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Installed Macrium Reflect.
What is the best option to setting up boot media? Just to have something I burned it to a CD. Noticed it could not add it to the 2TB Hard Drive. Also saw an option to add it to a USB.
If I ever need to restore the image what will be on the computer. Noticed there would not be files and folders? In order to have a complete backup what do I need to backup from my system?
Files and folders are included when you image your PC, unless you keep your files on another disk, e.g. D:
To view the files in the backup, mount the backup files by double clicking on the first file in Explorer.
cheers, Paul
What is the best option to setting up boot media?
Create a USB boot device. Simple, portable, easy to update.
could not add it to the 2TB Hard Drive
You need a blank disk with the correct format to create a bootable HDD – you can use a “wrong” HDD if you have the right tools and know what you are doing.
In order to have a complete backup what do I need to backup
To recover Windows you need a “system” backup.
To recover data you need a “data” backup.
The easiest method if to do a “disk” backup. This will backup everything and you can then recover a whole machine, or individual files by mounting the backup image.
Once you have a disk backup you should make regular data backups because your files (documents, spreadsheets etc) change more often than Windows – you don’t want to lose the password database you changed 2 days ago because of a disk failure, where Windows can be restored from a month ago.
Tell us what programs you run and what data you keep locally and we can provide more specifics.
cheers, Paul
You need to find out where the data for those programs is stored. Check where yours are.
Outlook we know is in “Users\user\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook”.
Turbo Tax default is “Documents\TurboTax”.
For Quicken it’s “Documents\Quicken”.
Once you have an image backup you can perform (very) regular data backups of your “user” folder, e.g. C:\Users\ECWS. This will backup “Documents” and Outlook data.
cheers, Paul
Tell us what programs you run and what data you keep locally and we can provide more specifics.
Hi Paul,
Although my preference would be to image the system drive each night to protect against Microsoft’s approach to Windows 10, with imaging softwares I’ve tested that would take several hours each night. So I saw/see that as unnecessary because I could instead willingly wipe my SSD system drive and start over from unforeseen catastrophic failures of Windows 10 or the computer’s hardware.
In addition to my new tests of Macrium Reflect on a dedicated, local, spinning, external USB 3 drive, I’m also and simultaneously running (a.) File History on a 3rd, dedicated, internal spinning drive, and (b.) two separate cloud data backups to iDrive and Google Drive.
Since I just now installed a Macrium Reflect trial edition, I have questions about its performance: If Macrium were to *automatically* image an entire (2 TB SSD) system drive (with ~ 600 GB of data) nightly to my spinning, external USB 3 drive, how long would you estimate that process should take?
Thank you 
Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster
Michael,
Rather than incremental backup images, which require the whole image chain to be error-free in order to restore the latest backup, many prefer differential imaging, which backs up only changes since the last full backup, not since the latest incremental backup. Thus, only the latest partial image and the original full image are needed to restore the complete backup. Of course, an earlier differential image may be selected if damage has happened to the files more recently.
Zig
Thanks Zig.
These days I’m almost uninterested in having to choose among many backup strategies. And I’ve found that the older companies (PC magazine, C|Net, ComputerWorld, InfoWorld) which used to do reliable software and hardware reviews – on which I’d rely – are no longer reliable and/or they’ve changed their focus to enterprise software, where the bigger money sits.
I’ve used and tested current versions of Macrium and Acronis, and so far I haven’t seen any software publisher on which I want to rely. For the time and trouble it takes to find and use a reliable, nightly, easy to use backup program, temporarily I’m better off using Windows File History combined with my two cloud backups. An unreliable, difficult to use nightly backup program is not worth my time.
In the old days (~2008) in which I backed up my 25-user, animation art company LAN server to 4mm DAT using software like EMC Retrospect, I was interested in knowing more about the vagaries of backups, and I still remember lots about them. There eventually came the time when that company’s owner (I was an investor and contractor) decided he didn’t want me involved any more in running the company. So, he surreptitiously sat a woefully under-prepared 17 year-old at my server, and asked the kid to break into it and take it over. Their actions broke the server, taking it off-line. That brought the company to its knees in a three-day standstill, with 10 employees twiddling their thumbs. They were at my mercy, and it’s good for them I was kind toward them.
A different and more experienced computer networks expert, Eddie, sat with me at my console and watched as I completely restored my Windows 2000 server (in around two hours?) from 4mm DAT. He was astounded, and said he’d never seen anyone restore a complex server so quickly.
Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster
Michael,
As far as unbiased reviews go, most experienced users of this forum recommend Macrium Reflect, EaseUS Todo Backup or AOMEI Backupper. The first seems to be the most recommended, perhaps because it’s been around the longest and has a very responsive help forum. Paragon has a reputation for a steep learning curve, but is otherwise reliable. Many have become dissatisfied with Acronis over the years, yet others still like it, especially for non-automated backups. I don’t trust it.
Zig
Aomei Backupper Pro Trial Edition installed and being tested.
Immediate observations:
1.) Finding Backupper’s *summarized* job logs is an unnecessary truffle hunt and I’m unwilling to search for them. Instead I emailed support.
2.) While looking in Aomei’s online documentation I noticed they’d written that Backupper needs a Registry hack to backup Outlook. If so, that’s strike three to Aomei even before I throw them my second pitch.
3. Although I told Backupper to shut the machine down after it’s complete, it did not.
4. The brand new SanDisk flash drive I bought to use with whatever backup program I’m using, would not eject with Backupper in use. The drive contains Windows recovery files installed by Backupper. Had to reboot the machine to be able to eject the drive.
5. A plug-in I use in Outlook would not load after reboot. This was an exceptional behavior caused by only one of two things, and they both point to Backupper.
Aoemi Backupper is not providing encouraging trial results.
Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster
Today I uninstalled the Aomei Backupper trial because it won’t backup .PST files without a Registry hack. I’m unwilling to perform a Registry hack to make any supposedly Windows-compatible software work. Here is the response I received from Aomei tech support:
“By default, AOMEI Backupper uses Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS), in this way, Outlook OST file is excluded by VSS. To solve this problem:
Press Win+R, then Run “regedit” to open Registry
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\BackupRestore\FilesNotToSnapshot
Delete the key-value OutlookOST
Restart PC
For PST file, AOMEI Backupper currently doesn’t support backup. We will improve the problem in later versions.”
I have also just installed a paid, licensed version of EaseUS Todo Backup 13 and I am testing that. I opted for the paid, licensed version because EaseUS pre-sales tech said only their paid versions will back-up .PST files.
Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster
Paul,
I agree with your statement about email notification, which I feel is essential (just saved my bacon yesterday), but still prefer differential backups, as one corrupted backup won’t invalidate the entire chain.
Zig
I have Version 5.1 of Macrium Reflect Free. You can clone a disk, or create a system image, but not back up individual files/folders: this requires the paid version (see the red arrows in the screenshot below).
What is the difference between clone and system image?
Disk Imaging: Imaging creates a large compressed file of your drive. You can then restore this file to bring your drive back to life. Because the image file itself is large, they are often saved to external drives or the cloud.
Disk Cloning: Cloning creates an exact, uncompressed replica of your drive. If a hard drive fails, you can remove it and replace it with the cloned drive. And that brings us full circle: Cloning can get you up and running quickly, but it doesn’t offer as much flexibility as imaging. For this example, taking an image beats cloning.
With image backup you can add daily/weekly..incremental/deferential updates. Clone is a closed “file”.
I’ve never had an issue with restoring a Macrium Reflect image and I’ve done it many many times as I like to fiddle with my machines. I’ve never used Windows backup as I found it way too restrictive the first time I used it and never looked back.
@Alex, “File” is a poor choice of words when referring to a Clone. A clone is an exact copy of every bit on a drive to another drive. Clones are ready to run when you plug in the cloned drive. Whereas, an Image does copy every bit of a drive to an image File on a drive. An Image must be RESTORED to a drive to be run.
HTH 
but not back up individual files/folders
Other free backup apps mentioned at AskWoody will do both image and file/folder backup.
cheers, Paul
IMX Macrium Reflect is both reliable and simple to use, which is why it’s my top choice. But if someone wants to add file/folder backup to the mix, then they’ll either have to buy the full version or look elsewhere.
Another way to go is to use a different, separate program for file/folder backup. Over the years, many of the external drives I’ve purchased have even arrived from the factory with their own data file backup software preloaded. I typically delete this software to avoid distractions and leave a clean slate for my system images.
Why not use free Macrium Reflect for System backup and Windows 7 backup for file backup?
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