iLike this backup

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Touchdown! Greaser!
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Dave Taylor
I just could never find the backup system or program I wanted. Most required way too much button-pushing to accomplish what I really needed.
So, I report on this very functional and thorough backup method which I happened upon. It does exactly what I want.

See pic and this site
(the link is for laptops but there are desktops too)

I bought this when I was upgrading a laptop to a larger HD. You buy the HD and then the Data transfer software with the enclosure. Install HD into enclosure and run the software they provide. Hit a few buttons and it transfers the old HD contents completely onto the new HD.
Of course, then you swap harddrives for the upgrade.

However, it dawned on me that this would be an excellent way to do periodic full backups. Plug in, push a few buttons and walk away....it will make a functioning duplicate of your HD. I will do it about every month and report back if I see any problems.
That is a regularity that I need for backups on this computer. Not sure I'd do this to a HD every night, but I don't need to.
When I have a document etc that I can't risk waiting for that monthly backup I can use a USB flashdrive right then..none of my files are very big anyway.

With this method of backing up, not only do you have a copy of everything but you have a HD that you can swap out and instantly carry on!
Genius!

"CMS BounceBack® Data Transfer software, with its EasyMove™ technology will make a full and complete copy of your old hard drive, including Operating System, Applications, the System Registry, Boot info and your data files."
 

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My only concern would be that at some point you might damage a connector on the drive or cause another issue by constantly removing/reinstalling them. If you do then you're looking at potentially having to use a month old backup.
 
My only concern would be that at some point you might damage a connector on the drive or cause another issue by constantly removing/reinstalling them. If you do then you're looking at potentially having to use a month old backup.

I will leave the 'backup' harddrive in its enclosure so those connections are safe.
There are the cables to the enclosure but that is not different than other cables ie pretty fail-proof.
 
Acronis TrueImage does this - I'm quite happy with it. Backs up to Network-Attached Storage just fine too.
 
I will leave the 'backup' harddrive in its enclosure so those connections are safe.
There are the cables to the enclosure but that is not different than other cables ie pretty fail-proof.
Sorry. I misunderstood. I only read about four words of your post, a bad habit of mine.

I thought you were removing the hard drive from your computer for every backup.
 
I'm not familiar with the software, but it seems to be a standard cloning app, probably using the VCSS. I use one called Casper that's bailed my gluteus maximus out of the fire more than once.

Cloning reduces downtime compared to imaging because there's no extraction needed. But it's not a perfect solution. I had one case where both the system drive and its clone were infected with a nasty virus. That was about five years ago, and the malware wasn't nearly as vicious as it is today.

It's also possible that the same hardware problem, power event, etc. could hose both drives, if they're both internal. Using an external drive for the clone and disconnecting it between backups helps prevent these sorts of things.

I used to clone my system drive every day. Now I do it once a week or so, except that I always refresh the clone prior to major system changes and updates. My data is separately backed up both locally and online, so even if I had to use a week-old clone of the system drive, reimporting the important stuff to bring it up-to-date would be pretty simple.

-Rich
 
That's a great secondary use of the BounceBack Transfer product Dave. As you know, BounceBack Transfer was designed to help laptop and PC users migrate the entire contents of an old hard drive onto a new one. We also offer a program designed purely for Backup and Instant Recovery called BounceBack Ultimate. With BounceBack Ultimate you have the option of starting your PC or Laptop directly from an external USB hard drive. BounceBack Ultimate also keeps track of any changes in between backups so you would not need to run a full backup each time, it would only need to update your backup drive, something BounceBack Transfer was not designed to handle.

Tim, BounceBack is quite different to the Acronis True Image product in the way is makes a native file format clone of a hard drive. Acronis is more of an Image Based backup program that creates a compressed archive image which then extracted onto a piece of media. Native file format backups enable the user to browse and access the individual file level data on a hard drive, this is what enables BounceBack Ultimate to make a bootable backup that can be started directly in the event of a hard drive failure, something other backup programs can't do.

CMS has a trial version of BounceBack Ultimate here.
 
Is there a program you can buy that constantly googles things like your company, your product - then messages you when it discovers someone talking about you on random forums??
I noticed Jeannie got the interest co owner of her prize fuel qty device, similarily.
 
Wow. I think I will start pulling the blind when I go to the bathroom anymore.
 
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