Windows 10: Best backup program?

Thanks for the suggestions. There is no remaining acronis folder. I checked. As for CCleaner, it too has occasionally caused me problems by deleting the wrong things. So I am careful with it too.

I'm new to W10, but am not new to Windows computing.

 

Use Device Manager to see what device drivers / filters are installed for your disks. I found the Acronis uninstaller left their drivers installed and you can't just disable them in Autoruns without rendering your OC unbootable - see post 24 above.

 

Differentials are less space efficient than incrementals but actually have a somewhat higher data integrity.

With incs, if one fails, you lose all data from subsequent incs as well.

If a diff fails, you can use a later diff. Of course if you deleted stuff in later diff, that data is lost.

 

Unfortunately for me you are correct, Steve C. I checked Device Manager and found no device driver errors and no mention of Acronis drivers that I could see. (Not sure how to look for filters).

Breathing a sigh of relief I decided to try a "Restart" . As you predicted, it refused to boot with error message "Inaccessible boot something"!

Several attempts at automatic recovery failed. I had created an 8GB system restore flash drive but that didn't boot the pc euther!

So, since I had created a system restore point I next I tried a system restore to that point. The system restore completed successfully and finally the laptop rebooted correctly. Whew!

Now I'm scared to do anything! Please advise me how to proceed to get rid of the acronis drivers/filterd I could not find in device manager or should I just leave them alone? I can't believe Acronis could mess up my system so badly even after uninstall!

P.S. I also discovered that the Acronis folder now still exists in Program Files (x86) even though Acronis is no longer listed in the "Add and Remove" screen. What should I do?
(rattled nerves)

 

Make a Complete Image Back of your Windows 10 OS before doing anything else 1st. Store it on a 2nd Drive, external would be the best choice. Make sure you have made the Macrium Reflect Rescue disk that you can boot up on your computer. Test it after making it!!
After you have done that, and verified that everything works. Then like Steve posted earlier, run the Acronis Cleanup utility found here. Acronis True Image: Cleanup Utility | Knowledge Base

 

You might want to Re-read Steve's post on page 24 again, and click on the link he gave you.

I ran Acronis myself for years, I even still have a valid license for their 2016 release. I un-installed it last year. I got tired of all the add-ons and problems it kept giving me. Switched to Macrium Reflect and never looked back. When it came time to remove my Acronis I used my Revo Uninstaller Pro to completely remove it. This is the Best program remover in my opinion to remove ANY programs, as it also cleans up your registry from any entries left by the program. There is a free version of this app too.
Not sure how good the Free app is compared to the Pro version. I will post a link for it, if you want to take a look at it. Your choice. Think its too late now to use Revo for your Acronis now thou.
Download Revo Uninstaller Freeware - Free and Full Download - Uninstall software, remove programs, solve uninstall problems

 

What I meant to say is you can use either the free or the paid version of Macrium Reflect without hesitation.

I don't have much luck with hard disks and have faced many failures over the decades. So, that makes me particular about and highly dependent on good backup programs.

This is one application where I cannot accept critical bugs/failures. Macrium Reflect and Shadow Protect Desktop version have never failed me whilst backing up or restoring data. Acronis? Less said the better. They've just been getting worse over time. I upgraded to v2016 from v2012 (note the multi year gap between upgrades) and asked for a refund within a couple of days. *Smile

PS - I first purchased Acronis back in 2009 and used it for 2 years till 2011 (when ver 2012 was released). Then the bugs began to appear. I looked around hard and used Shadow Protect till one day I came across MR. There's been no looking back since then.

 

*Ditto*Ditto*Thumbs

 

The Acronis cleanup utility is worth a try but it didn't work for me and I had to follow the laborious process as given in my post above. Acronis support was also useless. I think Acronis software engineering is very poor and I would never use any of their products again.

 

Hi there

HDD's are so cheap these days why even BOTHER with incrementals / differentials -- install OS on separate HDD / SSD / Partition and you won't have any problems. Even a BIG Windows installation shouldn't need much more than a 50 GB partition for OS and programs. Put data etc on other HDD;'s.

A very convenient way to backup is to use old Laptop HDD's connected to USB via SATA-->USB3 / USB3 connectors which are really cheap.

Backing up user data is another issue but that shouldn't need to be performed so regularly as the System OS. You can do that in all sorts of ways - even Windows explorer is better than nothing. !!!!

Cheers
jimbo

 

Well I agree with you, in my case I used my Revo Pro to uninstall Acronis , and it did the job very well. I would recommend anyone to give it a try. I bought mine 2 years ago. *Smile

I DID tell the OP to READ Your post on page #24 too. Is good info for him.

 

I agree with you Jimbo, but not everyone takes the time to do it properly ....as We Both know. *Wink

 

Revo Uninstaller Pro costs a little bit, not much, considering the benefits one receives for removing 32 and 64 bit programs.

 

Do you think Revo Pro would have solved the problem instead of needing to use the manual removal referenced in my post? At least removing c**p Acronis software manually was a valuable learning experience.

 

YES Steve as I had been running Acronis since like version 7 .....bought every NEW license to 2016. But like we have been discussing in here, Acronis has kept getting worse and worse with every new update. Heck it even slows down your boot up!!!
I used my Revo Pro and let it remove everything, including the registry entires. (Always do a complete image backup 1st) Then rebooted, had no problems booting back .....then used my other program called "Everything" to look for any trace of Acronis, there was 1 folder left in my programs, which I deleted. That was about a year ago now....maybe longer.