Vista - Complete PC Backup

Finally I got SP2 in Windows Update and started to prepare the computer for the installation, i.a. by making backups to my external HDD. I make files backups once a week and complete PC backups once a month from the Backup and Restore Center. This time I started with the complete backup but got an error message saying there was not space enough on the backup disk. Strange, it should delete older backups when making new if space is short.
Or is there a setting somewhere?

I had 69 GB (23%) free on the external, so I would think it was enough. Nevertheless, I quick formatted the drive, rebooted and tried again. It went smoothly without any fuzz at all and took max an hour, probably less. Next, I started the files backup. This time I had to point it to my backup disk. The backup took probably 5 hours. Afterwards, 53% of the disk was free.

Is there a technical explanation for why the files backup took so much longer than the complete backup? Can I trust this backup, you think?

To tell you the truth, I do not trust the Vista Backup/Restore center. It has failed me once too often. I now use Norton Ghost for my imaging and file backups and that works a lot better - although I had to first study the ins and outs of that too. But at least it works. Other people recommend Acronis which I have not used yet. On another system, where I use a Maxtor One Touch disk, I use the Maxtor manager (which comes with the disk). That works well too. It is my wife's PC and she loves the One Touch ease of use.

A few people have issues with Ghost..myself included,whereas I have used Acronis for several years and the latest version is brilliant..I would on average use it at least twice a week (on some of mine,and on clients' systems). I have never had a failure with it..and I work on some messed up systems..but it is not free. There is a free one a lot of Techs use,called Macrium...a google search will bring it up... and this one is highly rated as well.

What tasaholic says is probably true. I also have heard a lot of good things about the latest edition of Acronis. A while ago I wrote a little summary of the options that you find here ( Ghosting approaches - summary because of popular demand « How-To Geek Forums ). Macrium, has a free version that works well but does only make complete backups - no differentials. The pay version is full function though.

Thanks for all the good advice. I was in fact thinking about getting a second external. I was considering getting Casper as backup software, as I think I should have not just two backup disks but two backup systems. I was stopped by the fact it appears it is not that easy to restore a Raid 0 setup:

"While Casper does support copying of Dynamic Volumes, it does not support cloning of Dynamic Disks. This means Casper will not allow you to copy an entire hard disk to or from a Dynamic Disk even if the Dynamic Disk is fully self-contained (e.g. defines a simple volume that is not striped, mirrored, or spanned across multiple disks). However, Casper does support copying of dynamic volumes to other volumes and Basic Disks where possible. When copying a dynamic volume, Casper will copy only the contents of the volume. It will not copy or recreate the actual data structures to reproduce the dynamic disk(s) by which the volume is defined. Dynamic Volumes include volume sets, stripe sets, stripe sets with parity, and partitions located on disk mirror/duplex sets configured using the Windows Disk Administrator"

I an not sure I understand what this mean. What do I do to restore if I need to?

I would also appreciate if someone with experience was kind and shared som light on my OP questions, but thanks again for sharing your thoughts.

So I went ahead and got a new external HDD. I am formatting it right now and it appears to be a slooooow process. After 3 hours it is 10% done...
What do you recommend as backup software for my setup?

I vote Acronis or R-Drive Image since you're paying anyway. I'm personally using the latter.

Ya, formatting is a slow process. The last 640GB disk I formatted took 11 hours. As for the imaging programs, Acronis has a lot of fans and is probably good to use. I personally use Norton Ghost - but with that, you need a little experience. There is the free version of Macrium you might want to look at as an alternative. Also check on your new disk. It may have come with an imaging program on it - I know Maxtor does.

Thanks, excellent link!

Well, I have a Maxtor OT, which I bought for my old XP Machine. Never worked well with Vista and I am now using the Vista Backup instead of Maxtor's own. Now I just wanted the hardware to avoid the problems I got then.

There is an enormous amount of software out there. Finally, it seems I have narrowed down the list to the following:
Acronis, ShadowProtect, DT Utilities, Casper (yes it works on RAID created by hardware controller) and Norton. I will take a look at R-Drive Image. Then I have dumped several interesting alternatives.

This is not well timed, I guess, as I hope to wipe my disk later this year, or perhaps early next, to start all over with Windows 7. We will see, there is a price attached to that, not just for the O/S.

You might like to look at Macrium and Paragon as well. I use both and they have always worked perfectly.

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

PARAGON Software Group - Featured Products