Resolved Need info: Is it possible to use ntbackup from WinXP to back up Win 7?

I have two desktop PCs: one is a 6-month-old HP with Win7 Home Premium 64-bit, and the other is a 10-year-old locally made box with WinXP Pro 32-bit, which still works very well.

I'm looking for a freeware backup program that does full system image backups with incremental capabilities, one that will work for both PCs. The backups will go to an external USB drive.

I've tried most of the likely free subjects (EASEUS, Macrium, Paragon), but none will do incremental backups. For that you need to pay.

Does anyone know if the WinXP version of ntbackup.exe will work under Windows 7? I find that on XP (using shadow copy) it does full system backups and has the provision for incremental copies also.

If all else fails I'll have to spring for a paid-for version. If that comes to pass, can anyone say with reasonable certainty which one of the bunch is best, at a reasonable price?

I'd appreciate some advice. Thanks!

Frank D

 

It is all there in windows 7, have a read through this:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/1838/using-backup-and-restore-in-windows-7/

 

Thanks, Mark. I read the article but it doesn't mention the capability of doing a full system image backup with an incremental backup to that image backup. EASEUS Todo Backup 2.0 Beta, which I tested for about a month in Nov.-Dec., did that exact job beautifully! But when they came out with the finished version, it lost the ability to do incrementals to the full system image backup. They said it wasn't stable yet. I'm sure that any good backup program can do both system image and file backups, with incrementals to the file backups, but what I want is a program that will do incrementals to image backups. Possible in a freebie or does it look like I have to pay?

Frank

New info: This entry in the comments to the article you referenced above says just what I've been saying:

How To Use Backup and Restore in Windows 7 - How-To Geek
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/1838/using-backup-and-restore-in-windows-7/
October 27, 2010 3:12 pm
Jeff (says):

"I have become numb to Microsoft’s cluelessness. Windows ... has been dumbed down to the point of near uselessness. The old NTBackup’s simplicity was elegant. "

 

http://www.brighthub.com/computing/windows-platform/articles/53645.aspx

I haven't tried it, but this instruction says you can do incremental back ups. I also found an article in Wikepedia that says Windows 7 will do full system image incremental back ups.

I have just set up a new internal drive for backups so I will be trying it out fairly soon.

 

http://social.technet.microsoft.com...l/thread/50f3ff7a-2ae7-41c1-ac92-41edaed1e2f9

You might find this thread usefull. I have not read it all but it does confirm that incremental full system image backups are possible with win7. Scroll down to the post by SriramB October 27th 2009 12.23pm. This statement is of particular interest.

Skimming through comments further down the thread you might well decide to get third party software as there are many people having problems with incremental backups that take hours to complete and use up more disc space than the original backup. It does appear that Microsoft have some work to do on this facility.

I will still be trying it myself to see what happens.

It would be usefull to gather more comments from other members, some may have used Win7 backup without any problems.

 

Mark, breaking news:

Before I respond to or test any of the suggestions/recommendations you made in your posts above, I'd like to make you (and all Western Digital drive users) aware of what I found on another BB after a long series of Google searches. I'm now using the referenced free program successfully on both of my machines, which use WD HDs. Here it is:

Topic: Windows NT Backup-Restore in Win 7?
http://social.technet.microsoft.com...l/thread/2f7ce42f-6839-4794-b259-47d092b19d9a
Friday, January 08, 2010 9:54 PM
FastSteve
The free Acronis I got from Western Digital's site a couple of months ago works perfectly with Win7 64 bit. ... I have multiple Win7 and XP installations on my computers ...

That led me to Google the term "Acronis True Image for WD." The link I found for the free Acronis/WD backup program is: http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119

The program works beautifully, and the instructions say that the first system image backup will be a full one, while subsequent ones will be incremental. This is just what I'm looking for.

Frank

 

Thanks for that information Frank, but can the Acronis software be used on other makes of drive or is it only for WD drives.

I have so far run the Windows 7 back facility to make a system image and a back up of files. I then ran it again to see what would happen (having made no changes to anything) and it completed in about ten minutes and the saved files stayed the same size. This would imply that it is incremental or it would have made another image file which would have taken a lot longer. As I have just re-installed my OS I still have some files to put back into My Documents folders and have some more software to add. I will then do another backup. If the backup file just increases in size it should prove that the Windows 7 back facility does create incremental back ups.

 

Mark,

I was admitting to myself as to how Win7 Backup was a good answer to my query, but then in the article you referred to above (Hands-Free Automatic Incremental Backup in Windows 7 http://www.brighthub.com/computing/windows-platform/articles/53645.aspx?p=2), I noticed the following statement by the reviewer:
"I can compare Windows 7 Backup to my favorite back-up utility, Acronis True Image. In Acronis, your backed up files and OS images are containers. The container can be accessed directly from Windows Explorer and extracting a file or folder from the backup is as easy as dragging it out to the desktop. "

This feature alone makes it worth using Acronis. I find that all I have to do is double-click on the Acronis ".tib" file to make it open and become searchable, and any desired file can be dragged-dropped to a desired location.

Frank

BTW, it's also nice to be able to use the same backup program, Acronis True Image, on both of my machines instead of having to use a different one on each.

 

Mark, I can't prove it (having only WD drives on both of my machines), but the instructions at the WD site say that you must have a WD drive on the machine you're backing up. This makes me wonder if the other manufacturers of HDs might have similar, branded, free versions of Acronis True Image for their drives.

 

That is a worthwhile discovery. Perhaps I will invest in a copy of Acronis. Looking at the files I have recently backed up you cannot open them, as far as I can tell, they are stored as XML files.

 

Mark,

I found that I could not run NTBackup on my Win7 PC due to its lack of a floppy drive. The program does not recognize a CD/DVD drive. Without a floppy drive in the PC, you can't create the necessary recovery floppy disk with which to boot the PC so you can restore the backup. So the answer to my first question is NO, NTBackup will not work without a floppy drive in the machine. So I needn't go any further in that regard.

Frank

 

Thats a shame, surprised they haven't made a CD version for the boot disc, most modern PC's do not have floppy drives. I have read somewhere about a back up facility that Maxtor do for their drives but not sure what it is capable of.

Guess it's back to Acronis.

 

Mark, sorry to say I jumped to a wrong conclusion, namely that the free Acronis True Image WD Edition would do incremental backups. Apparently that's what I read about the full program and wrongly associated it with the WD edition.

However, that said, I googled the Home version of the ATI retail program and found it (2010 edition) at this location: http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=211949684&& for $19.99 with free shipping. So I'm going to buy this version since it's as close to free as I can find.

Frank

 

Doing a little more googling I found this:
(Free) Acronis for Seagate/Maxtor HDDs
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/discwizard

Of course, don't expect it to do incremental backups (as I did of the WD version), but if you have one of those HDDs at least you can try it out.

Frank

 

Mark, further info.

I found this at:
Acronis Tue Image 2010 Nonstop Backup - Windows 7 Forums
http://www.sevenforums.com/software/63647-acronis-tue-image-2010-nonstop-backup.html
"I ... recommend you to download the trial version of Acronis True Image Home 2010 in order to check how it works on your computer.
Within Windows the trial version is fully functional for 15 days. "

If you're going to buy Acronis TI Home 2010 anyway, as I just did, then until it's delivered you can get the feel of it by downloading and using the trial version. Which is what I'm doing right now.

Frank

New info: After having installed the trial version of ATI Home 2010, I find that according to the program itself, it's good for 30 days, not just the 15 days mentioned above.

 

That is all usefull information especially for anyone else who reads this thread.

I have an Excelstore drive for my backups and I doubt if there is any dedicated backup software for that but might be worth a look. The Acronis True Image is now up to a 2011 version. I've seen it on Amazon for just under €24.00.

What I would be interested in finding is back up software that would do incremental back ups of a 2 partition dual boot drive so the whole drive could be restored without any problems being encountered with the MBR. I wonder if there is any software that can do that.

 

I just answered my own question. Acronis True Image 2010 & 2011 both have an add on called Plus Pack which adds the facility for incremental backup of multi partitioned drives. Perfect

It can also run constant incremental back up which updates the back up files every 5 minutes (I'd like to see how much resources that uses) and there is an online safe where you can back up all your important data.

May be one day I'll need to use it for a complete restore but until then I wont know for sure how well it works, but it looks encouraging and a lot better than Windows 7 back up.

Perhaps we will see further improvements to the next version of Windows which will give us a back up facility that will do incremental backups of multiple partitions, which many of us have.

 

The reason I opted to go with the 2010 version is that I saw a comment on a thread that the user interface of the 2011 version is not as user-friendly as the 2010. Besides, the 2010 version is quite a bit cheaper, and the functions I'm interested in are the same.

As for your dual-boot drive, wouldn't the whole-disk, sector-by-sector backup, with subsequent incremental backups, work for you? Just a question, since I'm not knowledgeable in the area of backups.

Frank

 

I managed to get hold of a copy of Acronis True Image Home 2011 with the Plus Pack.

It does everything I could ever have wished for. I found the user interface very easy to use. There are soooo many choices it takes a while to set it all up, once done it can be left to do the job, all the backup jobs can be scheduled. It will back up from multiple drives/partitions and will also create a bootable clone. A first class piece of software

I think this pretty much concludes the thread, please mark it as resolved from the Thread Tools tab in the top right hand corner of the first post.

 

Mark,
I'm glad to hear that Acronis True Image solved your problems, as it did mine. I agree it's top-notch. I'll mark this thread resolved.

Thanks for your help!

Frank