Backing Up "Everything" ? What's The "Best" Way, Please ? Suggestion

Hi, this question has been answered many times.

Here's a current thread for you:
OS backup

The routine and regular use of 3rd party disk imaging is ENDLESSLY recommended here.

Macrium Reflect, Aomei Backupper and more - free/paid.

Create an image first of at least all the partitions comprising your O/S; store image files on a separate disk not the same PC.

Then also consider specific data backup for any fast-changing key data - that changes faster than you create disk images.

System Restore points are a great complement to disk imaging.

If you have disk images you can:
- restore your working environment to a new disk, the same disk, potentially to a new PC.
- mount the image files and extract files with file explorer

Macrium Reflect e.g. has a huge help file, is regularly updated; videos on Youtube.

Notes:
1. Whilst using disk imaging can help you avoid a clean install, as with any backup, if the problem is older than your oldest disk image, restoring an image will not help fix it.
2. Restoring an image means EVERYTHING on the partitions restored will be as it was on the date the image was created. Thus personal data can be affected Therefore plan carefully- where are you going to store you personal data? Best not put it on C: at all!

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@Robert11, we still don't know your hardware specs.
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Most of the Forum users (I include myself) use Macrium Reflect
It creates a drive image (it is a kind of zip file but it has all partitions of the drive). Although the image is compressed it is about 80% of the drive size so a large USB Stick may not be big enough. I use a dedicated HDD on my desktop but most users use a external USB HDD.

Macrium Reflect creates a boot able USB stick with the Macrium Reflect so you can browse to the backup image and restore to the main drive. Of course you have to keep the image up to date.

The best method I found so far is to not recycle your old laptops and PC's but instead put them into corner, set up RDP and use them as backup servers.

Hello @Robert11,

Depending on what you want to backup, I am sure that one of the below will suffice.

Imaging & Backup Software:

This Software is listed in alphabetical order as opposed to relevance order.

> Acronis True Image - PAID
> AOMEI Backupper Standard Edition - Free Backup Software for Windows - FREE
> Drive SnapShot - Disk Image Backup for Windows and PE. - TRIAL
> EaseUS ToDo Backup - FREE
> FreeFileSync: Open Source File Synchronization & Backup Software - FREE
> Hasleo Backup Suite - FREE [ Newly Released Software - NOT a lot known ]
> Karen's Replicator - Backup Utility - FREE
> Macrium Reflect - FREE Edition - FREE
> NovaBackup - PAID
> O&O DiskImage 15 Professional Edition - PAID - See NOTE: Below
> Paragon Backup & Recovery - FREE
> Second Copy Automatic Backup Software - PAID
> SyncBackFree: Backup and Synchronization Software - FREE
> SyncToy - MS Download Centre - FREE

NOTE: Sometimes FREE > Register FREE Full Version O&O DiskImage Professional Edition!

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NOTE: Personally, I would stay clear of the Windows Built-In Imaging & Backup option.

It is common knowledge that most of the time you can NOT trust ANY of the MS built-in Backup or Image facilities because they just do NOT work. The System Imaging facility is a deprecated feature which is NO longer being developed or updated [ it used the same executables in every version of W10 ]. Even MS say that the built-in System Imaging facility should NOT be used . . .

System Image Backup (SIB) Solution:-

We recommend that users use full-disk backup solutions from other vendors.

SOURCE: > Features Removed or Deprecated in Windows 10

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I personally use AOMEI Backupper Standard Edition because it has an easy to follow and use UI. I have used it for years . . .

> AOMEI Backupper Standard Edition - Free Backup Software for Windows

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I hope this helps.

I don't think there is any single perfect way to do back ups. Two programs I like to use are R-Drive Image and MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro Ultimate. I also make what I call an "Archives" folder on a completely separate drive for saving photos, family videos, text files, documents, and anything else that I value because third party programs almost always fail eventually. For that matter, so does Windows Recovery programs. Call me paranoid. The system works. Then I use file back up systems such as Kaspersky and Seagate. I never rely on just one backup program and I most certainly DO NOT rely on Windows alone to keep my data safe. I do all these things on all operating systems that I intend to keep and use on a regular basis. My setup runs something like this:

1) Install operating system. Make sure all your drivers are up to date, all updates are done, and that your layout is the way you want it to look.

2) Make an image of the operating system on a separate drive. Label it for future use and put it in a cool, dry, dark corner, where you keep all your cold storage. You won't need a huge drive for this. It's just added insurance in case you need to make a drive image without all your personal files. It's legal. You are permitted one.

3) Keep a drive in PC for Windows File History and old Win 7 style backups. Bear in mind that Windows Recovery is one of the least reliable ways to recover data, but it will work in a pinch when it works.

4) Keep another drive in PC for Archives, valuable personal files that you can simply copy files to in folders that you make on that drive via whatever OS you use. Copy and paste works fine. You can access it through your Windows Manager. Make sure there is no operating system on that dive. Once a week you can copy and paste files and folders to this drive and you will be prompted to "replace" duplicate files so no need to worry about excessive redundancy.

5) As an added measure your "Archives drive" can be RAIDED to RAID 1. That way, if a drive craters you will still have an exact duplicate of that hard drive that is still functional. By simply replacing the drive you can rewrite the data in RAID 1 to make another duplicate of the drive. In this sense, Yes, Virginia, RAID really is backup.

6) In addition to this add other physical drives to your PC for third party programs such as KASPERSKY or SEAGATE or whoever would assure you that they will back up your data. Use one for each company that makes these dubious assurances. Run their programs on a regular, scheduled maintainence basis or run them on demand. This way there will be no danger of any data conflicts on any of the drives AND in the event that one of the drives gets corrupted there is always another to resort to.


7) Multi-boot. If you put an additional operating system on a separate drive on your PC you can always access the data on the other drive via Windows Manager or, Computer Management as it is called on Windows 10. This is an efficient way of stripping data from a failed OS onto another drive before you reformat the drive, say to make a fresh drive image of the OS (perhaps taken from the one you kept tucked away in cold storage). You don't even have to use it on a regular basis. It doesn't even have to be registered and activated. Just keep it handy for in the event that you need a separate OS on a seperate drive to access a compromised drive to extract the info. OR NOT. It's really your choice. It's your data. I'm glad I did it and I'm glad I do it.


Do this and there is a 99% chance that you will be able to recover all your precious data no matter what zero day/malware/hacker exploit/windoze MESS U UP DATE/Ransomware might ocurr. It's also wise to keep those third party back ups on external drives. Remember: They can't get your goat if they don't know where it's tied up at.

I hope this helps

There is no optimum onesize fits all solution.

You have to decide the solution that best suits you.

The first step is to decide your data criticality. I categorise my data into 3 or 4 categories. You could have more or less of course - only you can decide.

I do following:

1) critical data that if lost would be a catastrophe e.g. legal documents, precious photos, installation codes

2) important data that if list would be somewhat disaster but tolerable e.g. family photos, purchase receipts.

3) fairly important normal data but a tolerable pain if lost e.g. pretty much everything else that cannot be easily downloaded again.

4) non critical data - typically stuff that can be redownloaded sush as videos.

Critical data should be backed up to two separate places (I personally use and external hard drive and onedrive).

2) important data - I tend to backup to an external usn but if not sure, alao to onedrive

3) normal data only to usb drive.

4) non critical data - to an external drive now and then (usually once every 2-3 months accepting pragmatically, I could lose some recent data).

The other decision is where to store fata. Some like it on C drive, others like it on a separate partition or drive.

I am in latter camp as you can backup OS + programs separately using any one of a number of imaging tools.

The data drive can be backed up by a variety of tools. I rather do it manually but each users has to decide how automated, how often, where to store etc.

The crucial point is once you have decided your data backup needs criticality, frequency etc. you can decide on best tools for you.