Backup & Restore (W7) reborn?

coolnewyorker said:

Yesterday (March 31) was World Backup Day an annual global event. I have not done backup (system image) since 2021 because Backup & Restore (W7) had stopped working. Today, I saw a one-day old blog online (which I missed yesterday) urging users to do backup via several routes, including Cloud, One Drive, 3rd party backup providers (free and not free) and Microsoft's Backup & Restore (W7). The latter is the only route I can backup with. The others are too complicated for me. So, I did, (both my W11 and W10 HP's) the old-fashioned way - to external HD ... and it worked seamlessly, like before 2021. What happened? MSN re-instated B&R (W7)?

3rd party backup software is too complicated for everyone. I think the trick is... just use the parts of it that you need, and ignore the rest.

Maybe these guides will help...

Macrium Reflect, AOMEI Backupper and Hasleo Backup Suite - GUIDES | Windows 11 Forum

coolnewyorker said:

Yesterday (March 31) was World Backup Day an annual global event. I have not done backup (system image) since 2021 because Backup & Restore (W7) had stopped working. Today, I saw a one-day old blog online (which I missed yesterday) urging users to do backup via several routes, including Cloud, One Drive, 3rd party backup providers (free and not free) and Microsoft's Backup & Restore (W7). The latter is the only route I can backup with. The others are too complicated for me. So, I did, (both my W11 and W10 HP's) the old-fashioned way - to external HD ... and it worked seamlessly, like before 2021. What happened? MSN re-instated B&R (W7)?

It's good that you've made backups (at last), even if it was using Backup & Restore (W7). No, MS haven't reinstated anything, but yours may have failed before due to other issues that have been fixed since you last tried it.

B&R(W7) (and the 3rd party alternatives) rely on VSS, and if that's broken it can't run. Something else (a Feature Update?) may have fixed VSS for you since last you tried.

However, I strongly recommend you look again at 3rd party backup solutions, as Microsoft recommends.

Microsoft said:

System Image Backup (SIB) Solution

This feature is also known as the Backup and Restore (Windows 7) legacy control panel. For full-disk backup solutions, look for a third-party product from another software publisher.....

1709

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...cated-features

Once you have configured disk imaging and created a disk imaging job (Macrium = 'definition file')...
- space on your backup disk (assuing you're saving image files to an external disk - i.e. off your PC) is automatically managed.
- it's just a few clicks to start a differential or incremental image once you've plugged in the backup disk and loaded the program.

coolnewyorker said:

I have not done backup (system image) since 2021 because Backup & Restore (W7) had stopped working

It never stopped working.
As others have said, your computer must have had a fault at that time.
As others have said, MS told us to stop using it at Version 1709.

Even before that, there used to be many reports of the utility being unable to see an image in order to restore it. This applied to all the ways of starting the utility [InstallUSB, Recovery disk, ...].
Some people have never had that failure.
Some people continue to use the Windows utility and report that they never have problems with it.
I only saw the problem twice. Then I switched entirely to a third-party imaging utility.
I had been alternating between the Windows utility & another that, at that time but no longer, could restore its own image formats & MS image formats.

I still advise you to find a third-party imaging utility that you feel is simple to use like the Aomei Backupper I mentioned to you before.



All the best,
Denis

Thank you for your reply.

3rd party programs are much more flexible and robust and feature-rich.

In particular, how would you restore a Backup and Restore image if your PC was unbootable?
3rd party programs let you create a bootable disk.

They also let you create incremental or differential images (dependent on program and license) which mean you can have, say, 5 different dates to which to restore an imaged partition.

Incremental and differential images are faster to create and smaller to store.

I just could not figure it out to work.

- there are Youtube videos.

coolnewyorker said:

I have now a fresh system image clone in extension HD. Why do I need another in, say, Macrium Reflect version?

Because Macrium reflect images can be relied upon for restoration.

And I think instead is at least as good as another.


Denis

coolnewyorker said:

... the Repair kit DVD ...

This was a "System repair disk". Traditionally a CD, it could be transferred onto a USB.
A Windows 10 Recovery drive [USB] has the same capability.
As has the Windows installation USB.
But they all suffer from occasional inability to see their system images which renders those images useless.
- If you make a new system image every month & keep the last half dozen, you're almost bound to find at least one that works, that can be restored.
- But keeping multiple B&R[W7] system images is not straightforward, unlike those of other imaging utilities.

All system imaging utilities have an equivalent disk to the "System repair disk", generally referred to as their 'boot disk'.

Please don't think of a system image as being a method of recovering "some corrupt files".
Think of it as a means of rewriting the entire disk or partition.
I used to think Macrium reflect had a really awkward user interface but when I tried it again last year or the year before I found that it had much improved. And don't forget the really good TenForums Macrium Reflect tutorial I gave you a link to earlier.


All the best,
Denis