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Back up ???

14 years ago

I have a vista 64 computer that has a 2 TB external HD for backing up. I did a Full back up about 4 months ago and have been doing incremental back up ever since. My question is this:

1) can I do another FULL back up? do I try and remove the older back up? or just not worry. I think it may show a date etc ..is that correct ..so I can choose which Full back up to reload in the future. Also how often do you guys do a FULL back up.

2) when I do the incremental back ups do they also include any and all MS updates?

My concern here is if one day my internal HD goes south I can purchase a new one and then just download the full and or incremental back ups. Does this make sense..

Thanks in advance guys

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Comments (9)

owbist
14 years ago
The whole purpose of a backup is the ability to recreate your computer once a new hard drive is installed.

I do not back up often enough, probably a failure with many of us. However I always remove the existing backup and create a new full backup. Not sure of any science here but I just feel more comfortable doing it that way.

This might prove an interesting topic and it will be good to see other observations on the issue.
ravencajun Zone 8b TX
14 years ago
it depends on what type of backup you are doing as to if you can just use that to have your pc back instantly as it was, are you doing an image backup? if so then yes that is just like a snapshot of your hard drive everything is included. If you are using backup software that only backs up your files and important data no, you would have to install your Operating system and drivers then add your backed up files and of course get any updates that were needed.

a good program to add so that you will always have a copy of your drivers is the free double driver.
Double Driver 4.10

If you have plenty of room I would keep 2 full backups because sometimes things do go wrong.
tell us what backup you are using
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mike_kaiser_gw
14 years ago
My suggestion would be a full back-up weekly and incremental back-ups on the other six days. That what if something fails you only have, at max, one full and 6 incremental restores to do.
grandms
14 years ago
I have two external hard drives. I do a full backup (clone) on one and the next month do a full backup on the other. Yes, the software I use does date the backups, so it is possible to do a restore using the latest backup even if you have saved several. Since I use my computer strictly for personal use, I do not do incremental backups.The snapshot or clone backup does back up the MS updates, too, so if you do the full image backup, you are safe to restore everything including OS and updates. I have used the terms "clone", "snapshot", and "image" since the terms are fairly interchangeable, as far as I know.
big_al_41
Original Author
14 years ago
Is there a free program that will allow me to do a COMPLETE back up and also an incremental back up?

Right now I am using the program from MS that came with the computer.

BTW, thanks for all the help
ravencajun Zone 8b TX
14 years ago
yes there are several good image programs that are free to use. Making a full image is really the way to go rather than just updating your data that way your Operating system and all settings and drivers are saved too.

Macrium Reflect.

Todo Backup Free

8 free software to image/backup/ghost your computer (free alternatives to Acronis True Image, Norton Ghost, etc.).
owbist
14 years ago
Just curious. Is there something wrong with the back up software from MS?

Also check the make of the hard drive installed in your external drive, if Maxtor or Seagate then you can download the software from them for free.
grandms
14 years ago
I use the Todo Backup Free for my XP computer, but I use the MS backup for Windows 7 since it does do the complete image backup.
ravencajun Zone 8b TX
14 years ago
owbist not that I know of.

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