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Backup Software (PC to NAS)

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BostonDan

Regular Contributor
Can anyone recommend backup software that will run both on Windows XP & Windows 7 and meets most of the following criteria:

1) Will backup to a NAS without having to map a network drive?
2) Will detect when I'm connected to my home network and automatically perform backups.
3) Will run in the background performing incremental backups of modified files as it detects them
4) Will retain prior versions of files
5) On incremental backups, backup the differences/modifications, not the entire file. For example, when backing up a large PST.
6) Low cost.

I really liked Oops!Backup, but it requires mapping a network drive.
In advance - appreciate your help.
 
Additional Inforation

One more critical piece of information:
I'm only interested in backing up My-Documents, Favorites, and a few other directories. I'm not looking to backup system files.
 
I had not heard of Oops!Backup. I looked at their website and it sure looks like they are trying to make a PC version of Apple's Time machine. The GUI sure looks friendly and I hope the app works as well as it looks. I haven't tested so cannot comment on its capabilities and reliability.

Take a look at Genie Soft's Timeline Pro. It should do everything you asked, plus more. What the Oops people call ReverseDelta, Genie calls Block level backup. And yes, Timeline will backup to SMB shares so you should not need to map your network share.

http://www.genie-soft.com/Business/Genie_Timeline_Pro/overview.aspx
 
Thanks Claykin - I looked at Genie Timeline but most of the reviews on the web rate it as a beast which consumes the PC and takes forever to backup. I'm a little hesitant on the programs that ship with the NAS's because I've seen some comments from others stating that there are better solutions out there (not sure what they are - hopefully someone will read this and respond). I'm still researching them: NTI Shadow(comes with ReadyNAS), Synology's Data Replicator 3, and others. (I own both a ReadyNAS Duo and Synology DS209 but haven't yet tried out their software). The search continue.

Thanks again,
Dan
 
Based on your wish list, you'll be disappointed with the solutions provided with your NAS. Most don't support copying open/locked files and I don't know of any that support delta file backup.

Regarding Genie Timeline, yes Genie-Soft's products can be a bit bloated, but its one of the few options you have based on your wish list. Timeline V2 was released on April 15th. May be worth taking a look. Worst case, you uninstall it. BTW, Timeline offers a "smart" and turbo mode. If smart is too slow, try turbo mode, but beware you may take a system performance hit. I haven't done research to see what type of comparison Genie is doing, but it appears that Oops! is using Timestamp compare only. If Genie is offering CRC comparison, this is far more accurate, especially if one side of the sync resides on a Linux partition.

Try it and compare to Oops.

BTW, for sync I normally use and recommend Syncback Pro. Its not as pretty as Oops! but I find its backup/sync/mirror capabilities to be very high quality with little to no problems in most applications. Syncback supports most of your wish list items, but does not support Delta file backup. Maybe you can live without Delta file copying for your local backups??
 
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I have been using Genie Backup Manager for a few years and love thier products.

Lately I received a rebate offer from Genie Software for Genie Timeline Pro v2.0

I bought the software for about $40 CAN and I really love it. When the software is in Smart mode then it will slow down the speed for the backup. This is to preserve CPU and ressource for you while you are using your PC.

If you want to speed up things then you can select Turbo mode which will increase your backup speed.

The first time you will make the backup it will be slower unless you use Turbo Mode. After you just forget it.

I don't use the Smart Selection (only for Documents, favorite, email)
I don't use the others (office files, Finance files, Video files) because it will scan HDD and backup all theses files that are stored in other folders on the HDD.

I manually select the folders I want to backup on my different HDD.

Download the 30 days free trial
 
Thanks

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and thoughts. I'm still continuing my research to find my ideal soltuion (it's the engineer in me). My current plan is to use Oops!Backup for incremental backups of data files and Acronis TrueImage for image/system backups. I liked Genie, but one of the reviews made me too apprehsive to consider using it as a permanent solution. Check out: http://www.top-windows-tutorials.com/file-backup-software.html#contenders
I'm hopeful that either Genie will improve reliability or Oops!Backup will support encryption and network drives (without drive mapping) in the future.
If anyone else has additional advice, coments, or suggestions, please post.
Thanks again,
Dan
 
Thanks everyone for your suggestions and thoughts. I'm still continuing my research to find my ideal soltuion (it's the engineer in me). My current plan is to use Oops!Backup for incremental backups of data files and Acronis TrueImage for image/system backups. I liked Genie, but one of the reviews made me too apprehsive to consider using it as a permanent solution. Check out: http://www.top-windows-tutorials.com/file-backup-software.html#contenders
I'm hopeful that either Genie will improve reliability or Oops!Backup will support encryption and network drives (without drive mapping) in the future.
If anyone else has additional advice, coments, or suggestions, please post.
Thanks again,
Dan

That review and $1.49 will get you a cup of coffee at Dunkin Donuts. Thats about all its worth.

Test Timeline 2 for yourself before throwing it under the bus. Set it to Turbo mode so it can compete time wise with Oops in your own testing.

Be careful with Acronis Trueimage. Although its feature rich and looks great on paper, I have had plenty of problems with it. Everything from failure to run, crashes, corrupt images, images that won't restore. I haven't tried 2010, but I do keep an eye on their forums and 2010 doesn't look like a game changer. Obviously your mileage may vary so if you try it and have good success, then please let us know.
 
Genie

Sorry - I didn't state everything. I did try Genie, but was having issues with incremental backups taking up 100's of MB's of space, even when there were no changes. I would complete a backup, and then immediately run another backup and it would take up 100's of MB's more space. The interface felt a little clunky and the review was that one extra peice of information that made me rule it out.
 
Drive Imaging Software

I forgot to mention in my previous post that I've read the same feedback surrounding Acronis TrueImage. Any recommendations on a better package for handling drive imaging and restore? If possible, something that supports restoring to different size drive. Thanks again for your help.
I contacted Altaris(Oops!Backup) and they are adding NAS support to their next release. Once that's in, the product is close enough to meeting my ever-chaning requirements. Each time I review an additional package, I find some new feature I like and my demands become greater.
 
I forgot to mention in my previous post that I've read the same feedback surrounding Acronis TrueImage. Any recommendations on a better package for handling drive imaging and restore? If possible, something that supports restoring to different size drive. Thanks again for your help.
I contacted Altaris(Oops!Backup) and they are adding NAS support to their next release. Once that's in, the product is close enough to meeting my ever-chaning requirements. Each time I review an additional package, I find some new feature I like and my demands become greater.

My two preferred disk imaging tools are Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery (big brother of Norton Ghost 15) and Storagecraft Shadowprotect. Both will address your needs and both can even restore images to dissimilar hardware (Ghost 15 cannot restore to dissimilar hardware).

And just in case you decide to revisit that same "review" site, his disk imaging review is full of holes. He admittedly claims he tested Ghost 15 trial version (which apparently from his notes has some features disabled. Duh!). I doubt he even ran liveupdate to patch to 15.1 as he doesn't discuss this in his review. That said, he claims Ghost 15 does not allow mounting images and doesn't support backup to Blu-ray. Both are false statements. Its clear he didn't want to promote Ghost since he doesn't have an affiliate marketer relationship with Symantec. Don't believe me, check his links to purchase on the last page. Notice how some of the links include affiliate codes or send you to a special website to order. For Ghost he sends you to Nortons public page. Read into it what you will....

Another great imaging tool is Image for Windows. Its more complicated to use, but has a small footprint and gets the job done.

I also read on the Altaro forums that they plan to add UNC support so NAS shares can be added without the need to map. I believe this is coming in their forthcoming V3. Hopefully they also add an AES encryption option.
 
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Sorry - I didn't state everything. I did try Genie, but was having issues with incremental backups taking up 100's of MB's of space, even when there were no changes. I would complete a backup, and then immediately run another backup and it would take up 100's of MB's more space. The interface felt a little clunky and the review was that one extra peice of information that made me rule it out.

Ooh, thats not good. What was stored in the folder that took up 100's of MB?
 
Genie Backup

Hi Claykin - The files that stood out were my mail files. Although some are very large (1.5GB), even without opening outlook, it would backup some 100's of MBs of incremental data.
Thanks for your recommendations on the drive imaging software.
 
I myself am running Acronis TrueImage 2010 with their Plus Pack and have had no problems with scheduled backups other than one hitch. Sometimes during a scheduled backup it'll report a disk error on the destination drive (my NAS) - I think this is related to the NAS drives being in sleep mode when the backup starts. As soon as I click "retry" the backup starts with no problems.

I have also used Acronis TrueImage to restore backups to a new hard drive to upgrade an existing system, and no problems there either. The Plus Pack allows you to restore to dissimilar systems, similar to the StorageCraft ShadowProtect software. I have not tried that feature, so cannot comment on it. It does require you to make a WinPE recovery CD though.

Finally, have you thought about a Windows Home Server box instead of a traditional NAS? If you work with a Windows environment, then it can back up many of your client PCs quite easily.
 
I have also used Acronis TrueImage to restore backups to a new hard drive to upgrade an existing system, and no problems there either. The Plus Pack allows you to restore to dissimilar systems, similar to the StorageCraft ShadowProtect software. I have not tried that feature, so cannot comment on it. It does require you to make a WinPE recovery CD though.

Similar, but not nearly as solid and reliable. No need for Win PE to make hardware independent restore work. If you don't go for Shadowprotect, my recommendation is Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery 2010.

Finally, have you thought about a Windows Home Server box instead of a traditional NAS? If you work with a Windows environment, then it can back up many of your client PCs quite easily.

Yes it can backup XP and newer client PC's but with little flexibility and NO hardware independent restore. Wait for Win Home Server V2 if you are thinking of going that route. Should be out later in 2010.
 
Agreed that Shadowprotect is more solid, but it is also more expensive. There are also nifty tools that come packaged with Acronis, including disk cloning and secure wiping.
 
I continue to use and highly recommend Storagecraft Shadowprotect.

  • Works in XP, Vista (32/64) and Windows 7 (32/64). We've used and restored (from boot USB/DVD) to about 30 different hardware OS combinations.
  • The images can be restored at speeds up to ~100 (assuming you're restoring over gigabit to a RAID array from a fast NAS) using a USB boot key, or boot DVD. Drivers for any RAID or NIC can be loaded in after boot meaning it works with every hardware combination I've every thrown at it. For disaster recovery, including to different hardware, I continue to be impressed.
  • On the windows side, backups work flawlessly, and can "resume" once a network connection is detected if required. Backup over the LAN to a fast NAS typically runs at 60-90 MB/s depending on hardware. Using an Intel SSD drive in the laptop (200MB/s)...it nearly maxes the gigabit connection to our READYNAS PRO which is capable of approx. 103MB/s writes.

Cheers,
Dennis.
 

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