System restore saved me a couple of times, it is easy. BUT, I don't put complete faith in Windows anything and have two Acronis backups that I rotate, one one week and another the next.
I don't completely trust Acronis either.
I don't completely trust Acronis either.
Too true, one day I will work up the guts to buy a cheapo and put Linux on it. My problem is that I have used WordPerfect, every thing that I have done since 1989 is a WordPerfect document or Excel spread sheet. I think I could find a conversion program for Excel but WordPerfect may be difficult.
I was going to add, unless you need a rollback feature but that was mentioned later... 
Wow! I did not realize WordPefect still existed. I was never a fan. I stuck with WordStar until the mid 1990s and then switched to Word, like just about everyone else.
LibreOffice can supposedly open WordPerfect documents and is available for Linux (as well as Windows).
One of these days I'm going to give Linux a whirl. Can't really say I'm a big fan of "open source"...it can be a little too open at times.
For what drives cost today it's just as cheap, and easy, to clone them on a regular basis rather than build a RAID array or even run backups. Plus you have the spares handy when something goes south for an almost instant recovery. Acronis does make cloning really easy, but there are plenty of free ones out there, including a free version of Acronis clone, so it's not expensive to do other than the cost of the hardware.
For what drives cost today it's just as cheap, and easy, to clone them on a regular basis rather than build a RAID array or even run backups. Plus you have the spares handy when something goes south for an almost instant recovery. Acronis does make cloning really easy, but there are plenty of free ones out there, including a free version of Acronis clone, so it's not expensive to do other than the cost of the hardware.
I don't think it was off by default. The original installation was done by one of my guys up in PA and he likes his Windows lean and mean. Stuff like: "System Restore? Waste of space. Swap File? Who needs that, RAM is cheap". One time many years ago, I went to print something from "his" machine. Not only did it not have any printer drivers, it also lack the requisite services.not on by default?
I just built a Win7 machine for Acronis to run on. Went to print out something and realized I hadn't installed a printer. This from a former network admin. Talk about WinDohhhs.
now that's a commercial worth watching
It came free with the two PNY SSD drives I bought, you get a key and download link, the free version does all I need. With two keys I have it for backup cloning on both the wife's laptop and my desktop. With her laptop I have to plug in the backup drive with a USB adapter and manually run it every couple of weeks but it's not a big deal, I just plug it in and set it to run before we go to bed.
If you can map a drive to the NAS it should be no problem, Rossum. I haven't played with NAS, yet, but may in the future as a way to "hide" (physically) video clips off the surveillance cameras. I wanted to use the Acronis cloud service but there is no real way to manage the data. It's a preset method that they control directly and I'm generating about 400 gigs a day. Locally, I just age them out at twelve hours, 200 gigs, so it's not all that much disk space.
The problem I have with "a big spinny", and I have multiple multi-terrabyte disks, is that when they fail you lose a LOT of data. Given Murphy's Law and my "good" luck I'm sure that both the little spinny I actually use and the big spinny that has the backups on it will both fail at the same time. Like we say in vaping, backups for backups of your backups.
So which RAID/NAS array did you get, Willie?
The problem I have with "a big spinny", and I have multiple multi-terrabyte disks, is that when they fail you lose a LOT of data. Given Murphy's Law and my "good" luck I'm sure that both the little spinny I actually use and the big spinny that has the backups on it will both fail at the same time. Like we say in vaping, backups for backups of your backups.
So which RAID/NAS array did you get, Willie?
I can't see why it wouldn't, it scans for local drives, disk burners, USB drives, network shares, even has a cloud option, you pick the drive or location you want the image to be saved at. You can split it up if it won't find on one disk or say thumb drive and you can encrypt it or set passwords if you want. You can do a full drive image or pick files and folders you want to exclude. Once the image is made you can also make a duplicates of that image.
I "can" set up a RAID with my MB but you know I never did get around to it. I use the SSD for the C:Windows drive and the rest of my 2TB drives are just for storage for family video's, recorded TV show and movies I want to keep and for storing a months worth of security camera footage. As long as I have an image of the C drive to keep me up and running the rest I can backup manually. The important files like the family pictures and videos I make manual copies and put them on at least three drives, the platter drives sleep when not in use so they should last many years, if I loose one there's nothing else on them I would worry about. The most important to me is the family memories, someday the grand kids will enjoy them.
now that's a commercial worth watching
LoL, that's me, I'm not the best at backing up with a trailer.
OK,OK all this talk about hard drives. I went out to my local PC store and picked up a new 2.5 non ssd HD for my works laptop. I've been putting it off as I am not sure it's the problem.
I'm going to use the free one here: EaseUS Todo Backup - Data Backup and Recovery Software for PC/Server/Mac
Probably be reporting back when complete, I expect to get it done tonight. This laptop has run continuously for over 5 years with an occasional re-start required by updates.
I'm going to use the free one here: EaseUS Todo Backup - Data Backup and Recovery Software for PC/Server/Mac
Probably be reporting back when complete, I expect to get it done tonight. This laptop has run continuously for over 5 years with an occasional re-start required by updates.
Do you have another way to download different cloning software if it hiccups while in the swap over process? If not I'd download another one just in case, but then again my luck is usually bad so I try to cover my ..... Depending on the brand, I believe (?) some manufactures offer free cloning downloads, I think Seagate is one? May want to visit the website of the maker of your drive and see if they offer one, might be an idea to download it just in case.
Similar threads
- Locked
