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Did my remote backup work? RRS feed

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    I just attempted my first centralized backup from a non-hub PC in my circle, with WLOC 2.0. I'm backing up to an external hard drive connected to the hub PC.

    The non-hub PC got about 70% complete with its initial 40+ GB backup, then failed. My status is showing "Fair," and that, since my backup failed, I should try again. I did, and this secondary backup only copied about 12 GB, which should be approximately the remaining ~30% not backed up during the failed initial attempt.

    The answer may be obvious, but I'm just wondering if I can trust these two backups -- the initial partial backup, followed by the second attempt -- to have successfully backed up all my data. Looking at the removable hard drive, roughly the full 40 GB is accounted for now, but this laptop has important data and I don't want to just assume everything is there.

    Given that the failed attempt did not produce a log by which I can check the files, and that the second backup only produced the partial log for the run, should I have confidence that my stuff is safe? Or should I wipe out the kludged two-part backup and try again?

    Thanks,
    RGB
    Thursday, December 6, 2007 4:21 PM

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    If the second backup completed with a green status, I would think that the entire backup completed as each subsequent backup is incremental to the previous - new or changed files only - and compares the previous backup catalog to the current state of the PC.

    You can verify this by starting the restore wizard and selecting a custom restore. Pretend that you want to select a file or files from the available backup. When it opens, the interface is clumsy, but you can sort the files a number of ways and scroll through the list to eyeball what was backed up and is available for recovery.

    Personally, if it is critical data, I'd back up the critical files via an alternate, even manual method. Since you have multiple PCs, consider copying the critical data from one to the other using Windows Explorer (I use SyncToy for this - free from Microsoft, but totally unsupported) or write the critical files to DVD.

    In my opinion, there's nothing worse than finding out that your backup is no good when you need to restore it!

    -steve

     

    Thursday, December 6, 2007 7:02 PM
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    I should probably just add that the whole backup process takes at least 4 or 5 hours, which is why I'm trying to avoid having to do it all over again if I can.
    Thursday, December 6, 2007 4:55 PM
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    If the second backup completed with a green status, I would think that the entire backup completed as each subsequent backup is incremental to the previous - new or changed files only - and compares the previous backup catalog to the current state of the PC.

    You can verify this by starting the restore wizard and selecting a custom restore. Pretend that you want to select a file or files from the available backup. When it opens, the interface is clumsy, but you can sort the files a number of ways and scroll through the list to eyeball what was backed up and is available for recovery.

    Personally, if it is critical data, I'd back up the critical files via an alternate, even manual method. Since you have multiple PCs, consider copying the critical data from one to the other using Windows Explorer (I use SyncToy for this - free from Microsoft, but totally unsupported) or write the critical files to DVD.

    In my opinion, there's nothing worse than finding out that your backup is no good when you need to restore it!

    -steve

     

    Thursday, December 6, 2007 7:02 PM
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    Update: I couldn't really ignore my paranoia about this backup possibly being corrupted, so I wiped out the backup and attempted a new one from scratch. I tried 2 or 3 more times. Repeatedly, the laptop's backup to the centralized device on the hub would always fail at some point: 20%, 50%, 85% (!)... no telling where, but it would always fail.

    Then a really obvious thing hit me, and I felt embarrassed for not thinking of it before: simply plug the laptop into the router directly via Ethernet cable. Why put all this strain and on the WiFi connection when I could get a faster-speed backup wired in? So I did, and the 5-ish hour initial backup process that was failing repeatedly worked like a charm in less than 2 hours.

    Of course subsequent differential backups can be performed over the air without worry, but it's that initial multi-gigabyte one that really benefits from being plugged in.

    It was just so ingrained in my mind that this laptop uses a WiFi connection that I hadn't even considered this before. Lesson learned! But I would suggest that Microsoft recommend attempting the initial backup via a wired connection if available, for the integrity of the catalog, especially to those with large initial backups.

    RGB
    Tuesday, December 11, 2007 6:10 PM
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    Thanks for the update, RGB. And, thanks for the good advice regarding backup via wireless.

    -steve

     

    Tuesday, December 11, 2007 6:39 PM
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