Suggestions for backup/restore software

[splunge]

After a fatal hard drive crash 2 years back, I've been more careful to backup important files onto an external drive. i've simply been copy/pasting what I thought was important. I've seen various utilities on download sites to copy/backup hard drives. Are these superior to simply copying stuff over? Are there utilities that can help restore backups to a new harddrive or PC to save the time of reinstalling all the programs?

Any suggestions/opinions appreciated.

[LittleGhoti]

I've used Acronis successfully for years

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832200204

[EzyStvy]

Ditto on Acronis. You can use it to make an exact image of the main drive...For just backing up files you create, the following is a popular option:

SyncBack is a flexible, and quite powerful backup and synchronization program that allows to to maintain backup copies of your files and folder, or to synchronize them, so that both locations always have a complete copy (e.g Laptop/PC). It offers different types of actions that let you choose how older and newer files are processed, which files should be excluded (by mask) and more. It offers standard file comparison based on the date and size, as well as optional MD5 checksum, which will detect even the slightest modifications to files. SyncBack also supports scheduled projects, FTP and zip compression of backups, as well as network login, simulation runs and more.

http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/SyncBack/SyncBack.html

[glc]

Acronis has the ability to make incremental and/or differential images - this is a great feature. You do a full image, then you do periodic incrementals and/or differentials to pick up new and changed files without doing another full image.

[splunge]

Can you boot then copy back from an external drive? I don't have a second internal drive?

[glc]

Yes, Acronis is capable of working to/from USB. Just boot with the CD.

[edfair]

At a suppliers insistance I installed PCBackup from "StompSoft" on a customer's machine. It appears to do a good job but I haven't had enough time or trouble to properly eval it yet.

[glc]

Ed, that's just the latest version of Backup Exec. It's actually been around forever.

[edfair]

Thanks for the info. My major backup program experience has been on the Unix side and I've missed all the windows side since the mid 90s. I had tried a backup exec version that came with a wangtek tape drive during the late Xenix period and decided I preferred file copy to floppies.

[not important]

Another vote for Acronis. I used Ghost for several yrs. but Acronis is more reliable and a lot better to look at.

[splunge]

I DL'd the free version 7 of Acronis and all seems to be working perfectly. The install was easy, the manual readable and the interface clear. I can't vouch for the backup, but all seems in order.

Thanks everyone.