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I have only one bit to add: DVDs are cheap. Really critical data I also backup to a DVD (or two). That way I know it can never be overwritten or corrupted by a virus.

Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!

As a matter of interest, do you use the free or pro version of AOMEI?

I was using the free version, but then I bought it. You don't get a lot of more useful stuff, but if it encourages them to keep working, it's worth it!

Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...

Thanks for that, I have been using FBackup but AOMEI does look better. I'll give it a go...

OriginalGriff wrote:
I run several 4TB USB drives, and do a full image every two weeks, with a different drive each time, and I keep a "historic" 8 or so images on each drive. But then, I've been called paranoid before, so it doesn't bother me...

Is it paranoia if you know something will happen? Poke tongue | ;-P

Hardware fails. Software fails. People make mistakes. People do bad things to others. Stuff happens.

My strategy:

Replace the primary HD every other year to mitigate HW failure
Use the old primary HD as a hot swap backup inside the PC.
Use old internal HDs as offline storage (got a cable/power supply for $15 USD that turns any HD [EIDE or SATA] into a flash drive).
Make system images periodically, when changes to the OS & applications warrant it.
Use WinZip to automatically backup certain directories nightly, weekly, or monthly, depending on data changes. Backups include a date/time stamp and are placed on the hot swap HD.
Periodically move backups to one of several external HD, and use old internal HD as long range storage.
Burn copies of files to DVD on a semi-regular basis. DVD-R has limitations, but it's proof against ransomware, the media is cheap, and it's easy to store.

One valuable feature of zip format is that it's extremely easy to pluck a file out of a backup. While system images are complete restores if a system is hosed ... it's not always easy (or possible) to get single file out without doing a complete restore. [A former employer got burned on a proprietary backup format so I avoid them.]

Flash drives are cheap and easy to use, but the media is volatile, so I don't use it except as very temporary storage.

Am I winning the paranoia contest??? Laugh | :laugh:

Prove it. What data did you lose? Jig | [Dance]

Wait, I can't show you what I don't have Big Grin | :-D

In this case I ended up with non-monotonous timestamps ( Screenshots (1) - (299) are newer than Screenshot (300))

I can definitely say you need some form of rotation on your backups. It's not always easy to automate, there's always some sort of manual intervention required.

Imaging is also a very good idea, but IMO it's for a different purpose than to try and keep your data "safe". It's so you can revert back to how your OS worked before once you fiddle too much and bork it all up.

For me, every time I update / do some major installation I make an image first.

For my data I have 3 externals which I constantly swap around on a daily basis. Call them A, B & C. I've setup a rsync script on my Linux at home that just attempts to copy to a preset folder every time, if it doesn't exist the script just waits a few minutes and tries again. Then when I finally plug in the external the automount places it into that folder and the script does its thing.

In the morning I unplug that drive (A), plug in another (B), take it with me to office. There I unplug C which I left there yesterday and plug in A. Where I use DeltaCopy in Windows to do the same thing there (it's just a frontend for rsync in Windows to compatible with the way rsync works in Linux). It then keeps my data at work synced with the data from home. At the end of the day I take the drive I left at work (C) back home leaving A there. Rinse-n-repeat.

Pretty simple, all I need to do is plug in/out drives. Even if I forget it's just a case of the rotation skips a day.

And since there's always at least 3 copies, such accidental overwrites isn't an immediate problem. Not to mention, since my Linux machine is using BTRFS I've got snapshots to previous versions of nearly all files, at least two of each - which means I'm able to get a previous version even if I've overwritten all 3 externals.

I've twice had to restore due to a HDD failing, and that just meant plugging in so the script itself recreates the folders & files. Accidental deletes were the only points where I needed to manually restore - which entailed all of a normal copy-paste operation ... <sarcasm=on>"sssssoooooo complicated to do isn't it?"

Reminds me of a company I used to work for many years ago.

Every day a series of automated database backups went to LT02 tapes. Tapes got changed by hand if the operators remembered. On the only occasion that the data server failed we couldn't read the current backup to restore it. Luckily we managed to resurrect the server but management instituted a new data backup policy as a direct result.

Moral of the story, making backups is a great idea but only if they can actually be used to restore as well.

We're philosophical about power outages here. A.C. come, A.C. go.

You can probably find the deleted files under the

_gsdata_

directory in the target directory.

I couldn't find such directory in the destination (I've also checked for hidden and system files) and after googling (and binging) it I could only find results related to GoodSync and I used robocopy. So, probably I'm out of luck, but I appreciated your comment. For some folk might be life saver Smile | :)

.

In addition to having multiple copies, keep one copy offsite somewhere. If the worst happens, you don't want all of your backups getting torched or stolen along with your stuff.

Is a sleepwalking nun a roamin' Catholic?

Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...

That's a difficult habit to break.

If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.

--Winston Churchill

What an unorthodox thought!

... such stuff as dreams are made on

Stop this nunsense right now.

Hopefully no one is angered by that because they convent only if they move to the soapbox.

Ravings en masse^
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010

I make my vow not to reply.

...ah sh*t, now gotta do pennance.

Sin tack
the any key okay

Lopatir wrote:
ah sh*t,

And more penance for that! Laugh | :laugh:

ah sh*t!

Sin tack
the any key okay

You're racking up the "Hail Mary"s today!

Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...

ah shi...ould give up now otherwise I'll never get to bed.

Sin tack
the any key okay

I do confess, that made me chuckle.

We're philosophical about power outages here. A.C. come, A.C. go.

Good News in History, April 5 - Good News Network[^]

Quote:
130 years ago on this day, Anne Sullivan finally was able to break though a wall of isolation and hostility in order to teach the word “water” to Helen Keller, who could not see, nor hear, nor speak until this gifted teacher entered her life.

What a cool story. It's nice to be reminded once in a while that there is a lot of good in this world. Sniff | :^)

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.

There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

RyanDev wrote:
What a cool story. It's nice to be reminded once in a while that there is a lot of good in this world.

I think I've found a photo^ of the event.. Laugh | :laugh:

Now is it bad enough that you let somebody else kick your butts without you trying to do it to each other? Now if we're all talking about the same man, and I think we are... it appears he's got a rather growing collection of our bikes.

modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.

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