Home PC Data/Windows Backup Guide?

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Operaghost

[H]ard|Gawd
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So I caught a trojan lately and had to format/reinstall windows 7. I want to have a fail safe in place in case in happens again in the future, but I know little to nothing about backing up windows and data in general.

I am looking for advice on steps to take on how to properly insure my system is backed up safely in case I need to recover either windows, or any of my data that I want to keep safe.

Here is what I have currently:

1. Intel 80 GB X-25 M SSD (Win7 install with not much else on it)
2. WD 600 GB HDD (has about 40 GB of data on it, mostly photos)
3. Hitachi 1TB HDD (has about 400 GB of data, mostly movies & music)

I was thinking about a 1 to 2 TB external drive for backing up.

What type of drive will I want for this? USB 3.0?
Should I use a 3rd party software for what I want to do?
How do I setup Windows 7 to be backed up regularly so it could be recovered if compromised? Do I want to do this with an "image"?
 
When I was using W7 I used Crashplan (crashplan.com). It's been a while since, but it did everything I could ask a backup software to do. Incremental backup, onsite and offsite backup and now they offer cloud based backup - which in my opinion is the most secure of them all, but it really depends on how much data you're going to be backing up and your internet connection if that's a realistic possibility, but I always opted for 3 levels of backup; backup to a local server, offsite server hosted at a friends house and the cloud. But I´m the paranoid type, so that might be an overkill for the family album.

However, since switching to W8 on all clients at home I've been using SkyDrive as my primary userdata storage, so I everything I´m working on stored somewhere in my userdata is automaticly backed up to the cloud, in realtime. It's even easier now with W8.1 since the SkyDrive is the default save location for user data and no need for library redirection. I then use the new File History function to backup the SkyDrive folder itself to my local backup server, so there again I have the 3 level backup.

For most users, some sort of cloud backup would do fine, and in your W7 scenario, I would recommend CrashPlan. If you're on your way to W8/8.1 - SkyDrive and file history.
 
That is a little much for myself.

Its only movies, photos, and music that I'm mostly concerned with backing up as far as my data goes. Nothing that I'm super worried about being "secure", I just want to be sure I don't lose it is all. And of course I want windows images so I can restore it in case it gets compromised.

Also I am on a very tight budget, and barely have the money to buy an external drive, so I am really looking for free ways of doing this.
 
You could utilize the Backup and Restore functions for simple image backups to a secondary drive, but that's not automatic, at least not in W7. For automatic image backup you could look at EzBACKUP or TrueSafe.

For backing up media, you would want to use incremental backup to another drive, and in that case a simple onsite Crashplan setup would be sufficient.
 
I thought you can schedule image backups in Win7?

Also, could anyone recommend a reliable, economic external drive for this use? In the 1TB range
 
I like the Samsung M3 1 TB 2.5" external USB 3 drives. Get yourself 2 or 3 and keep them in separate locations (e.g. your car).
 
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