Macrium Reflect & backups & restore

I threw MACRIUM into the title because I knew it would get Caledon Ken's attention as he keeps recommending it.

My problem with any kind of backups is that when you do so, you are copying all existing errors, bugs and other problems that exist, so you're not getting a fresh, new system. And that the later in the life of the system the copy is made, the more corrupt the system is. Yes, you are saving your data files but you're not saving a good system. The best you can do is hope the back up will get you a boot up so hopefully you can fix it from there. I'm not a fixer, so that isn't of much value to me.

I admit I really don't know anything about this subject but I've had plenty of experience with failed restore efforts, particularly the Windows roll back feature, probably for the reason outlined above. In other words, the closer to the time of system failure the back up is made, the more corrupt it will be. It would seem to me that the only good way to do a back up is as soon after starting a new system.

If you want to use Macrium Reflect in a creative way, making a highly customized Windows system image that is 100%*safe and can be used instead of clean install*from Windows install media (image does not contain any user accounts and data), giving you every time a virgin fresh and clean*Windows, see this tutorial: Windows 10 Image - Customize in Audit Mode with Sysprep

NavyLCDR said:

@DAVEY JONES, I must respectfully disagree. I make backup images when my systems are healthy so that if there is a failure of the SSD or HDD in the computer I can restore a healthy system back to a replacement SSD or HDD.

That was pretty much my point, wasn't it? Obviously, if you know you have a healthy system you know you have a healthy backup. My point was when you use an AUTO backup program, you are then creating an ever-more corrupt copy, which is what I discovered the hard way. Fortunately the new Western Digital software I got allows one to select what type of files one wishes to copy, such as data files or only a specific drive. Thus, I make one copy of system and then use AUTO only on data files. Thus, I don't end up with a drive loaded with worthless backups as I did previously.. Also lets me schedule time and frequency of backups, something new to me.

I also noted that some programs create a new master file with every backup, while others over-write the one file every time. I had the former and besides loading the HDD, it created an unintelligible mess of files with absurd file names of random characters, whereas any sensible person would use the date as the name..