Sun City Summerlin Computer Club Seminar Backing Up With Acronis True Image 2015 Tom Burt November 26, 2014 Backing Up With Acronis 1
Seminar Agenda Basic Backup Concepts Cloning vs Imaging Backup Tools Where to Back up? Where to buy a Backup Drive Demo Imaging With Acronis True Image 2015 -- Bio Break (~15 min) Demo Other Acronis Features and Tools Cloud Backup for Data Files Using Command Scripts for File Backups Tom s Backup Guidelines Web Site Links Where to Buy Open Q and A Backing Up With Acronis 2
Basic Backup Concepts Backing up means making a copy of all or part of your PC hard drive to another hard drive. Why do it? Hard drives are electro-mechanical devices they BREAK DOWN. (but hard drive MTBFs are now 100,000+ operating hours) Even solid state drives can fail or become corrupt. Hard drives, their folders and files can become CORRUPT. Humans are fallible!! Sooner or later you will DELETE a file when you didn t mean to. Malware of all kinds may attack your PC and DESTROY data. Lightning may strike, fires happen, floods happen. Without backups, you may lose irreplaceable data Family photos, music, videos, financial records, e-mail, Replacing lost software may be difficult and expensive. Backing Up With Acronis 3
Cloning vs Imaging Cloning Backs up an entire hard drive to another entire hard drive. The resultant hard drive is bootable same OS & drivers. The resultant hard drive has all the files and folders of the original. The clone is a logical copy not a bit-for-bit physical copy. Imaging An image is a single large file if on NTFS, or a group of files if on FAT32. An image is a copy of one or more partitions of a hard drive. Images are compressed about 2 to 1. Images only contain used areas of the original partition. Images are not directly bootable, but contain all boot information. With software help, an image can be mounted as a logical drive. (This allows individual files to be retrieved from the image). Backing Up With Acronis 4
A Sampling of Backup Tools (1) Acronis True Image 2015 Home (latest) http://www.acronis.com or http://ugr.com Single PC about $25, family pack of 3 about $60 (UGR) Excellent for backing up entire hard drives or partitions. Also can back up individual files. Makes both clones or images Can mount a backup image as a logical drive. Can make a bootable Rescue CD for both backup and restore. Windows Explorer Built-in Windows File Manager. Easy to use for copying small groups of files and folders. Windows XCOPY batch command utility Runs from the command line or in.cmd batch scripts. Good for automating a regular sequence of file backup actions. Many options. Backing Up With Acronis 5
A Sampling of Backup Tools (2) CASPER 8.0 by Future Systems Software www/fssdev.com Supports both cloning and disk imaging Features SmartClone technology (differential clones) Single system price about $50; family pack of 3 for $70 CloneZilla (free, open source) http://clonezilla.org Supports both cloning and imaging Support for Windows, Mac, Linux May be a bit more challenging for novices Excellent for large network backups Backing Up With Acronis 6
Where to Back Up? To an external drive (USB 2/3, esata or rack mounted) Fastest I/O, especially for cloning or imaging. Backup drive can be removed after backup is complete. If imaging, can use an images folder on the external drive. (No need to dedicate the entire drive to backups). To another computer on your home network Similar to imaging to a USB backup drive. Dedicate an area on that PC to storing backup images. To DVDs or Blu-ray discs Much slower and less convenient. Even with dual layer (9 GB) DVDs, will need about 5 DVDs or 2 (25 GB) Blu-rays to back up a full 40GB hard drive partition. Blu-ray burners can be had for about $125 Backing Up With Acronis 7
Where to Buy a Back Up Drive Shop the usual on-line tech stores: www.amazon.com www.newegg.com www.tigerdirect.com www.bestbuy.com www.officedepot.com Search Google, Bing or DuckDuckGo for a specific brand / size: external "hard drive" "usb 3" 2-tb Lots of hits typical price about $90 for 2 TB Ultra-slim drives will be slower For just backing up data files, consider a flash drive USB 3 16GB, 32GB and 64GB drives quite affordable. Backing Up With Acronis 8
Main Screen Acronis True Image 2015 Backing Up With Acronis 9
Demo Backing Up With Acronis Within Windows Method (much more convenient) 1. Shut down the PC (if needed). 2. Attach external USB / esata drive or mount rack with drive. 3. Re-boot Windows. 4. Choose backup Options: Clone or Image Source partition / drive Target partition / drive If imaging full or incremental 5. OK your selections. 6. Sit back and let the backup take place. 7. Shut down the PC. 8. Remove the backup hard drive. 9 Reboot the PC into Windows. Backing Up With Acronis 10
Backing Up With Acronis Rescue CD Using the Bootable Acronis Rescue CD Method (more complete) 1. Shut down the PC. 2. Attach external USB/eSATA drive or mount rack with drive. 3. Boot using Acronis Rescue CD (boots into Linux). 4. Choose backup Options: Clone or Image Source partition / drive Target partition / drive If imaging full or incremental 5. OK your selections. 6. Sit back and let the backup take place. 7. Shut down the PC. 8. Remove the bootable Rescue CD and backup hard drive. 9 Reboot the PC back into Windows. Backing Up With Acronis 11
Backing Up Files With Acronis 1. Attach external USB/eSATA drive or mount rack with drive. 2. Start Acronis True Image. 3. Choose backup Options: Source partition / drive / Folders Target partition / drive / Folder 4. OK your selections. 5. Sit back and let the backup take place. 6. Remove the boot CD and backup hard drive. Backing Up With Acronis 12
Acronis 2015 Tools and Features Demo - Make a bootable Rescue CD. Non-stop backup configuration: Online backup (Requires subscription) configuration: File backup configuration: For all of these, you specify a set of folders that Acronis will back up. Drive Cleanser tool. File Shredder tool. Mount an Image as a logical drive. One-click backup. Backing Up With Acronis 13
Cloud Backup for Data Files Popular cloud storage services are another way to back up your key data files. Most will automatically sync between your PC / Mac / Tablet and the cloud. Typically you can sign up for about 5 GB of free storage and buy more if needed. Popular services include: Microsoft OneDrive: https://onedrive.live.com/ Apple icloud: www.apple.com/icloud DropBox: www.dropbox.com Google Drive: http://drive.google.com SugarSync: https://www.sugarsync.com Backing Up With Acronis 14
Scripts for Backing Up Files Backup scripts are helpful for frequent backups: Daily backup of files in My Documents Daily backup of e-mail folders Daily backup of Quicken Combines well with weekly imaging of HD partitions: Less time required Easier to get at a backup file when needed. Can use as a versioning system (copy to a different folder each day) Best scripting languages: VB Script very flexible and powerful Windows command (.cmd) files Often works well to back to to a flash drive. Backing Up With Acronis 15
Windows XCOPY Command XCOPY source [destination] [/A /M] [/D[:date]] [/P] [/S [/E]] [/V] [/W] [/C] [/I] [/Q] [/F] [/L] [/G] [/H] [/R] [/T] [/U] [/K] [/N] [/O] [/X] [/Y] [/-Y] [/Z] [/EXCLUDE:file1[+file2][+file3]...] source Specifies the file(s) to copy. destination Specifies the location and/or name of new files. See the XCOPY help file XCOPY /? Has many, many options Example: Copy all changed files in My Documents to a backup and clear the Archive flag: XCOPY My Documents\*.* R:\MyBackups\Documents\ /H /M /E /Q Backing Up With Acronis 16
Tom s Backup Guidelines Use Acronis for Image Backups Weekly for OS partition Weekly for separate data partition Daily for frequently changing data Back up to a Removable Hard Drive USB 2/3 or esata are good choices - can unplug and put away afterward. Rack mount drives OK, but racks need to be installed. esata / USB 3 docks are a new alternative. Use backup scripts (.cmd files) For recurring, frequent backups of data files. (e.g. Outlook.pst changes daily) Also burn CD or DVD backup disks Safe copies of irreplaceable data like digital photos, financials Can store off site bank safe deposit or friend s home Backing Up With Acronis 17
Web Links Where to Buy http://www.ugr.com http://www.acronis.com http://clonezilla.org http://www.fssdev.com http://www.newegg.com http://www.tigerdirect.com Backing Up With Acronis 18
Questions and Answers Backing Up With Acronis 19