Backup software

[knucracker]

For reasons known only to microsoft, the system backup tools available in windows 7 have basically disappeared in windows 8.1.  There is a thing called File History but it is a pale shadow of what you had in windows 7.

Now, I tend to back up in several different ways.  One of those ways was with an entire system image of my main development drive to a NAS.  I even used it every now and then to restore single files I had lost.  This kind of full system automated backup is no longer an option in windows 8.1 from what I can see.

So, what software would you use instead?  Here's one rundown I found, but I have no experience with any of them.
http://www.techradar.com/us/news/software/applications/best-free-backup-software-11-programs-we-recommend-1137924

[asmussen]

Oh, wow, that sucks. I currently do the same sort of whole system backup you described onto my file server, and I even had to completely restore my system from it after a hardware failure once, so I really don't care for the idea of not having those tools. Of course, I don't have any intention to upgrade past Windows 7 for a while yet, so I guess it's sort of a moot point for now, but that's definitely good information to have at such time as I ever decide to upgrade.

[Grauniad]

Here's what I have:

1. The last 3TB external drive I bought (forgot the brand) came with some backup software that works better then MS Backup which is broken on large drives anyway.

2. Acronis makes very good recovery images. I make one when I'm happy my install is "just so" and after I install expensive pieces of software such as Photoshop.

3. My Windows Home server still backs up everything nightly.

After that it's the cloud for me.

4. I still have the tail-end of my Carbonite subscription, but I'm phasing it out.

5. My user data, photos and music is now on a Google Drive folder on my computer.

6. Cloudberry does great backups with low cost to Amazon Glacier. Cloudberry is a 1-time cost and Glacier costs <$5/month for the data I have there.

[knucracker]

I all you want from windows 8.1 is a total drive image that you can't restore individual items from, you can still do that:
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/CreateACompleteSystemImageBackupWithWindows81AndFileHistory.aspx

But aside from the other backup strategies I employ I also liked to just use total system backups to a NAS (incremental and run nightly) that allow restoration of individual files.  With win 7 you could do that actually, and it worked fairly well (on my 256G main system drive).

But MS is out of that business now it seems, so I was looking for something as a replacement.  Aside from this I still separately backup source repositories, pictures, movies, etc.  They get backup up to a NAS and also in cloud storage.

[thepenguin]

I wrote myself a backup script (batch) for this a while ago, but then my computer HDD failed and I lost the backup script.

Somewhat ironically, my backup script didn't save itself.  Everything else was fine, though.  the bulk of the script was:

Code Select Expand

robocopy "C:\Documents and Settings\" "J:\%date:/=-%" /e /b /fp

with a small bit of code to handle the latest date parameters.  I think it was /MAXLAD or /MINLAD, I'd have to look that up.

[MizInIA]

I use http://www.mozy.com for file backup. It is not a complete system image but offsite file backup. they keep versions of files and restore is easy. if you have a complete disaster they will even mail you disks(for an additional charge). I use them instead of a NAS so i still have my files in case something happens to the house and not just the computer. It is also nice that you can log into the web site from any computer and retrieve a file.

[MadMag]

I just bought a unlimited JottaCloud account.
http://www.jottacloud.com/products/

[Grauniad]

Unlimited storage or unlimited devices?

[Grayzzur]

I wrote myself a backup script (batch) for this a while ago, but then my computer HDD failed and I lost the backup script.

Somewhat ironically, my backup script didn't save itself.  Everything else was fine, though.  the bulk of the script was:

Code Select Expand

robocopy "C:\Documents and Settings\" "J:\%date:/=-%" /e /b /fp

with a small bit of code to handle the latest date parameters.  I think it was /MAXLAD or /MINLAD, I'd have to look that up.

I do this too. Set it up to run regularly as a windows scheduled task. I use /MIR, which is equivalent to /E and /PURGE -- probably not recommended if you want to save yourself from accidentally deleting files.

[knucracker]

I have synctoy setup to do a nightly echo of my source tree to a nas. I run it from the windows task scheduler.  That is sort of my brute force and raw daily source tree backup that is easy to manually reference for quick diffs.

Right now I am using EaseUs and trying it for a couple weeks as an incremental backup solution.  It supports OS, partition, or dir tree backup.  It has it's own built in scheduler and I have it set to do weekly full backups with nightly incremental backups to my NAS.  For restoration I can browse any backup archive and restore individual files and dirs.  That's basically exactly what I want and what used to be included with windows.