How do you back up a client's computer before working on it?

[rappidtech]

Forgive me if there is an obvious answer to this that I am missing. My wife and I have started a new business in computer repair and maintenance. I have heard from many sources that even if a customer is not paying for a backup, to backup their computer before doing any major work on it. My question is... what do techs use to do a mirror backup of a customer's computer? (Like GHOST or Acronis True Image). I am trying to figure out how I can mirror a customer's drive without having a license for each customer computer that I use it on. Thank you!

 

[16k_zx81]

always a good idea to search the Forum before posting.

Theres a lot of info here about backups

imaging - there are plenty of options

backup of files - see D7, Fabs

 

[andcorptech]

I have mostly used ghost in the past and still do when im cloning drives. However I am more often now using macrium reflect for image backup on customers systems. Space permitting when I do an OS reload or data transfer to a new system I will do a Reflect image and copy it to new system (or fresh install if I reloaded). Using the free edition the customer can then mount the image as a drive to get any data I may have missed. I mainly do this to ensure data integrity as you can never be sure you have everything until its all back with client and tested. I usually tell them to keep the image for a month or 2 and delete it if they need the space and are sure all the data was transferred. For those that do not have space to keep image themselves we keep for a period on 1-2months before deleting ( unless they request us to delete beforehand)

 

[BCS Head Tech]

Forgive me if there is an obvious answer to this that I am missing. My wife and I have started a new business in computer repair and maintenance. I have heard from many sources that even if a customer is not paying for a backup, to backup their computer before doing any major work on it. My question is... what do techs use to do a mirror backup of a customer's computer? (Like GHOST or Acronis True Image). I am trying to figure out how I can mirror a customer's drive without having a license for each customer computer that I use it on. Thank you!

The fastest thing to do is clone the drive...using something like Ghost 2003 whcih is probably the easiest and most straight forward.

 

[rappidtech]

Wouldn't that require that I (or each of my clients) purchase a license for GHOST? The licensing does not allow it to be installed on unlimited customer's computers, does it?

 

[andcorptech]

Wouldn't that require that I (or each of my clients) purchase a license for GHOST? The licensing does not allow it to be installed on unlimited customer's computers, does it?

Well technically we use ghost on our tech PC's and clone HDDs from that. I have 2 licences for Ghost, we do use it on 3 machines but rarely all at the same time. When onsite I use the free version of reflect to make an image.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Acronis backup & recovery...not home version I repeat NOT home version in my opinion home version is unreliable garbage.

 

[4ycr]

I have heard a few techs say they have a licence for their machine and attach the customers hard drive to it.

 

[grayfoxcomputing]

I use Redo Backup to perform a bare metal clone of the hdd. I keep the copy until about a week after the person has verified that everything's working. This has worked well for me but I don't have a physical store either.

If they want me to blow away the windows and programs, I'll use D7 to snag the user files and restore them.

 

[coffee]

Forgive me if there is an obvious answer to this that I am missing. My wife and I have started a new business in computer repair and maintenance. I have heard from many sources that even if a customer is not paying for a backup, to backup their computer before doing any major work on it. My question is... what do techs use to do a mirror backup of a customer's computer? (Like GHOST or Acronis True Image). I am trying to figure out how I can mirror a customer's drive without having a license for each customer computer that I use it on. Thank you!

True this has been answered many times in the forums. However, Its always nice to keep it fresh I guess.

To me backups fall into 2 categories. 1. Basic user account file backups, 2. Full system (or drive) backups.

#1 I just boot from a linux cd (ubuntu, fedora) and choose run live. Then connect to my file server, Mount the windows partition and move the whole users directory over to it. Then I have their data safe and secure. I also check for a driver directory from the manufactuer (like dell) and grap that too. Just in case.

#2. I will take the drive and hook it to another computer and run clonezilla on it. I will backup all the partitions to a spare drive or my fileserver. I use expert mode and and choose the option of "skip bad sectors".

This is pretty easy to do and costs you no money really except burning the linux cd.

http://clonezilla.org/

Best Regards,

coffee

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

We have a bench rig that we slave drives to....

*Can copy through windows explorer..just grab the drive and copy it to a folder like C:\ClientsData\Clientname. Certainly free, no licensing to worry about.

*Can also use one of the many different partition/drive cloning programs out there.

 

[Martyn]

Two for me.

1. Acronis for a complete backup
2 Fabs Tech version for profile(s)

1. is for anything that is missed or not within the profile i.e. files or folders within c:\

 

[NETWizz]

I don't back up my client's computer; instead, I just re-image and shrug my shoulders afterwords saying... "oh, well... should have followed policy and placed everything on the H:"

 

[cypress]

I use Macrium Reflect for Imaging and Fabs Auto Backup.

 

[angry_geek]

I'm a little surprised noone has mentioned this. We use disk to vhd most of the time. Fast and easy. If we need to do multiple partitions, we'll use a different tool.

 

[PCX]

For now, we basically have a linux box with backup drives. We slave the customers drive to the Linux box and pull their user data and check the C: directory. If we have to reload the OS or create a new account, then we backup settings and preferences with FABs. We never use FABs to backup the actual data like pictures and docs though.

 

[cprompt]

We have a 1 TB drive in a USB caddy that is mounted on a wall. When a machine comes in we attach the drive and run Clonezilla from a CD to image the entire drive. If a machine then requires a backup of data, we use Fab's to copy the data. The image is used if something gets completely fouled up. We keep the images for a short while to insure the customer is not missing anything before they are deleted.

 

[TechLady]

I use Fab's. Backs up the important stuff and not the garbage. And most people's computers have a lot of garbage.

 

[ArtemusComputerTechnology]

I use either Ghost or Acronis true image. I paid for them for use in my business. Pretty straight forward GUI's.

 

[andcorptech]

I use Fab's. Backs up the important stuff and not the garbage. And most people's computers have a lot of garbage.

I use Fabs in the process of data transfer. It has saved me hundreds of hours and is one of the "must have" items for any tech, BUT it doesnt account for the random locations that some people store stuff and dont tell you about until after the job. Thats why I do an image as well. It can help turn a crappy awkward situation into a hero moment when they get back that one critical file they were storing in the windows\temp folder for some braindead reason.