[SOLVED] Backups

Hooked up my external drive last night and set my new lappy to do her backup (yes it's a her... duh?). It of course took forever.

What I'm wondering is, does the backup process "recopy" the entire backup each time or does it get quicker in time as it backs up only that which has changed? Trying to determine if I'm going to need to do like a once a month leaving of the laptop on all night or if things will go faster from now on.

Thanks guys!

Cant answer your question if your useing a backup with the O/S 7 operating system. However most (if not all) other backup programs allow for incremental backup in that after the initial one where everything is copied they only make incremental changes to reflect any changes on your source drive.

According to this it is a block-based back-up. If it took "incremental" back-ups I think they would have used that term. So the size won't change much but I don't really notice it getting any faster. (The article refers to the release candidate but since it says it hasn't changed from Vista I doubt it changed in the release build either)

It would be best to eliminate doing your backups with the Windows 7 backup utility. It's slow and not that reliable according to what I have researched.

Your best bet would be to use Acronis True Image Home 2010 or 2011, but you'll have to pay for it. The next best way would be to use Macrium Reflect Free backup.

Both are very fast, averaging about 8-10 minutes for a complete backup.

Check 'em out and see what you think. Besides who wants to spend hours doing a backup.

I use an image program, as Nibs suggested. (Acronis, but Macrium is free)
I have an original image, immediately after a freash install. One more after all my own customisation and a third after installing all my regular software and customising it. I also make an odd image before "experimenting "with suggested techniques and software.
Too much bother? I think not.
One spin off - It is very noticeable that a lot more users are experiencing "BSODs". The help for these is readily available. Usual suggestions are updating drivers and removing the latest installed software. The intercommunication for these problems, which normally includes making .dmp files, can take a while - even days. With a disciplined practice of making images, the problem can, often, be resolved in about 15 minutes. (Not always!)

Thanks guys! I found an awesome free backup utility today called Comodo. It did a super quick backup for me, exactly what I was looking for. It seems the Windows 7 backup is nothing more than copying files to your external drive or whatever... my only complaint in W7 so far though so I'll live. LOL

You know it's really quite remarkable how far the Help menu has come along since the early Windows days. I typed in the keywords "backup" into the Help search field and one of the links that turned up was frequently asked questions.

In that link the first bullet point listed was the folllowing:

*********************************************************************************************^
"Backups are created in sets known as backup periods. To help maximize your disk space, Windows Backup backs up all selected folders the first time it's run and then it only backs up files that are new or have been modified since the last backup was made.
Periodically, Windows creates a new, full backup. Each full backup is known as a backup period. When you view your file backups, you see all of the backup periods labeled with date ranges. If you decide to delete file backups, you should always keep the most recent file backup.
*********************************************************************************************^
(Emphasis added is mine).

So to answer your question, it seems it's capable of doing incremental backups. I'd be interested in hearing about your experiences as I invariably run into a few customers who want to know about the new features in Win7.

I personally prefer using imaging software. (Different from doing backups in the sens that it compresses the information on the partition or the drive). I've been a long time user of Acronis True Image which I have been using for ... 7 yrs?... 8 yrs? quite a while. When I was running Win XP, version 8 and 10 were rock solid. it's what I recommended. I just bought the 2010 home version and it's too soon to say anything positive or negative about it. I need to give it a fair shake before I recommend it. The one problem with Acronis is that they tend to release some buggy versions. They just released their 2011 version - supposedly it's better than the 2010 version. I feel no urge to upgrade because I I bought the 2010 version specifically for the fact that's it's compatible with the Win7 OS.

Two alternatives that hasn't been mentioned thus far as Norton Ghost and StorageCraft ShadowProtect. I have not tried the latter but I have used Norton Ghost back in the WinXP days - it was reliable and trustworthy. But because I am such a creature of habit - I stuck with Acronis.

I think you've gotten some good recommendations thus far. Whatever you end up using , make sure it's compatible with Win7 and that YOU LIKE IT. Good luck

Comodo software makes some very good applications, both free and pay-for-it.

Glad things are working out for you and you're starting to enjoy Windows 7 more and more each day!

If it's the same people who make Comodo firewall, I would stay away from it and stick with the trusted goodies like the ones already mentioned in this thread. I haven't heard anything good/positive about Comodo firewall.

If it works for her then fine. Many reviews are usually skewed or biased because the end-user is causing the fubar to occur, not the program.

It's like reading the reviews at Newegg on various products. If one looks closely at the bad reviews from users, usually it's because they have no idea of how to work or deploy the new hardware or are basically totally clueless.