Windows 10 Backup Options

My question is about backups.

I'm on windows 10 and need to set up a backup solution for my important files. Documents, pics, videos, music, etc. Plus some additional folders like projects, game saves, and stuff.

As best I can tell, there's two backup solutions built into Windows 10. The "File History" option, and "Backup and Restore (Windows 7)".

I don't really need versioning on my backups, so I'm not sure if file history is the right thing to do or not. What about the old Windows 7 Backup and Restore? I know that you could do specific files/ folders on that as well, but I'm just not sure what the differences between the two are.

I feel I should also point out that I do not need a system image backup. If the PC crashes that hard, I would rather do a fresh install of Windows anyways, as long as I still have my important files.

Lastly, what do you recommend for offsite (cloud) backup? Something affordable, but reputable.

Thanks!

jaigomes said:

I feel I should also point out that I do not need a system image backup. If the PC crashes that hard, I would rather do a fresh install of Windows anyways, as long as I still have my important files.

You may want to reconsider that, particularly if you have installed paid-for programs like MS Office that will need a key (have you still got it handy?) to re-install. Apart from that, the sheer amount of time it takes to re-install everything and reconfigure Windows to your liking is the downside of a clean install.

Besides, a Macrium Reflect (free) image can be mounted a a virtual drive, then you can copy any/all your user files from it.

My backup regime is three-fold. First I have a regular (monthly, usually) Macrium image on an external HDD.

Second, I have a batch command file that copies my user folder to an external or network drive, this I run twice a week. It uses the RoboCopy command. With the help of its /M option I can make incremental backups. On the next run, only new files or ones that have changed will be copied. Xcopy is an older less powerful command, but also has the /M option.

/M :: copy only files with the Archive attribute and reset it.

Thirdly, I have File History turned on and pointing to a network drive.

I don't like the way 'Backup & Restore (Windows 7)' creates a backup as a set of multiple .zip files. Manually trying to find a file in the backup set is like searching for a needle in a haystack. The only practical way to restore an individual file is through Backup & Restore, which may not be available if your system has crashed.

File History however creates copies of the individual files (with the date of the backup added to the file name) so a manual search of the History folder is easy, should File History not be available.
..

Depending on how much your backing up onedrive or google drive is simple and gives you 15 gig or more it saves files within seconds so you dont need to do anything you can get 100gig of google for a few quid and dont forget photos are unlimited I have 190 gigs backed up for photos all FREE

You could use something like Karen's replicator:







Replicator v3.7 | Karen's Power Tools | KarenWare.com

Bree said:

You may want to reconsider that, particularly if you have installed paid-for programs like MS Office that will need a key (have you still got it handy?) to re-install. Apart from that, the sheer amount of time it takes to re-install everything and reconfigure Windows to your liking is the downside of a clean install.

Besides, a Macrium Reflect (free) image can be mounted a a virtual drive, then you can copy any/all your user files from it.

My backup regime is three-fold. First I have a regular (monthly, usually) Macrium image on an external HDD.

Second, I have a batch command file that copies my user folder to an external or network drive, this I run twice a week. It uses the RoboCopy command. With the help of its /M optionUC browser SHAREit MX player I can make incremental backups. On the next run, only new files or ones that have changed will be copied. Xcopy is an older less powerful command, but also has the /M option.

/M :: copy only files with the Archive attribute and reset it.

Thirdly, I have File History turned on and pointing to a network drive.

I don't like the way 'Backup & Restore (Windows 7)' creates a backup as a set of multiple .zip files. Manually trying to find a file in the backup set is like searching for a needle in a haystack. The only practical way to restore an individual file is through Backup & Restore, which may not be available if your system has crashed.

File History however creates copies of the individual files (with the date of the backup added to the file name) so a manual search of the History folder is easy, should File History not be available.
..

yes i agree with you!

My advice is to make full Macrium Reflect backups to an external drive - you can either recover your full system or selected files /folders. I also make a separate backup of user files just to be safe. File History only backs up your user files and is temperamental.