Preferred Automated Back-up Software for Clients?

[GreenMan]

Haha, New Zealand has been in the Dark Age of internet our entire existence. 56k was the only thing for most people when in America you could get T3 as a standard. I don't know anyone who uses a cloud back-up in this country, I swear we just don't believe in it, haha. I mean sure, we have what we consider fast internet now like the rest of the world (even though just recently the top ISP's starting rolling out "super" speed connections) but the average download cap is 80GB for home users...combined with an upload rate of under 1mbps (for years it was either 128/256k) It's as if our communication companies started broadband off by saying "Screw it, no one in this country would ever want to upload anything"

So it's hard for me to imagine all the cloud advice, still it's good to hear and makes me wonder how other parts of the world are going and their attitude towards such a thing.

I think I'll stick with Windows back-up for now, I gave it to the last client and taught him how to use it. It's a nice peace of mind knowing they can't really screw it up.

Some questions:
How do you feel about scheduled back up?
I don't think I would ever want to use it. Anything scheduled usually happens when I want to use the computer for something else (like you open firefox and boom, gotta install an update before you can) not to mention it slows down the computer so much because of the file transfer. I love backing up when I'm ready to. I can't see myself offering Clients to schedule back-ups. What about you?

My next question isn't really related, but a reply above made me wonder.

but it does make the restore time waaaayyy easier and you don't need to deal with software installation and licenses and yada yada. This is what makes images so great.

When I back-up, format and reinstall a machines OS and files, I always do a fresh install of the OS and put the cat photos and documents back where they belong. I never fully understood using imaging to put an OS & Files back on the hard-drive...
1) Does this transfer everything? Program files, AppData, Temp files, System Folders, Registry, etc? Because that seems like it could be more damaging if they have screwed their computer up with malware and bad programs etc. Isn't the point to clean everything, give them a fresh start with only the programs they really want?
2) Does it increase the speed of the computer as would a fresh install? Surely the fresh install and clean state would result in the fastest operation of the hard-drive, instead of copying over an image of their previous operating environment.

The reason I ask, is not having to input Office CD Keys and Licenses like the previous guy said, would be an absolute dream.

 

[Bootman 650]

I find AOMEI Backupper does a great job. Especially for residential clients.

 

[TechPJC]

I find AOMEI Backupper does a great job. Especially for residential clients.

I second that!

 

[deachus]

ShadowProtect Desktop 5. Best backup and system recovery software out there. All my clients buy it, both residential and commercial customers and they always thank me when the first file goes missing or the system dies.

 

[frederick]

Some questions:
How do you feel about scheduled back up?
I don't think I would ever want to use it. Anything scheduled usually happens when I want to use the computer for something else (like you open firefox and boom, gotta install an update before you can) not to mention it slows down the computer so much because of the file transfer. I love backing up when I'm ready to. I can't see myself offering Clients to schedule back-ups. What about you?

This is why I like ClickFree, for my residential folks. A pop-up will come up after a backup hasn't been done for a while. I tell my customers "when you see this message come up, when you are done using your computer, just plug this in and leave the computer on. It'll back it up for you." It's simple, easy, no fuss. With my desktop users, I create scheduled tasks around them. I tell them to just let the computer go in to hibernate or sleep, and create wake-on tasks so backups and updates just happen without them being bothered by another Firefox update. Even as a tech, you have to appreciate the awesomeness that is the task scheduler. Users don't know how to use this feature (I'm using this in the general since), so as their tech, you need to do it for them. In places where there is a low upload cap, or shotty speeds, I tell them not to do any kind of online/cloud backup. It's not worth it because they'll either cap out, or they will always be bothered by the continuously ongoing backup processes. Having a local backup, on a schedule around them, is perfect for this.

My next question isn't really related, but a reply above made me wonder.

When I back-up, format and reinstall a machines OS and files, I always do a fresh install of the OS and put the cat photos and documents back where they belong. I never fully understood using imaging to put an OS & Files back on the hard-drive...
1) Does this transfer everything? Program files, AppData, Temp files, System Folders, Registry, etc? Because that seems like it could be more damaging if they have screwed their computer up with malware and bad programs etc. Isn't the point to clean everything, give them a fresh start with only the programs they really want?
2) Does it increase the speed of the computer as would a fresh install? Surely the fresh install and clean state would result in the fastest operation of the hard-drive, instead of copying over an image of their previous operating environment.

The reason I ask, is not having to input Office CD Keys and Licenses like the previous guy said, would be an absolute dream.

I consider imaging for the casual, average, home user an unnecessary luxury. What do they really have installed? A bunch of crapware, maybe office, a few games, funny cat videos, etc. Does the residential user need image backups? In the majority of all cases, HELL NO!!! If they want to pay for it, fine, I have no qualms selling it to them. Rarely do I ever bring up whole disk imaging to a residential customer, and the ones that I do, there is a reason behind it:
1) They are running a business out of the home where they have a database, and specialized programs. This makes image backups important as their computer is their money maker.
2) They are running some specialized software, either as a hobby or job, that is important to them, and is expensive. I say this more of a moderate reason for an image backup.
3) They have a lot of expensive, or random software that requires keys and they lost the discs/keys. Moderate reason for image backup.

If you feel that you need to have an image backup of all those cat videos and chrome history, go for it.

The speed of a image restore is generally quicker than individually installing every little piece of software they have. But does it increase the speed of the computer? Depends. If the HDD took a poop all over itself, and all you did was replace the HDD and reimage, then no (in my opinion). Still the same computer, just a newer HDD. If you upgraded the RAM from say 4 to 6, or 6 to 8 GB, then yeah. But all the stuff that was on the computer originally is still there, still doing what it was doing before you installed the image.

Yes, an image restores it all. You are cloning a hard drive. If I suspect foul play by the user, or malicious software, obviously you need to approach this the same way as any other computer coming in for the same issues. Whole disk imaging as a backup varies, at the least you can use it to perform a type of "system restore". Some allow you to pick and choose how the image is placed back on the system (where you say I want this from this time, and that from another), others say "so you want to go back to the 3rd of March???" and whatever was present on the HDD on the 3rd of March is how your HDD will look.

 

[nlinecomputers]

The problem with your approach is what happens when the end user installs a new program that is important and gets missed by your methods? An image gets everything and most allow you to mount an image so that you can selectivity restore from that. Best of both worlds. IMHO