Windows Backup and Restore Software

[KISSMAD (Bruce)]

I'd like to do a full backup of my operating system and the installed games and programs. Of course a restore option is a must.

I don't mind paying for the program but I would like to avoid the "per computer" option if possible.

I have no interest in uploading to a cloud.

I've never used this type of software before so is there something I should look out for or avoid?

I'd appreciate anyone's 2c worth. 8)

[Exfso (Peter)]

Bruce, this should probably be in the software section. Having said that, I use Macrium Reflect free and it works very well.

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx


this guy knows his stuff and I subscribe to his newsletter which is free. He has all sorts of information regarding Macrium Reflect, here is just one of his little tutorials.

https://askleo.com/create-backup-ima...-reflect-free/

[RAJAH235]

Hi,
I've been using Acronis True Image for quite a few years & it does what it says on the box.
Might be suitable for you.
> http://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/computer-backup/
&, they have a special offer ATM.

[Renato1 (Renato)]

I've been using Acronis True Image for years with an external hard drive. It has saved me many times from having to reinstall everything from scratch.
Regards,
Renato

[multiweb (Marc)]

+1 for acronis for bare metal restore. Although their new versions with "cloud" access are getting a bit bloated and dodgy. I'm still on the 2015 version. Having said that it just works. Provided you do your differential backups diligently. The fact that you can also browse and access individual files in the *.tib archives directly from windows explorer is a plus. As many people have said it before it has "saved my a$$" more than once as well. Nothing beats the feeling of seeing a bricked PC reboot after a major restore.

[acropolite (Phil)]

Cobian backup is open source, free and works very well. Cobian is equally useful for data and full system backup.

[cfranks (Charles)]

Another +1 for Acronis. I add a little more safety by backing up to a NAS box which is only powered up when using Acronis. Minimizes the possible Ransomware etc. damage.

[RB (Andrew)]

Here's my experience with backup software.
I'll preface this with what I intend to use it for:
I make a complete identical copy of the HDD so that in the event of failure I can just swap out the drive to my most recent backup and continue business as usual.
This is the C drive I'm talking about, the one with Windows on it.

Years ago Acronis True Image would allow you to do this but a few years ago they changed their software and AFAIK you can't do this anymore with their new versions.
I wasn't aware of this and was under the false assumption that my C drive backups would work as I stated above, but that's not the case.
If you swap the HDDs over, Windows won't work and will give you errors.
D drives or data drives are fine, only the C drive (Windows) gives this error.

This is when I ditched Acronis altogether as I was sick of their upgrade policies and pricing and that I couldn't reliably duplicate (ghost) my C drive so that it would work when swapped out.

In my research I came across Macrium, which, from their blurb indicated that I could achieve a C drive duplication as stated above.

Same problem, when I would swap out the HDD, Windows would give an error stating it wasn't a proper copy of Windows or something like that.
I can't remember the exact error now it's been a few years.

The only Backup software I found I could reliably do this was with a free piece of software called Clonezilla Live.
http://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live.php

With this program I am able to duplicate my C drive (even on my laptop) and swap drives reliably without any Windows errors about "non Genuine Windows" rubbish.

Clonezilla is not a 'pretty' program to use but it is reliable for cloning the C Drive.

With my laptop, I'm able to clone the C drive to a larger capacity drive and keep my original as backup.
With Laptops you need to take out the original C drive and put the new drive in its place then run Clonezilla from a CD and copy your original C drive (as an external source) back onto the new 'internal' drive for Windows to work properly.

Here's the steps for this procedure:

Anyway, I'm far from a tech guru and am quite happy to be corrected about getting a working Windows C drive duplicated as a reliable backup.
If you're able to use Acronis or Macrium to reliably swap out C drives let me know but AFAIK only Clonezilla does it without 'Windows Genuine' errors.

Phil (acropolite) I haven't heard of Cobian, I'll have to check it out, thanks mate.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by RB

Here's my experience with backup software.
I'll preface this with what I intend to use it for:
I make a complete identical copy of the HDD so that in the event of failure I can just swap out the drive to my most recent backup and continue business as usual.
This is the C drive I'm talking about, the one with Windows on it.

Years ago Acronis True Image would allow you to do this but a few years ago they changed their software and AFAIK you can't do this anymore with their new versions.
I wasn't aware of this and was under the false assumption that my C drive backups would work as I stated above, but that's not the case.
If you swap the HDDs over, Windows won't work and will give you errors.
D drives or data drives are fine, only the C drive (Windows) gives this error.

This is when I ditched Acronis altogether as I was sick of their upgrade policies and pricing and that I couldn't reliably duplicate (ghost) my C drive so that it would work when swapped out.

Hi Andrew, that's odd? you can certainly clone a boot drive with Acronis without any issues. I can't vouch for 2016 but any version up to 2015 will do this flawlessly. There is a big difference between making a file backup and a sector by sector backup. Every boot drive has hidden system folders as well as a master boot record and a disk signature that need to be transferred to the new hardware. If you do it correctly you can restore any boot drive to any other drive, even different capacity without the need to reactivate or reinstall windows. The only time you have to reinstall an OS is when your port it to a different motherboard or radically different hardware (graphic card or other) that may need new drivers or aren't even compatible with the OS or not supported. I've cloned countless boot drives, even virtualised them, mounted them as VMs on different hardware, etc... it all works fine. I'm still running two legacy XP machines with versions of Photoshop still working and registered that are years old. The host runs win7 on a totally different hardware. CD ROMs, printers, etc.... all work. The XP OS doesn't even know it's running on top of a different PC.

[RB (Andrew)]

Good to know it works for you Marc.
I had tried either Acronis 2014 or 2015, can't remember which but was getting Windows Genuine errors when cloning, same MB same everything else, just HDD change.
This was on an old XP (Genuine).

Have you tried it on laptops by any chance?
I tried Acronis on my Win7 lappy and again same problem.
As you know you need to take the original out of the lappy first and clone it back into the new HDD in the lappy.

Would like to try Acronis again but don't want to risk it with the lappy....
At the moment I don't have a desktop machine to try.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by RB

Good to know it works for you Marc.
I had tried either Acronis 2014 or 2015, can't remember which but was getting Windows Genuine errors when cloning, same MB same everything else, just HDD change.
This was on an old XP (Genuine).

Have you tried it on laptops by any chance?
I tried Acronis on my Win7 lappy and again same problem.
As you know you need to take the original out of the lappy first and clone it back into the new HDD in the lappy.

Would like to try Acronis again but don't want to risk it with the lappy....
At the moment I don't have a desktop machine to try.

Yep, desktop PCs, laptops, all good. The only thing I can think of is that many laptops and desktops come with Windows pre installed and it's a limited OEM version. So people are not aware that this is a non transferable license. In this case Windows would chuck a issy fit if you virtualized it or change the hardware radically. Even adding RAM in some instance has been known to trigger a reactivation. I'm not 100% sure how they detect a change of hardware but back in my software days I remember there are voltages difference you could pick up on the motherboard components and figure out if the signature was different.

[RB (Andrew)]

Could be Marc, as the lappy came pre-installed as usual.
But I was also having problems before with the old XP box.

That's when I switched to Clonezilla and never had an issue since.

I would've liked to continue with Acronis but they changed their software and business model.

I had visited their FAQ and forum and a lot of people were complaining about these new changes too.

Beats me.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Too true. A lot of software mobs are trying to do too many things in one product. I remember the days when zonelabs had a very lean efficient firewall that eventually turned into an anti virus/bloatware to the point it was unusable, like all norton/symantec products. These days I use hardware gates. Fortinet isn't bad. Acronis... well 2015 does the job but I can see them heading down the gurgler too. Every new version has been rebranded, not doing much more than the previous one, and 2016 I just refuse to install even if it's a free upgrade. I can't see anything remotely OK with having my backups synced automatically with an online facility. Really? Wtf....

[RB (Andrew)]

Oh yeah, don't even mention Norton's....
First thing I do is to reach for the 'Norton's complete removal tool' every time I get a new laptop....

[KISSMAD (Bruce)]

Thanks everyone for your input.

The more I read about Acronis True Image to more I decided not to worry about backing up the OS.

I tried CloneZilla but that failed. Something about mismatch something.

It doesn't take long to format these days with solid state drives anyways.

Guess what happened today... My blu-ray burner in my second computer died while I was trying to install Windows 10 with a fresh install. Also my 4TB backup HDD died! I've now lost a lot of data. I had the very important stuff backed on another HDD and on blu-ray discs. So I'm not totally annoyed. The funny thing is that I was going to make a post about the best way to sort through the 4TB HDD for duplicate files. I guess I won't have to now.

[Exfso (Peter)]

Bruce, how old was the 4tb hard drive, most now have around 3yrs warranty, not that it helps with data loss though.
Just following on from my post earlier, Macrium reflect free works a treat, if you look at Leo Notenbloom's tutes etc, you should see what I mean. I run it as well as EaseUS Todo backup which costs around $30 aud. They are pretty new, but getting some good reviews as well.

http://www.todo-backup.com/

[KISSMAD (Bruce)]

Hey Peter, The drive is out of warranty, of course. I do have another 4TB the same as the deceased one. It currently doesn't have any important stuff on it but I won't be using it now. I was looking into getting an 8TB but that is not going to happen. I'll stick with the 3TB size or smaller. I'm currently getting all my files together to sort out for backing up.

I'll look into the EaseUS Todo backup program. I'll need something easy to use to backup my data files.

[KISSMAD (Bruce)]

Pete, why do you use both Macrium and EaseUS? Don't they do the same thing?

I'm trying the ToDo Backup Workstation, so far so good. I'm even getting used to the Windows 10 look. LOL

[Exfso (Peter)]

Bruce, one is free, the other I got a special price on. Having an each way bet I suppose... I paid for the full version of EaseUS todo. when they sold it for a ridiculous price a few months back.

[KISSMAD (Bruce)]

How much did you end up paying for it? They have an Early Spring Sales on at the moment.

I don't have an explanation but my dead HDD is alive! It wouldn't work in both of my systems before but now it's working!

So I've been testing programs to find duplicate files on the drive. Duplicate Cleaner seems to be the best so far.