Backup software for Win 7...

kado897 said:

Because I'm paranoid about backups I also use Windows Imaging every Wednesday to a different backup drive. This of course just happens to coincide with any "Patch Tuesday" (Wednesday in the UK) updates.

Lol, Kado, you sound like me. I also have Windows Imaging set up for every Sunday morning. I thought I would just use the free ver. 5 to add a couple of full images/week, but I like your system. I may just spring for the standard version. I might even scratch Acronis from my 7/64 media PC and my XP Pro laptop and replace it with it MR.

Just a couple of follow-ups:

1) I already have a sizable amount of media files (~270GB) on my E (Storage) partition of my main drive , so I don't want to do a full disc image. Can/should I make a partition image of my D drive (HP Recovery) for safe keeping? Seems wise.

2) When WinPE loads, it asks about loading extras drivers. I say "no," and proceed, but, if I install MR on other machines, I should probably load at least the networking ones. Do I point the scan to the Windows\INF folder? Not sure.

Sorry to hijack my thread back, but I ran into an issue. On the Macrium site I could not find a download link. It also does not backup files and folders, at least in the free edition. This means...? If I need to restore a file it won't be neatly in a folder?

Any other recommendations???

Did you look here:

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

You can recover individual files by "mounting" the image file with the recovery disk. Not as tidy as a "file by file" backup program, but it works so long as the image file will mount. Which it usually does.

ignatzatsonic said:

Did you look here:

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

You can recover individual files by "mounting" the image file with the recovery disk. Not as tidy as a "file by file" backup program, but it works so long as the image file will mount. Which it usually does.

Thank you. I don't have a recovery disk. I have a cd rom player with blank disks, I think. I imagine I will need a program to write/create a disk?

I definitely need to test if the image file will mount, too.

This sounds waaaaaay more complicated than a simple backup program. I need simple. I need uncomplicated. I need easy to do. I have very little time on that netbook and just want to connect the backup drive, choose the files (all) and hit go.

Any recommendations?

PinkiPad said:

ignatzatsonic said:

Did you look here:

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

You can recover individual files by "mounting" the image file with the recovery disk. Not as tidy as a "file by file" backup program, but it works so long as the image file will mount. Which it usually does.

Thank you. I don't have a recovery disk. I have a cd rom player with blank disks, I think. I imagine I will need a program to write/create a disk?

I definitely need to test if the image file will mount, too.

This sounds waaaaaay more complicated than a simple backup program. I need simple. I need uncomplicated. I need easy to do. I have very little time on that netbook and just want to connect the backup drive, choose the files (all) and hit go.

Any recommendations?

See my post number 2 in this thread.

If you want to back up Windows, that means an image app of some kind, all of which have a degree of complexity--some more than others. Macrium and EaseUS Todo are the "simplest", in my opinion.

You make the recovery disk within the imaging program. You need a CD burner and burning app.

If you want to backup your personal data as opposed to Windows, there is less complexity and any of the programs I mentioned in post 2 will suffice. No recovery disk required.

For that matter, for data backup you don't need a program. Just use the mouse and drag (copy) the appropriate folders to the backup location. But data backup programs automate that process, once they are set up.

I thought I had posted about SyncToy, Robocopy, Karen's Replicator

Robocopy, do you have a product download site? I mean official product
SyncToy scares me into thinking i can delete by mistake and seems complicated
Karen's Replicator I am downloading now

3 years ago, before I was ill, doing an image backup would have been a piece of cake -- no fear.

Will post tomorrow if download is successful. First try failed