I am looking for a WIN XP backup program that will:

1. Back up files and folders of my choice, onto a device of my choice, both
on demand and on a schedule
2. The backup files must be viewable, accessible, and retrievable in Windows
Explorer in the normal format
3. Must be able to do complete and incremental backups.

Any recommendations?

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"doryon" <doryon@rcn.com> wrote in message
 news:DfadnZkSM_TcBSLYnZ2dnUVZ_vyunZ2d@rc
n.net...
>I am looking for a WIN XP backup program that will:
>
> 1. Back up files and folders of my choice, onto a device of my choice,
> both on demand and on a schedule
> 2. The backup files must be viewable, accessible, and retrievable in
> Windows Explorer in the normal format
> 3. Must be able to do complete and incremental backups.
>
> Any recommendations?
>
For Complete `backups ?` you need
Acronis True Image (found by www.google.com)
And for regular file/folder backup/or/sync`ing you
can use the Free SyncBack at
http://www.dirfile.com/downloadnow_...k_freeware.html

bw..

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I have Acronis and it doesn't do what I want - you need Acronis to access
the backrd up files; can't see them with Windows Explorer.  Besides, when I
had an unrecoverable system crash Acronis failed to recreate the system, and
when I restored individual folders it worked unreliably.

As for SyncBack, it seems to back up to another ssystem in real time, which
isn't what I want.

"1932" <xxxx@xxxx.com> wrote in message
news:ceNvh.82708$HV6.15790@newsfe1-gui.ntli.net...
>
> "doryon" <doryon@rcn.com> wrote in message
>  news:DfadnZkSM_TcBSLYnZ2dnUVZ_vyunZ2d@rc
n.net... 
> For Complete `backups ?` you need
> Acronis True Image (found by www.google.com)
> And for regular file/folder backup/or/sync`ing you
> can use the Free SyncBack at
> http://www.dirfile.com/downloadnow_...k_freeware.html
>
> bw..
>
>

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"doryon" <doryon@rcn.com> wrote in message
news:ab-dnS7iBIBnOCLYnZ2dnUVZ_oytnZ2d@rcn.net...
>I have Acronis and it doesn't do what I want - you need Acronis to access
>the backrd up files; can't see them with Windows Explorer.  Besides, when I
>had an unrecoverable system crash Acronis failed to recreate the system,
>and when I restored individual folders it worked unreliably.
>
> As for SyncBack, it seems to back up to another ssystem in real time,
> which isn't what I want.
>
Acronis works perfectly for me
You can configure SyncBack to do what you want,
And on a schedule !.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Per doryon:
>1. Back up files and folders of my choice, onto a device of my choice, both
>on demand and on a schedule
>2. The backup files must be viewable, accessible, and retrievable in Window
s
>Explorer in the normal format
>3. Must be able to do complete and incremental backups.


Does it need tb smart enough to maintain multiple backup sets?

i.e. If you are backing up to, say, three portable disc drives and rotating 
the
drives between home and work, does it need to know that as far as drive 2 is
concerned file XYZ has changed and needs tb backed up - even though it was
backed up to drive 1 yesterday?

Seems like some backup utilities just work with the "Archive" bit.  If it's 
set,
they back up the file and then clear the bit.   If somebody else wants to ch
eck
the file for an incremental backup, tough darts....

My copy of Retrospect 6.0, miserable and arcane as the UI is - and pathetic 
as
Dantz's support is - does this.   My understanding is that some backup utili
ties
do not.
--
PeteCresswell

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"doryon" <doryon@rcn.com> wrote in message
news:ab-dnS7iBIBnOCLYnZ2dnUVZ_oytnZ2d@rcn.net...
> I have Acronis and it doesn't do what I want - you need Acronis to access
> the backrd up files; can't see them with Windows Explorer.  Besides, when
I
> had an unrecoverable system crash Acronis failed to recreate the system,
and
> when I restored individual folders it worked unreliably.

All backup programs are going to compress and store files in a format not
used by Windows.
The only alternative is to duplicate the files to another volume. Not really
useful.

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"(PeteCresswell)" <x@y.Invalid> wrote in message
 news:02evr2l32bk761a8nrd98plf7s68dgjf03@
4ax.com...
> Per doryon: 
both[vbcol=seagreen] 
Windows[vbcol=seagreen] 
>
>
> Does it need tb smart enough to maintain multiple backup sets?
>
> i.e. If you are backing up to, say, three portable disc drives and
rotating the
> drives between home and work, does it need to know that as far as drive 2
is
> concerned file XYZ has changed and needs tb backed up - even though it was
> backed up to drive 1 yesterday?
>
> Seems like some backup utilities just work with the "Archive" bit.  If
it's set,
> they back up the file and then clear the bit.   If somebody else wants to
check
> the file for an incremental backup, tough darts....
>
> My copy of Retrospect 6.0, miserable and arcane as the UI is - and
pathetic as
> Dantz's support is - does this.   My understanding is that some backup
utilities
> do not.

Retrospect is quite obsolete, and given the report I saw in some forum,
perhaps even here, EMC  has drastically reduced folkes working on
Retrospect.
And it's reliance on the "system state" makes restores even more difficult
as individual files in the system state cannot be retrieved.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

I downloaded SyncBack and indeed it does everything exactly as I want!
Thanks for the suggestion.

Regards, Yon

"1932" <xxxx@xxxx.com> wrote in message
news:MRNvh.83020$UC.65195@newsfe5-win.ntli.net...
>
> "doryon" <doryon@rcn.com> wrote in message
> news:ab-dnS7iBIBnOCLYnZ2dnUVZ_oytnZ2d@rcn.net... 
> Acronis works perfectly for me
> You can configure SyncBack to do what you want,
> And on a schedule !.
>
>

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Well, SyncBack does (if you want) store the files uncompressed in Window
Explorer format, so you don't need any software to retrieve it.


"Howard Kaikow" <kaikow@standards.com> wrote in message
news:epoiim$25m2$1@pyrite.mv.net...
> "doryon" <doryon@rcn.com> wrote in message
> news:ab-dnS7iBIBnOCLYnZ2dnUVZ_oytnZ2d@rcn.net... 
> I 
> and 
>
> All backup programs are going to compress and store files in a format not
> used by Windows.
> The only alternative is to duplicate the files to another volume. Not
> really
> useful.
>
>

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Per Howard Kaikow:
>And it's reliance on the "system state" makes restores even more difficult
>as individual files in the system state cannot be retrieved.

Could somebody amplify on what "system state" is?

If it's something to do with backing up/restoring the OS, I'd say that's a
misuse of any backup utility anyhow.  For the OS, I'd always use an imaging
utility.    To me, backup utilities are for data, not the system.
--
PeteCresswell

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