Any experience with Migo PC Backup?

[WapleSpunK]

http://data-backup-software-review.toptenreviews.com/backup-mypc-review.html.

It works with Vista x64, which I have at the studio, and only one other on that list does. I downloaded the trial but I'm not really sure what to look for in a backup program. All I know is that I use Nero's BackItUp and when it's running my PC crawls and crunches. Plus, I've tried to restore and it sometimes doesn't work, says it can't find parts of the volume, and that's probably not a good thing.

[ThaMan]

I've used Migo PC Backup and the server version in the past. I had no problems with it. However, it will make your system crawl most likely. If you want a good backup, you should probably not work on it while doing a backup anyway, since any open files will not be backed up, typically.

Migo was the one I recommended when you asked about backup programs the last time. :tongue:

[WapleSpunK]

Migo was the one I recommended when you asked about backup programs the last time. :tongue:

Ah cool. I was trying to remember which one you recomended. Thanks

[Landro]

Ah cool. I was trying to remember which one you recomended. Thanks

NOOO! New forums....no proof....he's out to ruin you!

Migo is very good though. I set it up for a friend of mine in his physician's office. No problems at all.

[Ganelon]

We use carbonite.

[Freejack]

I use Carbonite at home, but really, that's just for data. You couldn't back up your whole system or anything.

[WapleSpunK]

I did a test backup of one of my folders and found that it created a bunch of 1,048,576 .ndb files. Nero's BackItUp, which looks very similar, creates a lot of ~1,945,231 .nba files.

1. Why were both of these number chosen? I figured they'd choose a size that would equate to what fits on a CD or something since it is supposed to be able to span media.

2. Speaking of spanning media, this means that if I have 20GB and I want to back it up to DVDs, it'd write to the first, ask me to insert the next and write to it, and so on, right? Or does it create the backup and then when done it copies that data from your hard drive to the media?

3. I was thinking for a long time that I wanted a backup that wrote uncompressed files so that I could simply drag a file from the backup to the live drive. However, this is another one that uses that compressed data. I had a problem once with Nero where it said that it couldn't find the next file in it's long line of .nba files so I couldn't restore the directory even though it was on the disc. I think what happened was that since I swap out my removable HD every week, it either messed up the incremental backup or it was getting confused when restoring it. Since I have two different removable HDs and I have a PC in two different locations, should I just leave one at each place and have that be my backup? Should I swap them out and let them do an incremental every time or should I delete the files from the drive when I swap them and let them do a full again since its' a new drive? Not really sure the best way to do this.

thanks

[ThaMan]

I believe they use the file size for compatibiltiy. There are 1GB and 2GB limits on some systems.

As for the uncompressed, it's not uncompressed. Whether you compress or not has nothing to do with the files it creates. If you want to do what I think you want, you need to choose "COPY" not "UNCOMPRESSED". I believe that Migo has a copy function. This is exactly what it sounds like. It copies the file to another drive, which is not considered a backup by the software.

I don't have it installed at home. I'll have to re-install it again to see exactly how to do it.

As far as backing up to DVD, it just backs up till the disk is full, then asks for the next disk.

[WapleSpunK]

As for the uncompressed, it's not uncompressed. Whether you compress or not has nothing to do with the files it creates. If you want to do what I think you want, you need to choose "COPY" not "UNCOMPRESSED". I believe that Migo has a copy function. This is exactly what it sounds like. It copies the file to another drive, which is not considered a backup by the software.

Is there an advantage to doing one way over the other? For some reason I have it in my head that I'd rather do it the copy way, but if the other method is better for some reason, I can do that.

[ThaMan]

I think either way is fine. If you are using the backup in order to prevent you from screwing something up, and not keeping the original files backed up locally, then you may be better off doing the copy. In other words, if you are doing a backup to prevent user error while editing images, etc. (like saving changes without previous renditions).

If, on the other hand, you do the backup as a last resort fail safe to protect from a hard drive crash, it will be faster to do a backup than a copy. It takes longer to restore one file this way, but compete backup and restore are much faster than the copy process in this procedure.

I would think both ways are just as safe, and you DO want to do a read verify after the backup or copy. It will do that automatically in the settings, if you so choose.

[Freejack]

So Waple, you never really responded. What is the purpose of these backups? Are you trying to insure you don't lose any important data or do you want to be able to rebuild your complete system if it goes down?

If it's the former, I would strongly recommend something like Carbonite or one of the many similar services. You really don't have to do anything at all and the data you want to maintain backups of is safely and securely maintained offsite. As a bonus, you get versioning so you can go back and retreive and prior version of a file that's been backed up (assuming it's changed since the initial backup). That seems like a lot less effort than going through DVDs and swapping them out and hoping there isn't a problem with one of the many little pieces along the way.

[WapleSpunK]

You know, I'm not really sure.

Right now what I'm having trouble with is the fact that I have two PCs that I work on. I do a lot of work at home to finish up what I didn't do at the studio. So using my USB hard drives, I'm always copying data from one to the other to bring to the other location.

I use Lightroom a LOT and in that I have to build "catalogs" where it bascially copies the photos to a drive, but also keeps things like the metadata, tags, and so on built in. When I get to the studio I have to detele all the photos from that PC in Lightroom and reimport the collection, otherwise it won't import the photos since they already exist.

What would be the ultimate solution for me would be to be able to, while I'm home, access the files remotely so I can just do everything on that PC and back that one one every night in case of a crash. However, since I use a lot of resource-gobbling applications and work on very large files, I can't really do a remote desktop. If I could do that, I could just back up one place and probably be good.

I don't know. It was easy when I had the one PC but now that I have two that I work on it's much more difficult to get things syncroinzed between the two. So I'm really not sure what I need or want.

[ThaMan]

However, since I use a lot of resource-gobbling applications and work on very large files, I can't really do a remote desktop. If I could do that, I could just back up one place and probably be good. I'm not sure what your logic is here about the remote desktop. With remote desktop, you are just looking at the screen from one computer over the internet. It makes no difference what-so-ever what applications you are running on the remote desktop. It would be just as fast to run a DOS application in a window, as it would be to animate a 3d movie. All you transfer is the information on the screen.

The remote desktop would be a little slower in rendering the screens, but no more so than any other application would be over remote.

Maybe what you want to do is use a VPN and remote between the two. You definately want a fast internet connection. (CABLE, not DSL) DSL is slower on the upstream, which would limit your remote speed.

[Freejack]

I think a remote desktop option would be pretty much what you're looking for. The problem is, Windows RemoteDesktop is limited to 24-bit. It's possible RAdmin or VNC can handle 32-bit.

[WapleSpunK]

I tried remote desktoping before and things just ran really slow. switching back and forth between apps, scrolling through photos, pretty much anything that required the screen to change was all really slow.

VPN may be what I need. I tried setting one up once but got to like step 2 before it lost me.

If I did this, would I be able to just keep all my files on one PC and backup that same pc and not have to worry about transfering files back and forth? And if this is what I need, is thre a good leyman's tutorial you know of that'd help?

[Freejack]

VPN is just a private network overlayed on top of the existing network. It's not going to speed anything up if the problem is really your network connection (which is what it sounds like). I VPN into my office all the time and while there is some lagging, it usually doesn't get in the way of my work at all. It certainly wouldn't be ideal for doing things like photo editing, but if it's something important and not too time consuming, running a remote desktop is ideal.

Yes, that means all the actual data is retained on the host machine.

[ThaMan]

I tried remote desktoping before and things just ran really slow. switching back and forth between apps, scrolling through photos, pretty much anything that required the screen to change was all really slow.You weren't doing it over DSL, or even dial-up were you?

The reason I say you shouldn't use DSL is not because I am being a smart ass, like I usually am, but DSL typically has around 256K upstream cap. Cable, on the other hand, will have 768+. Our business cable has 2 meg up at our server. I can remote and it is almost as fast as sitting at the machine.

The reason I say VPN would be good, is because you could then copy the occasional file over the VPN to edit locally, then copy the data back across VPN. You definitely don't want to edit files directly over the VPN that are bigger than 5 megs. It would take too long to open, and can be corrupted. You would be better off to copy them do your local machine then edit them.

[WapleSpunK]

You weren't doing it over DSL, or even dial-up were you?

This was on a completely different network, etc. What I'd be doing now is from home to studio, both of which are using Comcast cable internet. The studio is on a business account, not sure if that's faster or not.

What do I need to do to give this a try?

Also, I looked more at Migo last night and I think that the copy option is definitely for me. Probably the bi-directional copy so that it keeps everything in synch. Is that a good idea? Oh, and for the option to always overwrite or never overwrite files, what about situations where the file has been updated, is there an option to only overwrite if it's been changed?

[Kheldin]

Very rarely do I give any props to MS software, but I must say that SyncToy is the easiest way to go for cheap and reliable backups. It's free too. It's basically MS's version of rsync which is in my opinion the best tool that exists for this kind of stuff. It's fast, free, easy to use and works great.

SyncToy + Scheduled Tasks == rsync + cron job

[WapleSpunK]

Very rarely do I give any props to MS software, but I must say that SyncToy is the easiest way to go for cheap and reliable backups. It's free too. It's basically MS's version of rsync which is in my opinion the best tool that exists for this kind of stuff. It's fast, free, easy to use and works great.

SyncToy + Scheduled Tasks == rsync + cron job

How would I use this for what I'm trying to do?

[Freejack]

So I thought of this when I realized what you described wanting to do is exactly what I do already. This is with respect to the web-coding I do, I basically set up a subversion repository with my web hosting provider. I check my code in and then it's accessible from wherever I am. I get into work. I work on some files and then check them in. When I get home, I update to the most recent files, do some work, and then check those in. Basically, I am always synced to the latest and the data is all backed up and I get the advantage of a version history on every file in the repository.

The reason I hesitated mentioning this is because you are working with LARGE digital media. Though the repository can store digital files (images and what not) it's going to be really painful trying to sync those large files. So, you might look at it and set up a test repository on your office system, start here:

http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/

That's basically the Windows shell, but it'll direct you where to get Subversion for Windows and how to configure it and all. If you like it in concept, but find Subversion really isn't suited to your needs, you might look into other forms of asset management tools that are better suited to your specific need. Regardless, I think this is what you want, some form of an asset management repository.