Adventures in Backups.

[RootedPhoenix]

I am in a rather sour mood right now. I've begun the process of getting back data that should have been fine, should have not been lost and for all I know got snacked on by little gnomes inside the USB cords between my drives.

I was trying to back up my music collection and various other files and odds and ends myself. This turned out to...not work out so well.

Things were backed up. (I thought.) They were redundant. (I thought!)
NOT SO FAST.

I hate technology sometimes.
I also hate those little gnomes that sneak off with your stuff. Thankfully it's not been anything irreplaceable. (Most of that is on media that's no place near this 3-ring circus, )

This little experience has left me with a question. I know there are backup programs out there, and I 'm looking for one that would be as versatile as possible. I'd put the program on my Mac, but the drives themselves ought to be readable by my laptop, which is a Windows XP machine (ah, the joys of cross-platform computing!).

My music collection goes on the road with me, so I can't really have that tied down to a platform, so I'm hoping that there's something out there. Time Machine is golden stuff, but it doesn't have a ton of options, and it only works with HFS+ drives...which is right out.

I still haven't stuck Ubuntu on the laptop (blame school!), which would only add more headaches to this, I'm sure.

Um, anyway. Has anyone got recommendations for a good backup utility?

[lordlundar]

Well, not sure about programs, but some advice for the future:

NEVER ASSUME

Step one after making a backup is to verify first hand the backup works. Even if the program has a "Verifier", always check yourself.

[RootedPhoenix]

Yeah, kinda learned that one. It's a mistake I'll only make once, that's for sure.

But I think that my one drive has an error of some description, which would account for all its craziness. Which means I'll have to replace it...which I was going to do anyhow. But maybe not as quickly.

[Eric the Grey]

I know I've mentioned this before on these boards, and I also know that many people don't like Symantec products, but Norton Save and Restore is the best backup product for a home PC. You can set it up to do automated backups of either your entire drive, or specific files or folders.

I've used it for a couple years now and restored my entire machine(s) more than once with no problems.


Eric the Grey

[Broomjockey]

I know I've mentioned this before on these boards, and I also know that many people don't like Symantec products,

Just their A/V suite. The rest tends to get good reviews from everyone that uses it, from what I can tell.

[Eric the Grey]

Just their A/V suite. The rest tends to get good reviews from everyone that uses it, from what I can tell.

The last time I mentioned it, someone replied that they would never put anything from symantec on their system. Their option, of course, and to each his/her own.


Eric the Grey

[Broomjockey]

The last time I mentioned it, someone replied that they would never put anything from symantec on their system.

Yes, but you also get people saying "Microsoft is evil, and you should never use anything of theirs" or "Apple's useless, don't touch them" Name any tech company, and you'll find people decrying them as evil for basically no reason.

[Pedersen]

and you'll find people decrying them as evil for basically no reason.

Man alive, my full response belongs in Fratching. Someday I'll post it there.

For now, I'll say this:Symantec, Microsoft (and quite a few others) have their place, provided that place is in a locked down virtual machine to run a few specific apps that have no equivalent elsewhere.

As for the original question, I'll point this segment out:

I'd put the program on my Mac, but the drives themselves ought to be readable by my laptop, which is a Windows XP machine (ah, the joys of cross-platform computing!).

I know of no cross platform backup solutions for home outside of stuff like zip and tar. You can set up corporate type cross platform backups, but those tend to be not so easy to set up and maintain.

I can't vouch for ease from any of these, but maybe one of these three will work:

• http://lifehacker.com/362062/create-...-backup-server
• http://agitatedhellerphant.wordpress...ram-in-a-snap/
• http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2...09/bacula.html

Failing that, try this google search for some options: http://www.google.com/search?q=open+...latform+backup

[Broomjockey]

Man alive, my full response belongs in Fratching. Someday I'll post it there.

For now, I'll say this:Symantec, Microsoft (and quite a few others) have their place, provided that place is in a locked down virtual machine to run a few specific apps that have no equivalent elsewhere.

Dude. I didn't say there were NO reasons. I said those people thought they were evil for no reason. There's a difference. Slavering, unreasonable fanboyism is rarely rational.