What Is the Difference Between Windows 10 Backup Tools?

I have also been confused about this subject. For many years I have used "Backup now" on my computers once a week. And as far as I know this will also make a System Image and back up files and folders. I guess this should be enough?

Since I never had problems with my computers in the last 5-10 years I have had no need for restoring my files or systems, and therefore I'm unsure how this "Backup now" really works?

Any professionals that can give some advice and explain?

I purchased a identical hgst drive that is in my laptop running windows 10 factory install. I want to duplicate this drive byte for byte, partition for partition. If anything goes wrong with the laptop hgst drive, I want to be able to pull the old drive and install the backup and fire it up and not miss a beat. Most software assumes you want to replace everything on a newly installed drive and not the duplicate. Am I going about this the wrong way or can I do this while waiting for another drive replacement?

kimpe said:

I purchased a identical hgst drive that is in my laptop running windows 10 factory install. I want to duplicate this drive byte for byte, partition for partition. If anything goes wrong with the laptop hgst drive, I want to be able to pull the old drive and install the backup and fire it up and not miss a beat. Most software assumes you want to replace everything on a newly installed drive and not the duplicate. Am I going about this the wrong way or can I do this while waiting for another drive replacement?

Maybe you can try free easeus disk copy to duplicate the hard drive. It is an old software but reliable for sector-by-sector disk copy. This sounds like safe enough.

kimpe said:

I purchased a identical hgst drive that is in my laptop running windows 10 factory install. I want to duplicate this drive byte for byte, partition for partition. If anything goes wrong with the laptop hgst drive, I want to be able to pull the old drive and install the backup and fire it up and not miss a beat. Most software assumes you want to replace everything on a newly installed drive and not the duplicate. Am I going about this the wrong way or can I do this while waiting for another drive replacement?

You can use AOEMI Backupper to clone your current drive to the back-up, and if the need arises plug it in and boot from it, the only problem is it will only contain data that existed at the time the clone was made. A system image once or twice a week will insure recent data is available. No sense in cloning that often as system image is faster and with AOEMI you can do incremental back-ups.

Thank you all for your comments. I am not in the market for 3rd party software. What I'd like to understand is the apparently 3 different backup tool in Windows 10.

Thanks in advance

I use Paragon's Backup & Restore (paid version) to do my imaging. I have a 500Gb SSD in there for boot + spindles (new 1TB 7200 + 2 WD greens I think). I do image backups usually every week to 2 weeks just in case of a catastrophic failure so I can get back up and running in a reasonable amount of time. I'm not sure how well windows backup will work for that situation compared to 3rd parties. I prefer them over MS but that's just me. But I do image my systems at least 2+ times a month so I am not too far off if a drive fails badly. There are free and paid options out there and have tons of options (crazy amount). Anyways, I'd be interested in this topic as well from a windows program standpoint vs 3rd party and what I want to achieve (full system restore from latest image so I am not far off in regards to data loss, if any).

Mike

Jerrythesurfer said:

Thank you all for your comments. I am not in the market for 3rd party software. What I'd like to understand is the apparently 3 different backup tool in Windows 10.

Thanks in advance

• File History backs up user files (in libraries, desktop, contacts and favorites by default) - it tells you what on the instructions. It backs up changes every hour (or whatever you decide) so you can get old versions. It doesn't backup Windows OS files.
• System Image backs up everything as a one off activity. You can use this image to restore Windows if it doesn't work and it will restore back your user documents to the time they were when you made it.
• Windows Backup makes a system image and saves user data stored in libraries only (by default) as a one off activity. It doesn't save changes to user files like File history does.

If you have a system image and file history there is no point in using this backup option (that I can think of) as by default it does less than you already have. I guess it is there so it is familiar to legacy users.

In addition to these 3 there are also restore points which let you make a checkpoint (before installing software or testing some configuration change for example) and restore quickly back to it if it doesn't work.

Halaz,

Thanks for the complete and what looks like an accurate appraisal.

Just to be clear, let me focus on System Image Backup and Windows Backup.

System Image Backup will backup my version of Windows 10 as it is the moment I initiate the backup. As far as I can tell it only creates an image of my Windows 10, drivers, ....

Backup - appears to create BOTH a system image as well as backup the user files that are in the Library.

Did I get that correct?

Jerry

Yes, you got it correct.

The "System image" (however you make it) will be the same. It will backup everything on your main drive (so all of windows and all documents you have stored there). It is what you need to restore if Windows stops working.

The "Windows Backup" will (by default) make a system image (exactly the same) and back up libraries as well.

The libraries will be (by default) a duplicate of what is on the system image anyway. They will be your documents and pictures which, if you have not moved them (or added other folders to your libraries) be in C:\Users\<name>\Pictures etc which would be on the system image anyway.

You do want to make a system image when your system is working OK (how you make it doesn't matter). File History is good to restore old versions of user files.

Windows Backup adds nothing of interest. It allows you another way to make a (identical) system image and duplicate some things included in File History (but in a less useful one off way).