Best way to do a back up of my hard drive? ?

Question

I have an external hard drive, and want to do a back up of my laptop - basically emails, documents, etc. I've done it before but it seemed to take ages, as I kept having to giver permissions, etc. for certain folders (I am the only administrator on the comp, and have no password folders, or anything). I kind of expected to just be able to let it run and go to bed, for example, but it wasn't to be. Any tips?

I'm running Vista Home, and I haven't got ay huge files or anything (very few images, docs, for example).

Thanks for any help guys!

Answer 1

I recommend Cobian Backup 9, it's a free and easy to use program to automate the back up process.

Cobian Backup 9 is a free, open-source software which I use to automate the process of backing up. It can be used to schedule and backup your files and directories from their original location to other directories/drives in the same computer, external hard drive or other computer in your network.

Answer 2

there are tons of backup programs some free some not. some brain dead simple some expert user level.  It all depends on what you're comfortable with.

First if Vista is giving you a hard time, you give it a hard time back. Turn off user control (UAC). this i done via control panel. i did so on all of my 3 Vista PCs.

Also note that some PCs come prepackaged with some backup software usually it's a trial package and sometimes it's a freebie they throw your way.

some packages i would recommend:-

acronis true image (not free)

paragon

NT shadow

Norton ghost (never tried it but heard it mentioned a lot)

see www.download.com and www.snapfiles.com for recommendations.

Also consider as an alternative online backups. There are free online services such as xdrive, inbox and others. They have automated online backup software.

If you want to do things more manually and want to online backup your files rather than just have it done in batch mode, look at diino.com, MS Live Skydrive, Google. They offer you tons of free space.

good luck