OT: Any thoughts on Norton 12 vs. Acronis True Image

just curious - to jump in the middle here -
how much do you backup ?
and what kind of device do you backup onto ?

We have several laptops around the house,
and getting a little worried.
I have Acronis 9.x that I used to copy a laptop disk to a new larger disk,
but have not really instituted a concise backup strategy.
Smallest disk is 20GB and the rest are in the 60GB range..

P.Schuman wrote:
> just curious - to jump in the middle here -
> how much do you backup ?
> and what kind of device do you backup onto ?
>
> We have several laptops around the house,
> and getting a little worried.
> I have Acronis 9.x that I used to copy a laptop disk to a new larger disk,
> but have not really instituted a concise backup strategy.
> Smallest disk is 20GB and the rest are in the 60GB range..


Hi.
My drive is partitioned into two, C and E (emergency).

On the E drive I have all my personal data and files with just the OS
and programs on C.

I imaged a good, clean (and defragged) version of the C drive onto
the E drive and then copied this to an external USB hard disk.
Every time the disk changes ie. a Windows security update, if I get a
disk problem or after trying out various trial programs etc., I simply
copy my Firefox and Thunderbird profiles onto the E drive, do a restore
from the Acronis Secure Zone at boot, then copy back the Firefox and
Thunderbird profiles back. Then I add the Windows updates or new
software. Then I make a new image, and this becomes my new (or newest)
"safe" back-up.

My E files are all backed up and copied onto an external USB hard disk.
Every time I add or do important work on them, I either back-up or
image the disk (Acronis does both) - first to the C drive and then copy
to the external drive.

HTH,
Nem

.., I simply copy my Firefox and Thunderbird profiles onto the E drive, do a
restore
> from the Acronis Secure Zone at boot, then copy back the Firefox and
> Thunderbird profiles back.



Nemesis,

I have edited my Firefox preferences to store my bookmarks.html in the Data
partition. This saves me losing bookmarks if I forget to copy the profiles
before restoring an image.

Brian K wrote:
> ., I simply copy my Firefox and Thunderbird profiles onto the E drive, do a
> restore
>> from the Acronis Secure Zone at boot, then copy back the Firefox and
>> Thunderbird profiles back.




Probably a good idea. I must do the same...but so far never screwed
myself yet :-)

Nem






>
> Nemesis,
>
> I have edited my Firefox preferences to store my bookmarks.html in the Data
> partition. This saves me losing bookmarks if I forget to copy the profiles
> before restoring an image.
>
>
>
>

I found these instructions somewhere. I'll copy and paste.




user.js

This is the main preferences file for Firefox and is located in you profile
folder. The file does not exist by default, so you need to create it before
you can start adding your preferences.

Windows users: If you know how to create a file, just skip this section.
Before you can create the file, you must make sure that you can see the file
type extensions in Windows. Start Explorer (just click on the My Computer
icon on your desktop) and select Tools > Folder Options.... Click the View
tab and uncheck the Hide extensions for known file types option. Now, go to
your profile folder and select File > New > Text Document. The default name
New Text Document.txt should be displayed. Change the name to user.js (click
Yes on the file type warning that appears).

Linux users: I assume that you know how to create a file if you're running
Linux. Just create user.js in your profile folder.

It's also possible to edit the preferences normally stored in user.js by
entering about:config in the address bar and press Enter. You will see a
list of all available preferences in Firefox (many of them are derived from
Mozilla and are not used but not yet removed). Double-click on a preference
to change its value. The changes you make here will be immediately stored in
prefs.js, which is a file automatically generated by Firefox.



SUMMARY: In C:\Documents and Settings\"User"\Application
Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\bbuzr19h.default (folder)

create USER.JS file

paste the two lines below into user.js (change
E:\\Identities\\Firefox_bookmarks\\bookmarks.html to your path)




// Specify which bookmarks file to use:
user_pref("browser.bookmarks.file",
"E:\\Identities\\Firefox_bookmarks\\bookmarks.html ");

Formatting problem in previous post. The two lines are


// Specify which bookmarks file to use:
user_pref("browser.bookmarks.file", "E:\\Identities\\Firefox_bookmarks\\bookmarks.html ");

P.Schuman wrote:
> just curious - to jump in the middle here -
> how much do you backup ?

I routinely backup up my C:\ (XP)P & D:\ (user data). Hard to say
exactly how much is backed up because Acronis compresses it and I do
incremental backups. I have a backup script which runs twice a day to
copy the D:\ stuff to another HDD on my computer. Acronis backs up to an
external HDD pretty much weekly (or if I'm making a big change, etc.). I
use 2 HDD's for this and monthly I put one in offsite storage and bring
last month's home to do current backups. This gives me something if my
house burns down or something.

You need to decide how valuable your data is to you and backup
accordingly. I'd be royally screwed if I lost my spreadsheets, taxes,
Quicken files, etc., so I have multilevel backup strategy so I should
never lose everything and best case is I just go back a couple of hours
to the last online file copy.

Hard drives fail and it's not a question of if but when. People who are
serious about computing need to plan accordingly.

Just my $.02, of course, YMMV.

On Sat, 22 Sep 2007 12:47:43 -0400, Tony Harding <>
wrote:

>P.Schuman wrote:
>> just curious - to jump in the middle here -
>> how much do you backup ?
>
>I routinely backup up my C:\ (XP)P & D:\ (user data). Hard to say
>exactly how much is backed up because Acronis compresses it and I do
>incremental backups. I have a backup script which runs twice a day to
>copy the D:\ stuff to another HDD on my computer. Acronis backs up to an
>external HDD pretty much weekly (or if I'm making a big change, etc.). I
>use 2 HDD's for this and monthly I put one in offsite storage and bring
>last month's home to do current backups. This gives me something if my
>house burns down or something.
>
>You need to decide how valuable your data is to you and backup
>accordingly. I'd be royally screwed if I lost my spreadsheets, taxes,
>Quicken files, etc., so I have multilevel backup strategy so I should
>never lose everything and best case is I just go back a couple of hours
>to the last online file copy.
>
>Hard drives fail and it's not a question of if but when. People who are
>serious about computing need to plan accordingly.
>
>Just my $.02, of course, YMMV.


You mention on line backup which has caught my attention in the past.
I wouldn't mind doing that but the cost kept me from doing it in the
past. I haven't kept up with the latest costs but aside from the
cost, I like the idea.

RnR wrote:
> On Sat, 22 Sep 2007 12:47:43 -0400, Tony Harding <>
> wrote:
>
>> P.Schuman wrote:
>>> just curious - to jump in the middle here -
>>> how much do you backup ?
>> I routinely backup up my C:\ (XP)P & D:\ (user data). Hard to say
>> exactly how much is backed up because Acronis compresses it and I do
>> incremental backups. I have a backup script which runs twice a day to
>> copy the D:\ stuff to another HDD on my computer. Acronis backs up to an
>> external HDD pretty much weekly (or if I'm making a big change, etc.). I
>> use 2 HDD's for this and monthly I put one in offsite storage and bring
>> last month's home to do current backups. This gives me something if my
>> house burns down or something.
>>
>> You need to decide how valuable your data is to you and backup
>> accordingly. I'd be royally screwed if I lost my spreadsheets, taxes,
>> Quicken files, etc., so I have multilevel backup strategy so I should
>> never lose everything and best case is I just go back a couple of hours
>> to the last online file copy.
>>
>> Hard drives fail and it's not a question of if but when. People who are
>> serious about computing need to plan accordingly.
>>
>> Just my $.02, of course, YMMV.
>
>
> You mention on line backup which has caught my attention in the past.
> I wouldn't mind doing that but the cost kept me from doing it in the
> past. I haven't kept up with the latest costs but aside from the
> cost, I like the idea.

My "online backup" is from one HDD to another HDD in my computer. I'm
not using any 'Net based service.

I bought Acronis 10
$29 and $20 USD for a second PC (Vista).
I should be recieving a free Acronis 11 upgrade this week.

No worries, I've tested it twice..


http://community.webtv.net/GEOH/WeDoWindows