Windows 10: No excuse any more for failing to take decent Backups

Hi there.

I think we've all said this "Ad Nauseam" but these days with decent computers and reasonable HDD's (better if SSD's) there absolutely is NO reason not to take a backup before even doing relatively maintenance.

I've just taken a backup of a test W10 system running on a modest i3 CPU - the OS partition was approx. 40 GB used, backup file 22GB using medium compression setting (default) and the total time was just over 6 mins -- hardly a lot of time that can save you HOURS if anything goes wrong. Backup was to an external USB portable Toshiba HDD.

Using latest version of Macrium here's the screenshot.





(If you don't like Macrium there are other good programs too) -- the point here is to USE THEM - they don't take a long time and you will save oodles of time and grief later - even if you don't alter your system much -- Components fail, HDD's break or you might want to swao them for bigger ones or SSD's etc.

ALWAYS TAKE REGULAR BACKUPS !!!!!! They don't take long these days.

Cheers
jimbo

:)

 

Txt from Nokia to say an update is available, but there isn't!

You are a funny fella. Like someone gives a damn about if find that a decent explanation or if you excuse it!

 

Txt from Nokia to say an update is available, but there isn't!

In any case, I do not call that a decent explanation. Nor does it excuse Nokia for misleading me.

 

But Jimbo it is too hard.

With NAS's coming down in price and same with the larger USB sticks and cards are available really cheap, no reason that anyone should "forget".

Had one guy on the FB Microsoft page, that assumed that since it is Windows, he should not have to make backups. He felt that it is Microsoft's responsibility.

I do a once a month image backup on the three machines. No need for a weekly, since all documents and media are on a Amazon Cloud storage.

 

Hi there
That's a bit of a feeble excuse -- I'm not sure what planet the Ms guy is on --- Hardware does get broken / lost / stolen/ updated etc. so a small backup every so often should be a matter of course.

As far as the wretched cloud is concerned -- I'm not sure on the usefulness of it or otherwise when you are dealing with several TB of data -- even a fast wifi connection will take time and upload speeds are usually considerably slower than downloads.

Data backups are another issue - I'm referring specifically to the OS -- if your computer breaks / unuseable then you probably won't have decent access to the cloud -- you won't want to do complex spreadsheets for example on a tiny tablet or mobile phone even if you can retrieve your data.

For NAS - yes prices are cheaper than desktop computers these days -- I'm using a GEN 8 HP PROLIANT 4 Bay microserver with 256GB SSD, and 4 X 4 TB HDD's running CENTOS 7 on it.

I used the DVD connector for the SSD and used the built in RAID controller so I could boot from the SSD (otherwise you can only boot from HDD bay1/2 or USB / Micro SD card in AHCI mode) . In RAID 0 I created the SSD as a single RAID 0 device which could be booted and 2 X 8 TB Raid 0 logical devices -- good enough for what I need. Every so often I run an "incremental / differential" backup on data and copy also to a backup external USB. It's good enough for data. My machines are backed up to the NAS and the images also copied to external USB. Works fine so far.

This NAS box is used as my PLEX and Music server too - the Raid 0 works fine that way I get full access to all 5 Disks and can boot from the SSD. I don't need full RAID 10 etc. This is a HOME server !!!.

Cheers
jimbo

 

jimbo:

To begin, I heartily agree with your backup approach, as I use Macrium Reflect on ALL my PCs -- even the ones in the "extended family" (which none of them EVER make an effort to back up).

MR has been offering their amazing SW for Free for years now, so it's not the cost of the SW, and now that 1TB spinners can be had for $50 USD, it's not the cost of additional drives.

That said, I don't think "excuses" is the issue; instead, I think that a great majority of folks simply either (1) aren't aware that backups are needed, or (2) think the process is too hard for them to even try.

When I TRY to explain the need for backups to other folks, I get the all-too-common response "Whatever!"

 

Shout that from the roof tops, It simply cannot be stated enough!!!!

 

Jimbo you know that I was joking at the first sentence. I totally agree that there is no excuse these days to do a backup or image of your hard drive. Sometimes I feel like reaching through the Internet and smacking those that keep blaming Microsoft for them losing their files, when they are not paying attention during upgrades.

 

I wanted to add quick trick to make things even easier (which I've posted before, I know).

I added shortcuts for Macrium & AOMEI to the context menu, so I can knock out a quick back up while I stretch. Once you configure the output destination for the image, it's pretty much 3-4 clicks and that's it. Plus, it appears that with Macrium you configure it to delete older back ups, as you replace them with newer images, if you want.

(I used Ultimate Windows Context Menu Customizer to create the context menu shortcuts.)

 

That's nice but not really necessary. I hate to overload these context menus. A simple shortcut does the same.

 

Problem with image backups now is it takes too long to actually find the backup drive (assuming use of an external USB drive), connect it, and start the backup...*chuckle

And I've even made sure my backup USB drive is always allocated the same drive letter so it matches the backup plan.

(That's using SSD + USB3, differential or incremental)

 

I agree , using the latest version of macrium , a 'windows boot' backup (3 partititions for me) took 15 minutes to backup to a NAS drive.


Really not that hard.

 

Agreed. I also use MR and create a full system partition backup every ten days or so. It takes less than 10 minutes and can save you a lot of trouble if something goes wrong (no need for lenghty clean installations).

 

Not that hard to find them. All of mine are kept in a directory for each of us, it is dated for when it is done and whether it is a Windows or Linux backup as the leading part of the name. It takes less time to pull a image backup off of a NAS, if you are doing them like I do, which is only keeping the current and last one after 30 days.

 

That is a matter of organization and setup. I have my target disk for images in an external enclosure. It suffices to turn the switch. In rare cases I have to change the disk in the enclosure (5 second job) because I used the enclosure for something else.