Best FSX backup strategy?

[MarkH]

The title says it, really. I've just acquired two teeny 500GB external drives for the purposes of backing up my FSX installation. Now I need some ideas on the best strategy for doing it. For 'best', I'll start with 'likely to work in the event of having to restore', and anything else is a bonus.

[Edit]

The PC is only for FSX, BTW. My own inclination is to take an image copy of the C drive and the (dedicated) FSX drive, which will all go on one 500GB disk. Just need an easy and reliable way to do it...

[mjrhealth]

Simple really. Just copy the whole folder. I keep a copy of the original clean instal just in case i need to replace a missing texture etc. Basically if you needed a fresh install, you just need to copy the whole folder to your install, and you have a fresh install, or you can use it where it is by using the path fix, Best to do it though before you start installing addons or you would need to reinstall all the addons, then it gets messy.

[spotlope]

Mark, I think your inclination to make disc images of both drives is the least painful approach. You could just backup the folder structure, but it would cause major pain if you had a bunch of commercial add-ons, many of which rely on registry keys to validate themselves. With a full disc image of C: plus your FS drive, you'd clear just about any hurdle, I'd think. I'm just about to do the same thing for my FSX PC, so I'm right there with you.

[JoeW]

My backup and restore went so much better than the "pro at the shop" that I'm now using a 500gb portable to back the whole computer up. I do this weekly. This will restore the FSX files if I install the program first. The backup in Win 7 will not restore the programs, only the data. When I restored after installing Win 7 I had my Addresses and Favorites restored automatically. Win 7 doesn't have a email program so I used Windows live mail and the addresses were installed to that. Had I installed FSX before the restore I'm sure that it would have been restored as well.
My 2 cents ............

[Alan_A]

I use Acronis True Image for regular incremental backups onto an internal drive... then copy the image onto an external drive that's disconnected from the computer except when backing up... and before any major hardware work, I copy the full FSX install onto either the same or a separate external drive.

In other words, belt, suspenders and a rope tassel, too...

On my home office computer, I do all the above. In addition, I routine transfer important documents to my laptop (kept on full charge to be ready for frequent power outages), and use Mozy for nightly incremental backups to a remote server.

This leaves me with occasional pockets of time free to do actual work...

[dswo]

For FSX, I use Acronis True Image for incremental backups to an external hard drive. For work, I have the Acronis backup plus a couple of USB drives, one of which is synchronized with my office desktop three times a week.

[spotlope]

Do any of you (or anyone else) have experience with Macrium Reflect for disk imaging? I've seen it talked about in other forums, and it sounds like a good free backup program.

[JoeW]

Bill ..... I haven't heard of that ..... but .........
I use the backup built in to Win 7 and, it worked fine once for the change over from XP to Win 7.

[mmann]

I use Acronis True Image to image both my operating system drive and my FSX drive. I am constantly changing my setup so this allows me to return to a virgin install. As a benefit, when recovering the drives, no disk defragmentation is required afterwards.

Regards, Mike Mann

[spotlope]

I use Acronis True Image to image both my operating system drive and my FSX drive. I am constantly changing my setup so this allows me to return to a virgin install. As a benefit, when recovering the drives, no disk defragmentation is required afterwards.

Regards, Mike Mann

That's one of the nicest perks of building a system with only SSD's... no defragging ever! They're still expensive as hell, and far too small, but I love being free from defrags.

[Z-AZ1USN]

Well, after reading all the inputs on FSX backup, I still have a question/comment:

I have FSX/Accel installed on my "J" sector (that was because FSX as you know eats up
a butt-ton of HD real estate) and all other software defaults to "C" install as well.
I guess making a "shadow" or "Image" copy of my "J" sector is plausible however, what
about those pesky FSX related registry keys on drive "C"?

I mean one would have to know which registry keys to "export" (inclusive of the addons as well).
If I backed up the entire registry and a image of my "J" sector (where FSX et. al. is installed)
would that of worked? I've heard in theory yes but not practical.
SO, in my situation, what can I do, what should I do to preserve ALL fsx and addons
so that I would not have to reinstall anything? That's the $64 question?
:monkies:

[MarkH]

SO, in my situation, what can I do, what should I do to preserve ALL fsx and addons
so that I would not have to reinstall anything? That's the $64 question?
:monkies:

Well, what I have just done today is to make image backups of my entire C drive and F drive (dedicated 300GB velociraptor) onto a WD MyPassport 500GB USB drive. I used Macrium Reflect, and before I used it I made sure I could boot from the rescue CD it created for me. This is a Linux-based console program that will give you access to all your disks and partitions. The backup took 2 hours and occupies about 180GB on the external drive.

Feels a bit safer now, although what I really ought to do is swap in a new C drive and see if I can restore to it...

[For info, I tried to use 'Paragon Backup and Recovery' (another freebie) before trying Macrium, but it (a) failed to boot from the rescue disk, and (b) did something to all my disks that made Windows run Chkdsk on them when I rebooted.]

[Z-AZ1USN]

[For info, I tried to use 'Paragon Backup and Recovery' (another freebie) before trying Macrium, but it (a) failed to boot from the rescue disk, and (b) did something to all my disks that made Windows run Chkdsk on them when I rebooted.][/QUOTE]

I hear ya but does that Macrium work any better then the other freebie that WIN 7
provides? Anyhow, after you backup will your FSX restore prevent you from having
to reinstall addons or anything at all?



:wiggle:

[MarkH]

will your FSX restore prevent you from having
to reinstall addons or anything at all?


That's the plan - I will get back exactly what I have now.

[spotlope]

That's the plan - I will get back exactly what I have now.

If you decide to test the restoration of your backups, I'd very much like to hear of your experience with it, Mark.

[gera]

For FSX, I use Acronis True Image for incremental backups to an external hard drive. For work, I have the Acronis backup plus a couple of USB drives, one of which is synchronized with my office desktop three times a week.

This is the best way.....I backup on a daily basis, overnight, and incremental backups take only minutes ....I also transmit my data everyday to an outside server (idrive).

[scott967b]

Do any of you (or anyone else) have experience with Macrium Reflect for disk imaging? I've seen it talked about in other forums, and it sounds like a good free backup program.
Used it. It works. The free version only provides image backup, not file-oriented backup which historically is what I have always done. I had a problem on one computer, the recovery disk for the free version uses a cd to boot linux and then the restore works from linux but the boot cd wouldn't work. The pay version provides a license for Win PE which I assume would be more powerful, but I don't have the pay version so can't say. If the OS is Win XP, the free Bart's PE could be used, but not an option in Win 7.

So instead of Macrium I have been using free version of Paragon 10 which seems more powerful (linux cd on this one also works for me) but it seems really slow so I'm not 100% sold on it. I've never had to do a full-on disaster recovery (mainly just file recovery) so that's a major unknown that I suppose I should test someday (don't know how to do it non-destructively though).

scott s.
.

[Roger]

I recently cloned my c drive using the free Acronis clone tool if you have Maxtor/Seagate drive on your system. The new drive was actually Samsung and the clone was painless. As a clone all the registry entries were intact so there were no issues there. Acceleration asked for verification and was expecting to have to dig out the box for the reg code but on entering the verification button it just went away.
The reason for the clone was a space issue. The original drive was 250 gig and the new cloned drive a 1 terabyte (yes I was running out of space due to all my FsX stuff:santahat:).

[Z-AZ1USN]

From what I've read, I'm not sure anyone has created a full backup of FSX only.. What I really want is a backup of the FSX drive and a set of exported FSX-specific Registry keys to append/add to the current registry... unless anyone on this forum has a better solution (that doesn't require backing up and restoring the entire C drive and thus the entire registry)

MarkH seems to be saving baby and bathwater by saving C drive (with registry keys) and F drive (with FSX).. at least thats my interpretation of it.. he doesn't get into details..

This is different from what I want to do.. which is to simply save the baby (FSX).

If I had installed FSX on drive "C", then I could of had all registry keys + FSX backed up.
However, due to FSX installation on different drive sector and registry keys on another
different drive sector then it gets nitty gritty.

If windows 7 would of issued without registries (like apple OS) then, it would of been a
snap for any backups.

[MarkH]

MarkH seems to be saving baby and bathwater by saving C drive (with registry keys) and F drive (with FSX).. at least thats my interpretation of it.. he doesn't get into details..

As you don't say what 'details' you feel are missing, I can't really help you. I'd be happy to answer any specific queries you have about what I've done.

[Z-AZ1USN]

[QUOTE=MarkH;528997]Well, what I have just done today is to make image backups of my entire C drive and F drive (dedicated 300GB velociraptor) onto a WD MyPassport 500GB USB drive.


You make my point here when I read where you are backing up your entire drives..."C" and "F"
hence the term "saving baby and bathwater" by saving C drive (with registry keys) and F drive (with FSX). You did provide that much "detail" however,
And again I say, what is desired, is a backup of the FSX drive and a set of exported FSX-specific Registry keys to append/add to the current registry...(something that doesn't require backing up and restoring the entire C drive and thus the entire registry)

Now I would think backing up just the registry albeit inclusive of ALL installed programs
(FSX and non FSX ) would be a tad bit less drastic and involved then backing up the entire "C"
in addition to and image of your "F". If FSX were installed on the "C" where all the registry keys are then things would be simpler to restore, Yes?

I don't think anyone has a "workaround" to this conundrum.....

[MarkH]

If FSX were installed on the "C" where all the registry keys are then things would be simpler to restore, Yes?

Er, no. Or rather, 'yes in a very trivial sense, but...'. There are several good reasons why FSX should not be on the C drive, which I won't bother to go into here.

You have hit the nail on the head when you talk about the importance of simplicity, but you are going about it the wrong way. That's why you are wrong when you say I don't go into detail, because there is no more detail. Only one thing is simpler and less involved than making two image files and then restoring them, and that is making one image file and restoring it. See above.

I am working on a video blog about this so I'm not going to say too much more here. For my situation, where I have a PC dedicated to FSX, the only penalty for keeping it simple is a bit of extra disk space and that the backup step takes a bit longer. The payoff that it I can be confident it will work. I can also test it out with a high degree of confidence because there are no variables.