What to do next, after clean reinstallation of windows

Hi Tsw88

Ghost, Acronis and Macrium Reflect are software products that allow you to create a backup, base on specific criteria or criteria they provide to restore your system or files? System restore is a Windows functions to restore specific items like the registry. See this wiki article

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Restore

Depending who you ask System Restore is not as reliable as it should be in accomplishing that task.

Within Windows 7 and 10 there is a Windows Backup and restore which emulates the functions in Ghost, Acronis and Macrium such as creating a System Image. This too has different levels of success. It is my understanding that MS is deprecating Windows Backup and Restore.

Windows 10 does provide a method to try and repair issues and will place a recovery partition on your disk and allows you to create a Recovery Drive. You can also use boot media.

Boot to Advanced Startup Options in Windows 10


Now any backup software can and will have issues. Read this thread.

How much do you trust Macrium Reflect?


I use Macrium and yes there is a free version. The free version is excellent, I bought so I could do folders and would get Image Guard. It hasn't failed me. I verify my backups when created and I keep more than one. Within Macrium they have a preset criteria to backup the partitions necessary to start Windows. This does all the special ones not only the C: drive. (I would add that I have a Windows partition and a data partition. This is absolutely required, it just allows me to target backups)

Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect


Other will share their insights

I recommend using the excellent Macrium Reflect Free and consider Acronis software is poorly engineered and supported.

Make a Reflect backup of your working clean install now and archive it. Then schedule automatic full and differential Reflect backups. I make a monthly full backup and weekly differential backups. I have an external drive connected to the PC for these automated backups. I also make a manual monthly backup to a drive stored separately from the PC just in case of a severe virus attack.

I also set File History to back up my user files every 3 hours.

As above, use e.g. Macrium Reflect. Here's how:
a. Create the first (base- larger, slower image) as soon as early as you reasonably can- before making too much change to your system.

Make sure you set it up as it prompts you to keep the number of images on your backup disk as you wish.

b. Keep a simple text log of changes you make - Settings, installed programs...
c. Create a differential image using MR
(This could be scheduled or manual- e.g. after a certain time or after some significant changes or before a significant change).

Repeat (b, c).

When you upgrade to the next build, repeat from (a).

Note- creating a differential image over USB3 to a USB3 disk may only take a few minutes.

Doing so can save you days when something goes wrong.

Only problem: restoring an image of a partition means you restore everything on it- including your data. So plan ahead- keep your personal data off C:

Hi, Every few hours is significantly excessive. Best to think of backup like this: periodically image - every few days, every day if you wish, before/after a major change...

Then, selectively back up important data using a different tool (free 3rd party backup, Onedrive, sync tools...) critical fast changing data.

I use 1 or 2Tb external disks (HDDs). Assuming your C: has, say, 50-60Gb used space (your personal data, downloads etc being on a separate partition), then for a base image + a number of differential images you might need, say, 200Gb (images are compressed). This depends on the number of differential images (date range to restore from) you choose to keep.

Then you would want to image your data partitions/disks too.

Macrium Reflect (free) offers differential imaging. The paid version adds incremental imaging and a number of other features.

Then you would want to image your data partitions/disks too"

If you've imaged the set of partitions that make up Windows, and you have other disks or partitions containing your personal files, for example, you should image those too.

I.e. image all your disks/partitions - why not?

But you can, of course, image Windows partitions (4 for a UEFI installation) separately and more frequently, and have 2 or more different folders of image files - 1 for Windows, 1 for data etc.