best backup software

[steakman1971]

I recently bought a new laptop without any ytpe of floppy support. I have Ghost 2003 - but am having some problems making a bootable disc (I've tried a USB Flash and a cd-rom) that works - the laptop seems to hang when booting from cd, and ignores the flash.
I installed Ghost 2003 to the laptop, and had it "reboot from the HD" (i.e. - it reboots the laptop and launches Ghost 2003). I used the internal dvd-rw drive to make a backup of the system. However, should I need to use it - I don't know how to get Ghost to boot.
Anyone have any ideas on getting a bootable disc for Ghost?

While I'm at it - how does Ghost 2003 stackup compared to other backup solutions? I don't really need to backup once a day - I likely would backup once every few weeks.

[number69]

Check out this site.

http://ghost.radified.com/

and here

http://radified.com/Files/

[steakman1971]

That was a great site. I learned something about Ghost 2003 - the backups are bootable. That takes care of my problem with the backup.

[The Bryophyte]

If you want to check out some other solutions anyway, I am a big fan of Acronis True Image. It does quick backups that don't require a reboot into a DOS type environment and it supports things like external usb drives, which I don't believe Ghost 2k3 does.

www.acronis.com

[mikeblas]

If you go with Acronis, make sure you stick with True Image 8 instead of True Image 9. TI9 is buggier than a stale pie. It'll be great when they get everything ironed out; I love TI8, but it took a few months to become usable, too.

[djnes]

It does quick backups that don't require a reboot into a DOS type environment
That's a very big negative in my book. I wouldn't ever want to rely on a backup made of a Windows installation while it was running.

[The Bryophyte]

I run TI8 and I have never had any trouble with my images. I have used 3 of them to restore my computer on various occassions and they have always been good. Of course, if you don't want it to do the backup within windows you can tell it to do the backup on a restart.

[Phoenix86]

That's a very big negative in my book. I wouldn't ever want to rely on a backup made of a Windows installation while it was running.
You should look at the bare metal restore options from Veritas. ;)

It's server-grade backup stuff (read $$$), but it's nice and it works.

edit: actually I have no idea what it costs, but being it's "for" servers...

[mikeblas]

I used Veritas when I was running Windows NT 4.0. It was very difficult to use and not much fun. IIRC, the license I had for a single server was about a grand, and they wanted more money for everyhting; SQL Server, Exchange, bare-metal disaster recovery, and so on.

What's going on with them now? Did they sell Backup Exec to Symantec, or is Veritas now completely owned by Symantec?

[Phoenix86]

I used Veritas when I was running Windows NT 4.0. It was very difficult to use and not much fun.
Well, NT 4.0 wasn't easy or much fun. ;)