be a major hassle...

For a few of my systems there are some apps, Office in particular, that were supplied pre-installed by the OEM in the OEM W7 they started with. Those cannot be reinstalled, so their system images are vital....

TraderGary · Sep 9, 2022

Bree said:
For a few of my systems there are some apps, Office in particular, that were supplied pre-installed by the OEM in the OEM W7 they started with. Those cannot be reinstalled, so their system images are vital....

For over twenty years my preference has been for only laptop computers. I love the mobility. My preference for many years has been to maintain only two up-to-date computers. My primary laptop is a powerful machine where I do all my work. My secondary laptop is less powerful and is a backup. It is often used to sit beside my primary laptop and display technical documents while working, additional trading data, etc. This has worked very well for me for many years. For Microsoft Office, I prefer to always be current with my Microsoft 365 subscription which also gives me a Terabyte of OneDrive storage. I do not participate in Insider Beta's with either computer.

pparks1 · Sep 9, 2022

TraderGary said:
For over twenty years my preference has been for only laptop computers. I love the mobility. My preference for many years has been to maintain only two up-to-date computers. My primary laptop is a powerful machine where I do all my work. My secondary laptop is less powerful and is a backup. It is often used to sit beside my primary laptop and display technical documents while working, additional trading data, etc. This has worked very well for me for many years. For Microsoft Office, I prefer to always be current with my Microsoft 365 subscription which also gives me a Terabyte of OneDrive storage. I do not participate in Insider Beta's with either computer.

I work in IT and have for a long time. So, I've always got a work laptop for that mobility aspect. The only laptop that I have ever actually bought for myself was my MacBook Pro that I bought back in 2014 as I wanted to get some experience with the Mac.

I tend to go for desktops because I like the ability to easily add and change hard drives for testing and such. And the biggest reason is that I do game a fair bit, so being able to run an actual video card is crucial here.

I have a bunch of machines in the house. My daughter has a win10 desktop that was a hand me down from my son. She also has a new MacBook Air that she uses for school work and portability. My son is an avid gamer, so he has a Windows 10 desktop. My wife has a Windows 10 desktop that she uses for everyday stuff and gaming. I myself have my desktop (windows 10 for gaming and virtual machines), a Beelink mini-pc (for Windows 11), and a 2020 M1 Mac Mini (for using Mac OS).

Bree · Sep 9, 2022

TraderGary said:
For over twenty years my preference has been for only laptop computers. I love the mobility. My preference for many years has been to maintain only two up-to-date computers. My primary laptop is a powerful machine where I do all my work. My secondary laptop is less powerful and is a backup....

Yes, laptops exclusively for me too. I started the same way as you, a primary 'main machine' and a back up. Then I found more uses that would make a 3rd (then a 4th) laptop more useful. My 3rd was dedicated to running all my Hyper-V VMs, my 4th was a little netbook small enough to take on holiday with me and cheap enough not to worry about losing it. They were all bought as used machines from Cash Converters (a pawn shop chain here in the UK) so cost was not an issue.

.....But then it all got a bit out of hand :ROFLMAO:

At one time I had 10 machines all (nominally) with their own jobs to do. Though it was getting hard to justify that (even to myself) for the last few :scream:

TraderGary said:
For Microsoft Office, I prefer to always be current....

For Microsoft Office I will preserve any version that came with a machine when I bought it. I got Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 Starter that way. For the others I will install LibreOffice.

TraderGary · Sep 9, 2022

Bree said:
Yes, laptops exclusively for me too... (snip)

I'm not a gamer at all and I find the power of my "System One" way more than I need for my Interactive Brokers Trader Workstation and my photography with my Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop subscription.

I've been a self-employed short-term stock market trader for several decades and I typically only trade for the first hour or two after the market opens, so I'm done working for the day. I'm sitting at the dining room table with my lovely wife having lunch and typing this. In the evenings I sometimes like taking my laptop out on the screened-in back deck and enjoying the evening breeze. Tonight, I'll sit in the living room with my laptop and my baseball fan wife watching the Braves game.

There's no way I could stand being tied down to the same desk in the same room with a desktop computer.

Did I mention that I love the mobility of my laptop computer? :hug: