Windows 10: Windows 10 Backup Strategy Solution Suggestions

Hello All,

I have only had one instance of a hard disk dying on me, and losing the data on that disk would have been devastating. Luckily, I used Carbon Copy Cloner on a weekly. That was on OS X and it really saved me at the time.

The only backup I have in place right now is OneDrive sync, which is better than nothing. The systems I have are not as crucial and I do have the most important things on OneDrive.

I am looking for the following:

• Something like Carbon Copy Cloner, which would let me create an image of my entire SSD drive that could easily be restored, preferably over a network. It should be automatic.
• Incremental/file history backups of certain files

I thought about using Windows Backup, but it essentially just made a copy of everything and then one hour later it started making a copy again. I was hoping it would be incremental.

I have DriveImage XML and have also thought about CloneZilla. If any of you currently have a strategy/setup that works, do tell.

Thanks!

:)

 

Backup

It can, but you have to turn it on. It's remarkably easy though, I wrote a little post called "The Bare Minimum Backup Strategy" describing the way I
use it.

 

files back up

I wrote a blog post about how to use the built-in backup function, along with how I use it myself. Here's the link if you're interested in checking it out:
The Bare Minimum Backup Strategy

 

I highly and heartily recommend Macrium Reflect Free. It handles all my backup needs on the 8 PCs I have here at my house, and offers lots of great features. Among my favorites: multiple schedules for image, full, differential and incremental backups supported; Rescue Media lets you boot your PC and restore a saved image to the boot drive with little effort or trouble; Rescue Media also supports robust Windows boot repairs on boot/system disk. A favorite among many, many forum regulars here, too. Check it out: Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free.
HTH,
--Ed--

 

Hello Ed,

Just downloaded it and will keep you posted, thanks!

Pawel

 

Hi there

Added :

Keep data off the OS drive i.e have Windows on one HDD / partition and data on other ones - so when you image / restore OS you don't lose data.

For data you need another backup strategy -- if amount of data is not huge simply use File explorer to back it up to external HDD's as I think the Free Macrium only does HDD imaging / cloning.

I've gone for a Linux solution for data backup but that's another issue. If your data is valuable or not easily reproduceable - e.g old CD ripped music files, video stuff etc then it's worth getting the paid for version of Macrium where you can make data backups - also it can backup changed files so after initial backup you only need to run for changed and new files. (every so often though re-run a full data backup as restoring a file from a load of changed files is a bit complex and liable to error as well).

@EdTittel

I looked on the Macrium site -- the FREE edition doesn't do backups of files and folders -- not sure if that's correct but that is what their web site says when you compare editions.

Cheers
jimbo

 

@pmrozik I second the recommendation for Macrium.

I use it exclusively for all my Windows PC's. For my MacBook, the closest I could find was Carbon Copy Cloner. In terms of behavior and outcome, Macrium is as close to CCC as it gets.

 

You can mount the image & use it like a hard drive to move over files & folders if you ever need to do a clean install.
Restoring an image will restore all files, folders & personal details.
I use Macrium Reflect & it’s been a boon for me when Windows goes wrong.

 

Purchasing either MR6 or MR7 will be one of the best investments ever made for backup / restore / cloning operations. Actually, purchasing just one of any of the many very good b/r/c programs will do just fine; I recommend purchasing because you get better customer and technical support,. a little more tweaking power, a couple of more choices within the menus. EaseUS, AOMEI, IFW, ATI, are just a few of the many that come to mind.

 

@jimbo45: you're correct, but as our resident Egyptian goddess (Bastet) observed, the ability to mount a backup as a virtual drive means you can easily navigate to and access whatever files and folders you might need. I hope you'll agree that's a reasonable facsimile for file and folder level access to backup contents. And while I've got your eye, I've been enjoying your posts in the Virtualization silo. Keep up the good work!
--Ed--

 

Hi there

Thanks @EdTittel

Loads of times where people mess around with dual boots etc or even want old XP legacy stuff to work they don't realize the advantage of using Virtual machines --especially these days where even modest hardware makes them work a treat.

Gamers are different I know but for the vast majority who just dual / triple boot and who don't need real hardware access - Virtual Machines are the way to do it.

Many times I've saved myself hours if not days of work by testing on a VM first.

I just wish Ms would give a bit more flexibility to say home or small developers over Windows licensing - I was lucky as I had a load of keys from the old TechNet program --but Ms could easily grant say the ability to use 3 or 4 VM images by home users for testing etc -- or allow test versions of Windows to be used say for 60 days before requiring a permanent license.

(from another issue about Wifi speed in the Networking section)) -- now done my Lan cable to shed -- got 1.2 Gb/s now with 4 X lan connections --so happy camper here plus woman is happy too about no wires / hardware junk all over the place -- she even brought me a nice snack + beverage (alcoholic of course) out to the shed in the cold !! to see how I was getting on. !!! -- Told neighbours when I was drilling etc -- looking for Geothermal possibilities !!!!

Cheers
jimbo

 

Macrum saved me from reinstalling Windows 10 about 5 times already. Before I used it and relied on the terrible System Restore and sfc /scannow which would either fail or not fix the problem I had to waste over three frustrating hour reinstalling Windows 10 and turning off all the stupid Edge, Cortana junk they shove which took about a hour just to turn off all the annoyances and update the basic drivers.

Just today I ran it after about 10GB of disk space vanished.

 

Thank you everyone! I finally have a full image backup of my main computer.

Macrum is exactly what I was looking for. After Carbon Copy Cloner saved me on OS X, this is definitely a must have. The initial backup took a couple of hours over my 10Mbps LAN, but I will be rebuilding it and expanding my little lab.

The only thing that the free version of Macrum does not do are incremental backups, but deferential weekly and monthly images are just fine.
@jimbo45: The VM idea is great as well, I have VirtualBox installed but never actually used it as a kind of sandbox testbed. No shed with geothermal possibilities on this end, I'm jealous. *Smile

One very last question about the backup strategy itself. I read somewhere that we should keep three backup copies? I would be satisfied with a local one and one in the cloud. Any thoughts?

 

1 x Local and 1 x Cloud seems quite reasonable to me, and that is what I use. Everyone will have their favourite combination, however, so you will get lots of varying opinion.

 

Which is why I bought an external drive for Macrum backups which I already used to restore a image a few times already no problems. I wanted to get another internal drive for Macrum backups but they said it was not recommended.