Bushfiva,

Complete recovery from Acronis following disc failure – everything worked AOK except Acrobat which lost it’s registration.

(I do also back up files though just in case image is corrupted)

I agree with Mac The Knife on the topic of backing up complete OS drives. You're at risk of backing up the bad along with the good - including the problem that leads to your need to use the backup. A bit like replacing a flat tyre with another tyre that has a slow leak. :oh:

What I try and do is keep strict separation between OS and data. If you keep all data under a known location, such as "My Documents" in Windows, it's easy to back up. The easier it is to back up, the more frequently you'll do it, and the more reliable it will be.

My "daily" backup is using the aforementioned SyncToy to synchronize "My Documents", Desktop & Favourites between two PCs (laptop & desktop). That way I can work on either PC, and everything gets fully backed up, as long as I don't modify the same file on both machines at the same time. :=

I must let you folks know that I eventually found exactly what I needed with a program called "AJC Directory Synchroniser". It cost around $30 or so, is simple to use and is does exactly what it says on the side of the tin.

I downloaded a trial copy and admit I had a problem setting it up, but a quick email to the product support folks (who found the problem was me!) an it works just fine.

I have simply copied the entire C drive to an external Maxtor hard drive and set the new program to keep everything synchronised. It does its business at whatever times you care to program it to, and for me, it is a fantastic bit of kit. Well worth a look.

STL

Not having a lot of luck with this. Acronis disc arrived this morning so I loaded it up, all ready to go, with my new backup 2.5 drive plugged in and....the computer couldn't see the darned thing (the drive)!

I intended to try going down the seperate folder route (seemed easiest!). I had formatted the drive last week when I got it, without any problem and it has just lain on my desk between now and then.

Anyone got any suggestion as to why the drive has become "invisible" or have I just got a dud?

Strangely, I even get the "The total hard drive capacity in your system has increased" message when I plug it in but when I go to "My Computer" or rt click "Start" - "Explore", no sign of it.

Looks like this is a Dell specific problem.

See http://www.dellcommunity.com/support...id=66060#M1317

Maybe worth checking in My Computer/Hardware to see if it is 'there', and also run TweakUi and make sure you have the required drive letter enabled? You never know.:confused:

Yes Mac it was my Dell that gave me that message but the thing is that when it does give a message (it doesn't give one every time) it is correct for the situation i.e. it says capacity has increased when I plug the drive in and says capacity has decreased when I plug the thing out.
Unfortunately the laptops (not Dell) cannot see it either.

No BOAC, no sign of it in the hardware and all the drive letters ticked looking in TweakUi. The thing showed up without a problem as drive E: when I was formatting it.

When I plug it in now, the pointer arrow on the screen flickers a few times as the computer "looks" at it and the drive itself "whirrs" up no problem but that appears to be as far as it goes. Oh well..

Any reference to it in Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management ?

Mac

[edited to add - "it" above obviously means the drive in question]

Sorry Mac, been on a trip and left the drive behind. No. there is no sign of the thing showing up anywhere in Disc Management and yet it was perfectly visible when I got it and formatted it.

I'm fairly sure now it's suffered some sort of failure. Will have to see if I can negotiate something with the vendor when I get home or get another one. Thanks (all) for the help.

I use my linux partition to backup my whole computer.
My restore strategy for complete drive blow is re-install windows followed by apps.
My restore strategy for ooops deleted that file is restore the individual file(s).
All data is stored on an external drive. Now I have a SATA cable hanging out to plug the backup drive in. USB is ok except for space reclamation.

I made my own version of "tar" that uses a database, ala Tivoli. I need the SATA to recover space used by deleted files.

The replacement HD finally arrived yesterday, already had Acronis loaded on the machines and I simply copied each hard drive into individual folders. Great - job done in no time! (You sure were right Bushfiva!)

I hear what you are saying, Mac the Knife and bnt, but I will not be doing daily backups and hopefully I will not pick up something that lies dormant too long before doing damage.

Right now I feel very grateful that I got away with not having proper back ups for so long.

Thanks again for all the help and suggestions guys.