Is it possible to do backups to thumbdrives?
If so, is it possible to do those backups with common backup apps such as macrim and/or AOMEI?
If so what are the pros and cons?
Windows 10 Pro 64 bit
CPU: i7-4770k @350GHz
Ram: 16GB
Graphics: Radeon 580 8GB vram
Winver 1903 OS Build 18362.418
Possible. Yes.
Bad idea; they are fragile, less reliable, generally low capacity, slow, easily misplaced, etc.
Can't think of an advantage offhand. They are quite portable, but that typically would not be much of an advantage. You can buy a 1 TB hard drive for what----40 or 50 bucks?
The cons are that usb thumb drives can die unexpectedly and completely, loosing your backup. External hard drives tend to give some warning signs, slow access due to correctable read errors, that sort of thing. Another con is that price for price, a large usb stick is probably more expensive than an 1TB HDD.
Having said that yes, you can (and I have) use a usb stick for a Macrium backup. It automatically splits the backup into 4GB files if the usb is Fat32. Tends to be slower than backing up to a usb HDD though.
Thank you. I was just considering the fact that an external HDD is still connected to the system and might as a result also be vulnerable to viruses or whatever brings the system itself down. The thumbdrive would isolated but as mentioned they are pretty fragile and often unreliable.
Probably a bad idea...hoo hum.
I typically do a complete virus/malware scan of the partitions to be included in the image file immediately prior to making the image---not much point in later restoring a virus-riddled image. In the first few days of every month as part of a regular routine.
I suppose it's possible for an image file to be infected, but I've never had that issue using normal anti-virus/malware protection.
I have a 2TB external HDD that I use for the Macrium images of all my machines. When I'm done making an image I disconnect it, so no vulnerability there. The paid for version of Macrium has a feature called Macrium Image Guardian that prevents unauthorised modification of the image files.
The main risk is that ransomware could encrypt the image files.I suppose it's possible for an image file to be infected...
Try the safe way,one image to an external HDD and the other to a flash drive.When finished,leave both disconnected.
I have a tower case (been through three motherboards in that case, over the years) with USB ports in the front. My External HDD is plugged in in the back...a good three feet away from easy access.
What with headphone wires, trackball wires and a cable for charging my phone right at hand, there's already entirely too much cordage on my actual desk. I kind of hate it.
You can certainly put all backups on a second internal.
And then periodically (weekly? monthly?) get an external from your closet and temporarily connect it to back up the internal backup. Or use an external dock containing another "internal" (not in an enclosure).
I don't like desktop clutter either and have never owned an "external" as such.
It's always a trade-off between convenience and some degree of certainty about having a backup. I can't get overly excited about "system recovery" as I can always take the time to manually reinstall Windows and applications if necessary, but loss of data is a much higher priority.
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