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#691
Yes it is. But the principle has to in my opinion be the same than for instance we have with tutorials.
Let me explain what I mean: We all know what a tutorial guru our Brink is. He has made most of the tutorials here and at our sister sites, Seven Forums and Eight Forums. Yet, you will not see him creating a tutorial about a topic another member has made one already.
I've made a few myself, as have other members. I could give you a list about tutorials Brink could make better, mine as well as from other members. But if the tutorial serves its purpose, it will not be rewritten nor will there be another one "from a different angle". Our tutorial section is well maintained and updated, new tutorials coming daily. But not duplicates, tutorials about a topic an existing tutorial already covers.
Of course there will be tutorials which simply have to be redone. An application or Windows feature changes, an old method is no longer valid. In these cases if the member who wrote it is still active he / she will be asked to rewrite / modify it, in some cases the tutorials are binned as outdated. And, of course, in some cases a member has tried something so beyond his / her pay-grade that the tutorial simply cannot be published.
On our video list at the moment are a few videos so "below our standards" they really would need to be redone, better and more clear. All of them made by me; I welcome anyone to redo these few and am only happy if I could remove mine and replace them with better made ones. However, as they serve their purpose even now I let them stay on the list until a better one has been done. Other than these, I cannot see a single video that is not good enough to keep its place on the list (I've seen them all, I always watch a new video before adding it to list). We do not have bad videos, they all do their job apart of those few of my videos I mentioned. I would not like to nor can I see a reason to replace any of them.
Another angle itself is not a reason. That another angle should bring something new, clarify something left unclear in the first video.
I maintain this list as a normal member without any special rights or privileges. This thread started as an idea I had about activating our members to create something for the community. As long as the admins and the owner of the Ten Forums do not ask me to change the system in this thread, a video accepted to the list will remain there and all reproductions of the same topic can be posted here but do not make the list without a specific request from the maker of the original video to replace his / her video with a reproduction.
I cannot find any simpler way to express my opinion.
Kari
Essenbe!! YAY! I love Macrium!
Now, if you don't mind, I have some questions for you:
- When I am backing up to prepare for an upgrade to W10, I usually select the entire Disk0, especially if I am upgrading a W8 GPT, which has numerous partitions and non-partitions. This is partially because someone told me that the boot info usually resides on "Reserved" or something other than "C" partition. The other reason is, I want to have the OE restore & reset functions available, in case I revert back to W8. Am I correct to approach it this way?
- When I am backing up for normal backup functions (not an upgrade), I make a separate backup for each partition, and then only do the "C" partition (OS+data) on a regular, ongoing basis. This is because the other partitions (normally) don't change. Of course, if the data is being kept on a different partition, I back up that one regularly as well.
- I know you can make Full and Differential. Some people like to make differential, because then the subsequent backups are much smaller and quicker. But, I am concerned: if one of the differential backups fails, what then? All the differentials are linked to the original Full, and all the backups as a "set" are required for a full restore. So I just make Full backups and not incremental/differential. Or am I not understanding correctly?
- I noticed that, on this latest release of Macrium, they now have an option in the free version to select "Verify". I was always concerned about the integrity of my backups, and always made many - probably way more than necessary - because I would never be able to know if a backup was good, until I went to restore it. But now, they offer Verify, and I use it every time. It makes the time of the backup almost double. Do you think it's a good idea for me to do this? Or, is it overkill?
- I was also instructed, if you don't make your recovery disk and then make sure your computer will boot to it, all the backups in the world won't save you.... and the Macrium WinPE disk is much easier to use than the Linux version? I have used the WinPE version, and it is great - and it also helped me tremendously when I realized that I had put specific "notes" in each backup, so I could tell which was which.
Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions...maybe it's too much, but I have few people available to help me understand all the options and best practices for this subject.
I have 3 UEFI computers but have always installed in Legacy mode. Not for any particular reason, just because that is what I am set up for. I keep saying I am going to go UEFI, but have never found the time, yet. So, take this for what it is worth. With a Legacy install, I only back up Partitions, and the System Reserved never changes, so I back it up rarely. On a UEFI system, I am not so sure that is true. I know it contains some signatures for all hardware and at least some drivers. So, any advice I may give is most likely wrong.
I always do full backups. Years ago I tried differential and incremental backups and it was a nightmare. If one gets corrupted, it will only restore up to the point of the corrupted version. I could never say you are wrong for verifying a backup. But, it is only important if it is verified when you restore it. They can become corrupted even if they were verified when taken, but I would still do it. Quite frankly, I rarely back up my OS. I back up my data religiously though. I do a clean install, run Windows Updates, drivers and basic programs and do an image then. I may do an occasional one along the way. But, I can clean install and add software pretty quickly. What I can't do is recover much/most of my data. I keep my data on a separate hard drive from my OS, for the ease of backups and for security. Security in the fact that the OS drive is the most likely to get messed up and not bootable. Yes, I know I could most likely get it if the drive isn't dead, but why risk it?
That's the way I see it. My opinion and $1 will buy a cup of coffee, in some places, but not all. I think everyone who does regular backups has their own system. As long as it is backed up in more than 1 place, it isn't wrong. But, yes you should always try the recovery process and make sur it works. Othewrwise your backup plan, no matter what it is, will be worthless.
If I didn't answer all of your questions, please let me know.
That's what I was worried about! Thanks for confirming my suspicions.
I didn't realise they could become corrupted even if they were verified when created. So, when you restore an image, does Macrium automatically verify, or do I have to specifically tell it to do that?
Yes, I see, but most of my friends/family don't do this...everything is on C with their OS.
Thanks so much!
I have done backups and verified them but they were corrupted when I went to restore them. So, it does happen.I didn't realise they could become corrupted even if they were verified when created. So, when you restore an image, does Macrium automatically verify, or do I have to specifically tell it to do that?
Thanks for this info Steve... I have just set up Reflect Free to do Differential a week ago, and my install is still good, I'll reset it to do full every 2 weeks(I find that even too often, but now that updates can install without warning, "in case of a bad one"(has already happened to some people) I'll take the precaution.
simrick, you do know you can also add Reflect as a UEFI boot menu option under "other tasks"( in case of BSODs. or other boot problems). You may want to go to advanced setup after to set the how long at boot it appears(mine is set to 0 seconds, so it only appears when windows cannot boot). An yes I always keep Auto Restart off...:)
If this is of interest to someone:
I always use as small disk as possible for Windows and assorted important programs with all the other large programs and games installed on secondary disk and user files on yet another disk. I make full backup of whole OS disk on largest data HDD, data (user files, pictures, music, videos, programs and drivers to be installed etc.). Most important user files together with installations for payed programs are also backed up on external drive/s. Also keep CD/DVDs of any important (and expensive) programs like MS Office and everything that actually came on it's own media. As I change my HW quite often, setting it up after major changes (or crashes) is much easier.