Windows backup/restore and file history

I have a new (late December) Dell 5500, 512 GB SSD about half empty. I have File Explorer access to a 2TB NAS (WD Mybook Live) via home wifi network.

I'm starting with win 10 native s/w. I'll research other popular programs (macrium etc) because multiple attempts using the win10 programs was confusing/not intuitive (it told me no destination locations available, when I have a couple NAS shares mapped). But I want to get started.

1) I finally got backup/restore going, full backup including system files ("let windows choose"). It ran overnight, well over 12 hours. I understand that the first run will be "longer", but after all that time the progress bar showed less than half done. Is this normal for 250gb?

I stopped the process and deleted the destination files to start over with File HIstory.

It kept telling me that I had to stop using the destination directory, and when I clicked "Stop using drive" it gave me an error message (I think 0x800....). I looked up the error message and it didn't seem to relate to copying files. I found some commands to "reset" the backup. It still thought it was using the destination directory, so I created another one.

2) I got File History started last night. No system files this time -- removed all but the data directories I use regularly. Very disappointed that there's no progress bar -- just "Backing up your data..." It has been over 17 hours. I'll guess that the "Size of backup" will change from 0 bytes.

Shall I just keep waiting? Is there something off?

Any help will be appreciated.

LewG said:

...I'm starting with win 10 native s/w. I'll research other popular programs (macrium etc).... But I want to get started...

You should take Microsoft's advice and look at those other programs first, at least as far as making a system image is concerned. The built-in system image backup has been a deprecated feature for three years now....

Microsoft said:

System Image Backup (SIB) Solution
We recommend that users use full-disk backup solutions from other vendors.

Features removed or Deprecated in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

My preferred 'other vendor' is Macrium.

Thanks, Bree. "Microsoft's advice" -- didn't see that anywhere, and it's surprising, but on a certain level it makes sense. Thanks for the recommendation.

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(I don't see how to update the original post, or why this updated my last thread reply)

File History backup ran 19 hours. I "stopped" it, exited the app, went back to settings/update & security/backup/more options.

It says size of backup 111 gb and "Your data is not yet backed up."

19 hours and not done with 250 GB? I know it's doing more than just copying the files. And doing it automatically on a schedule takes less time each run. So, maybe this is just the way it is?

Again, does this seem normal?

- - - Updated - - -

I'm marking this as "solved", though my solution is to use something other than win10 backup s/w.

I connected to the NAS directly via ethernet cable and started a File History backup. It's been running 5 hours. Free space on the NAS is decreasing, so it's doing something. I fully understand that any first-run backup will take a "long" time. But I'm going to stop it and switch because windows backup/restore and file history aren't intuitive to me. When I wrote ksh scripts and provided second level support for years, I was willing to go through hoops to figure things out for people. Now, for my own purposes, I don't want to spend this much time under the hood and pouring over documentation and detailed product descriptions.

My admittedly-idealistic standard is that s/w should be easy to understand and simple to use. I don't know if File History can create a bootable disk/thumb drive or o/s backup, or if you need to use backup/restore for that and file history for daily data backups. That seems over-complicated -- and maybe it's not necessary. Simple feature lists for popular alternatives make it easy to get an initial idea how to use them.

I found 6-7 "best backup software" articles and counted which ones came up repeatedly. This resulted in a short list that includes Acronis, AOMEI, Easeus, and Paragon. I'll see if these have free-for-personal-use versions. All I want to do is create scheduled backups of LO files, Thunderbird, and some others from one computer. Not convinced about encryption and other features.

I have found problems recently with the use of both Windows File History and Backup and Restore.
I struggled to try to make use of these facilities, which I have used successfully for some time, my previous attempt was a few months ago. I have made System Restore and file backups without problem.
This time, however, I could get neither to work.
I then discovered posts on the internet mentioning that Microsoft is likely to discontinue one or both of these very useful backup systems.
Consequently, I have now downloaded Macrium Reflect and FreeFileSync, both of which worked perfectly.
May I suggest that anyone else in my position also try both of these (free) software downloads.

Steve C said:

This simple. Don't use the built in MS backup program. Do use an excellent third party backup utility like Macrium Reflect. File History is only useful for saving copies of your user files which I can do anyway by mounting a Reflect backup image as a virtual drive and copying across a file I need.

I agree. Macrium for full backup, FreeFileSync to copy files.

Bastet said:

File history used to run overnight with my 2TB SSD (1.5TB full) & in the morning it still hadn’t finished. With Macrium I can run a full backup which takes 4-5 hours including verifying the backup. I gave up with File History when MS removed the feature to choose folders on Win 11.

Ah, perhaps as I expected: an inclination to 'upgrade' to W11?
I have nothing against it, but I'm used to W10 and (at my time of life!) I don't want to have to get used to something else.
I shall continue to use Macrium Reflect and FreeFileSync, both of which are free (though I have contributed a small sum to the latter and may do the same for the former).

Just curious, does Windows System Image Backup (SIB) Solution create an image like Macrium Reflect does? Or does it just backup data files by copying them to another drive & therefore can be read & restored by using copy/paste?