I contacted Macrium and asked if they would be bringing a uwp app out to image backup Win 10S, and they said it was not possible due to admin restrictions.
The only way with 3rd party tools is to backup from a winpse session.
Strangely enough, Windows own system image backup works but this is a deprecated feature - LOL.
Are you using this Windows 10 S?
I ask because it's designed for Teacher/Students....
Windows 10 S was inspired by students and teachers and it’s the best Windows ever for schools. It’s also a great choice for any Windows customer looking for consistent performance and advanced security. By limiting apps to those in the Windows Store, Windows 10 S is ideal for people who have everything they need in the Windows Store and prefer the peace of mind that comes with removing the risk of downloading apps from other places.
Education customers can test Windows 10 S on an existing Windows 10 device. This offer is for technical users, so please see the important pre-installation information at docs.microsoft.com/education.
reference link: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...ndows-10-s-faq
Hi there @cereberus
the best way is to create a bootable version of Macrium on a USB stick and then take an image from there -- you can save this image so if it needs restoring you can either explain the process of how to boot and restore an image for your relative or do it for him / her yourself if it needs to be done.
Note: there's quite a lot of decent savvy older people on this site who have computer skills too --I think one who posts regularly is around 88 years old so I wouldn't always assume just because they are elderly they will be hopeless with computers. !!!! Usually they can learn quite quickly if the process is CLEARLY EXPLAINED without going into too much detail.
Cheers
jimbo
I know, but problem with that is you cannot do this remotely, or do task scheduling etc.
I just want to be able to take remote access of PC automatically and make backups.
You cannot do that with winpse easily. There are ways using @Kyhi's disk as a secondary boot option (with its anydesk feature) but then others have full access to "dangerous tools".
In my case, my elderly relative just does not listen to anything told to him, says he understands but clearly does not. Of course, this is not specifically an age issue - I know lots of youngsters who are just the same.
The real point of my post is that the windows tool does create backups (at least for time being). Sure I will have to go over in person to fix things, but I will save myself a lot of grief.
To me, the dream image tool would be a password protected Macrium Reflect with ability to remote connect to it in winpse mode. In fact, I am going to put that as a suggestion on the Macrium Reflect Forum Website.
In mean time, I think I will create a custom version of @Khyi's winpse drive with only Macrium Reflect Free and anydesk.exe on it. Then I can load that as a boot option on remote PC, and restore backup images remotely. Then I will hide the boot option, only activating it on demand.
In fact I think I will create a new post on this for discussion, in case somebody comes up with a more eloquent solution.
Hi there
@cereberus
I think if you use any common version of Linux with SAMBA installed as your "Controlling OS" whether on a VM or not you should be able to schedule a backup to copy your relative's HDD('s).
Make the "C" HDD on the Windows disk as shared and on the Linux system you can use CRONTAB to schedule backup - you can use things like rsync / tar / filezilla / dd command or whatever to image the windows disk .
I'd go for the DD command - it's pretty standard and built in to any Linux distro and will image entire HDD's or partitions.
Actually things like Macrium (shh !! not really supposed to tell you this) use things like DD internally with a custom GUI so the user is presented with an easy windows like GUI interface and isolates the user from having to enter DD type commands directly. !!!!!
for example (as root) type : dd if=/dev/windowsC of=/dev/sdd bs=64K conv=noerror,sync
mount the remote windows HDD as /dev/windowsC as in the above example --Linux will easily read / write NTFS these days (ensure package ntfs-3g is installed ). What you call it depends on your SAMBA configuration.
Package ntfs-3g is usually installed by default and then then simply as root mount the input HDD file system as rw. When mounting a file system these days you don't need to specify the file system any more if you use the auto parameter
for example if you have say /dev/sdc1 which is a windows partition then you can mount the HDD as /mount/dev/sdc -t auto -o rw /mnt/my_mountpoint.
to mount a remote windows SAMBA share in Linux use a command similar to :
mount -t cifs -o <username>,<password> //<servername>/<sharename> /mnt/point/
you might have to type in network IP address instead of server name if netbios fails to get the server name.
ensure the remote windows machine is online and accessible at the time you take the backup.
I backup several (Windows) computers weekly this way to a Centos 7 network file server - although the client windows computer users can of course backup their stuff locally with Macrium --not an option in your case with the edition of windows being run on your relative's computer.
cheers
jimbo
Last edited by jimbo45; 21 Oct 2017 at 16:16.
No disrespect as you are a linux fan, but frankly, your solution is far too complicated for most users. I tested my ideas tonight, and they worked fine. They are easy to explain to Windows users, and do the job.
I am not sure why you always post Linux solutions, as most users want a Windows solution. No disrepect, but do you think average user would do it the way you suggest?
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