Computer backups

[Cochese]

I declined to put this in the software/hardware section as I'm less concerned with backing up photos right now as I am system disc images.

Current systems:

1. Work computer - custom build Win 8 Core i5, 1 200GB system drive, 1 1.5TB media drive (700GB used) - this is what I am on all the time, and where Elements and Lightroom are
2. Kitchen computer - custom build Win 8 Phenom X3, currently out of commission
3. Older laptop - XP, only used for working out of town

I want something that I can clone the system discs of all three computers locally, in case of hard drive failures or heavy virus intrusion. The kitchen computer I just put out there just failed with hard drive corruption, I mistakenly used one of my bad 1TB drives, and I want protection against this sort of thing in the future. The other thing I want to do is have onsite backup for photos and music. A third task, a less important one, is to be able to serve music and movies to a DLNA client or the kitchen computer.

I have an older computer that I could set up a NAS with (tried to before, FreeNAS didn't work), however it is 32-bit so something like WHS 2011 would require a hardware upgrade. I'd like something that does automated backups, and connects to the network via the router. I want the main copy on the main computer, with a backup and a redundant backup locally, plus offsite backup for pictures. Music is largely taken care of via Google Music, so I'm not as concerned if I lose that. I've started throwing some photos up on Box.net, at least the ones I have pre-DSLR.

Cost is a factor, as I don't currently have the funds to throw $200 at an enclosure plus the drives. I want to stay away from external drives.

 

[jdeg]

I've used Norton Ghost in the past, but it doesn't look like that works as well anymore, and it doesn't appear that there is much out there for Win 8 yet. hrm

 

[§am]

Have a look at Acronis True Image Home

£60 for 3 PC license and it will do a system disk copy, which you can then store where ever you want.

It's fast as well, will backup a fresh install of an OS ~20mins, and restore that back in about the same time too.

 

[Cochese]

I've seen that, and it's tempting.

I think at first I'm going to try NAS4Free with Crashplan and see how that works out. I like the idea of cloud backups for $10/mo.

 

[Alex66]

I used Ghost very successfully on win XP machines, have not been so bothered with the machines my wife has had as they have a recovery partition and we just created a spare dvd of that. She only has to reload office so its no hardship if she needs to reinstall.

 

[§am]

Ghost is good but doesn't allow for incremental backups, plus it takes your PC offline whilst you're using it.
Acronis lets you schedule backups, where you want them, type and you can still use your PC a the same time.

The disk image it does is brilliant as it allows you to (like Ghost and others do), take an image and then restore it onto a larger drive in the future (something I've done a few times which saves a lot of re-install time).

Not used Ghost in a while - whats the cost these days anyway? Plus Symantec now own it, and they're never in my good books!!

 

[Cochese]

I'm back to this again. I got my system drive on my main computer backed up internally, now it's media time. I'm currently trying to decide between several local NAS/server options or external drives. Cheaper is the rule, so no Synology or Drobo systems. I'm currently seeing if I can put unRAID on one of my old PCs.

 

[§am]

A NAS by design sits on your network and you have access to it via your PC(s).
By that very connection, a virus on your PC can easily be transferred to your NAS and cause any manner of issues with data there too.

What are you hoping to achieve at the end - somewhere to store your media safely, somewhere to just store media, etc??