Best Backup Software
 

I want to backup multiple windows machines on my home LAN (all 100mb switched) to NDAS device and then burn to DVD. Plan is to backup:

- My Documents
- bookmarks, etc.
- Video from Camcorder/ReplayTV
- MP3 Library
- Downloaded software
- Misc. other files

I just started playing with Dantz Retrospect 6.5, and it seems pretty good. Anyone have comments on Retrospect or other suggested backup software?

My fav is backup exec... currently using V8.5

I use Backup My PC by Stopm, which was formerly a Veritas Product, which I believe was formerly another product.

It was highly rated by the magazines at the time I was looking, supported just about anything you could backup to, and I did the 30 day trial and didn't have any issues.

Not saying it's better or worse then anything else out there, just that it works.

http://www.stompsoft.com/backupmypc.html

In the same way that I think, when flying, any first class seat trumps every coach seat, I'd say any backup software is better than no backup software at all...

mlk

I was installing pdf995 on a machine today (it's a great free utility that generates PDF files from anything, installs as a printer driver) and they opened a window for their free backup software, backup995.

It's over at backup995.com. I haven't tried it, but love the pdf995 software, so it may be worth looking at.

$10 if you don't want the ads displayed.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I really liked the functionality that Retrospect provides and the small client that can spread around to other machines on the network. But ultimately backup995 does the job and does it for free, so it wins.

Do any of the above software backup to multiple drives simultaneously? I know backup995 doesn't - I'm getting increasingly paranoid and want to backup my files into 2 seperate physical drives.

Any of the ones that allow scheduled jobs can do it, just schedule two jobs back to back. If you are worried about having an exact copy, backup from A to B, then from B to C and B and C will be identical if something changes on A.

I used Veritas Backup Exec for years to a 50gig tape. I now have an external 250gig drive and switched to handy Backup (from novastor). I like it much better because it does incremental backups and actually saves the files where you can do a normal copy if you need one of them. The Veritas product saves to a large file. You need the program to get one file from the restore function. The Handy Backup is fast. I triad Win Backup and it was slow. Handy Backup also only costs $30. I temporarily stops for files that are in use and logs them. You never need to look at the process. It is like doing a large XCOPY command.

If you're that paranoid, you should look at a RAID setup.

I'm pretty sure you could do what you want with Dantz through its scripting. It will keep the backup files in chunks small enough to easily burn to CD or DVD. It comes with a price though as Retrospect cost approx. $130.

The full and incremental features of Backup995 are letting me back up to a network drive and then burn to DVD.

Is this stuff that much better than Microsoft's backup program in Windows XP? (Probably a dumb question.)

I don't think Windows XP has a built-in back program. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but the built-in backup programs stopped with Win2k.

OK, you're wrong. :D Windows XP Professional has one. One way to get to it is from the Properties of a hard drive under the Tools tab. I think it might have been removed from XP Home though.

Anything is probably better then Microsoft's backup, though Microsoft is probably better then not having one at all.

A correction by the way, XP home has a backup software but it's not automaticailly installed, but is on the CD. Follow the instructions in this document (and read and understand the warning on what it can do for automatic system recovery in XP).

http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q302700

(though again you probably won't be happy with it)


1. Install Backup Utility for Windows on the Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition CD-ROM. Follow these steps to install Backup Utility for Windows:

a. Double-click the Ntbackup.msi file in the following location on the Windows XP Home Edition CD:
CD-ROM Drive:\Valueadd\MSFT\Ntbackup

b. When the installation wizard is complete, click Finish