Backup/Imaging Software

[reggie14]

I'm looking to buy new backup/imaging software. I want to be able to create nightly nightly incremental or differential backups to a shared network drive (on an unRAID server). I want the software to automatically manage the deletion of old backups.

I've been using Acronis Backup&Recovery 10 Workstation for a few years, but I find it a little "quirky" at times. It works (based on one test I did a long time ago), but the bugs are annoying me.

I'm trying to decide whether I should buy the new version of Backup & Recovery (version 11.5). I've been a little reluctant to do so because it seems like Acronis isn't updating it very regularly. I'm not finding a lot of evidence that there are major outstanding bugs, but the infrequent updates are concerning to me.

The other options I'm considering are TrueImage 2013 and ShadowProtect Desktop. ShadowProtect is more expensive, and lacks certain features that I've often found useful (namely, the ability to exclude folders from backups). But, ShadowProtect is likely to be the most reliable.

TrueImage's feature set has improved to finally include scheduled backups with automatic deletion of old backups. So, it's starting to look like a viable option. But, it also includes stuff I don't need, like "Try and Decide" and "non-stop backups." I understand I don't need to use those features, but it seems a little bloated for my purposes. On the bright side, TrueImage does appear to be a little more actively developed than Backup and Recovery.

I'm open to other options, too, but I'm nervous about going with little-known ones. They don't have much in the way of user reviews, so I worry about how well they'll work if I ever need to do a restore.

Any suggestions/recommendations?

[MattHelm]

I use "Macrium Reflect". Check their web site for feature list.

http://www.macrium.com/

[nyplayer]

I use TrueImage 2013 with plus pack..... Easy to restore to different hardware if need be.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

I use TrueImage 2013 with plus pack..... Easy to restore to different hardware if need be.

I'm a little nervous about installing it. I assume you don't need to install the weird features that mess up your hard drive (e.g., Secure Zone), right?

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by reggie14

I'm a little nervous about installing it. I assume you don't need to install the weird features that mess up your hard drive (e.g., Secure Zone), right?

I have never heard of weird features that mess up your drive. Have you experienced this or are you relying on other user experiences... I myself have not had any problems.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

I have never heard of weird features that mess up your drive. Have you experienced this or are you relying on other user experiences... I myself have not had any problems.

+1 or at least with the 2011 version of True Image that I own. Never had it mess up a drive.

[Skirge01]

I'm using EaseUS Todo Backup. While they have 3 different versions, including a free one, I went with the Workstation edition because it includes the ability to restore to dissimilar hardware. The price seemed quite fair to me, but you can also check out retailmenot to see if there are additional discounts to be had.

EDIT: Link fixed!

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

I'm using EaseUS Todo Backup. While they have 3 different versions, including a free one, I went with the Workstation edition because it includes the ability to restore to dissimilar hardware. The price seemed quite fair to me, but you can also check out retailmenot to see if there are additional discounts to be had.

Your link is misleading.

[wayner]

What about WHS2011? I have one of these backing up all my PCs and I also have a Sage license on the WHS machine as well. So if my Sage server dies I can just point my extenders to the WHS machine and be back in business immediately, except for the capability to record new shows or watch live TV.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by wayner

What about WHS2011? I have one of these backing up all my PCs and I also have a Sage license on the WHS machine as well. So if my Sage server dies I can just point my extenders to the WHS machine and be back in business immediately, except for the capability to record new shows or watch live TV.

Wouldn't that mean getting a new machine just to do backups ... when a good piece of software and some Nas drives can do the tasks.

[wayner]

Yes it would but a new machine doesn't have to be too expensive and it has other potential benefits.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by wayner

What about WHS2011?

Does the backup utility built into Win7 get better if you're using it with WHS?

I looked into using that a few years ago. At first, I couldn't figure out if it could do incremental backups to network shares. I Win7 Pro can, but at the time I thought I read things that indicated it couldn't.

For testing purposes I tried setting it up once with a local hard drive. Then I couldn't figure out good ways to hold on to original images. Basically back-up management looked constrained and/or difficult.

I never gave WHS a chance. I wanted redundancy in the drives in the pool, without duplicating files or setting up a RAID5. Instead, I went with unRAID. Now that MS has said WHS is being killed off, I'm glad I didn't go with WHS, but I"m not thrilled with unRAID either. At this point, I have very little confidence in the unRAID developer.

I ended up deciding to give B&R 11.5 a try. While B&R10 had its quirks, I know it worked. I also had pretty good experiences with Acronis tech support when I ran into problems. So far it does appear to be a pretty significant step up from B&R 10.

[wayner]

I haven't used the backup built into Win7. I am pretty sure that WHS does incremental backups, even across multiple machines on your LAN. For example, if you have Win7 Pro installed on 4 PCs then it only backs up the common system files once.

WHS2011 no longer has built in redundancy but you can by something called DrivePool that gives you this and it works well.

I have done bare metal restores with WHS several times, but I have not had to do them since I upgraded from WHS v1 to WHS2011 a few months back.

WHS is being EOL'ed by MS but when you are a Sage user you kind of get used to dead end software. And the price is right as it is selling for about $50 or at least it was a few months ago.

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

Your link is misleading.

I'll bet! Fixed.

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Does the backup utility built into Win7 get better if you're using it with WHS?

I looked into using that a few years ago. At first, I couldn't figure out if it could do incremental backups to network shares. I Win7 Pro can, but at the time I thought I read things that indicated it couldn't.

You cannot perform backups to anything but local drives on the WHS2011 machine. There is absolutely no way around this and that's specifically why I dropped WHS2011 for backup purposes. I've relegated WHS2011 to being the remote gateway for all my PCs since you get a static domain to use with WHS.

[BobPhoenix]

I also use WHSv1 as a backup as well as Acronis True Image. At one time I had a third backup going with WinRAR and key files from the SageTV directory as a third backup. But I haven't had that working in quite a while now. Not sure if I could even find the script I used any more. I do have a script that I run to backup with WinRAR the WHSv1 BDBB backups.

I don't want to rely on just one backup solution or target for that matter.

[patja]

I use WHS 2011 for all of our household backups. I like that I don't pay more to backup more clients (plus with access to the MS company store, I get it for only $50). I run it in a VM on the same machine that also hosts my Sage server VM, and a Omnios/napp-it VM that hosts all of my storage (Sage recordings, WHS backups, etc) on ZFS RAID-Z2 redundant storage. Works great!

[panteragstk]

I just let my Server Essentials 2012 box do all my backups. Very nice OS. A bit more than you are asking for however.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

I just let my Server Essentials 2012 box do all my backups. Very nice OS. A bit more than you are asking for however.

I seriously considered that. I've lost almost all confidence in the unRAID developer at this point and was thinking above moving to Server Essentials. I like the parity protection that unRAID offers, though, and I'm not real thrilled with the way Storage Spaces works. I don't like that you basically have to double your array size if you want to add space, otherwise it ends up in a weird state where you can't use all of your available space.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by reggie14

I seriously considered that. I've lost almost all confidence in the unRAID developer at this point and was thinking above moving to Server Essentials. I like the parity protection that unRAID offers, though, and I'm not real thrilled with the way Storage Spaces works. I don't like that you basically have to double your array size if you want to add space, otherwise it ends up in a weird state where you can't use all of your available space.

I don't use storage spaces. It generally sucks from what others have said. I just use drive bender to pool my drives. I have two set on duplication and the reset set to a large pool. UnRaid sounded nice, but rebuilding an array and all the other stuff that goes into it isn't all that appealing to me. RAID in general is a pain unless you can go with 10. Then you have zero down time and all the performance you can get. It takes a crapton of drives though. If one of my drives die I lose what's on that drive only. Everything has a hard copy backup so it isn't that big of a deal.