Back-ups

What is the most efficient way to make CD Backups?

pmj...

There isn't any one, single "most efficient" (or "best") way to
do it.

It all depends on what you want (& expect) & how you work.

Some people wil say that making *CD* Backups isn't the best
(or a very good) way, anyway!!!
But see below...

I seem to get in such a muddle 'cos I want to save almost everything stored

Rabbit...

Oh I know that feeling well :-) Don't you have a DVD burner on your pooter ?

pmj...

You should (at the very minimum) Backup anything (& everything)
that you don't want to lose.

That's the simple Rule!!!

But a lot of what you have on your PC may well already be stored (Cacked
up) elsewhere?

So you won't need to Back that sort of thing up (so frequently)

Also, a lot of stuff won't actually *change*, so it really only
needs to be Backed up once (or very infrequently), with only
*changed* stuff being more frequently Backed up.

I managed with a bit of editing to get all my docs onto a DVD. When I used
CDs I just burned as many as the CD could hold and took a screenshot of all
the files/folders I'd put on each CD for the case inlay. Probably not the
most efficient but it jbexed for me.

jamps...

Yes - I could put most of the stuff onto DVD's. The problem arises when I
need to backup new files & folders. It doesn't seem an efficient way to
just add them to a DVD in a haphazard order.

pmj...

No, it's not...

Savin gstuff individually to a CD/DVD is *very* wasteful of the
space on the CD/DVD...

What can help, very often, is to Save the stuff to a Temporary Folder,
(possibly on another Partition on your Hard Disk or another Physical
Hard Disk, if you have one), as you work, from day to day...

& then, when you have a bundle of things ready, Save them all
(Back them up) to Removable Media (such as CD/DVD)

You can either do that "by hand" (just using windoze Explorer
& Dragging & Dropping, or Copying & Pasting etc,) or using a by
dedicated Backup Utility.

Not all Installations of WinXP Home come with the (basic) Backup
Utility originally written by Seagate/Veritas) that M$ Supply, already
Installed, but the Medion PCs do come with it (if you have a PC which
doesn't have it Installed, it can be Installed from the windoze CD).

Or you can use something like Nero.

pmj...

Try Saving the stuff you want to back up onto CD/DVD into a
*Temporary* Folder somewhere (using windoze ordinary Drag & Drop
or Copy & Paste or a Utility of some kind, such as the windoze Backup
Utility or Nero) & then Save it to CD, when you have several things
ready to Save?

As it happens micro$oft have actually fairly recently released
a Utility called "SyncToy" which may well help with your prob?...

That is designed to make it easier to keep stuff Synchronised between
different places - either between Folders on Drives or between Drives
or between PCs.
So you have the latest Version of the File Saved always, rather than
older Versions

Jeff Gaines...

It might be worth going into that a bit pmj :-)

pmj...

Yep, it may well be *very* worthwhile!!!

I synchronise my data each night and if I wake up at 3 a.m. thinking 'I
shouldn't have made those changes' it's too late to revert to an older

pmj...

But (apparently) with this new "SyncToy" that M$ have brought out
it *isn't* too late!

Cos it has (amongst it's various Options) an Option which Saves
the previous Version, if you decide to OverWrite or Delete it,
so it *can* be Recovered.

I haven't actually tried it yet, so I don't know exactly what
it does or how it does it.

Jeff Gaines...

Sounds rather like SmartSync Pro which I use. I have to remember to
turn that off or on the first run or it tries to save 165GB of data to
its application folder, but difficult on a 12GB HD :-)

version.

Just in case anybody is unclear about the difference between backing up

pmj...

Yep.

But the differences *can* be blurred, in some ways?

& what about all this stuff about "Full", "Cumulative", "Incremental",
"Differential" & "Mirror" Backups Etc?

Jeff Gaines...

I was hoping you would explain that!

Rabbit...

I was hoping one of you would explain in numpty wot you are talking about
:-) I get the difference between synchronise and back up but why would I
want to synchronise ?

pmj...

Precisely *because* of the difference between Synchronising
& Backing up!!!
:-)

Jeff Gaines...

You're not into synchronisation then :-)

Rabbit...

I can't even swim :-)

I alway synchronise so that my 2 x backup HD's are always in sync with
the data HD. If I had a heap of backups I'd never know where to look to
find anything!

Rabbit...

OK I think I see it now. If you've changed a file/folder you synchronise so
that your back ups are the same all ( well most) of the time ? Much the same

pmj...

Sort of, but not quite...

as dragging and dropping the changed ones onto a R/W DVD ? Somebody told me

pmj...

Nope.
That's a Simplistic) way of doing a Backup.
It definitely isn't "Synchronising".

that can be done ( and is done at their place of employment) with a batch
file. Know anything about that?

Jeff Gaines...

Yes, I use a batch file on the laptop to copy files to the data HD and
then shutdown the laptop. Then at 1 a.m. a batch files runs on the
server and backs the data drive up to 2 separate drives on the Buffalo
TerraStation (basically 4 x HD's connected via a network connection).

If you want to use a batch file and xcopy then the following will do it:

Rabbit...

Thanks Jeff, I'll keep that in mind but right now the learning curve is on a
steep slope and there ain't a lot of room left. Once I get over the hill of
the curve I may be back asking question

**********************
REM backup.bat
XCOPY pathfrom/*.* pathto /D /E /V /C /I /Q /R /Y
poweroff.exe "JGPORT"
**********************

pathfrom is the source so may be:
D:\Data\*.*

The various flags say later files only, just get on with it, create
directories if necessary, do it, don't ask me.

pathto is the destination so may be
z:\PortBack\Data

Note no trailing backslash on the destination.

Poweroff is a free utility that turns off the computer - aggressively
so you have to make sure nothing important is running :-) If you can't
find it on the web I could mail it to you. That's only in the batch
file on the laptop, the server runs 24/7.

pmj...

Batch Files are (& have always been) the standard way of doing
a lot of (repetitive) things like that - you really don't need
a complicated Program to do it.

But you would need to remember that you can only Drag & Drop
(or use a Batch File like that) to Copy stuff onto a R?W CD,
(& have it written immediately), if the CD is Formatted for "Packet
Writing" - normally, you would have to actually Initiate the Writing
(Burning) of it & that needs a CD Burning Utility, such as Nero or
Roxio etc.

WinXP offers (what appears to be & acts like) "Drag & Drop" onto
CDs, but actually it Stores the stuff in a Temporary "Staging" Folder.
You then still have to actually *do* the Writing (Burning) of the CD.
It doesn't do "Packet Writing" - that has to be done using a 3rd Party,
Independent Utility.

pmj...

It's *because* of the difference between "Synchronising"
& "Backing Up" that you would want to do one, or the other
(or both!)...

Basically (& very briefly & oversimplified)...

Backing Up is the *Copying* of Files (that you don't want to lose),
from a "Source" to a "Destination" [*1], so as to offer a means
of "Restoring" them, if anything happens to the Originals (on the
"Source"), according to a (Pre-Defined) Set of Criteria. [*2]

[*1]
The "Source" & "Destination" can be a Folder, a Partition (Drive)
on a Hard Disk, or Removable Media, such as CD/DVD or USB Memory Card,
Tape or whatever.

[*2]
The "Criteria" can be whatever you (or a Program/Utility) decides
are the right Conditions & things to Copy.

Synchronizing though, is something different.

It also utilises the principle of 2 separate places & Copies stuff
between them, but there's no real "Source" & "Destination"...

The idea is that any (& all) *changes* to the Files in *either*
of the 2 (or more) places are reflected in the other (again,
according to (Pre-Defined) Criteria)

Jeff Gaines...

I think you may be bringing a third definition in here :-)

I do a uni-directional synchronise, i.e. the destination mirrors the
source, if the destination file is different from the source it gets
over-written, if it doesn't exist in the source it gets deleted.

Although it may seem to be a backup the software I use calls it
synchronisation :-) If I use the software to backup it seems to produce
things like backup1, backup2 etc. which is a pain.

That allows for Deletion as well as Updating of Files (in either
or both places)

& the Files can be Copied either (or both) ways - directions.

With Backing Up, the Files are only ever Copied *from* the "Source"
*to* the "Destination".

You only Copy them the other way (from the Destination to the Source),
when "Restoring" the Backup.

Sometimes what is needed is a "Back up", but other times
"Synchronising" may be more suitable or appropriate.
& other times a combination of both!

But one isn't really a *Substitute* for the other.

and synchronising?

I like the idea of screenshots for the case inlays - now that's what I call

pmj...

& Nero comes with a CD/DVD Cover/Inlay Designing Utility!
& it can be used to show a File Listing of what's on the CD/DVD

clever! :-)

Jeff Gaines...

If you have a lot of stuff to back up will it fit on a CD (650MB/700MB
max)?

jamps...

lol I wish! I've managed to put some of the stuff from My Docs onto one
CD-RW

If not how about an external hard drive? If you go for USB2 or Firewire
(preferably) it will be much quicker. You could then use a batch file
to back up each day and turn the computer off.

jamps...

Hmmm. I'll look into that - it sounds a good idea.

All you have to remember is to grab the HD as you run out of the house
in the event of a fire :-)

jamps...

Yes - I would have to add that to all my 'treasures' that I keep ready to
grab as I run out!
rofl

David C....

I have to agree with Jeff.

It's possible to buy external 80 GB H/D's for app. �50 & if they are
kept "off-line" then they should last a very long time.

80 GB is probably enough for most of us, since we are primarily
concerned with data storage.
Norton Ghost will allow you to create a clone of your hard drive onto
an external drive, useful if your primary drive crashes.............

on my PC. :-(

I was reminded of this last night when a friend of mine lost *all* his
customers details - including addresses and phone numbers when he had what
he called "A serious computer crash". He's managed to retrieve all the
information now but has been out of business for more than a month! I
reminded him that it was a good idea to make CD Backups of all his important
stuff - and that reminded me to practice what I preached! :-)

Greg Lewin...

I think the quality of the CD is as important as how
you do it, certainly if you want to have archives
(longterm backups), as opposed to short term backups.
Backups and archives are often confused. For the
latter, some CDs have too short a lifetime - said to be
as short as 2 years in some cases, and if they're
carelessly stored.