A back-up question...
Thread Starter
A back-up question...
XP Home Premium SP3 on an old but adequate Fujitsu as a second home pc.
(My own desktop is routinely backed up).
This 2nd pc did not come with the discs, and did not have MS back up pre-installed, but I found what appears to be an ok copy of back-up (ntbackup.msi) at winxptutor.com.
I downloaded it and used it on a pc that my uni-based children use. This pc used to be full of rubbish and did not need to be backed up. However, it now has "work" on it, as well as music and millions of photos that the kids want to back-up. (Apparently modern students do sometimes have to do work at uni, and this work is, I'm told, stuff that has to be kept)
So I used the MS back up, taking the "copy everything" option, and I now have a 39gb file on mybrand new Seagate 500gb "Expansion" hard drive.
Having backed up, my problem is that the only way to see what is in the backed up set of files is to look at them via the MS backup utility. If I go to My Computer, it sees the second, external hard drive, and I can see that there is a 39gb set of files in there, but I can't explore what is in those files in any way that I can find, unless I look via the backup utility.Of course, that severely limits my options.
Er, help!
Is there any way that I can "explore" and use these files?
In my main back-up of the main home pc, on a Maxtor device, it both backs up and allows full exploration use and copying of files on that drive.
Maybe I should just delete what is on the seagate drive and start again using something like the maxtor technology? (I know, they are the same co.)
Thanks in advance.
AO
(My own desktop is routinely backed up).
This 2nd pc did not come with the discs, and did not have MS back up pre-installed, but I found what appears to be an ok copy of back-up (ntbackup.msi) at winxptutor.com.
I downloaded it and used it on a pc that my uni-based children use. This pc used to be full of rubbish and did not need to be backed up. However, it now has "work" on it, as well as music and millions of photos that the kids want to back-up. (Apparently modern students do sometimes have to do work at uni, and this work is, I'm told, stuff that has to be kept)
So I used the MS back up, taking the "copy everything" option, and I now have a 39gb file on mybrand new Seagate 500gb "Expansion" hard drive.
Having backed up, my problem is that the only way to see what is in the backed up set of files is to look at them via the MS backup utility. If I go to My Computer, it sees the second, external hard drive, and I can see that there is a 39gb set of files in there, but I can't explore what is in those files in any way that I can find, unless I look via the backup utility.Of course, that severely limits my options.
Er, help!
Is there any way that I can "explore" and use these files?
In my main back-up of the main home pc, on a Maxtor device, it both backs up and allows full exploration use and copying of files on that drive.
Maybe I should just delete what is on the seagate drive and start again using something like the maxtor technology? (I know, they are the same co.)
Thanks in advance.
AO
Per Ardua ad Astraeus
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You can "see what is in the backed up set of files'" by opening each folder in MS backup. HOWEVER, since the files are not in normal format you cannot 'open' them in backup. If you cannot recognise the ones you want to keep and then 'restore' them to another folder (to open them), you have a long job on your hands with 39gb
Thread Starter
Thanks. I thought that might be the case.
As the little b****** want the back up for their music, photos and "work", they can do the finding and copying themselves.
I've done the basics which would allow a restore if required.
I just thought there might be a bit of magic that I was missing.
As the little b****** want the back up for their music, photos and "work", they can do the finding and copying themselves.
I've done the basics which would allow a restore if required.
I just thought there might be a bit of magic that I was missing.
Psychophysiological entity
It seems an awful pain. Just how much space does it save?
I picked up a 1TB Seagate Black Armor network backup for $59, and it does its own thing. But, I can and do copy files to folders on it. They are separate.
It is of course very fast, and I can reach individual files as and when.
Photos can take a long time to scan, so to me, they're very valuable. I'm acutely aware, I only have two full sets - many thousands - and really that's not enough backup. DVDs have been discussed in the past, but really don't seem reliable enough to trust this amount of data on.
Multiple copies left at several addresses and regularly refreshed, seems the only way
I picked up a 1TB Seagate Black Armor network backup for $59, and it does its own thing. But, I can and do copy files to folders on it. They are separate.
It is of course very fast, and I can reach individual files as and when.
Photos can take a long time to scan, so to me, they're very valuable. I'm acutely aware, I only have two full sets - many thousands - and really that's not enough backup. DVDs have been discussed in the past, but really don't seem reliable enough to trust this amount of data on.
Multiple copies left at several addresses and regularly refreshed, seems the only way
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I backup to a 250Gb portable drive that goes in my firesafe. The firesafe cost about $250 and holds all my data, papers and some cash and stuff. Well worth the investment.
Spoon PPRuNerist & Mad Inistrator
Most of the older backup programs (and that includes MS backup) were designed to backup to tape, using a block copy rather than a file copy mechanism (because tape uses sequential block read/write rather than random access), which is why they aren't terribly easy to work with.
With large external disks so cheap, it's really much easier to work with file-based disk-disk backup. If you want to avoid manually backing stuff up, then use a 3rd party tool (or use built-in scheduling tools).
As an aside, I'm currently helping a client with a fairly sophisticated Exchange 2007 system, with 3 CCR clusters backed up nightly to a backup server, using disk to disk for speed, as there's almost 1TB backed up nightly.
The only problem is, the backup server isn't set up to then stream the backup files off to tape during the day, so the "backup" gets overwritten every 24 hours...
SD
With large external disks so cheap, it's really much easier to work with file-based disk-disk backup. If you want to avoid manually backing stuff up, then use a 3rd party tool (or use built-in scheduling tools).
As an aside, I'm currently helping a client with a fairly sophisticated Exchange 2007 system, with 3 CCR clusters backed up nightly to a backup server, using disk to disk for speed, as there's almost 1TB backed up nightly.
The only problem is, the backup server isn't set up to then stream the backup files off to tape during the day, so the "backup" gets overwritten every 24 hours...
SD
More bang for your buck
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One of the things I notice doing back ups is that it backs up files that haven't been altered since the last back up why? Same goes for virus scanners, they recheck folders not used or altered since the last scan.
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I had one of my customer backups working at 686Mb/sec (yes, megabytes) last night, because it was reporting on data blocks it had deduplicated. :up
Spoon PPRuNerist & Mad Inistrator
it backs up files that haven't been altered since the last back up
If you set it to do a Full backup, then it will do so, backing up all files - irrespective of archive bit setting - and clearing the archive bit on all files.
If it is set to do an incremental, then it should only backup those files with the archive bit set, and then clear the archive bit. It will not backup previously backed up files (unless they have changed, been moved or you manually set the archive bit). This makes backups shorter, but restores longer (last full backup plus all subsequent incrementals).
A differential backup will backup all files with the archive bit set but not clear the archive bit, so it will always back up all changed files (archive bit set) since the last Full backup. This makes backups longer, but restores shorter (last full backup plus just the last differential).
Sounds like you are configuring Full and / or Differential backups. Or else the backup program doesn't utilise the archive bit correctly (unlikely), or the clearing of the archive bit has been overridden in the program settings.
*Allegedly, the backup types were going to be called Full, Incremental and Excremental, but wiser counsel prevailed...
SD
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I used backup programs for a while but, like you had trouble finding files. And usually when I wanted to recover something I had changed the backup program and could not read them anyway.
Nowadays I just have 2 big drives, the first is partitioned for Windows and data.
All data goes in the second disk and critical stuff gets copied onto the data partition on drive 1. The Windows partition gets cloned onto the second disk whenever I remember to do it.
This way I don't need a backup program because all the files are in their original format and, even if one disk dies, I've got the critical stuff on the other.
Nowadays I just have 2 big drives, the first is partitioned for Windows and data.
All data goes in the second disk and critical stuff gets copied onto the data partition on drive 1. The Windows partition gets cloned onto the second disk whenever I remember to do it.
This way I don't need a backup program because all the files are in their original format and, even if one disk dies, I've got the critical stuff on the other.
Psychophysiological entity
Unless anyone breaks in and nicks it!
This Black Armor thing is supposed to be accessible from anywhere in the world. Not fathomed how to do that yet, cos I'm still sitting beside it, but I'll want to look into it when I get back to the UK.
I know serious users will need SB's 1 TB kind of daily back up, but I copy my efforts onto a spare SD from my camera. The point being it's so thin it tucks under my driver's license without causing a bulge in my wallet.
This Black Armor thing is supposed to be accessible from anywhere in the world. Not fathomed how to do that yet, cos I'm still sitting beside it, but I'll want to look into it when I get back to the UK.
I know serious users will need SB's 1 TB kind of daily back up, but I copy my efforts onto a spare SD from my camera. The point being it's so thin it tucks under my driver's license without causing a bulge in my wallet.
