Newbie question

Actually I am not entirely new to backups but I have always had this mind block about backing up

I have several back up programs--GFI and AOMEI. And a I had a backup scheme set up under Win 7. But having upgraded to Win 10 I need to revise and perhaps create a whole new back up.

I have my main system on an SSD and several partitions on a separate hard drive.

So...My first inclination is to do a system back up with AOMEI but I'm not sure how extensive that will or should be. I just want to be able to restore the system to the last good state if a virus or a bug takes it down.

Now I am operating under the assumptions that setting a 'system restore point' will do the same thing. Is that correct? At which point creating a system back up with a third party app seems overkill and unnecessary. Is that correct?

As for the rest, most of my data (and some apps) are on the partitions. If I do a partition back up, AOMEI doesn't seem to give me the option to only back up parts of it. Iddeally I'd like to back up certain files, call it drive "F full" and then set up a differential or incremental back up that will run once a week to catch new or changed files. Does this sound like a good plan?

I think GFI does mostly the same things that AOMEI does except for the system backup (although it will back up registry and user settings) but AOMEI seems easier to use.

Any help,advice, corrections or cautionary tales will be much appreciated. I could use some schooling in this regard and welcome all input.

Windows 10 Pro 64 bit
CPU: i7-4770k @350GHz
Ram: 16GB
Graphics: Radeon 580 8GB vram
Winver 1903 OS Build 18362.418

see comments:

DWFII said:

Actually I am not entirely new to backups but I have always had this mind block about backing up



Now I am operating under the assumptions that setting a 'system restore point' will do the same thing. Is that correct? At which point creating a system back up with a third party app seems overkill and unnecessary. Is that correct?

Incorrect on both. "System Restore" is simply not reliable enough to warrant the name "backup". It can often get you out of a jam, so it's not useless. But it does not back up the entire system. I've used it maybe a hundred times in 10 plus years. Perhaps 10% of those times it did not run to completion. Not good enough for a so-called system backup.

As for the rest, most of my data (and some apps) are on the partitions.

What is the over-riding reason that some apps are not on C with all other apps? Lack of space? Tradition? I'd urge you to keep data away from "system" stuff if at all possible.


If I do a partition back up, AOMEI doesn't seem to give me the option to only back up parts of it. Iddeally I'd like to back up certain files, call it drive "F full" and then set up a differential or incremental back up that will run once a week to catch new or changed files. Does this sound like a good plan?

Imaging programs generally are on a partition basis--all of a partition or none of it. You choose the partitions. Certain imaging programs allow you to include only certain files within a partition, but I'm not sure how well that works in practice.

You can do incrementals/differentials if you choose, but that's adding a layer of complexity that I personally would try to avoid...........but you may have an over-riding reason not to do full images, such as lack of space, unwillingness to take the time to make a full image, etc.

The most commonly used app for all of this on this forum is Macrium Reflect. Available in a free or paid version.

Back ups going to a 1TB external HD.

I have some apps on a separate HD for two reasons--originally I wanted nothing but the OS on C;...probably silly but back then it seemed reasonable--I wanted to partition my hard drive and I didn't want to reinstall software. .

Then I upgraded to Windows 10...upgraded over the top of Windows 7...in order to preserve legacy apps and the registry 'pointers' to them. If I had done a fresh install of Win 10 I would have lost CorelDraw, WordPerfect, and maybe a few others...because they won't install (or work 100%) on Windows 10. Even now there are annoying glitches with these programs (mostly cosmetic) that sometimes makes me wish I stayed with Windows 7.

Now a further question--will a full backup of drive F: for instance, overwrite a previously made full F: if the backup program is set to back up every month or so?

DWFII said:

will a full backup of drive F: for instance, overwrite a previously made full F: if the backup program is set to back up every month or so?

A full backup of F will create a file named something like yada yada.

A second full backup of F will create a second file named something like ooo-bop-sh-bam.

Use an automated schedule if you must. I don't as I want to keep my head in the game and not get lulled into complacency.

One is no more connected or related to the other than 2 pictures of your cat..........the only thing that would cause an over-write is if you willfully chose to give them the same name and keep them in the same folder. But who would do that?

Normal procedure is to accept the default name, which will be unique and therefore will not cause an over-write.

Store them in the same folder if you want. Or different folders. Whatever you like--wherever they will fit. Obviously foolish to store them on the drives represented by the images. Back them up like any other valuable file.

System restore is unreliable and does not offer a full backup capability. I've disabled it on my PCs. Most people on the forum use Macrium Reflect Free (or the full version if you need the extra features). I schedule backups to an external drive and do manual backups to a second external drive stored separately. Note you can mount a partition from a Reflect backup as a virtual drive and recover folders / files as you wish if you don;t need to do a full recovery.

I'm still kind of confused. What I hear is that the best approach is to backup your entire windows partition. But what about registry keys and user settings? I've yet to find a backup app that seems to cover all the bases.

And after the Windows system is baked up, back up other partitions (where data is stored) completely and avoid using incremental or differential back ups. And avoid scheduling.

AOMEI will make a "System Backup" which is supposed to be a backup of Windows and an image of the system partition (not sure I have one of those although I do have C:, D:, E:, and F: partitions. Doesn't say anything about registry keys, etc..

GFI will back up "files and folders" Registry keys, email and user settings and lets the user select all or part of these in detail (which might be more and more complicated than I want).

AOMEI says it makes images of disks, partitions, and files. Not sure how an "image" is different from a regular backup. Size? Both programs use compression. GFI uses zip, not sure what AOMEI uses.

I have installed a number of back up apps on my PC in the last week and for one reason or another these two--AOMEI and GFI 2009 are the ones I have been most comfortable with--some wanted me to store stuff on the cloud, some didn't offer scheduling, or restricted the features on the free versions, etc..

I have some familiarity with GFI...It's kind of old school but I stripped out the old backup when I upgraded to Win 10. And I have already made a full backup of C: with AOMEI but it's not a 'System Backup.' I dunno if I want to make one of those in addition or in lieu of the C: Full. I'm not sure that AOMEI does incremental or differential backups.

Not really sure what to do next.

I would appreciate any help sorting this out.

Macrium Reflect (Free) is used by many people on the forum and is very reliable. Reflect backs up all the partitions required to boot Windows plus other user partitions you specify. The registry is included in this. You can restore the partitions to recover your PC or mount any partition as a virtual drive and copy files / folders as you wish. I schedule a full monthly backup and weekly differential backup although you may wish to backup more often.

DWFII said:

I'm still kind of confused. What I hear is that the best approach is to backup your entire windows partition. But what about registry keys and user settings?

Any Full backup (Aomei, Macrium, etc.) of the windows system partition(s) will include all the registry settings. The registry is stored in a number of files (known as Hives) under the C:\Windows\System32\... folder. These are read by Windows at boot up. Restoring a system image restores the registry hives too.

Your user settings are stored in your user profile, located in the C:\Users\<yourname> folder. These too are included in any Full backup.