Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with windows and backup

How can I use my external hard disk drive to regularly backup my Windows XP laptop?

grouse — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:08:43 -0800

How can I use my external hard disk drive to regularly backup my Windows XP laptop in as simple a manner as possible? Ideally, I would want something that works like Time Machine on the Mac—I would really like something I can set and forget. Free solutions are best, obviously, but I'm willing to buy software for this. I've read some of the previous backup questions, but figured there might be new recommendations by now.

Minimizing the hassle of reinstalling everything?

Alabaster — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:03:01 -0800

Help me save time and frustration reinstalling my programs/settings after a fresh Windows install / upgrade / etc. Reinstalling my system after an OS upgrade, system wipe, or on a new PC always becomes an enormous task -- usually taking several days plus weeks of random annoyances ("oops, have to find that codec, oh gee, I don't have Java installed, oh no I have to re-map all of my keyboard shortcuts, etc. .")

I'm thinking of wiping my bloated Vista 64 system and upgrading to Windows 7, but I don't have the time to go through the whole process. (I use Acronis TrueImage for emergency restores, but this won't help with an OS upgrade).

The problems:

* I use LOTS of software regularly
* I'm a tweaker, and have a lot of personalized settings for everything
* Tracking down install files (some on discs around my house, some downloaded, some need to be re-downloaded)
* Many of my programs have been through several patches and upgrades which will need to be gathered and re-applied
* Many programs require online registration/authorization. Some will need to be re-registered because authorization code is tied to system hardware.
* Many programs have a lot of tweaks, settings, plugins, presets, presets, advanced settings, key bindings etc that I would like to retain.
* All those random things like Flash, Java, video codecs, .NET framework, runtime libraries, etc.

Steps I've taken pre-upgrade:
* Backup all data, obviously
* Keep data on a separate partition from programs/OS
* Use portable versions of programs whenever possible to eliminate the need to reinstall
* Save all purchased program serial numbers in one location
* Whenever updating/patching a program, save the patch installer in a folder called "Program Updates"
* Whenever possible, export program settings/presets into a catch-all folder called "Presets" for easy reinstall. Prior to upgrading, go through all crucial programs and export. Make a note of settings which will need manual re-setting
* Use Driverbackup software to gather all of my drivers into one place for easy reinstall. (Is there a similar program for codecs?)

I'd appreciate any advice on:
1.) How I can reinstall all my stuff as quickly/efficiently as possible
2.) How I can maintain my system from now on to make future upgrades/restores hassle-free (I'm curious about using some kind of VM for all but my most essential programs, but I don't know much about this)
3.) If I get lazy and decide to do an in-place upgrade (from Vista 64 Home Premium to Windows 7 x64 Home Premium), will I regret this? Does a Windows 7 install clean up a lot of system bloat and other issues?

Thanks

Reinstall Windows dealing with NTFS permissions

chrisch — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:58:21 -0800

I'm a few weeks away from rebuilding my PC with Windows 7 and need help understanding how to deal with NTFS permissions. I'm a few weeks away from rebuilding my PC with Windows 7. I'm currently using the release candidate of Windows 7 with the following drive configuration:

C:\ - Windows and applications (some data)
D:\ - data drive (including "D:\My Documents\")
Q:\ - external backup drive (Drobo)

All drives are formatted with NTFS and backups of selected directories to Q:\ are done with rsync. I've noticed that some directories on Q:\ are not accessible by the Guest account, meaning that permissions are not consistent on that drive. The machine isn't on a domain.

My plan is to wipe C:\ and reinstall Windows, and leave D:\ and Q:\ alone. My questions are:

- How do I reinstall and prevent ugly situations with NTFS file permissions (i.e., permission denied)?
- Is there a best practices guide for syncing to my backup drive to ease future accessibility from another computer?

Many thanks!

Auto backup of files

gilsonal — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 08:57:11 -0800

I have two computers, one Windows, one Linux. How can I make it so they synchronize automatically with each other, as in, I update the file on one computer, and the updated file gets put onto the other? Networking? Using an external hard drive? What software might be useful? Bonus points for free software

What's a good simple and cheap media or file server setup?

wastelands — Fri, 29 May 2009 08:15:38 -0800

Advice for a server newb who needs help getting started with a simple media/backup/torrent server? I've got a 438 GB movie collection an on external 500 GB USB hard drive right now, so I need to upgrade. I was thinking of buying two 1 TB external drives and using rsync for a poor man's RAID 1 setup. But for good drives plus shipping, that's nearly $250, and I thought, why not just setup a real file server? And maybe get a Bit Torrent thingy going too, so I could turn off my main computer at night and keep transfers going? Heck, I'd probably come up with other useful things for the server to do too.

But I don't know where to start. For hardware, looking at, say, a Dell Inspiron 530 ($379), it's too powerful and too expensive for what I'd use it for.

And for the OS... Windows Home Server? Ubuntu? I don't know what'd be easiest.

Ideas? Thanks!

Invisible automatic backup?

ConstantineXVI — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 07:04:02 -0800

Want to build a backup/storage/print server for a home network that the users will never have to be aware of Our desktop recently died of capacitor plague. Instead of simply replacing the desktop, we've been considering buying netbooks for the kids, likely running WinXP (we already have a laptop or two ourselves). At the core's going to be a lightweight machine, preferably running Linux that's going to handle storage (easy enough), printing (again), and the tricky part, backup.

Whenever they're connected to our home WiFi, I want their netbooks to automatically back up their data to the server, in case of disaster. More importantly, I don't want them to lift a finger or be aware of the process at all. Chronological backups like Time Machine wouldn't be a bad idea, but not necessary.

Parting with the old laptop - protecting my stuff

terrier319 — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 10:22:27 -0800

Cleaning up the old laptop for sale -- what must I do to get it ready to hand over to someone else? I am selling my laptop. This is a Windows XP system with multiple users. What is the easiest way to back up a bunch of stuff -- iTunes music, tons of photos, Word docs, etc -- for quick re-placement on a new machine. What about auto-passwords, etc? - should I just wipe out the browsers and let the new owner reinstall? Anything else I might be overlooking? thanks.

How do I automatically backup a website (files and database) to a Mac?

HC Foo — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 10:31:21 -0800

What is the best way to automatically backup a website (files and database) to a Mac? Suggestions for Windows? I build websites, and I have a client who pretty much only has Macs. They want a solution where they can automatically backup an entire website (files and database) to their machines. I have access to the admin area of the hosting account. If I'm unable to find an easy to install/use solution for the Mac, a Windows solution would also work.

how can i turn off windows live one care backup...???

minsid — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:55:21 -0800

Need to turn off Windows Live One Care Backup How do I turn off windows live one care backup...

it keeps asking me to do backup but i have other method...

please advise..

when i go to settings and click back up tab and then click "configure backup".. it doesn't allow me to uncheck "turn on backup on this pc"

rescuing data with ubuntu

FidelDonson — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:00:51 -0800

What folders to back up from a dead windows pc when booting ubuntu in live cd mode? I want to make sure i get everything off the harddisk before making a clean xp reinstall of my sister in laws computer. But i do not know where to look for the folders to back up. Can i somehow find the entire hard drive and just copy it. like i would in windows just copy the entire contents of the c-drive?

My best bet so far is the Computer folder under places. In this folder i can find two folders that appear to be the correct ones - DOKUMENT and SYSTEM - i also find a Filesystem folder that i cant seem to copy. Is that somehow ok?

automatic back-up solution for someone who doesn't understand computers

conrad101 — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 06:11:02 -0800

I'm helping out an elderly lady who is using a laptop with XP which is showing signs of unreliability. It is now permanently sat on a table so it doesn't get moved around. She is especially concerned about a failure leading to a loss of outlook express e-mails. This person is easily confused by all things computer related so it has to work with minimum intervention and be as simple as possible. I was thinking of using an external drive and Acronis true image 11 home. I would set up True image to mirror on to the external drive. I was also thinking of automatically forwarding all outlook express mails to a web mail account - yahoo mail - as she has a yahoo account already. Being able to read from a webmail account would allow uninteruped service should anything go wrong. Is there anything wrong with this?

Dual boot backup on external HDD.

kraigory — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:34:42 -0800

What's the best way to setup a 500gb external hard drive to backup windows and linux? I just got a seagate external hard drive for my laptop, which is out of hard disk room. Surprised by the $100 price tag, I splurged and got a 500gb model. So, I would like to set it up to backup my computer, as well as store files.

I dual boot ubuntu linux and windows xp. Should I make two ntfs partitions, and use windows to image backup my current hard drive? Or, should I use FAT32 and use linux to perform the backup? Would there be any complications when backing up ext3 from windows, if it's just a hard drive image? Also, I'd like to use open source programs to do this.

If I go the linux route, and format it with FAT32, are there any disadvantages, or limits on partition size?

Thanks for the help! Oh, and I use linux about 80% of the time, so It would be most handy to backup with linux, if that's the easiest solution.

Help me backup my system.

arniec — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:39:08 -0800

Data Backup Filter: I have about 6TB (yes TB, not GB) of data. I need to back it up BEFORE it crashes. I also need a good way to share it on the network. How can I do this? Details within... Yes, this topic revisited again. None of the questions asked so far have helped in my situation.

It seems the era of digital video and digital audio has created a storage nightmare for me. I have 6TB of data spread across 5 external hard drives (3 500GBs and 4 1 TBs, not all full). They are all currently connected to a Windows PC.

I have 1 blank 1TB drive which I just attached to my Mac Mini as I'm trying to retire my Windows PC and migrate all data to the Mac FS so I can run it off my Airport Extreme's USB port (the Airport Extreme won't read NTFS).

I've looked at "mirroring" my external drives nightly using a backup program but this does not safeguard me in case of electrical storm, fire, angry wife, etc. Besides, there must be a limit to the number of external drives I have...I'm running out of outlets quickly.

But I cannot imagine putting all of this information on DVDs, the time and expense would be insane. Online backup systems are not optimal as there is sensitive personal data in the files and I don't trust the privacy of online backup solutions, but the cost for 6TB is prohibitive.

I do have a lot of "redundant" files that I am attempting to clean up (previous hard drive crashes in my Windows PC resulted in panicked "copy off all my files!" moments, and as such I'm sure at least 1TB of my data is redundant, but the time it's taking me to sort this out file by file is crazy). Are there any programs (Windows or Mac) that can find these and only back them up once, saving me on DVDs?

Do I have any other options besides "buy a lot more external hard drives"?

What is your favorite Online Backing Service? and why?

omaralarifi — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:06:43 -0800

What is your favorite Online Backing Service? and why?

Backup software for Windows

kindall — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 23:25:37 -0800

What's good, easy-to-use, backup software for Windows? I'm setting up some basic IT functionality for a local accountant: hosted mail, wireless network, backups -- it is this latter which concerns us here. His main machine is a Windows XP laptop which he takes home most nights, so I'm advising him to get a couple external USB hard disks to hook up to his docking stations, one at work and one at home, so he has offsite backups. But what software? He knows his way around his computer pretty well, but is not all that technical. So I'm looking for something automatic that doesn't need a lot of maintenance and is very easy to restore files from.

The software that comes with Maxtor OneTouch drives would be perfect if it didn't have those stupid restrictions on what folders it can back up. However, encryption is a definite necessity since he does deal with sensitive financial data. I use Acronis True Image myself but find it is somewhat complex and probably not the best choice for his level of expertise. Also, I use Retrospect on my Macs and definitely would not submit anyone non-technical to its UI. It's okay if it costs money but it should ideally not be too expensive. Ideas?

Please help me save years of digicam pics!

ClarissaWAM — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:15:45 -0800

How can I save my digicam pics (retrieved from various old CDs and DVDs) and not spend weeks on it? Currently many of them crash (Windows) Explorer. So this weekend I finally went through all my old backup CDs and DVDs and tried to salvage as many of my digicam pics as possible (starting from 2001) by copying them back onto HDD. This went ok, more of the discs worked than I'd expected (even if many were slow and intermittent).

But now Explorer keeps crashing when I try to access some of the folders (I admit I had Explorer set to "thumbnails" while doing this). I assume this is because some files are damaged. Is there any way for me to weed these out without opening each one and manually deleting the ones that crash Explorer?

Is there perhaps some way (program or other) of scanning them and "marking" or discarding the damaged ones? Or perhaps even something that can... make sense of the data that normal Explorer can't?

(I'm aware of companies that could restore the data from the original discs but considering I can probably save 90% of my pics if I just spend some 50hrs on this I'm not quite willing to waste $2000 on this)

I need to backup a website to DVD.

asuh — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 19:06:46 -0800

What's the best software and method for completely backing up a website to DVD? I need to archive a website completely to DVD. My dad's cousin passed away and his website is still online so his widow wants a complete backup of his writings and comments.

I have tested software for both Windows and OS X including SurfOffline and Blue Crab but there are usually invalid links, missing images or no @import css files. Once I find the right software, I want to burn the backed up website to DVD and have a cross platform autorun for the index file (so that you don't have to open up Finder or Explorer to find it).

What solutions are there for offline website backups and cross platform dvd backups?

Help me be a responsible but care-free computer user

amtho — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:54:45 -0800

Maybe obvious backup question: I want to achieve: an external hard drive with an exact copy of my main drive's contents that can, in the event of my main internal drive's failure, be swapped into the machine for instant everything-as-it-was. I also want incremental backup, so that I can keep this drive constantly up to date with a daily backup process. This is a Windows XP ThinkPad laptop; I've got the external backup drive in its little case already. I'm half wondering if this is such a basic set of requirements -- copy my drive exactly (making sure it's bootable), and then copy incremental changes -- that most backup software does it already.

The software that came with the laptop (ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery) creates "archive files", all ~50 MB in size, that require the backup software in order to be read. This isn't going to do it for me.

I briefly looked into Acronis, but they won't even let me install the trial without registering -- through the internet, automatically, during the installation process. Can't even register by phone. (Is it too much to want to try the software before giving them permission to automatically send themselves information about myself & my system?) No deal. Also, $50 seems like a lot for such a simple-sounding piece of software, but if I have to spend that much (or more), I'm willing.

The drive came with three pieces of software, but I can't tell whether any of them will do what I want: PC Clone EX Lite (by JMicron Technology), VBTUcopy (by VIA Technology), and HDBackup (by Moai Electronics). Each of these has a short PDF document with it -- I've read through each -- but it doesn't answer my questions, just outlines the setup procedure. These seem like very bare-bones programs, based on the docs.

To clarify: if my computer's HD fails, I'd like to avoid having to install Windows on a new drive before restoring files. I want to just take out the old drive, stick in the new drive, and then pretend nothing happened (I'd just buy a new backup drive).

I'd also like to avoid having to re-clone the HD every time I want to make an incremental backup. In other words, although I'm not sure, I'm under the impression that backup software that "clones" the HD will need to copy every single file every time it runs.

Also: I've already formatted my new drive. How can I make sure it's bootable? Do I even need to worry about that at this point?

Thanks!

XP unusably slow after STOP errors and running checkdisk - what's going on?

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 12:29:42 -0800

So it's come to this - I see no other option than to ask a "help me fix my PC" question. After some troubleshooting the STOP errors seem to have been resolved, XP now boots successfully but is excruciating slow to the point of being unusable. Details and specs below the fold. Specifications:
-Intel Celeron 2.4GHz
-1 x 512 MB RAM
-XP Pro SP2
-PCI Firewire card
-onboard: USB 2.0, VIA Gigabit Ethernet adapter

IDE config:

1M: HD Maxtor 80 GB U-ATA
1S: empty
2M: DVD Burner
2S: DVD-ROM

First, the BIOS would occasionally fail to find the boot device (HD). Setting the primary master to "Not Installed" and rebooting, and then back to "Auto" remedied this for the time being.

Then a few days ago the machine started throwing a bunch of BSODs during normal operation. I recorded some of them for your viewing pleasure:

0x000000F4, 0x00000003, 0x829FF020, 0x829FF194 0xc000000E, 0xC000000E, 0x00000000, 0x05357000 0x0000007A (0XC03E1128, 0XC0000185, 0XF844A074, 0X08195860) ACPI.SYS 0x0000008E (0XC0000005, 0X8054AE34, 0XF6505BF4, 0X00000000)

Eventually XP wouldn't boot at all: system32/config was 'corrupted', or something along those lines. I assume this happened as a result of one of the STOP errors.

For some reason CHKDSK wouldn't run on this machine, so I took out the drive and ran CHKDSK on it with the drive attached to another machine. It did find a bunch of errors and corrected them all.

I put it back in its own box, and ran CHKDSK again from the Recovery Console (ran fine this time, and found no errors) and also a FIXBOOT for good measure.

Which brings us to the current situation. The system32/config error is gone, and Windows does boot, *but*:

-The XP splash screen fades in very slowly and seems halted here and there.
-Upon logon, the desktop background loads but no icons or taskbar appear.
-I can load explorer and systray via taskmgr, and sometimes they eventually load on their own without intervention, but this takes a *long* time. Somewhere in the ten minutes order of magnitude.

So technically speaking, Windows now runs, but it's so excruciatingly slow it's basically unusable.

Additional details:
-I have run a Spybot Search & Destroy scan: it found some threats and removed them. No new findings upon further boots and/or Spybot runs.
-I would scan for viruses, but I can't install AVG Free: I just removed the old 7.1 version (had to anyway as it was no longer supported), and the 7.5 installer happily skips from "pick a directory" to "Installation Complete!" but never seems to have touched a file at all! Doesn't even create the specified directory in Program Files.
-Network now also doesn't work. The Network Connections window says "Connected" but the machine receives no IP address nor lease from router. Router and rest of network are running fine.
-I tried System Restore with a variety of restore points from the past two weeks or so, but after going through the process (which also takes very long) it reboots and tells me that restoring to the previous point failed.

In short, I'm confused and could really use your insight. What's causing this and how can I fix it? Thanks in advance for any light you can shed upon this. If you have any questions or need any further details, I'd be happy to answer and provide them.

EFS for an entire drive?

tiamat — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:01:20 -0800

Is it possible to set EFS (Windows encryption) for an entire drive? I can set EFS for a folder, but not for an entire drive. Is there a way around this? Encrypting a folder means newly created subfolders and files are encrypted from the get go. However, I cannot apply EFS to a root drive, meaning I have to seperately go to each new folder in the root of the drive and enable encryption, which takes a long time.

I'm using Vista's new incremental backup to an external drive, but I'd like to be able to keep the files encrypted. Vista doesn't see Truecrypt volumes are removable hard drives and so won't let you choose that as a default target. EFS works, but it slow to apply after the fact.

Can I set it so that all new files and/or folders on a given drive are encrypted?

Help me backup my dad's computer and emails!

sperose — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 13:57:35 -0800

My dad needs help with total computer backup (particularly Outlook). Computer in question is an older Dell model, running Windows XP. No one in our family is a computer genius. More information and particular stickyness inside. My dad has been reading a lot of articles in the newspapers lately about the dangers of HDs failing and whatnot. We've had a history of failures (namely my computer, 3 drives and counting) and so it's a bit freaky. He had a severe HD failure a few years back and his solution was to take it to Best Buy and have them attempt to save as much information as they could. They burned it to CD and when he bought a new HD, he had them install it along with another HD (so under My Computer it comes up as Local Disk C: and Backup D:) where all of his backed up files from the failed HD are.
He wants to backup his files (basically only Excel spreadsheets and Word docs) as well as all his email which he reads through Outlook and his IE favorites.

How can he do this so if both the HDs fail, he has some way of getting to his files and his emails?

He's looked into using a flash drive (which is what I use to half-assedly backup my stuff, basically only important documents) but he's not sure what would be the best way. Something that is absurdly easy to understand and explain and possibly able to be completely automated would be best.

(Like I said before, no one in our family is exactly a computer genius. He hates Firefox, and believes everything that Microsoft puts out is golden, FWIW.)

Help me AskMefi!

How to set up a PC as a file server for a Mac?

jruckman — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 14:37:43 -0800

I want to set up a PC as a file server for my Mac. I'll also use it for light video gaming and website testing. What OS should I run? What else should I consider? I'll probably install two mirrored 500GB drives for storage and backup. I'd probably want to have a Windows install for video games and website testing -- but would Windows be sufficient for serving files to my Mac as well?

The blue screen of death is alive and well

grouse — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 06:48:12 -0800

Please help me recover my hosed NTFS partition(s). My ThinkPad G40 running Windows XP Professional SP2 has been blue screening when I try Last Known Good Configuration, Safe Mode, the recovery console from the XP install CD, and even a BartPE CD. I think this is due to data corruption caused by bad RAM (after I took the offending stick out, MemTest86 now reports my RAM is okay). Here is the error:

STOP 0x00000024 (0x001902F8, 0xF7B8E704, 0xF7B8E404, 0xF739C411)

ntfs.sys == address F739C411 base at F732E0006 DateStamp 3b7dc5d0

I can still access the drive using an Ubuntu Linux live CD. I also have an external hard drive that is approximately half the size of the drive, some DVD-Rs, and hopefully I can find a friend with a DVD burner. So first, how can I best backup this data so that it will be accessible from a future Windows XP install.

Secondly, it would be nice after things are backed up, if I could recover the disk without doing another full reinstall. Online searches indicate that I should try to fix the disk with CHKDSK but I can't even load the recovery console or BartPE. A Microsoft support article indicates that in Windows 2000 one could create setup disks that didn't load ntfs.sys and run CHKDSK from there (apparently it has its own code for accessing NTFS partitions). Would this be possible with these Windows XP boot disks?

Also, I do have recent backups of super-important stuff, but would really like to recover changes since then.

Originally on MetaChat, thanks to everybunny there for their suggestions

Is there a free Windows utility that will synchronize local directories with a remote one by (S)FTP?

skryche — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 05:08:53 -0800

Is there a free Windows utility that will synchronize local directories with a remote one by (S)FTP? There are some files (HTML, DOC -- small stuff) that I work on at home (on two separate computers) as well as at work. Instead of some flash drive solution or emailing them to myself, I'd like a program that runs in the background on each computer and synchronizes any changes I make to a local directory with one on my FTP site. Does such a thing exist? And: is it free?

A wrinkle: in the situation where the program attempts to upload and somehow discovers a newer version on the FTP site, I'd like for it to ask me what to do.

The key here is automation; if I have to sync manually I will eventually forget and lose track of which machine has the latst copy.

tape loader & ntbackup

srboisvert — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 02:34:22 -0800

Network backup question: I need to backup 6 PCs using an 8 tape autoloader (Dell LTO2 T122) and ntbackup. Currently, the simple setup scheduled backups are quite flakey. Sometimes tapes don't mount (seems to depend on the sequence of powering up the tape drive and backup system pc) or network drives are disconnected and the backups don't happen - yet the task scheduler doesn't show any errors. I need an automated way, probably a script, to make sure the mapped drives are connected and that the removable media is recognized and mounted so this setup can run without me babysitting it. Logging results would also be nice.