Backup Software

Zanshin · March 28, 2006, 07:02:18 PM

Anyone know of any good freeware to backup your PC? I just got a 250 gig external drive to protect my files (great deal on it, btw- $75 after a rebate), and I was wondering if there were any good free tools to manage the process.

Thanks.

hbionic · March 28, 2006, 07:19:04 PM

How much did the external end up costing you after rebate?

Zanshin · March 28, 2006, 07:20:04 PM

Oh, I don't know...about $75, I'd say.....again.

hbionic · March 28, 2006, 07:23:16 PM

Zanshin · March 28, 2006, 07:25:27 PM

To put it in terms you'd understand, 250 gigs of storage would mean a seeminly endless amount of porn at your sperm-infested fingertips. Not bad for $75.

hbionic · March 28, 2006, 07:33:59 PM

That's a pretty sweet deal. You should look into getting some freeware, free tools, etc. to help you manage the process.

Wingspan · March 28, 2006, 07:43:37 PM

how much was it?

Zanshin · March 28, 2006, 07:45:06 PM

Half a moderately-priced hooker.

Wingspan · March 28, 2006, 07:46:13 PM

woo hoo! $2 hard drives!

The BIGSTUD · March 28, 2006, 08:38:47 PM

Are you not able to just copy them over manually?

PhillyPhanInDC · March 28, 2006, 09:01:42 PM

I don't know of any freeware that is a reliable backup solution. You can pickup a copy of Norton Ghost 10.0 now at Best Buy for about $20. How much is your data worth?

Zanshin · March 28, 2006, 09:06:57 PM

Well, if I can get something for free then it's worth that. If I have to spend $20, then it would have to be way better than dragging the files over to the drive, which is what I've already done. I have my important stuff on three hard drives and on DVDs. Now it's just a matter of streamlining.

PhillyPhanInDC · March 29, 2006, 07:26:29 AM

The nice thing about Ghost is you can image and compress your whole system into one decently sized image file. Then you can restore all or part of it from booting from your Ghost CD. I have in the neighborhood of about 500GB of crap on my shteinbox, and it takes maybe twenty minutes to do a full backup to DVD, and about the same for the removable hard drive I use as a secondary location. You can schedule the backups to run by themselves, and it makes the whole process pretty painless.