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Free Backup Programs
At Download.com you'll
find 600 free backup programs.
(BTW: get used to using Download.com -
you can find almost all commercial and free software there,
carefully
organised, searchable, with reviews, and best of all, tested for viruses.
This is especially important for Mac users, most of whom don't have
anti-virus protection.
Sometimes a popular PC program like Foxit is
published for the Mac as a virus.) |
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My favourite on PC is SyncBack
SyncBack
has an Easy mode which is ... easy.
* setting a schedule can be
tricky, and this applies to many Windows programs
because Windows
insists on using a login Password when setting a schedule
(you can
override this, and SyncBack offers to do this. But if you don't, you must
remember to click on the "Password" button when setting a
schedule)
SyncBack also has an Expert mode which lacks almost nothing,
though some things can be difficult to find
* you can backup to FTP
sites, have multiple backup profiles running simultaneously, use complex
filters
* if you are using it to back up your whole drive (not just
your documents etc) it is worth a few dollars to upgrade and use the "Fast
Backup" feature.
* but for most things the free program works better than many
commercial ones. |
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On a Mac, the equivalent program is
ChronoSync
ChronoSync
has slightly fewer features than the PC SyncBack, but it is still
very powerful, and it is prettier, and easy to
use
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Time machine
The Mac Time Machine is great - almost as good as the name
suggests
* it copies the whole drive, and can restore back to a
previous hour, or day, or week or month (depending how far back the date
is)
* it works best with an external drive.
* I don't think it does
anything you can't do on a PC, but it is easy, it looks good, and it has a
great name.
For PC there are now similar programs (eg Genie
Timeline, free or $40 to include system files)
* they do little
more than Windows 7 already does for free, but they are easier to use,
with a cool name.
(the built-in Windows features have mostly been
around for years, but they are hidden deep in the machine,
and they
have boring names like Restore Points and System Image, Shadow copies, so
no-one looks for them.)
I've read that Seagate Replica works just like
Time Machine, but I haven't tried it |
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Clone your hard drive - on a Mac
For real peace of mind, you may want to back up your whole
drive, and not just your own files
* ie make a Clone not a backup but
an exact copy of your whole harddrive as it is
* one great thing about
this is that when you drive dies, you simply swap with the clone
* your
computer is up and running again in 10 minutes, all set up as if nothing
happened
* you need an external drive with the same physical size drive
as your computer, though bigger capacity can be useful
* on a Mac, run
Carbon Copy Cloner
or SuperDuper.
These Mac programs are wonderful |
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Clone your hard drive - on a PC
* on a PC there are lots of clone programs but look for one
which allows incremental changes
* this means you won't be making a
complete copy every time, which saves work for your drive
* the best
for XP is XXClone: free or $40 for
incremental backups.
* it isn't completely straightforward to use - see
the tips here
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Backup the Geeky way
(Non-geeks can miss the next bit: )
The best backup is
still often a scripted program:
* on a Mac use AppleScript (much more
powerful than the PC version and largely neglected)
* on a PC use the
good old DOS commands in a Command Prompt (in Programs: Accessories) and
feel nostalgic
* XCOPY is a wonderful command with lots of features.
Type "XCOPY /?" for a list
* to write a program, you simply type the
commands and save them as plain text, with the ending ".bat"
* eg,
save the following line as a file called "Backup.bat" and put it in your
Documents folder
XCOPY "*.*" "E:/Backup/" /M /C /Y /S /H /R
/EXCLUDE:"~*.*"
The tags used here:
/M makes it copy only new or
changed files, and marks them as copied
/C makes it carry on even when
an error occurs (eg a file can't be copied)
/Y answers "Yes" to all
those dumb "Are you sure?" questions
/S makes it include
subdirectories
/H makes it include hidden and system files
/R
overwrites Read-Only files if there is a new copy
/EXCLUDE:"~*.*" makes
it ignore all the temporary files created by Word etc.
There are lots
of other useful tags
You need to set up a schedule manually for
this
* in Windows you find the Scheduler in Programs > Accessories
> System tools
* for Macs I use the free Cron program, though there
are other ways.
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Backup in the Clouds
Data today lives in the "clouds" or on "server farms" - both
picturesque ways of referring to data warehouses
* they have wonderful
security, backups, hardware redundancy, and some are bomb-proof.
*
employees are xrayed, iris scanned and weighed before entering and leaving
(a friend works in one)
though like all new businesses there are
cowboys and lots of Indians.
Carbonite.com - is probably the best
deal
* it excludes external drives (except temporarily) - though a workaround here may
work for you
CrashPlan - a bit more but includes external drives and all deleted files
BackBlase.com -
includes external drives, and costs less. Haven't tried it, but they are a
good firm and this looks good.
One problem: Backing up your
whole drive is likely to take a several weeks
* restoring is quicker
if you have an ADSL line (download is faster than upload) |
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Cloud Backup & Sync all in one
Dropbox.com - free for
2G, about
* it is esp good for keeping the same files on more than one
computer
* add PackRat for
* the free 2G account is perhaps all
you need for your research, but photos very quickly fill it
|
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25G free online from Microsoft
Microsoft Live SkyDrive has offered us
all free 25G storage space
* it is a little cumbersome to use, so download SkyDrive
Explorer which make work like a folder in Windows
* you can then
use normal backup software to copy files into you free online space.
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One day we will all have solid-state drives and we won't
need to backup
* don't believe it. They still crash and die, and it
looks like it happens quicker than people had thought
* the comforting
thing is that solid state drives tend to freeze with their contents
intact
* that is, you can't write to them, but you can still read them.
Usually.
* so I think Paul's saying will still hold true: Backup,
Backup, and again I say: Backup.
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