Today's thoughts on backup and Macrium Reflect

mngerhold said:

Although the MS imaging solution has been deprecated, as noted elsewhere, W10 does still offer File History: Settings>update&sec>Backup. I use this (along with other methods) to backup my own data, and it is simplicity itself: it simply copies files from folders you specify (This takes some setting up) and retains multiple versions if they exist. You can set it to backup anywhere from daily to every 10 minutes. Restoring is easy (rt-click file > Restore previous...), although deciding which version to keep (and how to keep both old and current) takes some thinking. The files are saved in their original format, and if push comes to shove, one can browse the backup folders looking for what one wants.

Note that it is intended for data files rather than programs (but will back up anything). It is truly set and forget. hth, Martin

mngerhold, thank you for pointing out the usefulness of MS backup. I can see that it would be very useful to back up my data, and probably easier than my practice of selecting and copying from my list of directories to the backup folder for that date on the USB drive.

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steve108 said:

Judy,
Version 7 and 8 and not that different.

Maybe this bite size tutorial will help you vs 485 page PDF manual:

How to Back Up Windows With Macrium Reflect

I wish I had had that when I started out yesterday. Thank you so much. Can you post it on tenforums tutorials? Perhaps as quick guide to Macrium Reflect?

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steve108 said:

Hi Judy,
You are free to ask @Brink, the site moderator, to implement suggestions like this. He will see this since I'm including his name in this reply to you.

In general the screens and concepts are similar enough between version that people can connect the dots.

Thank You Steve108. I guess I needed more help because the menus presented me with too many options I was not looking for at the time. I have learned how to not engage with unwanted features of many programs, but was not familiar enough with backup software to handle that in this case.

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steve108 said:

Judy,

Have you tried any of the YouTube Macrium Tutorials? If you find one and have a specific question, let us know. v7 and v8 aren't that much different - they basic concepts are the same.

I would suggest the KISS approach. Make a MR Rescue media, then learn how to make a full image backup of your boot drive (all partitions). Just stay with the default settings as much as possible and skip all the scheduling stuff for now.

Steve108, yes, I wanted to start by making a rescue disk. When I clicked the Rescue option it didn't tell me how. Maybe because I already had the USB that I wanted plugged in?

Thank all of you for responding to this thread and giving me advice. I learned a lot from your comments.

I think everything has been answered/dealt with (thank you!) except the blue check mark to the right of the disk drive information, and it seems that unchecking it worked fine.