Most cost-efficient method of backing up PC?

[dropdeaddustin]

I understand that you can backup your entire personal computer. I have read about the many different softwares and services you can use to achieve this.

I'm not taking any option off the table. I'd like to hear about WHAT YOU THINK would be the most cost-efficient solutions (from your experience, expertise) that include backing up my computer locally or on a server.

I would just like to ask a question. I'm sure I could google and find out, but to be honest I'm a busy man and I just thought it might be easier to reach out to a tech-forum to lend a helping hand.

How exactly does a software backup your PC? Can it create an entire "image" of your hard drive and keep it on a protected server somewhere? How do they do it?

P.S. I use a Windows 7 PC.

Thanks a bunch!,
ddd

 

[kmote]

I have a tip for you next time you post on a forum: leave out paragraph three. We're all busy and none of us are here to be expedient to you. You'll get a better response by saying that you tried google but couldn't work out what would be best for your situation than saying that you didn't try google because you're too busy.

That said, the cheapest, quickest, simplest method I can think of is a large external drive, use clonezilla or similar to pull a full image of your PC then take a copy of your profile C:\Users\<You> after that you just back up your changed files every day. When you're doing your daily backup, append (or prepend) the date to the file name in the format YYYY-MM-DD and put them in the correct location within your backup structure.

 

[carnageX]

If you would rather do individual files rather than an entire image, check out SyncToy from Microsoft.