What is the best way to back up my hard drive?

[AliceN1derland]

Hi everyone!

I am using an Intel 320 180 GB for my OS. I plan on switching to the 520 Cherryville series soon.

Here is my question:

I would like to have a system back up. I recently purchased a Seagate Free Agent Go Flex USB 3.0. I also purchased Acronis True Image PC Back Up and Recovery.

How would I back up my system?

Alice

[office politics]

i've never used acronis before. i guess you make a boot cd out of acronis and use it to create a disk image on the usb. Load the boot cd again after installing the new drive. use the boot cd to restore the image.

Acronis Backup & Recovery 11: Creating Acronis Bootable Media | Knowledge Base

[AliceN1derland]

Originally Posted by office politics

i've never used acronis before. i guess you make a boot cd out of acronis and use it to create a disk image on the usb. Load the boot cd again after installing the new drive. use the boot cd to restore the image.

Acronis Backup & Recovery 11: Creating Acronis Bootable Media | Knowledge Base

office politics,

Thank you for your reply. May I ask what you use for back up? And what do you consider the most reliable back up method?

Finally, I noticed the Seagate Free Agent Go Flex USB 3.0 also comes with back up software. Not sure what to use. I also have a copy of Norton Ghost 15 laying around.

Which do you recommend?

Alice

[office politics]

i would use clonezilla and gparted for this.

this topic is covered in the first link in my signature. How to move...

[Joe C]

I've used Acronis before, works o.k. for backing up on another drive in your pc but it does not like to make a recovery dvd disk. The Seagate back up program is probably another version of Acronis because both Western Digital and Seagate have a deal set up with Acronis. You best option if you should decide to use Acronis would be to make a Acronis boot disk (provided with the Acronis software) and then create a full back up with that. It runs much better when you make back ups outside of windows, and using the boot disk can do that.
Prsonnaly I use R-Disk myself, I can not comment on clonezilla or gparted because I have not used either but I have heard of good reports from everybody I know that has used it

[Trotter]

I think I will give Clonezilla a shot. I finally have an external I can use to back up on.

[c0rr0sive]

Acronis does a rather good job at backing data up IMO, and you can install it in such a way as to create a built in system recovery.... More usefull for sellers I guess xD

[Joe C]

I prefer dvd disks and Acronis isn't very good at that.
Using Acronis to make a built in system recovery is useless if it's on the same drive if that drive were to fail. Adding a second drive these days can get expensive. I can recommend Acronis if you have either a second drive or even an external drive to store your image onto
I found another proggy that works well at making bootable recovery dvd's, it does require 3 dvd's though

[computerrepair]

Hi Alice,

There is a feature in acronis called "Clone Disk" hook up both of your hard drives and use that feature...will be quick and easy.