Hard drive backup questions
Community Forums/General Help/Hard drive backup questions
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| I recently bought a 250gb hard disk for backup purposes for my new Win 7 machine. I have a few questions for the experts amongst you :- 1. The hard disk comes pre-formatted with FAT32 so my question is, shall I do backups using the default format or shall I convert this to to NTFS? I am currently using XP and plan to do backups for 2 vista laptops and 1 Win 7 machine. If I stick with FAT32, is there a file limit size for backups? My backup software allows file splitting and it's currently set to 2000MB. 2. The software I will be using for backups is PerfectImage 12. This software allows you to backup using either a recovery cd or from Windows itself. However, using the recovery cd, you are only allowed to make full backups and not incremental or differential backups, which I require. To do incremental or differential backups, you have to use the software inside windows. The software uses Microsoft Shadow Volume copy to get around file locking and also another proprietary format (you can select either) so my question is, is it safe to do backups inside Windows? I have never done this as my current backup software does all its backups (full, incremental or differential) outside Windows OS i.e. during boot time. Perfect Image 12 software manual recommends backups during boot up (outside Windows) to avoid file locking and I have never done backups inside Windows itself. Any advice? - Dodo |
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| If you need the disk to be read by Windows 98/ME, you should leave it as FAT32. Otherwise, use NTFS. There's no limit on filesize, unlike FAT32 which has a limit of around 4GB. Never used Perfect Image so, dunno about that. |
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| I agree NTFS if you are using XP or later. While NTFS is the devil, fat32 is much much worse. Also, if you want a quick secondary backup solution that runs in windows use Freefilesync http://sourceforge.net/projects/freefilesync/ (and GRSync if you use linux as well) is great for a data-only backup solution. It basically syncronises between 2 locations and only updates what has changed since the last backup, which is MUCH faster, easier and convenient than images and it requires a lot less disk crunching too. I perfer these because you can backup while working and more regularly (or just shedule it!) and then save the full FS image type backup for every couple of months instead. The other advantage is you can access the backup files without any fuss. |
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| Acronis TrueImage is my prersonal recommendation for backup software. Incremental backups are possible, and the backup archives can even be browsed and modified as normal, acting if you wish, like mounted virtual drives. |
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| with Fat32 you won't be able to store files >2GB, which may be a problem. You can convert the filesystem on the fly using Microsoft's 'convert.exe' commandline tool that comes with windows: convert volume /FS:NTFS Only takes a few minutes, and should leave your existing data intact. Of course, use at your own risk! |
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| I recommend using ext4 or jfs for filesystems. NTFS has filesize limit too, but it's extremely high though. NTFS is non-free format so it should not be used in any case. |
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| NTFS is non-free format so it should not be used in any case. Here we go again... :/ |
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| How about letting people decide, instead of telling them they shoudn't use something. Your saying the opposite of what your preaching. |
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| Nawi: non-free doesn't necessarily mean that it won't be the best solution... |
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| I recommend using ext4 or jfs for filesystems Can you please provide links with information on when these file systems started being supported by Windows XP, Vista and 7? Afterall, this is the requirement specified in the original question. |
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| I dont think you can use it for the main filesystem because Win cannot mount it at boot time AFAIK. (A real pity) I can use EXT2 and EXT3 FSs with windows but only for data read (afaik), however ALL my files/data are on my server so i can RW over an NFS network (or smb/cifs if i wanted, but i prefer NFS) |
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| How about letting people decide, instead of telling them they shoudn't use something. Of course I am. Can you please provide links with information on when these file systems started being supported by Windows XP, Vista and 7? Oh, you're using an OS where the user is not in control? Okay, that should be changed. |
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| Oh, you're using an OS where the user is not in control? Okay, that should be changed. Unlike..... ? I mean, the whole point of OS are allowing for some of the control to be taken care of by internal wokrings and programs. You're a programemr (I assume else you wouldn't be on these forums) you should know how your programs do things without specific user input. I know that Microsoft OS do take this control a little too far, especially with some of the access restrictions on certain registry keys and files, but really, name one OS that allows the user full and total control of everything. |
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| Thanks for all your advice, I have converted to NTFS. |
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| Malice, LOL, what do you mean by "full and total control?" To be silly here is my list of OS'es that allow full and total control by a "normal" user... 1. DOS (4dos, ms-dos, ibm-dos, free-dos, etc...) 2. Amiga DOS (CLI, Shell) I don't believe anything else is worth mentioning. ha ha |
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| You forgot desktop BSD, Linux and Generic Unix.... all awesome if you know how to use them or wanna learn. ..PS, you forgot DR-Dos and MUDOS the best dossers ever :D |
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| ha ha. D4NM4N, actually you could argue that for a "normal" user, BSD, and Linux, etc, are out. A normal user can only perform disk operations on files they have rights too. These are multi-user, as well as protected file systems. As such I didn't mention Novell, or any of the original mainframe file systems, as a "normal" user has no access to all the functions of the file system. :) I love your reply with the pictures by the way! very original! ha ha |
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| I'm using the default backup within W7 to a slave drive of equivalent size. I have not tried to restore the back-up yet (I've only had the computer a month, oh wait its been 3 months.) So how can you prove your restore works without trashing your C Drive - does it need another hard drive that you'd have to fit to restore the data to ? Then once you prove that, switch back to your original C drive? |
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| @Shortwind, true :) although i was refering to PC Lap-desktop versions :D |
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