Data Backup programs

Win 7 home edition

My disc is partitioned so I store my data on the non C drive part. I also bck it up to external drives. For this I am currently using Cobian Backup but when its finished I usually end up with some empty folders and or sometimes the fodlers are mixed up or mixed in together.

What do you use and what free programs have people written home about?

What do you consider the best payware?

thanks

I use Areca Backup, an open source and free program with some nice features. I have been using it for 3 or 4 years without any problems.

a reply to: Azureblue

Why not use TeraCopy. That's if you don't need scheduling your backups to autorun.

Although, it just mimic the standard windows copy function, but TeraCopy does have pause / resume function apart from being more faster interms of copying speeds.

I run backups manually using this and go off doing other things, knowing that my backups will copy without a hitch all the time.

Peace

I would suggest a NAS unit for backups, external drives (if the usb type) might end up falling on the floor or something, if the disks can be taken out of the casing, you just need to buy the NAS unit and stick those drives in it.
i just moved to a QNAP TS-212P, the interface is pretty easy to understand, and you can schedule backups for multiple devices so you can set it and forget it.
But if it's just the software part you are interested in, well the integrated backup functions in windows get the job done, well a friend of mine uses aomei Backupper and he says it works well, so might be worth a shot

Yes , I use a home server on my lan. Does automated daily backups of all pcs and laptops, triple redundancy over 4 1tb drives, 3 firewalls, and everyone can use a private directory to store whatever files they want on it. File sharing included. Plus it can stream which is a nice extra. Works on all os systems.

Edit to add, it paid for itself on the first seamless recovery of a failed hardrive. Four recoveries so far on local pcs over the years, and they fired right up on the first boot with a new hd like nothing ever went wrong.

a reply to: Azureblue

Macrium is easy and free. I have never really like third party backup software. I know I will get laughed at, but I always used Windows Server Backup or ntbackup on my servers.

At work I have Macrium on PXE and tftp boot. It is very handy and can clone, image, and schedule. Only time an image ever fails to cast is when I have faulty hardware in play.

I use Time Line by GenieSoft and I back up to an external USB disk.

Basically it's a Windows equivalent to Apple's Time Machine. It's real easy to use...you set it and forget it. It wakes up every 30 minutes and backs up whatever has changed. It's worked real well for me.

originally posted by: RomaSempre
I use Time Line by GenieSoft and I back up to an external USB disk.

Basically it's a Windows equivalent to Apple's Time Machine. It's real easy to use...you set it and forget it. It wakes up every 30 minutes and backs up whatever has changed. It's worked real well for me.

I believe this has automatic purge, if it has can it be turned off?
thanks

a reply to: Azureblue

I'm not sure if the automatic purge can be turned off? From what I remember things roll off based on age but I don't remember if that is based on the amount of space you have left in your backup volume or just age itself.

I can tell you I have restored files to my computer that were quite a bit old.

originally posted by: RomaSempre
a reply to: Azureblue

I'm not sure if the automatic purge can be turned off? From what I remember things roll off based on age but I don't remember if that is based on the amount of space you have left in your backup volume or just age itself.

I can tell you I have restored files to my computer that were quite a bit old.

Thanks

I have used Windows Home Server since it came out in bata. Now I am using Server 2012 R2 Essentials. Perfect restore over the network if a hard drive fails.