Computer Backup Systems

The Windows backup is only good as long as your hard drive is functioning...You still need to make a recovery disc and I would recommend portable hard drive backup occasionally...You should tweak the settings in file back-up for day to day use...

http://www.howtogeek.com/220986/how-to-use-all-of-windows-10%E2%80%99s-backup-and-recovery-tools/

I thought Win 10 WOULD make a backup (system image?) to an external hard drive. That's what I'm doing now with Acronis, but the version I have won't work on Win 10. Therefore I have to decide (when I go to Win 10) whether to use its backup or buy the newer Acronis version. Thanks.

Don't go to W 10.

Well you can use Onedrive to backup your files to the cloud, which then makes them accessible to other devices....or just use usb sticks...You do still have restore points that you can set within the computer....I use those tiny usb sticks for file transfer of a larger nature, 32g the size of a button...too cool

...and that's in it's protective case....

https://onedrive.live.com/about/en-us/

I just continue to use usb flash drives since I don't stream any movies and 120GB flash drives are fairly inexpensive.

I would not trust anything about W10.

The former simple "backup" has been morphed into some hidden thing called File History. Never ming that Backup was well known and easy to use.

DO NOT TRUST Microsoft, all they want is your information and your money.

Get an external hard drive and back up all your files there.

Do I dare say your opinions on MS are practically always negative! I do do what your last line says, except I've been using a flash drive. I save everything twice; once to the HD, then to the flash drive.

Lehman57-

How are things in Louisville? I'm trying to make a similar decision but without the change to Win 10. I want a backup software that can do either complete, partial or incremental backups. I still have Win 7 because like many I don't trust either the technical or financial expertise of MS. Too many times upgrading and then having more troubles than before the "upgrade". Have tried Norton, Win 7, and several others. Most won't follow instructions and either don't back up enough or fill the 2T external that I use. I also use flash drives to backup the "extremely important" stuff in addition to the external 2T.

I would like to use incremental so that backups are shorter time wise and don't use as much space. Many years ago we used these with a DEC system in Columbus, OH, that serviced branches located all over the country. That was 35 years ago, why can't they provide a simple old thing?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Good Luck, Old Salt

Old Salt: I'm still using Win 7, but do plan to go to Win 10, maybe in January after some initial bugs are worked out. I'm not a heavy user; HD capacity is 300 GB with 91.3 used and 192 available. My external drive backup is 750 GB, and is now getting full enough that something will have to be dumped next time.

I'm using Acronis, 2013 I think, but they say it won't work with Win 10, thus the decision necessity. Backups seem to work fine, but I've never restored from them. (My recent reset was due to a problem that likely predated the recent backups.) Acronis will do a couple types of backup, it can be set to do a total backup every XX incremental backups; it can also save to your choice of locations I think. Acronis can be set to run at bedtime, then turn off when it is done. I have gotten it thru User Group Relations at about half the price from Acronis itself. Contact is Gene Barlow at support@ugr.com or gene@ugr.com. He has a Starter Guide too, which was highly useful to me.

But Gene does computer user groups--I don't know what happens if you are not a group member. The national user group organization is APCUG at apcug2.org. There is a tab for locating a user group near you if you might want to join one. They also have Utube videos of past conferences and other goodies.

If I want to get away from MS products, the likely replacement will be Linux, Ubuntu, or similar.

For another backup system, a user group presenter suggested GFI Homebackup.

You mentioned Norton. For virus scanners, many people have said to stay away from both Norton and McAfee.

Hi Ever tried a raid system saves manually backing up

How timely
3 days in with my replacement PC and I'm already trying to restore it to from-the-shop condition after no risky use
Heartening that I'm not the only one made to chase my tail by the wonderful MS

I have a hardware only backup system.

It was not expensive (costs less than US$30) and is USB3.0 compatible, which my Laptop supports as well. Naturally you need the right (Blue) USB cables as well.....

The Hard drives are used without any casing as I am a strong believer that ANY casing, without an active fan system (I have never seen one), is letting the drives get far too hot for longevity, no matter what the manufacturers say!! They really do build up heat, no matter which manufacturer, though I do use 7,200 RPM drives, which usually run warmer....

I keep all my important data on 2 TByte Hard disks. I have in total 5 hard disks. All are kept sequentially identical once each week with the main drive.

I only have 1.5 TByte of actual data.

The hardware has two slots, A & B.

A disk in slot A can be read and written to normally from a PC or similar. I use Linux and Windows.

But when I slot a second drive into slot B, no matter what its actual size, as long as its big enough to take all my data that is on Disk A, pressing the front button will copy the data from A to B. A mirror image. No PC involvement, no software needed!

The PC can be on or off, its a hardware only function of the interface.

There are 5 LEDs on the front, power white and 4 green LEDs. The first green LED blinks while copying the first 25% of the data, once you have 25+%, that stays on and the next one blinks till 50+% has been copied and so on.

It uses a format that Linux or Windows can read as I use both. Fat32 I believe I started with for that reason, but it will work with ANY format and simply copy it, "clone" it may be a better terminology.....

I cannot say exactly how long it takes as I usually go to bed, as I do this overnight. But 3 hours is probably near!!

I use a different disk each time I back up. Also, I swap the "A" drive around occasionally to even out the usage.

I usually either set it on a window ledge, where cooler air (its cold outside at this time of year!), in spite of double glazing, is coming off the double glass, or when its warmer, I have a cheap USB fan on a LOOOONG neck, that I stick in a free USB slot and direct the air to keep both drives cooled.

That necessitates having a tiny USB power supply for the fan in a mains socket....the drives run basically cold then....

If you want a 1:1, bootable backup of your system disk, it will do it, even 2.5" drives from say a laptop can be copied and even to a cheaper 3.5" drive. But you will need to copy it back onto a physically compatible drive first if your system disk craps out.

Its only a matter of quite a short time for the copy....my system disk is only 750 GB and its not even half full......so a really cheap 500GB SATA drive would handle it all for me personally.....

You will need to pop the system disk out of course (and it MUST be SATA), using a proper screwdriver, usually a tiny Phillips with the nose ground off to fit the screws mainly used and to observe anti static precautions as well....(I am talking about Laptops here!).

Here is a picture of the open framed one I have been using for well over a year. The closed frame one costs more and has identical hardware, but cools less. Both are made by Logilink, though there are others models around:-

USB 3.0 zu SATA Adapter

I am really happy with it.....you do of course need SATA drives, but they are SO cheap on ebay....far cheaper than losing my data!!!

I use a fan like this one from ebay:-

If anyone needs further help, just ask.

I use a bootable Linux USB stick, an external USB HDD and DDRESCUE for my bare metal backups. Rsync for the daily changes.

Although proponent of Windows 10. I myself use a stand alone digital hard drive as my personal data back up device. I prefer to have the actual back up copy in my hand. I keep all of my personal sensitive data on this remote drive behind a password.

Not saying there is anything wrong with W10 service, it is very handy to have all of your configuration information on their server if you are using and linking several Win based devices. (phones, tablets game system, etc.) Things like browsing favorites, email, address book, games set ups and such. Then if you need to do a complete system restore of any device or all devices it is easier that digging out the config. file from your back up and rebooting that or setting everything up again. The Win service does it automatically across all devices.

my 2cents worth.

I don't know much anything about Windows 10 or it back ups. I'm sure that I don't want to know. I do know that your not paying for a back up application when you get the Windows 10 OS. So they most likely didn't put much time creating it. So little time that Windows 8 it was hidden away. They only made it easier to use as it was in windows 7 because of consumer out cry.

If your only making back ups to files should be okay.

I though do use Acronis. The backups that I make are images. More concerned about hard drive failure then user files.

With every version of the Windows Operating System, starting with NT, I have had more and more reason to not trust MS OS's, with the possible exception of XP, SP3. This mistrust was reinforced just a few hours into W10 with my Cortana experience. Consider yourself lucky if you have not had the Cortana experience.

I back-up locally several times per day on all data files, once per week a local back-up of the dailies, and twice a year a local back-up of the weeklies, now at about 200 GB. I recently dumped my first semi-annual local back-up into the MS One Drive, as a test, and am looking into a second cloud back-up. I also do not trust any automatic back-ups that are not built into the original app that is producing my product or data.

Thus spake almost 30 years of MS and 25 years of online experience.

See!

I knew it!

30 years of trying in vain (why could that possibly be ?) to get a handle on this stuff

The world ain't as dumb as these wizards are hoping

User can create the backup of the computer system by following ways:

• Back Up to an External Drive
• Back Up Over the Internet
• Back Up Over the Internet

As far as I know, there are no viable options built-in Windows 10. But if you need one, then I recommend you to get help from Google apps backup. I'm pretty sure that there's a free trial for people that are not sure about it.

I hear that Windows Defender, which is built-in to Win10, is pretty good now. (Several years ago it wasn't.) At the moment I am using avast free as a virus scanner and Acronis for backups, but there is one included with Win10.