Hi All,
I am looking to setup a BACKUP system for a friend. I need some suggestions as to how to get this done. The machine is a Windows 7 home version and what I had in mind is an external hard drive that would hold a few images of the machine. The drive could also be internal.

What I am looking to do is to have at least one full image and from there maybe a image that just gets updated so the process doesn't take that long during the week but at least once a week a full image is done. Lastly I would want this to be as automatic as possible.

Any IDEAS?

Thanks!
Acronis True Image is the best disk imaging software available, but it's not free. The best free alternative is Macrium Reflect. Both will do what you want.Sounds good.....

Does Acronis true image work better? Or let me put it another way why would I pay for it? I really don't mind paying for it if I am getting something that I can totally depend on to not let me down.

I've been using True Image for a long time and have always been happy with it. But the truth is, other than a few features I think you'd probably be happy with Macrium. But why not look at their web sites and compare the features for yourself? You can download and try Macrium on your system and see how you like it. Acronis will always be an option if you so choose.Looked at both web sites....true image looks like more my speed

Can the software run and make an image if a user is on the machine? Or does everyone need to be off?

Images can be created in the BACKGROUND from within the OS. The only time the system needs to reboot or run from outside the OS is if the system partition is being restored.I know you didn't ask, but here is my typical backup schedule for most systems:

New image of the system partition created once a week to a second internal hd, keeping a maximum of four images but no fewer than two (in case one of the images is corrupt - it's rare but it happens - but VERY rare if you verify images during creation, which I do). Same process once a month to an external drive (rotating between two different external drives in the event something happens to one of them).

Images of other partitions to both an internal and external drive once every month or two (depending on criticality of data, etc).

Full image of entire drive on laptops once every three months (in addition to the above). This is only because my laptop drives are relatively small compared to the desktops.

There is the option of incremental backups, but I prefer the full images.

BTW, with True Image you can mount the image as a SEPARATE drive and extract any file(s) or folder(s) if you choose.This is sounding better and better.

I got to get my hands on a hard drive to use as a backup and then download true image.

The machine I need to set this up on has one PARTION that is about 950gigs (it has about 80gigs of real data) I want to setup another drive in the machine thats 1 TB and use it to hold the images. This machine is a friend's so I will only see it about once every 5 or 6 weeks. I will need to keep many images so I can roll things back to a point a few weeks back.


Thanks for the info and your time.

Sure thing. Easy stuff.Quote from: Allan on February 16, 2011, 10:07:24 AM

I know you didn't ask, but here is my typical backup schedule for most systems:

New image of the system partition created once a week to a second internal hd, keeping a maximum of four images but no fewer than two (in case one of the images is corrupt - it's rare but it happens - but VERY rare if you verify images during creation, which I do). Same process once a month to an external drive (rotating between two different external drives in the event something happens to one of them).

Images of other partitions to both an internal and external drive once every month or two (depending on criticality of data, etc).

Full image of entire drive on laptops once every three months (in addition to the above). This is only because my laptop drives are relatively small compared to the desktops.

There is the option of incremental backups, but I prefer the full images.

BTW, with True Image you can mount the image as a separate drive and extract any file(s) or folder(s) if you choose.