Simple click and go backup solutions for non-techies

[charlie21]

I'm looking for easy backup solutions for SOHO / single computer type situations. Target audience here is the kind of person that just wants to click an icon on the desktop. I just purchased a Maxtor OneTouch for a customer but the software would not let me grab anything that was under the "Program Files" directory. Yes I know you can't copy programs but her main application only stores its data under its program directory, so that was a no-go. Are the Seagate / WD software offerings more robust? Any 3rd party backup software worth mentioning? Or is there a way for a preconfigured NTBackup job to run on the click of an icon? It doesn't have to be an elegant solution, but it needs to be fairly bulletproof and above all, easy.

 

[RebateMonger]

NTBackup will back up anything you desire, including System State (required for a full restore of the OS). you can save a "Backup Job" as a .BKS file and run NTBackup from a batch file.

Location of backup selection file:
c:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\WindowsNT\NTBackup\Data

Get the syntax for NTBackup by typing NTBackup /? at the command prompt.

 

[mc866]

Acronis True Image? You can setup tasks to automatically backup, so the user wouldn't actually have to do anything if you set them up yourself.

 

[charlie21]

This particular case is a small office, 2 computers, and they cut them off at night. Very low usage / low budget scenario but the data is, of course, critical. They want to be able to back up the documents & email off both computers daily and carry it offsite. 1 external drive would be more than sufficient. The backup schedule won't be firm so I need something usable on demand. Sorry if I wasn't clear on that.

I just hammered out a NTBackup script, and I think that's going to be perfect.

Of course, now that I'm doing some more research, I see that IDrive offers 2GB free encrypted storage, which would probably be enough in this case. What's the consensus on online backups?

 

[ForumMaster]

Originally posted by: charlie21
This particular case is a small office, 2 computers, and they cut them off at night. Very low usage / low budget scenario but the data is, of course, critical. They want to be able to back up the documents & email off both computers daily and carry it offsite. 1 external drive would be more than sufficient. The backup schedule won't be firm so I need something usable on demand. Sorry if I wasn't clear on that.

I just hammered out a NTBackup script, and I think that's going to be perfect.

Of course, now that I'm doing some more research, I see that IDrive offers 2GB free encrypted storage, which would probably be enough in this case. What's the consensus on online backups?

i haven't had any experience with any of these services, but it seems to me, that if the data is critical, i'd much rather take it with me then upload it to a company that could be hacked and what not.

 

[RebateMonger]

I don't think there's anything wrong with online backups. But you still need FULL backups of your systems to ensure that you can quickly restore them and to ensure that you didn't miss anything important when you set up the limited online backups. I've seen many people lose important data when they did only partial backups of their systems. Too late, they realized that something important wasn't included in the limited backup.

 

[charlie21]

That's a good point about the full backups. I'm very meticulous about sitting down with the customer and going over any and everything they want backed up, and then I do my own little look through. But yeah it would probably be better just to image the damn thing and be done with it.