Advice for Image Backup

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I have an almost new Dell computer whose SSD has gotten fried and needs to be replaced. (Something caused Windows 11 to write 283 TB to the SSD, causing high temps. But that’s a different topic.) Luckily, the machine is new enough that it still is covered by Dell so I have received a replacement SSD.

But I have little interest in re-figuring out all of the settings and things that had to be removed, and other things that I had to do to make Windows 11 semi-usable. The supposed Windows backup doesn’t appear to actually back up anything important, and won’t work anyway as all of my machines are on a Windows domain (major overkill for my current situation, but I don’t think it is possible to get the older machines off of it without reinstalling, which would be practically impossible, so I’ve kept using it). So it appears that an image backup will be needed.

My usual backup strategy involves external USB drives which I rotate weekly, along with DVD backups of the most critical data. I’ve never used image backups since they are rather inflexible, and 40+ years of working on PCs I don’t remember a case where an image backup would have helped me. (Generally, when a machine fails it’s time to replace it anyway, and that requires reloading software onto a newer OS. There were a couple of times when I had to go outside of the box to get a machine restored, but not relevant now.)

Since this is a likely one-time scenario, I don’t want to pay much for the backup program. As someone that is a one-person shop, my personal and business life is rather intertwined, so I can’t claim personal use of much of anything. And as someone that has sold software since 1981, I’m not going to ignore restrictions against business use, regardless how silly they are. (Bad idea to say one thing and do another.) I’d rather avoid trial-ware, as I might decide to start making image backups more regularly. Ideally, the software would work on both Windows and Linux. (I have a Linux server that I haven’t found any sane way to backup; it would take a complete rebuild to restore if that suddenly was needed. Not great when availability matters.)

Last time I looked at the various recommendations here for backup software, the companies recommended mostly charged an arm and three legs for any business use. But that was a number of years ago.

What suggestions do you have??

Randy.

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KP

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You should go over the posts at : https://www.askwoody.com/forums/forum/askwoody-support/backup/

There are many free image backup apps (I use paid Acronis).
The free Macrium Reflect is used by many here.

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Thanks for your quick response. I looked through the site before posting, but didn’t see any reasonably current recommendation threads, and looking through a dozen program-specific topics was likely to use a lot of time I don’t have without much of an answer, thus a new thread.

I haven’t got back to here as quickly as I intended as I came down with a quick but nasty flu, and I spent most of the last three days in bed (interspersed with a video visit with a doctor and then a trip to the clinic for a flu/covid test). Just getting back to work. (Computer is still humming along, no matter 0% life; but clearly on borrowed time).

I’ll look a little deeper at Macrium Reflect.

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MiniTool ShadowMaker is the most reasonable at $79 for 3 PCs – on special at the moment.

The alternative is a NAS which has backup software built-in. Synology do this in any of their products and if you have spare disks you can get a single disk unit (DS120J) for a bit over $100.

cheers, Paul

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I don’t think an NAS makes much sense for this particular computer, as it is mirrored to one or more of the office computers. And the backup drive itself provides additional storage should such a need arise.

Thanks for the suggestions.

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I looked at Macrium, EaseUS, Mini-Tool, Acronis, and many others. For my tastes I found most of them too fiddly, or obtuse, or even buggy.

When last year I replaced my desktop tower with a laptop workstation, I picked R-Drive Image because it only cost me 45 US frog-skins. It works OK. I use it on the off-chance that I’ll want a fast image restore. I store my data in multiple places, including the cloud. So I could quickly restore a local, near-line image, and then pull down any updated files I want from my cloud accounts. I run two daily images of my system SSD to two, other, separate SSDs. The only thing I’ve disliked is that R-Drive Image seems not to want to honor its start time. But the images still run. This program is in addition to other more usual backups.

I’ve a very long history and experience with computers, like you. In around 2012, the owner of our business willfully (and stupidly) brought our company’s servers to its knees, taking the whole company off-line because he broke the server by having someone try to hack it. I had prepared for disaster recovery with EMC Retrospect stored on DAT tape. It was a Dell server running 24×7, with hot-swappable RAID drives. While a far more experienced tech than me (hired by the owner) sat with me and watched, I had the company running again in less than four hours of the time I began. The tech’s comment? “I’ve never seen anyone do that so quickly and efficiently.” I literally could have held the owner’s actions for ransom, and did not. I charged my usual rate.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Unfortunately, I’m almost always the “stupid owner” that has to dig himself out of trouble. I started a business with a friend immediately out of school (in 1981) and managed to work on that and related work all the way through now (approaching retirement). So I’ve always had some ownership stake. I work for customers, not owners.

So I never get to use that excuse. I also hate it when something tells you to “call the administrator”, because I am the freaking administrator but I’m not omipotent and don’t know everything possible about a particular machine/OS/network. Give us a freaking clue!

Enough venting, thanks for your answer.

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Windows 11 still has the old imaging program “backup and restore (windows 7)” located in the old control panel.  This is not the same as the recently added “windows backup” (this is microsoft) that appears to move settings to a different computer.  Might be worth the time to try.  At least the price is right.

Win 11 home - 24H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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See Image for Windows – TeraByte Unlimited. There is a 30-day free trial. I use the paid version. Very reliable.

--Joe

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packeterrors

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