Disk and Partition Backup
| Who is General failure and why is he reading
my disk ? Usenet SIG
|
If history repeats itself, and the unexpected
always happens,
how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.
Bernard Show
|
| "Experience keeps a dear school, but fools
will learn in no other" Benjamin Franklin
|
Nothing can increase interest in this topic more than a lost disk drive.
Even if backup is just one week old, one realizes that the important data
you was working on for several hours (may you best hours of the week) and everything
that you had wrote is now gone forever. That happened to me recently
when my old Seagate drive just stopped rotating exactly a week after the backup
and I did not have any daily backups at all. As Franklin aptly noted "Experience
keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other."
You better take some steps to prevent this from happening again. Ever. Money
are not a big question here as the cost of lost data often exceed price of good
arching programs 100 times or more. You are not necessary locked in free/open source
tools and you to find the best utility suitable for you. This is not an easy
task as much depends on your style of working.
In the simplest case all source files and documents are usually kept on small
partition (4G usually suffice for most people). This partition can be copied to
safe storage using three types of intervals (dally, weekly and monthly). Each period
can use unique method, for example folder sync for dally, partition on the second
drive for weekly and backup or DVD for monthly backups.
Do not expect harddrive last long: for laptops anybody who is using a drive
that more then three years old is taking huge chances. If you data are valuable
you better replace it with a new drive. See
Slashdot
Google Releases Paper on Disk Reliability. See also
SUNRISE
drive statistics - the article is in Russian, but drive related diagram are
self-explanatory.
|
If you data are valuable
and you keep them on a laptop it make sense proactively replace the
harddrive each three years. That actually makes laptop leases
more attractive then they look otherwise :-) |
Also all drive manufacturers have good years and bad years. Still you
need to monitor drive statistics and with first SMART report take appropriate
measures:
Our results confirm the findings of previous smaller population studies
that suggest that some of the SMART parameters are well-correlated with
higher failure probabilities. We find, for example, that after their first
scan error, drives are 39 times more likely to fail within 60 days than
drives with no such errors. First errors in reallocations, offline
reallocations, and probational counts are also strongly correlated to higher
failure probabilities. Despite those strong correlations, we find that
failure prediction models based on SMART parameters alone are likely to be
severely limited in their prediction accuracy, given that a large fraction
of our failed drives have shown no SMART error signals whatsoever. This
result suggests that SMART models are more useful in predicting trends for
large aggregate populations than for individual components. It also suggests
that powerful predictive models need to make use of signals beyond those
provided by SMART."
If we try to classify available methods we can come to the following raw but
still usable classification:
- File-by-file backup. There are many variations on this method
like incremental, differential, etc.
- Your copy tree creating a mirror tree of the part or the whole harddrive.
- The simplest method is "raw" copy like in case of using xcopy. It is slow
with 4G drives (approximately 30min). The main problem is that it is very
slow on partitions larger then 4G.
- Faster method is synchronizing the trees using some filesync utility.
- You can copy files inn some aggregate (tar) or compressed (gzip, bzip,
rar) format. The most popular
compressed format is probably zip, but rar has advantages in case of errors
and in speed of backup. tar.gz, zip and rar. Actually RAR is the most powerful
and inexpensive archiver/compressor with life upgrade privilege for registered users).
This this method is much slower then creating an image of the harddrive (approximately h for 4G drive
or ten times slower then creating an image). If you think (I do) that 4G is
enough for anybody to keep his most current files and documents you might
consider backing it up using image based method on DVD (see below)
- Partition-based backup. This is the fastest method and it is based on the process of copying
the entire contents of a given disk drive or partition (harddrive is actually
not much more that several partitions with a partition table) In this method you
back up each sector on the disk as raw data, creating an image of the entire disk
contents. This method is called image-based backup. Target can be another
harddrive or DVD. Cloning an Windows 2K/XP/2003
disk is not as simple as it sounds. XP keeps an ID somewhere on the drive and this ID has to be reset when cloning
the disk. Commercial products such as
Norton Ghost and Acronis True Image can reset this ID appropriately. A straight dd won't do that
and can be used only for creation of file image with subsequent restoration
on the same drive.
- Using mirroring controller and disk mirroring. While this does
not replace backup it permit to backup data on a longer intervals (say, weekly instead
off daily)
Image-based backup provides a mechanism that allows you to more completely recover
a crashed system without having to spend time dealing with partitions, disk geometries,
drive letter assignments, or drive formatting. The classic Unix utility for this
purpose is dd. An example operation using dd
could be as simple as:
dd if=/dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s0 of=/dev/rst0 bs=10k
for a straight image backup to the /dev/rst0 tape drive, or as elaborate as:
dd if=/dev/hda2 bs=10k count=1000 |gzip |tee /dev/rst0 \
|sum >/etc/images/dd_image`date +%b`.sum
To create the backup out of raw image you need to compress it with bzip2, rar
or similar high performance archiver.
Old versions of Ghost were DOS programs and required
that you reboot your system into DOS using their respective boot diskettes to perform
the actual backup operation. This creates an inconvenience as the shutdown for a server or workstation
is slightly disruptive, you are assured that the image produced by these tools will
be complete and stable. Newer version (Ghost 9 and 10) can do it in Windows.
Since image-based backup only copies raw data, backups made using this method
do not contain a direct catalog of files that can be used for the restoration
of a single file. But that does not mean that restoring am image an all or nothing operation.
Advanced utilities like Norton Ghost permit
to mount a partition image as a logical drive and can recover a single file from within the image-based
backup.
Also during restore Norton Ghost automatically adjust the restore process for
disk parameters of the target disk, so within some reasonable range you can use
a different disk for a target than you used for the backup. This feature is very
convenient for disk upgrades. for example if you changed 20G drive to 40G drive
on your laptop GHOST proportionally increases each partition so that they fill entire
40G. In this case you usually do not have any problems with installed applications.
Differences covered by Ghost and similar programs include a difference in the
size, number of heads, number of tracks per cylinder, or even the numbers or size
of the sectors in a given track.
Notes:
- Those pages are written by people for whom English is not a
native language. Some amount of grammar and spelling errors
should be expected.
- This is a Spartan WHYFF (We Help You For Free) site. It
cannot replace the best teachers and
the
best books.
- The site contain some obsolete pages as it develops like a
living tree... Some links on older pages
are broken. Please
try to use Google, Open directory, etc. to find a replacement link
(see
HOWTO search the WEB for details).
We would appreciate if you can
mail us a correct link.
|
|
This script tries to create ISO files of specific size from
files/directories given at the command prompt. It relies heavily on mkisofs
to calculate the ISO sizes and also for creation of the ISO files. The
script will however include as many files as possible without changing the
order of the files. If a small media size is selected, it may have to cut
images short if the next file to be included is very large. Also, if a file
results in a too large ISO file, a warning is printed and the image is
created anyway.
Both Joliet and Rock Ridge options are passes to mkisofs which can result
in some files unable to be included in the image. backup will detect the
error and halt. You may have to work around that problem yourself. Also be
warned that mkisofs will be run numerous times to determine exactly how many
files can be put into the image (successive approximation technique is
used).
Download the script.
Options:
Usage: ./backup.sh [OPTION]... [PATH]...
Create ISO files containing the directories to backup.
Options:
-b=# Max block size for ISO files (1 block=2048 bytes).
-d Don't make ISO's
-k Keep keep temporary files when done.
-p=PREFIX filenames are PREFIX-1.iso,... (default: backup)
-q Be less verbose.
-s=# Max ISO size in bytes.
-v Be more verbose.
-cd Select 700MB CD media size.
-dvd Select 4700000000 bytes DVD media size (default).
Slashdot
Google Releases Paper on Disk Reliability
Acronis True Image 9.0 Downloadable Software - Retail at Newegg.com $30 for
download. Main advantage that you can use your PC during the image creation
disappeared with Norton Ghost 9.
| Backup only the necessary
server disk sector contents |
| User-defined compression
levels |
| Multivolume archives |
| Password protection |
| Reduce your disk backup time
and storage by excluding paging and hibernate files from
the disk backup image |
| Manage a PC performance by
changing the disk imaging process priority |
| Supports hard disks of all
sizes |
| Create full images (everything
on your PC), incremental images (changes since last
backup), and differential images (changes since last
full backup) |
| Use your PC during image
creation with our no reboot feature |
| Verify disk backup image
before a restore |
| Change partition type, file
system, size, and disk location during restore* |
| Check the file system after a
restore |
| Acronis Secure Zone |
| Acronis Startup Recovery
Manager |
[Dec 9, 2005] Data Recovery
Software - Downloads very interesting utility. Windows XP only.
|
DriveImage XML V1.00
Backup and image logical
drives and partitions, create hot images, copy one drive to another...
File Size: 1.5 MB |
Free Hard Disk Backup and Restore, Hard Disk Image and Cloning
Utilities (thefreecountry.com)
-
Free Hard Disk / Partition Imaging and Cloning Software
- DriveImage XML
- DriveImage XML is a hard disk imaging utility that allows
you to backup a PC's hard disk or partition from within Windows
XP (XP Home and/or XP Professional only). It can image a
partition that is currently in use (such as the system drive),
compress the image while backing up, restore an image to another
partition/drive and clone a drive. Note that although it is able
to image the system drive while you're working in it, it cannot
restore the image to the system drive if it is currently in use
(obviously). The solution is to use their BartPE plugin (what
they call the "WinPE boot CD-ROM") to create a BartPE CDROM. You
can then restore your system partition after booting from the
CDROM.
- g4u - Harddisk Image
Cloning for PCs
- g4u is a bootable CDROM, or if you prefer, floppy, that
allows you to clone an image of a PC's hard disk for deployment
on other PCs using FTP. The bootable floppy and CDROM supports
both the cloning and restoration process. g4u supports any
operating system on any filesystem. All you need are two floppy
disks or one CD-R/RW, an FTP server and a DHCP server. The
bootable disk uses a NetBSD system.
- Partition Saving
- Partition Saving is an MSDOS hard disk imaging utility.
Place it on an MSDOS boot disk and use it to image your Windows,
MSDOS and Linux partitions. It supports the imaging of NTFS,
FAT32, FAT16, FAT12, ext2 (and possibly other) partitions. It
can do a sector-by-sector copy or (for the partition-types
listed here) copy only the occupied sectors thereby saving space
and time in your backups. It is able to automatically split the
backup file into smaller files of a size you specify (useful if
you plan to burn the backup to a CDR(W) or DVD+/-R(W) later).
The backup file may be compressed with a compression level you
select.
- PartImage
- PartImage, or Partition Image, is a Linux/UNIX utility to
make an image of your partitions in a file. It is able to image
only used portions of the partitions saving time and space. The
images are compressed. The utility supports the ext2fs, ext3fs,
ReiserFS, FAT16, FAT32, HPFS, JFS, XFS, UFS, HFS, and NTFS file
systems. Note that if you are not using Linux, and want to use
Parition Image on a PC, look at the other entries on
this
page for the bootable CDROM rescue disks that contain this
software.
- SystemRescueCD
- SystemRescueCD is a bootable system rescue CD-ROM for PCs
containing utilities that allow you to manage and edit your hard
disk partitions (GNU Parted and QTParted), image your hard disk
partitions (Partimage), a partition table backup and restore
utility (Sfdisk), various file system tools that allow you to
format, resize and edit existing partitions on your hard disk.
It does not depend on the operating system you have installed on
your hard disk - the CDROM is self-contained and is designed to
serve as a rescue disk. There is also a version for the blind
(it incorporates a speech reader).
- Ultimate Boot CD
- Ultimate Boot CD is a bootable CDROM for PCs that contain a
variety of software for diagnosing and fixing problems on your
computer, managing your hard disk partitions, imaging or cloning
your hard disk partitions (it includes Partition Saving, see
elsewhere on this
page, resetting your (forgotten) password on NT, Win2k, or
XP, scanning your hard disks for viruses (it includes some
free antivirus
utilities), etc.
-
MaxBlast3
- Maxtor's MaxBlast 3 is free for those who have bought Maxtor
hard disks on PCs. One of its features is that it can make an
exact duplicate (clone) of your existing drive onto your new
hard disk. You must have at least one Maxtor hard disk on your
system before this utility will work. The cloning facility
supports both FAT32 and NTFS partitions. The program creates a
bootable floppy disk containing the software.
-
HDClone Free Edition
- HDClone allows you to copy the contents of an IDE hard disk
onto a larger capacity hard disk (SCSI drives are not
supported). It is useful when you upgrade or change your hard
disk and don't want to reinstall your system again. It creates a
bootable floppy disk and allows you to clone your disk when you
boot from it. It cannot copy to another disk of the same size,
nor does it support the Ultra-DMA of modern computers (it uses
the old and slower PIO modes).
- Free Hard Disk Backup and Restore Utilities
- Back4Win
- Back4Win allows home users the ability to backup and restore
your data to ZIP and self-extracting EXE files. You can control
the level of compression of your data files, span disks,
predefine the disk size (to suit CD-Rs and CD-RWs),
password-lock your backups, burn to CD-R/W, restore from damaged
backups, etc.
-
Cobian Backup
- Cobian Backup is a backup and restore utility that can
backup your files and directories to another directory or drive
on the same computer or to another computer on your network. It
also supports FTP backup. You can compress and encrypt your
backups. Standalone decompression and decryption utilities are
also available so that if you wish, you can recover your files
without having to use the backup program. Included with the
backup program is a scheduler, so that you can schedule your
backups to occur, say, every night when you are not using the
computer. The program also supports remote backups. This is a
Windows program.
- FreeByte Backup
- Freebyte Backup is a Windows program that supports the
backing up files and directories to a backup directory. It also
handles incremental backups, where only files not already in the
backup set is saved, scheduled backups and profiles.
- Unison
File Synchronizer
- Unison synchronizes files and directories stored on
different hosts on the Internet. It can handle changes made to
either replica of a distributed directory structure, and hence
is more than just a mirroring utility. It is open source,
distributed under the GNU GPL, and works on Windows, Linux,
Solaris, OS X, etc.
-
SyncBack
- SyncBack backs up and synchronises your files and
directories to either the same drive, a different drive, a
different medium (CDRW, CompactFlash, etc), an FTP server, a
network, etc. It supports file filters (for example, to back up
only specific types of files, say, *.doc), folders, copy
verification (to check the integrity of your backups),
background backups (with auto-close of programs that are
running, to ensure data integrity), log files of your backups
(in HTML format), etc. It works with the Windows scheduler so
that you can schedule your backups. Backups can be compressed.
XXCOPY, a Versatile File
Management Utility --- Boldly Extended Xcopy
XXCOPY is simply a logical extension to XCOPY. It
remains faithfully compatible with XCOPY in the invocation syntax, yet, adds
many innovative features to be a very serious utility for anyone who feels
comfortable in managing files in command line mode (DOS Box). XXCOPY has grown
to be not just a file copy program but also file removal, search and list
utility. Its short-name preserving capability makes it ideal to clone a system
disk which can be made bootable. XXCOPY runs under Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2K/XP and
comes with a 16-bit version XXCOPY16 which allows copying files in DOS
environment using short name only (to be later expanded to long name). You may
also use it for synchronizing systems. In short, it is an industrial strength
utility for system administrators.
Failing Disk Imagers
Lexun Designs
Unstoppable Copier 2.0 - Recovers data from scratched or damaged disks
including floppy, DVD, CD and hard disks - Softpedia
This program is great for recovering files from scratched CD's or defective floppy/hard
disks.
Normally when your computer is unable to copy a file from a damaged disk it will
abort and delete the portition of the file it has copied.
Unstoppable Copier will continue copying the file right to the end; any unrecoverable
data after many retries is replaced with blanks. This will allow you to
recover every byte of information that is available for recovery.
The program allows you to specify a single file, a group using wildcards (* and
?) or if you wish, select a starting folder and the program will copy all data
from it and any sub folders it may contain.
This program doesn't just need to be used for copying files form defective disks,
it can be used to transfer any files!
[Nov 28, 2005] Nero disk backup sucks. I used Nero disk backup for my weekly
backups but never tested it. When my harddrive failed I discover the restore is
a DOS utility and you need to map DVD drive in DOS or copy it to harddrive Fat32
partition to make it work. If there is a driver for DOS for your DVD drive you
are file, but it there is no such driver your only
option is to install additional IDE disk (or use existing FAT32 partition
with enough space on it).
Then you can copy the content on this disk and try your luck.
[Sept 11, 2005]
Amazon.com Norton Ghost 9.0 - Disk Imaging Solution Software
Finally!! Somebody got it right., September 7, 2004
After experimenting with Ghost version 9.0, I can report that Symantec has
produced a slick piece of software now that PowerQuest's DriveImage capabilities
have been fully integrated into the feature set. Note that Version 9.0 works
only on XP and 2000 systems.
For my home machine, I'm using a spare IDE drive to store the backup images.
I have set up a regular schedule which will automatically do a full baseline
backup once per month, with weekly incremental saves. The backup is performed
at the rate of about 1 GB per minute on an Intel 3.20 GHz machine, with compression
set to the standard parameter of 40%. I set a limit of 3 baseline images so
that the backup drive will never run out of room.
Backup jobs are run within Windows so there is no need to boot to DOS. Backups
can also be transmitted to a network server or written directly to CD or DVD
devices.
Ghost includes a nifty utility which can open a backup image so that you can
pull out a specific file for restoration. Following a catastrophic failure,
you can boot from the Ghost software CD into recovery mode and very easily restore
an entire drive including the MBR, making the disk ready to boot.
Ghost will also copy a drive while running under Windows. I successfully copied
my C-drive, but XP would not boot the copy without permission from Microsoft.
Backups using removable media (i.e. CD or DVD) must be started manually. Backups
to a hard drive or a network server can be scheduled for automatic operation.
Just leave the PC on at night and it's all taken care of. Ghost will even send
notification via email that the backup was completed.
- “Hot imaging” lets you create backup images without restarting Windows
- NEW! Incremental backup updates save time and disk space.
- NEW! Scheduled backups automatically keep your backup image up to
date.
- Works with a wide range of hard drives and removable media, including CDR/RW
and DVD+-R/RW drives, USB and FireWire® (IEEE 1394) devices
- Restores data from images created with PowerQuest™ Drive Image™ 7.0 and previous
versions of Norton Ghost.
- Symantec Recovery Disk lets you restore data from a backup image even when
the computer can’t start up into Windows.
- LiveUpdate™ keeps Norton Ghost updated automatically over the Internet.
- Norton Ghost 2003 is included to back up and restore data to: Windows 9x,
Me, NT; Linux®; and DOS systems.
By using Backup you can create a duplicate copy
of all hard disk and then archive it on another storage device, such as a hard
disk or a tape.
You can easily restore it by using the Restore
or Automated System Recovery Wizards.
To start Backup or to access Restore and Automated
System Recovery
| • |
Click Start, click
All Programs, click Accessories, click System Tools,
and then click Backup. |
Windows XP Backup, Restore, and Automated System
Recovery all function when Windows XP Professional is functioning.
If your computer does not start properly, you may
need to use Recovery Console. Recovery Console provides a command line during
Startup from which you can make system changes when Windows XP Professional doesn't
start.
To learn more about Backup, Restore, and Automated
System Recovery, see Help and Support Center.
Unison (file
synchronizer) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Slashdot
Google Releases Paper on Disk Reliability
Rescue CD
SystemRescueCd is a Linux system available from a bootable CDROM that provides
an easy way to perform administrative tasks on your computer, such as creating
and editing the partitions of the hard disk or backing up data. It contains a
lot of system utilities (such as parted, partimage, and fstools), and basic programs
(such as editors, midnight commander, and network tools). It also includes QtParted,
a Partition Magic clone that makes editing partitons easy with its Qt graphical
user interface. This CDROM aims to be very easy to use and accessible to everybody.
Author:
François Dupoux
[contact developer]
GNU Parted
GNU Parted (gparted) allows you to
create, destroy, resize, and copy partitions. Supported partition types include
ext2, FAT (FAT16 and FAT32), and Reiserfs filesystems and Linux swap devices.
Supported disk labels include MS-DOS and PC98 partition tables, Sun and BSD disk
labels, Macintosh partition maps, and raw access. Parted is useful for creating
space for new operating systems, reorganising disk usage, copying data between
hard disks, and disk imaging.
mkCDrec Utilities
The mkCDrec utilities are optional
for mkCDrec itself, but are an added value for rescue and recovery purposes. The
utilities are staticly compiled and include parted, memtest, partimage, gpart,
and recover. Memtest86 is also available for memory testing.
Partition Image
Unlike Ghost you can same images to an external usb drive.
Partition Image is a Linux/UNIX utility
similar to Symantec's Ghost. This uility saves partitions in the EXT2, Reiserfs,
NTFS, HPFS, FAT16, and FAT32 file system formats to an image file. The image file
can be compressed with gzip or bzip2 in order to save disk space, and it can be
split in order to fit onto a series of floppy disks. This program can be useful
for backup purposes. A boot/root disk is also provided, allowing you to
run Partition Image without Linux installed on the hard disk.
Fantastic
by
scribbler - Jul 10th 2003 11:23:59
Partition Image is a fantastic free alternative to the commercial Norton Ghost.
Using the KNOPPIX live ISO, I was able to fully back up my Windows hard drive
(FAT32), purposely destroy it using deltree, and fully restore it, without a single
hitch from the program itself.
If I had to find a fault with the software, I'd have to say it's a little slow
backing up/restoring. But that, to be honest is probably not a fault with the
program. After all, it was a 2Gb FAT32 partition, and an hour either way to backup/restore
the compressed data is a lot easier than having to install Windoze from scratch.
The built-in functionality to compress the backup files works like a charm, it
compressed those 2Gb's down to about 1.3Gb, easily enough space to fit onto CD.
It took an hour to back up a 10Gb ReiserFS partition on another machine without
any compression. And considering the age/speed of the machine, this is totally
adequate.
Overall, a fantastic program, and one I'm going to use a lot.
Backups
-- In a League of Their Own Some hostorical data
Mondo is a free CD-
or tape-based disaster-recovery suite for Linux and Windows. Supports LVM, RAID,
almost any type of filesystem, bare metal restore. GPL.
Amanda is a free backup system designed
to archive many computers on a network to a large-capacity tape drive. Amanda has
many features and is widely used.
Bacula is a network client/server based
backup program. Bacula is relatively easy to use and efficient, writes to multiple
volumes, has many advanced storage management features that make it easy to find
and recover lost or damaged files. Runs on Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, with clients
also on Windows, Irix and Mac OS X. GPL software.
Free windows 2000 backup downloads
Free Backup
Software
Where can I get free backup software, Part 2
-
My Own Backup (MOB) A
flexible piece of software that allows for Disk Spanning (CD-R backups).
Some features include DOS command line support, Backup History and an Internet
Live Update function.
-
Backup, Archival, and Synchronization
Kit (BASK) BASK is a synchronization based backup and restore utility. It
allows you to specify a source and destination, along with a mapping, a pattern
to include, and a pattern and folders to exclude. You can determine file set differences
through the date, time, and size of the source and destination files; by checking
the source file's Archive attributes; or by comparing a single file's version
number in the source and destination folder.
-
Free Byte Backup Allows
one to easily copy (and filter) a large number of files and directories from various
sources into one backup directory. It is possible to backup all files found in
the specified set of input directories, or to have only certain file types copied.
Files can be filtered according to file-extensions.
Back Up and Recover Your Information
About.com
2000 Backup Utility
Basics
Chapter 5 Windows backup and restore
WinDriversBackup
How do
I clone-backup a hard disk under Windows
1..2..Freeware
- Backup and Copy Utilities
- BackitUP
BackitUp automates the backup of an unlimited number of files. Every entry
has its own destination path. Source path can be included into the destination
path. It is possible to backup single files or all files matching a file mask.
You can backup a directory including all subdirectories. If the destination
path does not exist, it will be created. You can start the program manually
or every time, when Windows starts. You can create different sets of backup
files.
- Backup and
Shutdown
Backup a selected file or folder to any destination, using PKZIP compression
routines (this makes file compatible with programs such as WINZIP for restoring
files). The program can remove standard windows shutdown command, has a system
tray icon for quick access. Email option to email specific recipients when
backup's are not being performed on regular basis.
-
BackupLatest
Scans a user selected directory (with its subdirectories) and backs-up those
files that were modified most recently. Excellent for backing up your ever-changing
critical systems files, or newly created documents. This new version supports
all local drives and mapped network drives, and is able to back up based on
the files' extensions.
- Basic
Backup
Allows you to make backups of directories using a command script called a
tag file
- Bushido
Backup
A FREE Win32 backup utility for Windows. This is a simple backup utility,
which can backup folders and files to removeable or network drives. This program
does not have file compression or disk-spanning. But it does allow you to
save your backup configurations to templates, for future recall and reuse.
- DiskSpan
A simple utility that adds a choice to your SendTo menu allowing you to automatically
compress, copy, and span file(s) across multiple disks with ease. It uses
regular inhouse zip compression. When you open the SpAn file, DiskSpan resotres
your files quickly. Great for sharing or storing large files.
- Diskwriter
A small utility to write disk image files to a floppy disk. It can be used
to write bootdisks for operating systems. Very nice is that this utility works
on Windows 95/98/NT4 and 2000. Since the different operating systems use different
methods to write to a disk, different methods are implemented.
- EaseBackup
EaseBackup is the professional backup solution that lets you protect your
information everywhere, anytime - at home, at work, or on the road-and it
keeps files and folders secure by storing them on your hard disk, floppies,
SuperDisks, network drives, ZIP drives, JAZ, e-mail and FTP servers, Online
File storages and most other removable media. Patch backup mode reducing time
requirements and size of archive files on 80-90%!
-
ICQBack
ICQBack is a nice and easy freeware Windows backup/restore utility for AOL's
ICQ program. ICQBack allows you to backup your contact list and all your other
important files, such asbookmarks, chat files etc. to disk, and restore them
again if you ever need too.This program is also handy to have if you have
ICQ installed on a number of machines and you want your contacts on all machines
without re-adding all the contacts again. (This is the main reason why Ihave
written ICQBack).ICQBack backs up your ICQ information in the standard zip
format, which allows you to add and remove extra files from your backups.
- Mr.Mirror
Creates mirror images of a selection of directories to a zip/jaz drive, a
mapped network drive or even a local hard disk.
- Muldir
Designed to help people who often transfer data from removable/multiple medias,
for example to HDD or CD-R, but still want to keep the 'disk' structure. Muldir
can recursively make as many directories as you want, for example all directories
from 'disk1' to 'disk99'.
- My Own Backup
Compression with zip or copy only (pure file copy), backup to any drive (removable
media or hard disk). Great for taking backups of your data to a zip and/or
jaz disk!
- QuickZip
Backup
Replicates an entire directory structure, then compresses all files in each
directory using standard ZIP compression. It is ideal for backing up to Zip
disks.
- Registry Key Backup
A little utility to help you to back up your registry keys. This is not just
another "repair tool" that copies your registry files to a floppy disk. It
allows you to select a key or more and save it to a *.reg file, so you can
restore it later by double-clicking on this file.
- SecurDat
Automatically makes backups of files, when these files are saved from any
application, in directories which you can define as monitored.
- Sip Bak
Sip Bak is a backup utility for files on your hard disk. You can easily create
backup scripts and then launch backups (.zip format) of selected files/folders.
Can also be launched from command-line, useful when a periodical backup is
needed. Great for developers (believe it or not, we use it EVERYDAY).
- TaskZip
Backing up files, like checking for computer viruses is something that every
personal computer owner should routinely perform, but often neglect until
it is too late. Every computer should have an automated backup system that
is easy to use and yet they do not. Windows ships with the Microsoft backup
program. It has a nice interface, but is not widely used for one primary reason:
it cannot be scheduled nor can command line parameters be passed in from a
scheduling agent. TaskZip is a system agent that will automatically archive
specified files and folders into a single zip file (pkzip compatible format).
You can backup across a network, from computer to computer, or even to a zip
or jaz drive.
- Visual Batch File
Fast Backup/Synchronization program that is easy to use. Restore your backups
with one click. Friendly user interface using drag and drop. Support for network
and removable drives. Files can be backed up incrementally. Full and partial
restore. Useful for synchronizing files on multiple computers. Includes commandline
options for running invisibly etc. Can be scheduled to run at a specified
time. File oper
The most popular utility in this calss is Ghost
(now owned by Seymantec). It is available separately as
Norton Ghost 2001;
also included in Norton SystemWorks
Professional, which can often be found heavily discounted.
Recommended.
You may be able to get a free cloning utility from your hard disk
manufacturer. Possibilities include:
Other possibilities:
Important Notes:
- Conversion of FAT16 partitions to FAT32 and/or partition resizing may
not be supported by some of these utilities. Be sure to check if you
need these capabilities.
- FAT32 partitions larger than 8 GB with a cluster size less than
8 KB will cause errors in Disk Defragmenter (Defrag.exe) and ScanDisk
(Scandskw.exe). See Q229154 "Err
Msg: Your Computer Does Not Have Enough Free Memory to Defrag the Drive" and
"Scandisk and Defrag give
error messages when used on a new hard drive".
Copyright © 1996-2007 by Dr. Nikolai Bezroukov.
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Last modified:
March 15, 2008
SpinRite Disk Error Problem Detection
(Score:2, Interesting)The program sounds pretty amazing from their web site.
Are many companies using it for preventative maintenance to avoid data loss on their servers?