Hi guys, what's the latest on system backup software?

jimbo45 said:

Hi there
another vote here for Macrium (for imaging).
I don't like software that nags you to GO Pro i.e PAY (minitool / easus to do and others) . For partitioning things I use GPARTED.

For Disk cloning I still prefer booting up a Live linux distro or using a VM and booting from the iso image, attaching the relevant devices to the VM and then using the built in dd command - never a problem with needing to format anything or convert to gpt or whatever -- also file systems don't matter.
Cheers
jimbo

@jimbo45,
I still have my old bootable gparted disk, much used in the XP Win7 days. I took the bait tonight and did the "Get" upgrade to Win11. My brief stint with 11 was "nowhere land" and I quickly reverted to Win10. Through years, I've always messed up my linux distros through inexperience...whacked by more than just the 'bash' shell. So I've been an MS man since my x86 DOS 2.0 start. Dos 3.3 was much better, skipped the 286, to a 386-SX, then leapfrogged to a Pentium 100, no 486 for me.
Anyway, back to backup. I've used built-in Windows, MacriumR, Paragon, Rebit, and moreso Clonezilla. I'm about to use MiniTool Shadowmaker.
So much for a lame history. I'm interested in what you wrote. Could you elaborate on "using a VM and booting from the iso image, attaching the relevant devices to the VM and then using the built in dd command"? Any info could boot this 71 yr old into the (however brief) future.

Healthy NewYear to you,


namitutonka

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namitutonka said:

@jimbo45,
I still have my old bootable gparted disk, much used in the XP Win7 days. I took the bait tonight and did the "Get" upgrade to Win11. My brief stint with 11 was "nowhere land" and I quickly reverted to Win10. Through years, I've always messed up my linux distros through inexperience...whacked by more than just the 'bash' shell. So I've been an MS man since my x86 DOS 2.0 start. Dos 3.3 was much better, skipped the 286, to a 386-SX, then leapfrogged to a Pentium 100, no 486 for me.
Anyway, back to backup. I've used built-in Windows, MacriumR, Paragon, Rebit, and moreso Clonezilla. I'm about to use MiniTool Shadowmaker.
So much for a lame history. I'm interested in what you wrote. Could you elaborate on "using a VM and booting from the iso image, attaching the relevant devices to the VM and then using the built in dd command"? Any info could boot this 71 yr old into the (however brief) future.

Healthy NewYear to you,


namitutonka

No need for replies, as this hijacks the thread. There's plenty to search on my own.

My experience with MiniTool ShadowMaker has been trouble free. Using the option to "only copy sectors used by the file system", picking 'incremental' rather than 'full' or 'differential', and choosing 'medium' compression rather than 'none' or 'high', ShadowMaker created a 67GB backup of my 79GB C: drive Win10 OS. I ignored the warning of "insufficient space" on the target drive. The source drive C:\ is 1TB and the target drive D:\ is 1TB. I've chosen the ability to keep the original backup plus up to 3 (number specified by user) incremental backups. The oldest incremental backup will be culled by ShadowMaker whenever the newest incremental backup exceeds (in my case 3) the number specified during the initial backup creation.

So far I really like ShadowMaker.