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So I'm a remote software developer looking for a relatively simple and easy backup and restoring option as I am responsible for managing my own tech.
What I have:
-I have remote source control backup (Visual Studio Online\Github)
-I have GDrive synced for my important files.
I was looking at carbonite (they require an external hard drive) and this article by Scott Hanselman (NAS backup).
My Ideal Setup
-Does not take up room on my current hard drive
-Can be done via network
-Does not require my laptop to physically hook into an external hard drive or other device.
-Can be done (or scripted) to work passively
-If possible I would like an image of my hard drive
-If my drive stops working I'd like to have a mirror up painlessly. (I have an SSD so I'm a little worried about how things will end)
-Allows me to work at different locations without carrying an external hard drive that can be dropped and damaged.
Maybe I'm being to demanding for what I want. Or maybe I'm just too lazy.
Let me know what you all think. Is there an ideal solution for folks on the go? Or any suggestions.
What are your Backup and Restore Solutions ?
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Well, it violates some of your rules, but I image my drive weekly. I'll be moving to a VM setup over Christmas. Then I just copy the container file and we're done.
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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What software are you using for Imaging?
Do you intent to work entirely from a vm?
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I don't use s/w - that was the most annoying thing I have ever tried. I went out and bought a disk to disk copy system, http://www.cavalrystorage.com/en-cahdd-u3c.aspx[^]
Because I buy my own laptops, I always get one with easily accessible drives - I'm typing this message now on a Dell Precision). To remove the hard drive, I just flip the laptop, remove the battery, hit the release and out pops the hard drive. So, I pop the hard drive out, slap it into the unit above, put the target drive in and hit the image button. This way, if I lose a drive, I have the complete setup - no s/w installs, etc.
I'm looking hard at the VM concept, mainly because it will make backups even easier. The primary drive will run Windows 7 natively, but it will be a minimalistic install. Just enough to get the VM running. The VMs will contain all of the installed s/w.
Due to a long running project, I run Windows Xp in Microsoft's VM that comes with Windows 7 Professional. It's quick, and I don't notice any degradation in performance, and I do a lot of large compiles in it. I asked about using VMs last month in the forum, there were many EXCELLENT comments and suggestions. So much so that I really wonder why development organizations don't make it mandatory.
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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hey there Charlie - what model Dell Precision do you have ? (I need to transition off a Sony Vaio - great machine for portablility and small tasks on the go, but too much stuff on its SSD now) .. I was thinking of a fully spec'd M6800
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Garth - is the Precision M4700. Swapped the drive out with an SSD, 1920x1080 and it does very well. Great keyboard, solidly built. I didn't go core i7, i5 is more than enough for my development needs. I did lose the Radeon graphics card a while back, but three year next day support is worth it. You just need to get past the level 1 support drones insisting you have a driver problem...
The nice thing about this model is that if you are not using the dvd that much, you can get a replacement drive bay and stick another SSD in there. Or a spare battery. I don't do that much road warrior work - more of going to the lab, coming home and working at the home office, repeat.
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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Hire someone to do it for you.
New version: WinHeist Version 2.1.0 Beta
There's a fine line between crazy and free spirited and it's usually a prescription.
I'm currently unsupervised, I know it freaks me out too but the possibilities are endless.
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Is there company or person out in the world that would back up my data to such an extent?
I totally would hire someone if I knew who would do that for a reasonable price.
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I hear out sourcing is all the rage! 
New version: WinHeist Version 2.1.0 Beta
There's a fine line between crazy and free spirited and it's usually a prescription.
I'm currently unsupervised, I know it freaks me out too but the possibilities are endless.
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I have a 4TB RAID5 NAS, and do daily backups of all "critical" material - projects, correspondence, etc., but not applications - followed by hourly incrementals.
I also do a weekly which rotates GFS, and which is also copied onto USB drives. In an ideal world these would be rotated offsite, but that's problematic, so they just go in a different part of the house.
I also off-site projects on completion to my website hosted in the US, and to Dropbox.
The idea is that a single disk failure can't lose any data - and so far it's worked. A disk in the NAS was taken out in a power cut (or when the power resumed) and a new HDD brought it back to normal with me not even having to stop work in the mean time. In theory, I could lose an hours work, but I can live with that! 
I don't take disk images - I should but they take a serious amount of time, and I'd need a new one after each application install so I settle for just keeping the installation media in a "safe place" instead.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Yeah that sounds like it takes a lot of time money and work. But thanks for the info. Did you build your own NAS or purchase one?
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It cost some money to set up - around four or five hundred pounds IIRC - but as far as work goes it's pretty much automatic. With the exception of swapping USB drives, it's all scheduled software, so I don't have to do anything - or even notice. Which was the whole point - if you have to do something, than the temptation is to not do it because you are busy and it doesn't matter this time. And that's when it all bites you in the ass of course!
It's probably overkill, but I've had problems with inadequate backups before - which is why I do test restores from time to time, you'd be surprised how many times people think backups have worked when the media has failed or something. I bought the NAS (it's an Acer Aspire Easy store) and populated it myself (so that the individual HDDs aren't from the same batch, or indeed manufacturer) because it's almost silent, and stays cool - and it's on 24/7 barring power cuts because on / off is when electronics are most likely to fail.
Backups are expensive, yes - but the really expensive backup is the one you didn't do...
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Something I've found really useful (although I've not tried it for dev stuff, just downloads, vids and a few docs etc) is Windows File History - think it cropped up in W8, but I've got it set up to write to a share on a WD MyCloud nas box - works transparently (Well, I've never noticed it doing anything), and makes it really easy to revert - either through file properties, or by pulling a physical copy from the backup location...
Speaking of the My Cloud - it's a really good bit of kit - just sits there and gets on with it (and allows "secure" remote access - which works through a java applet which maps the drive across t'interwebz and makes it appear as a "local" drive), and it also comes with an alternative backup tool which allows backups to Dropbox....combine this with the above, and you're probably golden  ...think the tool is available separately too, but costs for an advanced version IIRC...
<edit> WD Smartware is the backup tool[^]
C# has already designed away most of the tedium of C++.
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One of our SA's got a web based product called mozy to take snap shots of pc's for people who are out of the office. I'm not familiar with all the options but i know doing a full drive or selected folder backup is possible. From what i remember it can also be scheduled and only requires an internet connection to work, we wanted it to be totally transparent to the users.
Please remember to rate helpful or unhelpful answers, it lets us and people reading the forums know if our answers are any good.
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musicm122 wrote: What are your Backup and Restore Solutions ?
All important files are on server shares setup to be available offline for both a desktop and a laptop. I work remotely with the laptop at least one day a week. During a synch, if there is a conflict, I can choose what to do. Normally, this is not the case as I am the only programmer here.
If the server crashes, my important files are still available, right where I left them. The worst that could happen is that the laptop crashes over the weekend...I might lose a day's work, but that's an acceptable risk.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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What are you trying to backup against?
Backing up against a complete hard drive failure, especially if you want to keep license files and the hidden partitions that laptop manufacturers put on them, is a lot different than backing up WIP data files. One mfg I know puts a hidden stuff on the drive that cannot be rebuilt, even with the mfg's drive rebuild disks (you have to purchase a replacement drive from them with the hidden stuff already on it). Some applications save license data in the "unused" sectors of the partition boot track, although that's so common that most bare metal backup utilities have an option to save that data.
I'm partial to bare metal backups for the hard drive recovery scenario, but my UEFI laptop has made that impossible so far. For the rest, I do a mixture depending on how accessible I want the backed up data.
We can program with only 1's, but if all you've got are zeros, you've got nothing.
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I don't have any hidden partitions or anything in particular that I would like to save. A ghost image of my current drive state as is would be idea.
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General Knowledge quiz[^], Time taken goes towards the final score. I scored 412 on my one and only go but somebody here must be able to get on the leader board (without playing it enough times that they know all the answers)
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467, although I hit Yellow for London cabs by mistake aiming for black.
Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.
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421
"One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson
"Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons
"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." - James D. Miles
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539
I read other replies first and the London cab was not in my list, so the list is random.
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