system restore or disk imaging

Brec,

1 System imaging
MS have told everybody to stop using their disk imaging utility.
MR is quite popular.
Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect - TenForumsTutorials - This includes making their boot disk & optionally adding a Macrium reflect option to your boot menu.
Macrium Reflect KnowledgeBase - user guide

Additionally, Macrium reflect users have posted that its boot disk has better startup repair capabilities than Windows installation USBs.
Macrium Reflect Boot disk - Fix Boot Problems - MacriumReflectKB
Use Macrium Reflect Rescue Media to Fix Windows Boot Issues - TenForumsTutorials

2 Cleaning
I use
Disk Cleanup - TenForumsTutorials
every month or so.


All the best,
Denis

1. Disk imaging - to external storage which you can then physically store safely and securely.
Periodicity- depends how much change there is and how critical your PC is. Remember- it's also a full backup of everything you've not though to back up otherwise, but not everything on the disk image may be readily retrievable as useful data should you wish to do so for some reason.

Note that the very act of disk imaging (with Macrium Reflect at least) verifies the integrity both of source and backup.

So if that's infrequent, also consider monitoring the state of your disk(s) routinely - which is a good idea anyway.

2. System Restore- a very useful complement to Disk Imaging. I have a restore point created daily on schedule (tutorial available).
Some people decry it. I don't. But beware- sometimes, suddenly, you may find that restoring doesn't succeed.

3. Data backup.
I additionally back up key faster changing data that would be hard for me to reproduce on demand, also to a USB disk, more frequently than I update my disk image set.

Consider what might happen... then consider how you might recover from it, and what you might lose.
Be prepared.

BrecMadak said:

@Try3: That's news to me. So does this mean utilising the DISM command tool is overridden or that is unrelated?

Unrelated.

I thought you were referring to Control panel, Backup & restore.
[Actually, its full name is Backup & restore (Windows 7) just to remind us that it was copied over from Windows 7 with a bare minimum of change.]

MS said not to use it anymore in their announcement of Windows 10 Version 1709 and have never withdrawn that warning

imaging deprecated in Ver 1709 - TenForums

I use system imaging so faults do not force me into a week's work re-installing & re-setting up Windows & my applications.
I back up my own files, including my audio-video collection, using the built-in utility RoboCopy.
Robocopy - SS64
Robocopy - MSLearn
Sample RoboCopy backing up script [post #36] - TenForums

BrecMadak said:

I'd be happy to hear you guys' system restore recs.

Do be careful about the terms you are using.
- System restore is the name of a particular procedure [the one that dalchina was referring to when he wrote about creating & restoring Restore points].
- Making system images & restoring system images are the capabilities provided by, for example, Macrium reflect.


And thanks for the rep,
Denis

I care more about the stability of how I configured my Windows and the software settings I want to preserve without having to format.

That's one of the very good reasons to use disk imaging regularly and routinely- to potentially avoid having to do a clean install. E.g. disk failure, irrecoverable unbootable situation, your own bad mistake (oh, surely not...).

BrecMadak said:

@Try3: That's news to me. So does this mean utilising the DISM command tool is overridden or that is unrelated?

I am going to have MR's tutorial a look. But as I said I hardly care about any files on C, except the mp3 archive and they are on the D (SATA) and I care more about the stability of how I configured my Windows and the software settings I want to preserve without having to format.

I'd be happy to hear you guys' system restore recs.
Not sure about the differences between RollbackRx and Reboot RestoreRx though.

Here's a quickie guide for Macrium Reflect and for AOMEI Backupper Standard...

Macrium Reflect and AOMEI Backupper - GUIDES | Windows 11 Forum

BrecMadak said:

This is my desktop and I rarely use it through the year since I am mobile so I thought installing a system restore utility would make sense in case one day things go wrong with it. I've heard about RollbackRx/Reboot RestoreRx and MR being discussed but not sure how these programs are any different from Windows' and what to choose.

System restore is unreliable, even MS recommends to use 3rd party system backup.
MS is trying to get back into the game in Windows 11, but it has still a long way to go.

Macrium is no longer free (2024). I am using EaseUS, because it is the only free backup with PreOS option.
Reboot RestoreRx is an option, but it designed to be used as such, to be restored upon reboot, not a backup.

I've heard about RollbackRx/Reboot RestoreRx and MR being discussed but not sure how these programs are any different from Windows' and what to choose.

Consider:
- your system disk has failed irrecoverably or your O/S is irrecoverably corrupt.

These will not help:
- System Restore
- Rollback RX

Any disk imaging program, where you have chosen to save image files to a safe location (outside your PC) will as they provide a bootable disk. You can then restore to a new system disk.

Even if your PC was stolen, there's a decent chance that one way or another you can get your familiar working environment back up and running on a different PC.

System Restore cannot be compared to disk imaging in any meaningful way.
It deals with the registry, system files, installed programs- not data.
Disk imaging is far more robust, and deals with everything on the partitions imaged.