RAID0 Backup S/W

[DK2]

Before I didn’t have raid and was just using nero backitup and it work well, but it doesn’t do raid drives.
I looked at TrueImage and it looks like it does raid backup and restore, but their
info is kinda thin.

The reason I’m looking around is because MS backup doesn’t have compression.
In the end it still might be the safest way to go though.

So I was wondering what people use to backup and restore drives in RAID0.
(I have 2 vraps in raid0, and I have 2 750G hdd for storage and backup.)

[Cptn Vortex]

easiest thing to do..... buy a 3rd harddrive, Image you RAID-0 somewhere, create RAID 5 with the 3 drives and image back..... thats my 2c

[Jack Rabbit]

Drive level 'backup' solutions basically never work with fakeraid. You need a file system level backup solution.

There are lots of options. There are several backup articles on Lifehacker.com you can search for. They never mention my current favorite which is Comodo Backup. I am still working on the best setup but Comodo does just about every backup flavour you can think of so something should work for you. The only annoyance I have found so far is you have to run the tray applicaiton for the 'service' to work; this is just bent but is a minor annoyance.

[DK2]

Cptn, another Vrap? yer trying to break me aren’t you!
I’m more comfortable with a good ol backup rather than raid5, thanks thou.


The System has only been running a few days.
What I’m trying to do exactly is get an initial disk image of my installation (an HDD and DVD backup),
and also an image of my old system that I read with the new system, just in case I miss copying something over.
So then if something happens I can always get back to that point, these are the primary applications and setup that I need.
After that I always do separate backup of my work folders, whatever.
Game installs etc. they don’t matter, they are easy to install again, and all
you lose is save games and stuff, and mods always go in my work folders anyways.

My last build I used ghost, the backup went great, the restore not so much, so I trashed that.

[Squeetard]

Acronis true image works great. I have nightly server images running to external drives using acronis. Raid 10.

[Cptn Vortex]

I love talking people into spending more money. Its my job!!

[DK2]

Originally Posted by Squeetard

Acronis true image works great. I have nightly server images running to external drives using acronis. Raid 10.

Ya, I did some searching and poking around in some forums and Acronis seems to always come up as the best.
Their support forum has some good info on backing up and restoring raid setups
using trueimage as well, and not just from users.
So it looks like that’s the way to go for what I want to do.

[Jack Rabbit]

Originally Posted by DK2

I’m more comfortable with a good ol backup rather than raid5, thanks thou.

As you should be. RAID /= backup

Originally Posted by DK2

What I’m trying to do exactly is get an initial disk image of my installation (an HDD and DVD backup),

Is that really necessary? In two months all your patches, configs, and tweaks will be out of date. If a drive dies on you how long will it take you to replace it? After that wait will the difference between half an hour and half a day really be worth it; especially considering that full system backups are often hit or miss? I am not saying it is impossible; just that it is often unlikely for home use.

Originally Posted by DK2

Game installs etc. they don’t matter, they are easy to install again, and all you lose is save games and stuff...

Comodo, and lots of other software, lets you target individual folders or even files. So you can back up your save games and not the rest of the game install. Considering the save games are usually only a few megs each this might be worth setting up. I hate losing my progress.

Originally Posted by DK2

My last build I used ghost, the backup went great, the restore not so much, so I trashed that

Ghost is notoriously flaky. The vast majority of Ghost users make Ghost images but never even attempt to restore from them.

[DK2]

I know what your saying Jack Rabbit, but I got a lot of stuff to install, call them plugins, and doing it twice isn’t fun. It’ll take me another day yet.

[DK2]

Just to finish this off for anybody else that’s looking for a backup solution.

I got Acronis TrueImage Home 11 and I’m quite pleased with the tests.
My old system is completely imaged to an external HDD, and I can read
the image on my new system, and restore any folder or file I want from that.
It also supports restores to a new path, not just the original path.
(the old system is getting a re-format / re-install)

The boot disk that trueimage makes is able to read/write all the drives in my new
system, the non-raid ones and it also sees my two drives configured as raid0 as a
single drive, not as two individual drives.

So that should do it, I can make an initial image of my raid0 drive, and do periodic
incremental backups. I can then use that to recover any file I like, and also
restore the entire image back to the raid0 drive if need be, from a separate bootup disk,
including any of the incremental backups. These backup images can also be split
into smaller files, so I could burn them onto dvds as extra protection, if the
backup drive also craps out.

I’m impressed, it’s almost too perfect to believe.