May312012

Why can’t I seem to get any backup programs to work?

8413b98521e9d42e89f5fc2c177659b2 asks:

I have an Acer Aspire laptop with Windows 7 installed. My attempt to set up Windows 7 backup drops into directory listing of Windows/System32. Acer says this has nothing to do with them; Microsoft says it is “out of warranty”, and they have no responsibility.

NTI Backup Now provided by Acer does not do incremental backups, so it rapidly fills storage devices with full backups. EaseUS ToDo Backup refuses to load, giving message that the “installation file is corrupted”.

Any suggestions either why nothing seems to work, or what I can do to get around it? Are there other backup solutions I can try?

Thanks.


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5 Answers -

0 votes

ha14

May 31, 2012

sure there are other backup solutions.

Macrium Reflect
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Acronis True Image
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

DriveImage XML
http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

Keriver Image
http://www.keriver.com/

Not clear what is happening with NTI Backup, you should be able to choose parameters unless it is a restricted version. EaseUS ToDo Backup reinstall again with a fresh copy or go to control panel to uninstall and sometime repair option is offered
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Uninstall-or-change-a-program

David

I agree re. NTI. I did choose incremental b/u, but it persists in doing full backups daily despite this. In addition I am a bit uncomfortable with NTI because it came loaded on the machine, I have no ready means of reinstalling it should I need to, (since I have no installation media), and it saves in some proprietary format which renders it impossible to check that the backup is accurate.
EaseUs has never loaded successfully, so there is nothing to reinstall. It has consistently failed to even start to load, with a message that the installation files are corrupted. (I have tried re-downloading several times, always with the same result).
Correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding is that Macrium, Acronis, and DriveImage XML, (I am not familiar with Keriver), are all drive image programs (Like Norton Ghost), which are designed to creat a full image of the entire disk, rather than backup programs which back up only specific files or groups of files. Is this incorrect?

May 31, 2012
ha14

I think they can be tweaked so that to work as you want
for Acronis check here
http://kb.acronis.com/content/13461

For Macrium
http://kb.macrium.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50032.aspx
http://kb.macrium.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50077.aspx

June 3, 2012
0 votes

Oron

May 31, 2012

8413b98521e9d42e89f5fc2c177659b2, this sounds odd indeed. Does the system (Win 7) work properly in other respects? Do you have experience in setting up backups or is this your first time?
One other backup program I can recommend is Cobian Backup, which has an excellent “incremental” mode. Read the manual before you run it!

0 votes

Truefire_

May 31, 2012

It sounds like your install is completely botched. I’d backup what you can to an external harddrive or flash drive. Just copy and paste the files you need, and reinstall Windows. Here’s the disks you’ll need:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/windows-7-iso-x86-and-x64-official-direct-download-links-ultimate-professional-and-home-premium/

You might also want to download all the drivers for your laptop to the external device too.

Laga Mahesa

This.

If you can, avoid backup ‘solutions’ and do it yourself. That way you know where everything is and you aren’t reliant on a ‘solution’ to access your backups in a pinch.

June 1, 2012
David

Am I getting out of my depth here? Tell me more about mydigitallife. It looks as though they are basically providing the Windows O/S – what one used to get as a CD which could be used to reinstall the O/S, before manufacturers started installing everything on the hard drive, and not providing any media – correct? Is mydigitallife safe? Am I at risk of spoofing or installation of malign programs? And if I do follow this course, do I then re-register my new copy of Windows with Microsoft, and let them determine that it is “genuine”? (Is it?). And am I correct in thinking that I will also need to go and get all the other programs currently installed and reinstall them?

June 5, 2012
0 votes

Ryan Laverdiere

June 1, 2012

If you use Windows 7 backup you can go into Control Panel and then go to Backup and Restore if using the Icons view of if your using the Category view click on System and Security then Backup & Restore. In there you can configure where you want the backups to be saved to.

David

This is odd. Yes, the computer runs perfectly well in all other respects. But it will not configure the Windows backup, Easus ToDo chokes, saying the installation files are corrupt, Paragon similarly chokes on load, with a message that it is missing a .cab file. Could Acer have put something in to prevent me from loading any backup other than what they provided, (NTI)?

June 4, 2012
0 votes

James Kitt

August 10, 2012

Windows has greatly improved their back up utility. You can use the incremental back up or select the image option which is what I do once a week. The less third party software installed the better as windows uses enough resources already.