back up software alternatives to use with my external hdd....options??

Long time lurker... First time poster!

I'll throw my .02 into the discussion and throw my vote behind Acronis True Image. I've used Acronis as my imaging tool exclusively since 2003 and completed restores on dozens of computers. Before Acronis there was a long list, but Acronis was the most reliable and didn't require installation of any 3rd party software.

Now, I'll take this a step further and detail my current backup method. I purchased Windows Home Server in 2007 and installed it on an old PC I had laying around. I've since built a machine dedicated to WHS and run 3TB of storage. Total cost is about $500, but the best 500 I've ever spent! WHS creates a daily image of up to 10 PCs on the network without any user intervention. It also allows network shared storage. WHS allows duplication, which stores the data twice - on different drives in the storage pool.

1. All images are stored locally on my computer.
2. All images, personal documents, music, and websites are copied to the appropriate share on WHS. Duplication is enabled on these shares so the content is stored twice for safety.
3. WHS creates an incremental image of the computer (and the others on the network) daily.
4. I still use Acronis once a month and create a new/full image to an external drive which I store at work.

This method is bulletproof and I don't have to rely on a third party off-site service or an internet connection for backup/restore. All photos, music, documents, etc are also available to any computer in my house.
1. I don't worry about hardware failure in the PC, as I have the ability to restore from the WHS.
2. I don't worry about image corruption or deletion on the PC as I can quickly pull from the WHS storage.
3. I don't worry about hardware failure in the WHS, as all important data is duplicated.
4. I don't worry about catastrophic failure or events because the original PC has been imaged to an external drive. I can restore the image, or extract any files I need.

So what happens when there is no house left? Fire, flood, tornado, burglary, zombies attack, mayhem strikes, etc, Offsite + onsite backup is the only way to go. You could lose up to a months worth of work?

deputy963 wrote in post #11622888
Long time lurker... First time poster!


1. All images are stored locally on my computer.
2. All images, personal documents, music, and websites are copied to the appropriate share on WHS. Duplication is enabled on these shares so the content is stored twice for safety.
3. WHS creates an incremental image of the computer (and the others on the network) daily.
4. I still use Acronis once a month and create a new/full image to an external drive which I store at work.

This method is bulletproof and I don't have to rely on a third party off-site service or an internet connection for backup/restore. All photos, music, documents, etc are also available to any computer in my house.
1. I don't worry about hardware failure in the PC, as I have the ability to restore from the WHS.
2. I don't worry about image corruption or deletion on the PC as I can quickly pull from the WHS storage.
3. I don't worry about hardware failure in the WHS, as all important data is duplicated.
4. I don't worry about catastrophic failure or events because the original PC has been imaged to an external drive. I can restore the image, or extract any files I need.

mutau052 wrote in post #11623925
So what happens when there is no house left? Fire, flood, tornado, burglary, zombies attack, mayhem strikes, etc, Offsite + onsite backup is the only way to go. You could lose up to a months worth of work?

Could? Yes. Probable? Not really. I'm sure, statistically, most fires floods and tornadoes happen the last day of the month! I actually take the laptop with me about 80% of the time when I leave, so the window of opportunity is very small. BTW, I'm most afraid of the zombie attacks - they freak me out!

US broadband just isn't up to the level it needs to be for reliable internet (cloud) backups. A high percentage of the country has no option other than dial-up and the upload speeds of most broadband connections isn't high enough to realistically maintain backups of any size-able amount. Initial backups of 1GB at 512kbps takes almost 5 hrs. 1TB would take over 200 days and that assumes a full bandwidth upload 24hrs per day. I'm fortunate enough to have 18Mb down and 3Mb up available where I live, but it would still take 35 full days for me.

Those who have access and can afford it have the option to pay for business level connections, but I doubt there are few of those reading this thread.

The most viable option is to pick and choose what you back up and where does that leave you? With items that aren't backed up.

Again, just my .02

mutau052 wrote in post #11623925
So what happens when there is no house left? Fire, flood, tornado, burglary, zombies attack, mayhem strikes, etc,

Then I have other things to worry about then last months images