Set-and-forget Windows backup software with NAS-support?

Question

I am looking for set-and-forget backup software for Windows (Vista & 7, and if possible XP/2003). The idea is that it runs in the background on the clients, and does its thing towards a network-share.

In case the HDD of one of these clients spontaneously combusts, all I want to have to do is: replace the drive, insert a USB-stick, boot from it, and restore the machine. It should support drives which use [ICH]-RAID. What are my options here? It looks like WHS meets all the requirements, but I am curious about my other options here.

Answer 1

WHS is the way to go. If you have a spare PC around install the demo and try it out (you can build yourself a box cheaply later if you like it - it will run well on a modest config). Backups runs as you require and I can tell you from experience that system restores run flawlessly. I bricked my laptop once (I was mucking around in the registry), so I popped in the restore CD that basically loads a NIC driver to connect back to the server and I re-imaged my laptop (two NTFS partitions) without a hitch.

Highly recommend WHS...

Answer 2

Areca Backup is my backup software of choice. free, open source, cross platform,

another good solution is Comodo Backup (free, Windows only), the user-friendliness is excellent.

if you want hot-imaging, have a look at DriveImage XML (scheduled drive/partition backup, VSS support, image file in XML format).

Answer 3

Macrium Reflect is free, fast, supports live image creation (shadow copying), set-it-and-forget-it, and a whole slew of other features. The full version ($40) supports Windows Boot restore, which might be the easiest way to recover your clients. (I'm not affiliated with them, but I am a huge fan.)

Answer 4

I'd like to recommend Microsoft's free utility SyncToy. All it does is synchronize files and folders (in various directions), either locally or remotely.

Within Synctoy, you create one (or more) folder pairs -- on the left, the folder on your computer. On the right, the folder on your NAS. Then configure the pair so that synchronization is one-way, from left to right.

Answer 5

Windows 7 has a backup feature built in. You can set it to a desired schedule, choose what files/folders to back up, and even ask it to create a system image. For storage, I use a WD MyBook World Edition (the networked variety). My desktop is set up to back up changes to the NAS on a regular basis.

Answer 6

Acronis is a great product to use as is WHS, but keep in mind that Acronis Home will not backup 2003, for that you have to go with their server solution which is big bucks. The same goes for WHS...

While I use Acronis, WHS is a solid option as you get the server functionality as well as backup, but again, Acronis does backups as their primary business so I'm sure you can see how that is a positive (plus they are on V10).

Both Acronis and WHS have demo versions available for download. WHS is 120 days I believe and I have no idea how long Acronis' is.

Answer 7

free and open source application : Back in time ... almost like mac time machine ...

Answer 8

ShadowProtect (in my case, Desktop Edition) does a good job: set it up and let it do full backups and incremental backups (using shadow copies) with backup plans. For the restore, you'll have to boot from a CD; I suppose that you can also try to get it working from a USB stick, but I never tried it, though.

The downside is that, in my opinion, it does not really manage well cases where the destination media gets full; you can configure it to delete old incremental copies, but when the destination disk nevertheless suddenly becomes full, I experienced problems with subsequent incremental backups.

Answer 9

You should take a look at this post here: Time Machine for Windows

But may I recommend Genie-Soft's Timeline 2.0? (Full Disclosure: I'm a project lead on the Timeline 2.0 team)

I think you'll find that it meets all our needs for a set-it-and-forget-it backup solution. There's a free version with almost all the features you'll ever need, and home/pro editions that add full system backup/recovery, compression, encryption, and more.

Answer 10

I know that the Vista/7 Backup and Restore Center can do "Complete PC Backups" to a NAS, but is it possible to restore from a NAS? My understanding is that if a hard drive in a client machine crashes, then you pop in the Windows Vista/7 install disk, select "repair system" and choose the backup image, but will you be able to access the backup image if it's on a NAS?