File recovery?

[Lurks]

oops! it was this one from Amazon actually, same one, bit cheaper though.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-Elements-Desktop-External/dp/B002E7HEVU/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1268258333&sr=8-11

[Hanner Cymraeg]

very nice - bit big for what they need though

looks like I'm out of it anyway, apparently "the IT bloke at work says it's a piece of pi$$ to do, he will get everything back no problem"

"help yourself matey" was my response

[Argie]

Tend to feel the same a lot these days m8, must admit.

[Hanner Cymraeg]

'twasn't the fact that I can't be bothered, it was the way it was said that put me off. I felt like I was being accused of making more of the job than it warranted (even though I was doing it for nowt!)

[Argie]

That's exactly what I mean

These days most of the time my advice ends up being, go to PC world & buy a new one. Regardless of the question lol

[Hanner Cymraeg]

my herbs aren't growing very well, what do you think I should do?

[Argie]

Come round 'ere and help us get this cambelt cover off

[Hanner Cymraeg]

I'll just get me 'ammer & chisel......

[Argie]

Ooh. hidden bolt. crafty Japanese!

It's off now. Yikes tis a very sorry looking water pump. Glad I have a newie!

[Lurks]

my herbs aren't growing very well, what do you think I should do?

How warm are you keeping them Ian?

even the house can get cold during the night, my seedlings are grown in heated propagators inside a plastic greenhouse indoors, I've transplanted some of my tomatoes into small pots today.

[NigelWaring]

Lurks, if you use on of those external Western Digital drives with the automatic backup software that comes with it does it store your backup as an ordinary DOS type file of does it convert it to a huge all in one type backup file?

I'm using external drives at the moment and then just copying the data to them, this can be tedious but it is so easy to restore from.  I'm seriously thinking of getting some kind of network drive that will work as a file server with automatic backup.  Ideally I like something that works like Microsoft Briefcase, that is if you delete a file from your PC it also gets deleted from your briefcase and so on. 

[Lurks]

I use Acronis true image to back my computers up Nigel, it make a total image of the drive, the file is a .tib file, at the moment this file is 26 gig for my C drive, it can be split into smaller sections for putting onto DVD’s etc.

Should the computer go down I load an Acronis start up disk, it reads the .tib file from the removable drive and reloads the whole drive back onto my computer.

So I’m up and running with within about an hour exactly as the drive was when I did the backup.

It saves all the reloading of OS, downloading updates etc.

As I had to do here:

http://www.southportfriends.co.uk/forums/tech-talk/ive-just-done-a-full-destructive-recovery!/

Acronis will also backup and copy the hidden partition with the actual OS on it, plus the system partition with all the drivers on it, if the hard drive goes tits up and you need to renew it, you’re lost without the hidden partition, no OS, with Acronis I always have it.

Acronis has to be paid for (cough) there are free ones around though.

Have a look at it here.

http://www.acronis.co.uk/homecomputing/products/?source=uk_google&ad=acronis&c=4337855154&k=cronis&gclid=CIqUx_qtuqACFQORZgod3Gy2TQ

[NigelWaring]

Thanks Lurks, yes I'm familiar with that system but have only used the Norton's version and the similar system that comes with Acer machines.  I was thinking more of something for backing up just the files that are changed day to day.  There are many ways of achieving what I want, batch file, briefcase and I think Linux has something built in.  With Windows you can have local files that are copies of the files on your server, as you make changes to the local files the server is also updated but all this is done at the cost of speed plus the fact that you have to have an expensive server up and running which to me is too much for a simple home network.  If I use briefcases, I'd need many because there is a limit on the size of each briefcase, at the end of every session I'd have to manually update the ones where files have been changed.  IBM does have a suitable system but it is priced more for big firms, if I win Lotto I'd get one.

Another way of putting it is I'm looking for something like an external drive, it could be on the home network.  When I logoff a PC any changes to files on that PC are automatically updated on the external drive including the removal of files that have been deleted.  I'm only looking at my data files here, I'll stick with an image for the operating  part of the system.

Sometimes I turn on a PC just to make one important change to a single file then I will close down, it would be great if just that one change were updated to the backup without the need for loads of manual intervention.