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Old 07-20-2017, 12:09 PM   #1
DownhillGoat
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Default Local Backup Software

Recently switched back to Windows from Mac and I'm looking for some decent backup software.

I have the Seagate software that came with my Backup Plus drive, but it's painfully slow.

Not looking for anything super robust, just backing up my Users folder, and my partitioned files drives. Would like to have something that schedules and can backup certain files in multiple versions.

Any suggestions are appreciated!
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Old 07-20-2017, 01:30 PM   #2
Meelapo
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For the last five years or so I've been using Crashplan. It'll backup everything you want, but it doesn't store anything local but in the Crashplan cloud. I've had to restore a few things a number of times and I've never had any issues.
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Old 07-20-2017, 02:43 PM   #3
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What version of Windows? The Windows 10 File History seemed to be pretty similar to TimeMachine, but there's rumours they're removing it in the next big update (not sure if they're replacing it or not).

I've tried a bunch, Cobian, EaseUS Todo Backup I've tried and they work well enough. COMODO Backup is one I haven't tried but have been meaning to.

EDIT: Or something like CrashPlan is good to backup online. I backup to my NAS which then gets backed up to Amazon.
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Old 07-20-2017, 03:02 PM   #4
DownhillGoat
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Windows 10. Didn't even know it had that, but if it's being removed kind of moot anyway.
Looked at EaseUS but it looks like the free version is ad-ware.

I already back up my photos via amazon, which is about the only thing I need to do with a cloud service. Nothing else except maybe tax info and GoPro videos are horrendously important.

I'm testing out Paragon Backup & Recovery. So far it's insanely fast compared to Seagate. I'll take a look at that COMODO as well.
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Old 07-20-2017, 03:43 PM   #5
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Oh yeah forgot Paragon had one too, been a long time since I've tried theirs.
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Old 07-21-2017, 01:24 AM   #6
Iceman90
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Have you looked at these options? The Best Backup Software for Windows
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Old 07-21-2017, 08:11 AM   #7
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I second Crashplan.
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Old 07-21-2017, 09:28 AM   #8
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I just went through this a couple of weeks ago.

I chose Veeam for Windows Free.

  • Allows backup and restore of file level, volume level, system state or the entire system. Choose what you want to backup (for example, I don't backup my games directories, I can reinstall them if needed)
  • Create a bootable image (either direct to USB or as an iso) from your system, using the system drivers, to restore from. Can also restore to dissimilar hardware.
  • Backup to USB, CIFS, and so on.
  • Expunge backups to a set schedule (ie. remove backups older than X days). Full, incremental, etc.

And as a bonus....NO ADS!

I chose it for it's simplicity.

Backups seem to work to my NAS. Can't figure out how to test a bare metal restore though.

ers
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Old 07-25-2017, 11:07 AM   #9
Sr. Mints
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I don't know if this is a dumb question, I don't know anything about this stuff.

Would Crashplan help (or protect/backup my own files) if, say, all the servers at work were hijacked by ransomware and instead of paying the ransom everything got deleted? Not that I'm saying that happened last week, or anything...

I.e. would whomever [potentially] hijacked the servers have access to a portable hard drive that was hooked up to a work computer through Crashplan?
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Old 07-25-2017, 12:11 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sr. Mints View Post
I don't know if this is a dumb question, I don't know anything about this stuff.

Would Crashplan help (or protect/backup my own files) if, say, all the servers at work were hijacked by ransomware and instead of paying the ransom everything got deleted? Not that I'm saying that happened last week, or anything...

I.e. would whomever [potentially] hijacked the servers have access to a portable hard drive that was hooked up to a work computer through Crashplan?
If I had to guess.... yes and no depending on the situation.

A portable hard drive if left connected to the server, I'd assume would end up getting hit by the ransom ware as well because it's viewable and accessible from the infected computer. But if the drive was disconnected and not reconnected to an infected computer, then I'm guessing it should be fine. Ransom ware would try to lock up every file it can get its hands on, no?

Your question isn't really dumb. It's a good one to ask. You should also spend the time to know the difference between a mirror "backup" and a true back up. One is a snapshot in time unaffected by future changes. The other just reflects (mirrors) what happens on a different computer.

For instance, some people say they use dropbox as a "backup". It's not a back up. It's a mirror. Useful if your hardware dies or is stolen, then you can hop on a different computer with the last save, download it and keep working. But if you accidentally deleted a file or it corrupted or was ransom ware'd, you're leaning towards SOL.

Here's the confusing part. Let's say you had two dropbox folders sync at time A. At time B computer A gets infected wiping out your dropbox files. If computer B isn't connected to the internet, you can recover those files by taking the computer offline before it has a chance to mirror the deletions on computer A. An offline drop box folder is technically a "back up" of the last sync. Copy the not yet deleted files to a thumb drive or desktop so that they don't get deleted when the computer is reconnected to the internet.

A true backup is a snapshot. It's a redundancy created where some point in the past > current situation for a file. For instance, a deleted or infected file. Or in some cases, a file that has stuff added to it you'd like to reverse and it's easier to go to the snapshot than start over or reverse what has been done. Now, during the back up process, it essentially mirrors the files on the server as at the time it is backing up. But after the mirroring is done, the backup is "filed away" and no longer mirrors the files going forward.

So if the drive has a back up from before the ransom ware, it can be used to restore. But if the drive has copied ("mirrored") the ransom ware attack, it too along with the server is likely to be burned to the ground.

Last edited by DoubleF; 07-25-2017 at 12:14 PM.
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