True. Advanced users should have the os and program installation media, licenses, etc - and will have data
stored separately. If you know what you are doing, not difficult to reload the os and programs.
Most users don't have all that to hand, they have their data on the same disk, and they don't know how reload the os. It is easier in that case if there is an image to fall back on if needed.
Very true.
I do regular backups but I restore quite seldom. All my machines are opted in for Insider Fast Ring, and I prefer building a fresh custom deployment image in Hyper-V for nearly each new build, which I then deploy to my devices. Kind of clean install with every new build.
I prefer this method. I might sometimes skip creating new image for one or two builds, but I deploy a fresh image at least once or twice a month. Having unlimited storage space in OneDrive for Business and using its Files on Demand feature, storing all personal data in OneDrive, all my files are available as soon as I set up OneDrive after deployment. In addition, as I am only using licensed software, it's a piece of cake to install them on my custom image, then activate when image has been deployed.
Building and capturing the image takes just under 90 minutes on average, but as I have scripted it, it happens on a Hyper-V virtual machine in the background, not interrupting anything. I can surf and browse while VM does the magic, then deploy the image in less than 10 minutes.
Long story, short version: Yes, I backup regularly but have quite seldom needed to restore.
Kari
I have software on my machine still from Windows 7 and i use MR on a regular basis but I seldom restore. Long story short I would rather restore my system in 2 minutes instead of looking though The Net and or DVD's for hours for the software and images I have.
The root of this problem lies in the way the Windows installer has always set up the user profiles within the Windows partition, so guaranteeing that any subsequent system image restoration risks permanently destroying the users' data. All new systems or clean installs should ensure that a storage partition exists or is created and the user profiles located within it. That would open the way for both system and data backup systems to be built in. As it is, even those inexperienced users who want to create system backups are, unless an experienced user is at their side, likely to get it wrong.
Indeed, I've been following that practice since at least Windows 7. I can just format and reinstall the OS at a moment's notice if I need to.
Hi folks
ideally you should never need to restore -- but it's like an insurance policy -- you have it e.g car / house / medical or whatever but you hope you never have to make a claim on it.
That said though - it's great for testing - I have all sorts of W10 builds etc with a finite number of machines so I copy them to make tests with other builds and restore if I want to try a build backed up but not currently on my machines.
Further - I often have rows with the A/V (Anti Virus software) people on this one -- If ever I get say a warning from WD that there's a possibble infection then I will just restore the system from clean backup -- it's more reliable and a lot faster in running Anti-Virus cleansing stuff often for hours to try and ensure computer is completely clean. The A/V lot say use the cleansing program -- my remark is usually of the order "Little Round Objects" and my machine will be up and running again in almost no time at all.
As for data - if it's things like music that doesn't really change you only need to back it up say once and backup any new music files you have. These sorts of things should never be on the same HDD as the OS even if on a different partition if possible. Cheap external storage devices are available so why not use them.
Cheers
jimbo
Easeus todo failed twice to do an incremental backup on a test folder today, frustrating. I just went to idrive and checked for the folder there, bang there it is, like clock work everytime. Why is third party software so unreliable? I just bought a 4tb Passport drive, so now I'm going to see if I can set up a local backup with idrive. Unfortunately idrive does not image the system, but Easeus does that just fine, and restores too.
There are complete tutorials here on this site to guide the user in these actions, both after install and at the point of install, the system is set up By Microsoft to use the simple "location" function to relocate the personal data to a safe location. There are some that would prefer that the personal AppData Etc content should also have a location option, but as these areas are often controlled by system for security reasons they are best left alone, as they are part of the OS setup
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