Either will provide disaster recovery but commercial backup software is often dependent on itself to restore files and folders. This can cause migration problems that simple copy/paste functions avoid. In the long run it's best to develop your own backup scheme that includes but does not depend entirely on some backup software. I know that Acronis allows creation of bootable CDs that are essential to recovering from catastrophic failures and I presume that Ghost does as well. I use Acronis for HD imaging but manually duplicate files and folders that I might want immediate access to.
I am looking for a backup solution for a computer running Windows XP. The computer may be upgraded to Windows 7 within the next few months.
Two I have used in the past are Norton Ghost and Acronis but I have not used these for awhile so I know with newer versions they've changed. I will be purchasing 2 External USB Hard Drives to do the backup onto.
I am looking at doing 2 types of backups. They will be:
1-A complete backup of the hard drive which can be used in an emergency such as a crash to completely restore the computer
2-A file backup which will just be used to backup certain folders that will vary with each backup.
Which of the above programs would be best for these uses or is there another program I should look into?
Thank you for your help.
Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic