I am responsible for a couple of W10 Pro laptops which spend most of their time away from base (a foodbank) with their users. I have set up backups to a network drive using the W7 backup utility. Up to now I have run these myself when the machines are available. I would now like to have a desktop shortcut so that the (very non-technical) users can run the backup themselves. Any advice on how to achieve this will be welcome.
You can do that with Macrium Reflect... it has a way to save a backup job for future use.
Macrium Software | Reflect Free Edition
Quickie Macrium picture guide...
Macrium Reflect and Bootable Rescue Media, pictures...
Macrium Reflect User Guide...
https://updates.macrium.com/reflect/...user_guide.pdf
Macrium Notes:
1. A full OS image backup will be approx. 1/2 the size of the total "used space" on the C:\ drive.
2. Backing up takes about 75 seconds for every 20GB of "used space" on the C:\ drive.
Full tutorial...
Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect
Here is a truly one click way to backup with Macrium. After creating a My Backup.xml file as noted above create this bat file:
"C:\Program Files\Macrium\Reflect\reflectbin.exe" -e -full "Path to My Backup.xml"
The "Path to My Backup.xml" should be pretty self-explanatory. Of course just using the My Backup.xml is technically one click but you still have to right click that file and then select Macrium and then select backup. BTW, this bat file is for a full backup.
Thank you for the suggestions. However, I was hoping for a solution that does not involve 3rd party software. Can anyone help?
If you are backing up data files rather than imaging the whole of the disk [including the OS] then you could run a built-in utility called RoboCopy to copy the files to your backup drive.
If you are backing up the whole of the disk [including the OS] then your best bet is a third-party imaging utility such as Macrium.
Note that MS announced almost five years ago that their built-in Backup & restore [Windows 7] utility should no longer be used for system images.
MS said not to use it in their announcement of Windows 10 Version 1709 and have never withdrawn that warning
imaging deprecated in Ver 1709 - TenForums
See also my ditty - File backup vs imaging, imaging utilities, backing up drivers [post #3] - TenForums
Best of luck,
Denis
From my thread posted by Bree - Features removed or Deprecated in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update
- - - Updated - - -
What's the difference in ROBOCOPY and Windows Backup in settings?
RoboCopy is a command just like dir, xcopy, …
It has nothing to do with Windows backup facilities.
To make use of RoboCopy repeatedly, it is best to work out the commands you want to run then put them in a batch file.
To see RoboCopy's built-in Help, run the command
See alsoCode:RoboCopy /?
Robocopy - SS64
RoboCopy - MSDocs
Sample RoboCopy backing up script [post #36] - TenForums
my ditty - RoboCopy switches [post #28] - TenForums
my poor attempt at a consolidated RoboCopy post - TenForums
All the best,
Denis
I use robocopy for my own data backups at home. However, I did not set up the laptops in question so I need a full up to date OS/Software/Data restore to be available. If the laptops were with me I would just do regular disk images but that is not practical under the circumstances.
Looks like I need to look into Macrium.
Thanks to all.
Perhaps, as discussed in the link I gave you before, you could usefully consider a combination of backups
1 Monthly system images using Macrium Reflect. You could set this up to be run from a shortcut as explained in post #3 by LTSnow. Do make use of the Macrium tutorial linked to in my link; it is very well put together and [as a non-Macrium user] after reading it I was able to install it, make a boot disk, add it as a boot menu option, make an image with no problems at all.
2 Daily / hourly / whatever file backups of the folders containing data files. This could be by running a shortcut that runs a RoboCopy-based batch file.
Best of luck,
Denis
If you succeed in setting such a great backup process, where on those users' laptops are the backup images made? Onto an internal drive or external USB drive?
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