Best software for backing up entire OS and data drive to external?

[BAD311]

Hello, someone I know has a 5TB external USB 3.0 drive and they want to backup their OS on an SSD along with a 1TB data drive to the 5TB drive each night and store as many copies as they can before the drive fills up and automatically deletes the oldest backup... It'd be great if it could do it based off of only files that changed that day (incremental?) vs. the entire SSD and HDD. Anyone recommend a few programs that are easy to setup, manage and if possible alert me via email if a backup fails?

 

[Charlie98]

Acronis True Image.

 

[TuSpockShakur]

You will probably get a half dozen suggestions from this question. I have used Acronis True Image for years and have had no problems. I have scheduled a weekly incremental backup of my OS drive and the incrementals are usually small from around a few hundred MB to a couple GB. There are a ton of options that will allow you to do anything you want. Just make bootable media first.

 

[PliotronX]

All signs point to True Image being a good'n and there are plenty of choices with it. I also like Macrium Reflect and Paragon HDM.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Macrium Reflect, Aomei Backupper, or Acronis for the SSD, using imaging. Use incrementals if you insist, but I'd personally just do full images each time to avoid the complexities of incrementals.

The recently released version 6 of Macrium Reflect free edition includes a capability to delete the oldest backup, but I haven't checked that functionality out. I delete manually as needed.

OS imaging daily is unusual, but you might have a case where it makes sense, such as if the system has a lot of changes on a daily basis. Otherwise, weekly or monthly might make more sense.

For the 1 TB drive with data, I wouldn't use imaging. There are a bunch of free apps that will simply replicate folders on the 1 TB to the external drive, backing up only newly created or modified files. I use FreeFileSync, but they all work about the same way.

 

[bruceb]

I agree, once a day for the OS Image is overkill. Once a week or whenever you update some program, like Java or Flash or Antivirus is time enough to update the OS Image.

As for the data files use a program like Ultra Compare to schedule automated backups. This can also be done using a script and several freeware programs. Data should be done daily, if the data is constantly being modified on a daily basis. Or if it is some application, like for government, where they dictate backups on a daily basis.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I use macrium, and if you are just backing up an SSD, there is no reason not to back it up daily..you just never know, but the 1TB I would question if it needs backed up that often, however they could set it up to do incrementals rather than full backups. You can set the free edition to just keep a few if space is a concern by setting a scheduled task with delage.

 

[Z15CAM]

As long as you got the External Drive Media Formated in Extended DOS with 32GB FAT32 Logical Partitions, a simple DOS ME Boot will utilize GHOST.EXE for both BackUp and Over-Writing your Platform with Spanned 700MB GHO Images (Think DOS Bootable CD's).

Win, BSD and Lunix.

 

[Charlie98]

...and if you are just backing up an SSD, there is no reason not to back it up daily..you just never know...

FWIW, I back up my SSD to at least 3 different drives... every night. I have had an occasion to lose my SSD, and the only thing that saved my acorns was having that recent, full image Acronis backup. Now, on my gamer or HTPC... meh, once a month or so is fine. Personally, I do full images, I don't fool with incremental, but I'm only talking about ~200GB of data on my primary PC.

 

[Charmonium]

I used to use True Image - until the one time I needed it and couldn't get the system to boot from cd it created. It had some problem with the graphic drivers that I couldn't resolve.

Now I use Macrium. At least they give you a few options for creating a recovery cd so that if you have issues with one, you can try another.

 

[master_shake_]

Windows home server.

Keeps a backup of everything and compares the current state of your PC against it.

It's a big shadow copy.

You'd have to vm it but it's awesome.

 

[BAD311]

I'm using Windows Server 2012 R2... Is the backup software it comes with good enough?

 

[Shelleyer]

I'm using Windows Server 2012 R2... Is the backup software it comes with good enough?

You can use Windows Server Backup to back up a full server (all volumes), selected volumes, the system state, or specific files or folders—and to create a backup that you can use for bare metal recovery. You can recover volumes, folders, files, certain applications, and the system state. And, in case of disasters like hard disk failures, you can perform a bare metal recovery. (To do this, you will need a backup of the full server or just the volumes that contain operating system files, and the Windows Recovery Environment—this will restore your complete system onto your old system or a new hard disk.)You can use Windows Server Backup to create and manage backups for the local computer or a remote computer. And, you can schedule backups to run automatically. Windows Server Backup is intended for use by everyone who needs a basic backup solution—from small business to large enterprises—but is even suited for smaller organizations or individuals who are not IT professionals.
however, if you want to automatically deletes the oldest backup, you can try to use third-party software, such as AOMEI Backupper which have the function of Backup Disk Space Management: Automatically delete the old backup images based on specified value .

 

[techmanc]

I have used ATI for many years and saved my butt on more than one occasion not to mention when I need to move my OS to a new hardware it pretty painless.

I like ATI 2014 the most atm due to the MS Office backup it has which they renoved in ATI 2015

 

[TeknoBug]

dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb

 

[Charlie98]

I like ATI 2014 the most atm due to the MS Office backup it has which they renoved in ATI 2015

I got a copy of ATI'14 and it's a bucket of crap compared to my 2012-13 versions I use on other machines.

 

[jqderrick]

Acronis man. It's the ticket.