Alternative Backup software for Windows 7 Home Premium needed

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jamesrt

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#105311 2-Jul-2012 10:55

So, having just acquired a NAS for my home network, I set about on the weekend getting the Windows 7 laptops backing up via the WiFi.

However, much to my disappointment, Microsoft have removed the "network backup" ability of Windows backup in Windows 7 Home Premium - I need to be running "Windows 7 Professional" for this. Not a smart decision, and presumably made entirely for marketing reasons and not for technical ones either!

So, need a better backup solution - and I thought, why not poll the community?

Can anyone recommend a decent backup package for Windows 7 Home Premium, that can backup to a network device, handles a decent backup schedule (i.e. weekly fulls and daily incrementals, for example), and preferably will retain old data for a month or so before deleting it from the backup device.

Something like TimeMachine would be ideal....

... and preferably low to no $$$, 'cause otherwise my Scottish Ancestry gets grumpy.

Thanks!

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#649426 2-Jul-2012 10:59

Acronis!

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

Do whatever you want to do man.

amanzi

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#649427 2-Jul-2012 11:00

I set this up recently for my wife and she's needed to use it to restore files several times, and it's worked seamlessly each time: http://www.genie9.com/home/home_solutions.aspx
It doesn't do full image backups so it's only good for file-level restores (you'd still need to reinstall Windows and your apps if your whole computer crashed.)
There's a free version there too but the software is so good, it's worth supporting.

nakedmolerat

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#649440 2-Jul-2012 11:10

amanzi: I set this up recently for my wife and she's needed to use it to restore files several times, and it's worked seamlessly each time: http://www.genie9.com/home/home_solutions.aspx
It doesn't do full image backups so it's only good for file-level restores (you'd still need to reinstall Windows and your apps if your whole computer crashed.)
There's a free version there too but the software is so good, it's worth supporting.

this is similar to Time Machine concept

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#649445 2-Jul-2012 11:14

Syncback SE is excellent, and is not too expensive.

freitasm

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#649464 2-Jul-2012 11:49

Acronis if you want full image. But if you need to restore you will need network drivers on the boot device you create, otherwise the PC won't see the NAS or other network devices. Best option for image backup is to external HDD, and for file backup to the NAS using Genie or similar.

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sidefx

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#649467 2-Jul-2012 11:53

I've come across a few recommendations for crashplan: http://www.crashplan.com/

Must admist I've yet to try it, but depending on what type of backups you want the free version may do what you need. (Note to self, must give it a try ;-) )

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freitasm

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#649471 2-Jul-2012 12:00

In addition to our NAS backup, and the image backup we use Crashplan at home and on Geekzone servers. This ensures that if our home is destroyed or the servers have problems we still can access backup from somewhere else.

It's an online backup though, so be prepared for extra bandwidth usage - a lot more on initial backup, and obviously only as much as you need after that...

The wife's Mac uses Time Machine service on the NAS, but we aregoing to backup online to Crashplan from this week... Adding another 60GB I'd say.

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#649476 2-Jul-2012 12:07

Crashplan for data (free mode to folder/nas) or paid online for day to day data.

acronis for image based. I use both extensively. Have done restores for both as well.

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sidefx

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#649479 2-Jul-2012 12:11

I got the impression Crashplan could also be setup to backup to other computers on your own network; so I had assumed to NAS too. Is that the case?

http://support.crashplan.com/doku.php/feature/multi_destination_backup

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#649482 2-Jul-2012 12:15

sidefx: I got the impression Crashplan could also be setup to backup to other computers on your own network; so I had assumed to NAS too. Is that the case?

http://support.crashplan.com/doku.php/feature/multi_destination_backup

Yeah, for free you can back up to a folder (or USB connected drive, or file share), or another machine on your network (via their software), or a friend over the internet (if they have crashplan as well).

EDIT: I stand corrected on the network drive option. It's not something I'd tried, as I have crashplan on all my machines and centralise my backups on one.

freitasm

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#649487 2-Jul-2012 12:22

You can backup for free using Crashplan to other friend's computer (or another one of yours). Obviously if you have all the PCs in the same household you don't have an off site protection, which is the whole idea.

You can't backup to a network drive - I tried setting my Crashplan storage to the NAS to allow my wife's PC to backup there, but it won't let me use network drives. I am not too worried because we now have the Time Machine service configured on the NAS so she's using that.

Her computer will also use Crashplan online for the reasons I posted: if the house burns down we still have our data somewhere else.

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sidefx

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#649490 2-Jul-2012 12:27

freitasm: You can backup for free using Crashplan to other friend's computer (or another one of yours). Obviously if you have all the PCs in the same household you don't have an off site protection, which is the whole idea.

You can't backup to a network drive - I tried setting my Crashplan storage to the NAS to allow my wife's PC to backup there, but it won't let me use network drives. I am not too worried because we now have the Time Machine service configured on the NAS so she's using that.

Her computer will also use Crashplan online for the reasons I posted: if the house burns down we still have our data somewhere else.

Agree to some extent, but I would view my skydrive\sugarsync copies of really important files (mainly just important documents and all our digital photos) as covering me for the "house burns down" scenario.

Crashplan would then be a good solution for the "oh crap I accidently deleted a file I didn't mean to" or HDD failures.

Real pity about the lack of NAS\network share support though.

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davidcole

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#649493 2-Jul-2012 12:29

sidefx:
freitasm: You can backup for free using Crashplan to other friend's computer (or another one of yours). Obviously if you have all the PCs in the same household you don't have an off site protection, which is the whole idea.

You can't backup to a network drive - I tried setting my Crashplan storage to the NAS to allow my wife's PC to backup there, but it won't let me use network drives. I am not too worried because we now have the Time Machine service configured on the NAS so she's using that.

Her computer will also use Crashplan online for the reasons I posted: if the house burns down we still have our data somewhere else.

Agree to some extent, but I would view my skydrive\sugarsync copies of really important files (mainly just important documents and all our digital photos) as covering me for the "house burns down" scenario.

Crashplan would then be a good solution for the "oh crap I accidently deleted a file I didn't mean to" or HDD failures.

Real pity about the lack of NAS\network share support though.

Just add a friend to the mix....else pay the $50 a year. There's no limits to the size of your backup....and while you can't do it with the online, you can seed a friends backups by giving them a harddrive.

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#649502 2-Jul-2012 12:38

I just thought I would add, if any one is concerned about security (you should be) with regards to online backups, there is a handy program called Cloud Fogger which will encrypt your data before leaving your computer.

This isn't such a big deal for backup solutions such as CrashPlan, which already offers client-side encryption.
It is very handy for the likes of free services you already have (such as SkyDrive, Google Drive) if you want to back up to them, but also want the added security of encrypting your files.

Of course, it should be noted that if you do use Cloud Fogger to backup to SkyDrive, Google Drive etc, you probably won't be able to view any of the files using the web based file browsers.

EDIT: Here's a link.
http://www.cloudfogger.com/en/

freitasm

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#649506 2-Jul-2012 12:44

sidefx:
freitasm: You can backup for free using Crashplan to other friend's computer (or another one of yours). Obviously if you have all the PCs in the same household you don't have an off site protection, which is the whole idea.

You can't backup to a network drive - I tried setting my Crashplan storage to the NAS to allow my wife's PC to backup there, but it won't let me use network drives. I am not too worried because we now have the Time Machine service configured on the NAS so she's using that.

Her computer will also use Crashplan online for the reasons I posted: if the house burns down we still have our data somewhere else.

Agree to some extent, but I would view my skydrive\sugarsync copies of really important files (mainly just important documents and all our digital photos) as covering me for the "house burns down" scenario.

Crashplan would then be a good solution for the "oh crap I accidently deleted a file I didn't mean to" or HDD failures.

Real pity about the lack of NAS\network share support though.

I also have my Documents synchronising with Skydrive. But it's not a backup, it's remote access really. It won't protect you against "oh, damn, deleted the wrong folder" once it syncs the deletion (as you already know).

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