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#1
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Any backup programs that do not store in proprietary formats?
Hi All,
I am looking for a backup program (paid or free) that will store its archives in a non-proprietary format. I other words, it can store its archives in a format that ANY file manager can read. I am basically looking for a replacement for Cobian Backup, which is abandon ware. I have tested Macrium Reflect, which is a sweet package, but their tech support has verified that they can only store in their proprietary format, so they are out. You guys have a favorite that archives in a non-proprietary format? Many thanks, -T |
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#2
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Any backup programs that do not store in proprietary formats?
T wrote:
Hi All, I am looking for a backup program (paid or free) that will store its archives in a non-proprietary format. I other words, it can store its archives in a format that ANY file manager can read. I am basically looking for a replacement for Cobian Backup, which is abandon ware. I have tested Macrium Reflect, which is a sweet package, but their tech support has verified that they can only store in their proprietary format, so they are out. You guys have a favorite that archives in a non-proprietary format? Many thanks, -T So what's your preferred output format ? TAR (Tape Archive) ? Remember that a typical commercial backup program in 2018, uses VSS, and it makes an inventory of clusters. Then, on a good day, it sequentially accesses the clusters, for least wear and tear on the drive. Now, given the access pattern, what kind of output format would you expect ? No, Scotty, it isn't a friendly format. It can't be TAR, as TAR is "file-sequential" and the disk heads would have to fly all over the place during TAR construction. If a file was fragmented, TAR would make the disk heads fly all over and capture the file. Whereas one of the twenty or so VSS based programs, would capture the clusters in ascending-LBA-number order. https://www.raymond.cc/blog/10-comme...ed-comparison/ (I tried DriveImage XML mentioned on that page some time ago, and like RaymondCC says, it's dog slow compared to the rest.) Robocopy can copy files, but while I've used it for FAT32 boot drives (because there's no permissions to speak of, just a few attributes), Robocopy may not be able to nicely handle Junction Points or whatever. Robocopy isn't touted as a file-by-file backup program. You could examine a program like Retrospect, which back in its day was a file-by-file intended to drive a physical tape drive. The last copy I bought of that (a ton of years ago), would also back up to a hard drive. At one time, it had a 2GB size limit for output hard drives, but that was probably fixed, as the person I set that up for the last time was using a 40GB output drive. Macrium has an option to convert from MRIMG to VHD. VHD can be mounted in a number of virtual machine environments. VHD is mount-able in Windows (even in WinXP as long as your C: is NTFS and you have a copy of VHDTool). VHD can be parsed by 7ZIP archiver, if you need random file access, but I've been noticing lately that a lot of my VHD files seem to have a geometry declaration that upsets 7ZIP and prevents traversal. Ghost probably wouldn't be any good - the older versions might be file by file, but the output is likely proprietary. I think there was some sort of "Viewer" so you could see and extract individual files. You could probably kinda-sorta backup to TAR, but you'd need to run an ICACLS from top to bottom of the drive, to capture all the permissions properly, and store that file on the partition before backup. You would have to be certifiable nuts to try this. I'm not going to claim it's un-possible, what you're asking, but it's getting damn close. Many of the backup programs have a mounter for their output file, that gives random access to the captures partition(s). Ghost had that. Acronis had that. Macrium has it. Maybe your needs are somehow legal and not technical ? Personally, as long as a format is "recoverable" and has a verify, and has a few viewing options, I'm pretty happy. A non-proprietary format would be "dd", a sector-by-sector image of the drive. If you zero the white space on each partition before capture, I have a block compressor that runs at 300MB/sec that will remove all the zeroed areas of the disk from the archive, and reduce the amount of stored info to about the same size as Macrium ("just the clusters with files"). But I doubt you'd appreciate my programming talents :-/ ******* The built-in Windows backup stores each partition as a separate VHD file. Leaving to the imagination how the MBR and first track are stored. ******* It's possible to do a VSS freeze of a volume from user-land. Maybe you'll be writing this mythical "friendly" backup yourself ? I could certainly do it with "dd" here, but only with gales of laughter from the audience here. My "dd" method exists as a "reference platform", like if I had nothing and I was dialing in a second method, and I wanted "insurance", one of my "dd" methods would provide that insurance. The first backup program I dialed in, "dd" was the emergency restore method in my plan. I had a "dd image" of the drive before I started. Retrospect has a trial. With sales contact info, of course. https://www.retrospect.com/en/store/trial?locale=en (600 page user manual, doubles as a sales guide. Modular, "charge charge charge" for plugins design. Our IT department used this stuff at one time, and slogging through the manual is an experience. It took two solid days of scripting on the Mac, to setup a complete backup run there. It took 12 pages of written notes, to explain to an end-user the steps to look for when doing a Windows backup. http://download.retrospect.com/docs/...r_Guide-EN.pdf The average backup product has a 150-200 page manual, so you can tell from the size of the Retrospect manual (3x the competition) just what it's like. Still, it's possible you'll find the trial amusing. You never know. I couldn't find details on the Retrospect output format today. The product may have changed hands a time or two since I used it. Paul |
#3
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Any backup programs that do not store in proprietary formats?
On 04/30/2018 06:01 PM, Paul wrote:
So what's your preferred output format ? TAR (Tape Archive) ? Hi Paul, Tar...Chuckle. Preferred archive: anything I can read with Thunar! :-) Wow! That was a write up! I will have to read it through several times! Thank you! I still use Tar for certain things. Dump/xfsdump/restore/xfsrestore for a some things too, but this is Windows, so ... -T |
#4
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Any backup programs that do not store in proprietary formats?
In message , T writes:
Hi All, I am looking for a backup program (paid or free) that will store its archives in a non-proprietary format. I other words, it can store its archives in a format that ANY file manager can read. [] Going to be difficult, if you want to be able to back up your boot sector/partition table/MFT for restoration after disaster; I don't think conventional file managers (e. g. Windows Explorer) dead with those. If it's just the _data_ part (in my case, the D: partition), then I find SyncToy works as well as any (and certainly what it produces is readable with Explorer or anything similar, since it basically just does a copy (just speeds the process, if you're backing up to somewhere you have already backed up to previously, by only dealing with what's changed since last time). -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf I love the way Microsoft follows standards. In much the same manner that fish follow migrating caribou. - Paul Tomblin, cited by "The Real Bev", 2017-2-18. |
#5
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Any backup programs that do not store in proprietary formats?
On 04/30/2018 06:43 PM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , T writes: Hi All, I am looking for a backup program (paid or free) that will store its archives in a non-proprietary format.Â* I other words, it can store its archives in a format that ANY file manager can read. [] Going to be difficult, if you want to be able to back up your boot sector/partition table/MFT for restoration after disaster; I don't think conventional file managers (e. g. Windows Explorer) dead with those. If it's just the _data_ part (in my case, the D: partition), then I find SyncToy works as well as any (and certainly what it produces is readable with Explorer or anything similar, since it basically just does a copy (just speeds the process, if you're backing up to somewhere you have already backed up to previously, by only dealing with what's changed since last time). Just looking for the data. Thank you! If I was going to do an image of the whole stinker, I would use CloneZilla |
#6
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Any backup programs that do not store in proprietary formats?
On 2018-05-01, T wrote:
Just looking for the data. If you don't need to backup open files you could give Robocopy a try since it comes with Windows. It does not grok shadow copy but otherwise works well. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Roger Blake (Posts from Google Groups killfiled due to excess spam.) NSA sedition and treason -- http://www.DeathToNSAthugs.com Don't talk to cops! -- http://www.DontTalkToCops.com Badges don't grant extra rights -- http://www.CopBlock.org ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
#7
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Any backup programs that do not store in proprietary formats?
On 4/30/2018 5:08 PM, T wrote:
Hi All, I am looking for a backup program (paid or free) that will store its archives in a non-proprietary format. I other words, it can store its archives in a format that ANY file manager can read. I am basically looking for a replacement for Cobian Backup, which is abandon ware. I have tested Macrium Reflect, which is a sweet package, but their tech support has verified that they can only store in their proprietary format, so they are out. You guys have a favorite that archives in a non-proprietary format? Many thanks, -T Maybe it would help to learn why you're doing this. What are you gonna do with the non-proprietary backup when you get it? A couple of clicks in Macrium will mount the backup and give you access as a drive letter. What's unacceptable about that? You could mount the backup and copy the contents into any format you please. Remember that Macrium does more than just copy files. If you click the "create image...required to backup and restore windows" you also get the boot sector and the reserved sectors. One particularly useful function for windows 7 is to sysprep it and backup the sysprepped version. If your motherboard fails, you can boot the rescue CD and restore the sysprepped version to virtually any other motherboard and it will probably boot. There are probably issues with UEFI, but I don't have any of those that aren't bricked. You'll still have to activate, but you haven't lost everything. I do this about once a year. Just backup your system before you do this. Sysprep will modify your system and you'll have to go thru the new install setup/configuration. Restoring the backup is simpler. Which brings up the other elephant in the room. How do you test your backups to make sure they worked? It's good to do that at least once when you switch backup methods. I restore the backup to a blank HD. Doesn't do any good to have a bad backup that just destroyed your working system. It's never as simple as it oughta be... |
#8
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Any backup programs that do not store in proprietary formats?
Roger Blake wrote:
On 2018-05-01, T wrote: Just looking for the data. If you don't need to backup open files you could give Robocopy a try since it comes with Windows. It does not grok shadow copy but otherwise works well. Isn't there some way to create a shadow as a separate step ? It doesn't say here though, whether the results had any integrity or not. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/...bocopy-on-win7 That's one of the problems I have with backup/clone, is no handy utility to determine whether all file system features were successfully reproduced or not. I suppose it's too much, to expect such a thing to exist. Paul |
#9
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Any backup programs that do not store in proprietary formats?
On 04/30/2018 09:20 PM, mike wrote:
A couple of clicks in Macrium will mount the backup and give you access as a drive letter.Â* What's unacceptable about that? Not what I was meaning. What I am after is if a disaster happends and you want to recover files from your backups, I want to be able to do it with any file manager. Macrium requires Macrium to recover. |
#10
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Any backup programs that do not store in proprietary formats?
On Mon, 30 Apr 2018 17:08:04 -0700, T wrote:
Hi All, I am looking for a backup program (paid or free) that will store its archives in a non-proprietary format. I other words, it can store its archives in a format that ANY file manager can read. I am basically looking for a replacement for Cobian Backup, which is abandon ware. I have tested Macrium Reflect, which is a sweet package, but their tech support has verified that they can only store in their proprietary format, so they are out. You guys have a favorite that archives in a non-proprietary format? Many thanks, -T Most file manager support at least ZIP. But if you intend to backup files including their security attributes, from NTFS drive, ZIP archive is not a good archive for this - because it doesn't support NTFS extended and security attributes. The only archives (that I know) which support NTFS extended and security attributes, are RAR, 7-Zip, and WIM. Otherwise, any arhive format will do - as long as they support Unicode file names. i.e. not CAB or ZIP. If you use ZIP, make sure no file you want to backup, do not contains any character which is not within ANSI character set. |
#11
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Any backup programs that do not store in proprietary formats?
On 04/30/2018 11:16 PM, JJ wrote:
On Mon, 30 Apr 2018 17:08:04 -0700, T wrote: Hi All, I am looking for a backup program (paid or free) that will store its archives in a non-proprietary format. I other words, it can store its archives in a format that ANY file manager can read. I am basically looking for a replacement for Cobian Backup, which is abandon ware. I have tested Macrium Reflect, which is a sweet package, but their tech support has verified that they can only store in their proprietary format, so they are out. You guys have a favorite that archives in a non-proprietary format? Many thanks, -T Most file manager support at least ZIP. But if you intend to backup files including their security attributes, from NTFS drive, ZIP archive is not a good archive for this - because it doesn't support NTFS extended and security attributes. The only archives (that I know) which support NTFS extended and security attributes, are RAR, 7-Zip, and WIM. Otherwise, any arhive format will do - as long as they support Unicode file names. i.e. not CAB or ZIP. If you use ZIP, make sure no file you want to backup, do not contains any character which is not within ANSI character set. It doesn't not need to be that fancy. I do like Macrium, except you have to have Macrium to recover files |
#12
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Any backup programs that do not store in proprietary formats?
On 04/30/2018 05:08 PM, T wrote:
Hi All, I am looking for a backup program (paid or free) that will store its archives in a non-proprietary format.Â* I other words, it can store its archives in a format that ANY file manager can read. I am basically looking for a replacement for Cobian Backup, which is abandon ware. I have tested Macrium Reflect, which is a sweet package, but their tech support has verified that they can only store in their proprietary format, so they are out. You guys have a favorite that archives in a non-proprietary format? Many thanks, -T Any of you guys have any experience with KLS? http://kls-soft.com/main/index.php |
#13
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Any backup programs that do not store in proprietary formats?
On 04/30/2018 05:08 PM, T wrote:
Hi All, I am looking for a backup program (paid or free) that will store its archives in a non-proprietary format.Â* I other words, it can store its archives in a format that ANY file manager can read. I am basically looking for a replacement for Cobian Backup, which is abandon ware. I have tested Macrium Reflect, which is a sweet package, but their tech support has verified that they can only store in their proprietary format, so they are out. You guys have a favorite that archives in a non-proprietary format? Many thanks, -T How about Backup4all? http://www.backup4all.com/ |
#14
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Any backup programs that do not store in proprietary formats?
On 04/30/2018 05:08 PM, T wrote:
Hi All, I am looking for a backup program (paid or free) that will store its archives in a non-proprietary format.Â* I other words, it can store its archives in a format that ANY file manager can read. I am basically looking for a replacement for Cobian Backup, which is abandon ware. I have tested Macrium Reflect, which is a sweet package, but their tech support has verified that they can only store in their proprietary format, so they are out. You guys have a favorite that archives in a non-proprietary format? Many thanks, -T How about SyncBackPro? https://www.2brightsparks.com/ |
#15
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Any backup programs that do not store in proprietary formats?
"T" wrote in message news
Hi All, I am looking for a backup program (paid or free) that will store its archives in a non-proprietary format. I other words, it can store its archives in a format that ANY file manager can read. I am basically looking for a replacement for Cobian Backup, which is abandon ware. I have tested Macrium Reflect, which is a sweet package, but their tech support has verified that they can only store in their proprietary format, so they are out. You guys have a favorite that archives in a non-proprietary format? I use Microsoft SyncToy (don't be put off by the "Toy" in the name). It makes a file-for-file copy to the backup, rather than amalgamating all the files into one big backup file, so it is very easy (using Windows Explorer etc) to retrieve a specific file or folder from the backup if the original gets trashed. It doesn't run automatically and it doesn't maintain versions of file history, but those are not features that I would need. It does incremental backups: if you run it on a pair of folders (source and backup) that have already been synchronised in the past, it only copies the new or changed files since the last backup. |
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