System Image Backup Strategies/Thoughts

[Brds7t7]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/668-system-recovery-options.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/675-system-image-recovery.html

 

[pparks1]

My backup strategy is a bit long winded, but straight forward.

I have a dedicated file server box at home. I don't use it at all as a desktop, it's headless. I keep 2 physical hard drives installed in the box. I have shares on my first drive (data, music, downloads). My data share is about 20GB in space and is the critical share. My music is either stuff I have ripped or can download again from Amazon. My downloads are internet downloads and are easily replaceable. My second drive has a folder called "redundant_data" and there is a subfolder in that folder called data. And inside of data is a subfolder for each day of the week (mon, tues, wed, thus, fri, sat, sun). I have a robocopy job that runs at 3am daily, and syncs my C:\data folder with my D:\redundant_data\data\day_of_week folder. Therefore, I've always got the 7 previous days version of my data at all times. So, in the event that both hard drives in my server are toast, I have copies of my data offsite from a relatively recent period of time.

Then, on a regular basis, I connect an external hard drive to my network and I sync all 3 of my shares (data, music, downloads) using robocopy to this external hard drive. This hard drive is stored off-site (therefore, if my house burns to the ground, or I am robbed, I don't lose everything). And I keep 2 external drives offsite, just in case one of my externals were to fail.

My workstation is imaged occasionally, when patches are applied or substantial changes are made. This image is made of my C drive only (SSD) and it's stored on my D drive (mechanical) within my workstation. In the event both my primary and secondary drives were to fail, I don't really care about losing that image. Reloading my OS and my few apps would be very little trouble.

So, this has worked well for me for years. I find it extremely important to keep some of those data backups offsite. You never know what might happen inside of your house (fire, flood, robbery, etc).

I'm currently working out a method using cloud storage to keep copies of my data folder on a remote cloud system as well as all of the above.

 

[pincushion]

Some interesting perspectives, all workable. I really think many people waste their time system imaging, giving up as soon as it gives them problems, usually space related, because they image data along with the system.
Or they've bought a PC with just one huge system partition.
But it is what it is, and I would never discourage taking images.
Personally, I use imaging for 2 reasons, both related to my aversion to reinstalling everything, and retweaking everything. Really, many of us have *years* invested in setting things up as we like them. Who wants to redo all that?

1. I want my system back to a clean version in 5 minutes, no matter what I do to it, what a virus might do to it, or what a hardware fault might do to it. Sure, I use a firewall and anti-virus, but they aren't perfect. Like most everybody else here I also install and try a lot of unsuitable software. I want no trace of it left in my system. For those reasons, when I want a new base image, I always restore my last image, do my app install and/or updates, then immediately create the new base image. It's all very fast to do, and I'm totally relaxed tinkering, downloading, and browsing the internet. Because my system is invincible!!

2. All the images in the world are for naught if they won't restore. You see that sometimes on this forum. As I said, I would never discourage taking an image, but also recommend they be tested.

The first is why I image - it is just so much easier, quicker and more reliable than any other method to recover particularly if like yourself and I you tend to tweak your system rather than leave it mostly 'as found'. And I also agree about testing your restore capabilities, using something that is reliable sometimes has to be a leap of faith initially - like deleting the inbuilt Factory Restore partition and relying on imaging - but for myself it is worthwhile having used a similar system with XP.

:huh:

 

[boyboyds]

Unrelated observation - Google does not return relevant search results any longer.
I typed in --- windows seven forum ---- and could not find this site.
Went to Yahoo and it pointed me to this site immediately.
Is Google going down.....?

....back to the issue.......

Thank you all - this is the first time I actually understood the recovery process.

And I hope Windows 7 imaging tool is enough to get me covered,
I do not want to spend money on macrium.

I will definitely follow the good practices suggested here.


BBDS.

 

[kado897]

There is a free version of Macrium. The link is in my signature.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I do not want to spend money on macrium.

Macrium is free.

You would likely find it more easily understood than Windows imaging.

It takes 3 or 4 clicks to start the image making process, and it completes in 5 minutes on my system (80 GB C partition, 29 GB occupied). The resulting file is about 12 GB.

 

[Brds7t7]

When windows imaging works it works very well. However, there have been issues with it. It has problems with the System Reserved partition. If the free space on that partition goes below 50mb them Windows Imaging will refuse to work. It will just say an error about lack of free space. That's why a lot of people either delete the system reserved partition or expand it like I have mine.

Macrium doesn't have that problem. Even if you lack the free space it will still be able to do the image and restore no problem.

It's very flexible when compared to windows imaging.

I have the PRO version but the Free version really is an amazing imaging tool. I'd say the best free one around, but that's just my opinion.

 

[boyboyds]

OK, I will try free macrium on both my XP and W7.

I should definitely get more pro-active about my backups,
I was somewhat intimidated and confused about the whole imaging issue.

Thanks for all your help.

BBDS.

 

[Brds7t7]

You can never be too careful when it comes to backups.

I actually use 3 different backup tools. Windows imaging, macrium and a programme for backing up my data partition which I don't image, it just copies the folders to another drive. Probably overkill for some people but you can never be too careful. I have some data going back 10 years so I'd be gutted if I lost it!

 

[Roderunner]

Unrelated observation - Google does not return relevant search results any longer.
I typed in --- windows seven forum ---- and could not find this site.
Went to Yahoo and it pointed me to this site immediately.
Is Google going down.....?

....back to the issue.......

If you look at the address bar in your browser then try a search with the correct spelling/name.

 

[Victor S]

OK, I will try free macrium on both my XP and W7.

I should definitely get more pro-active about my backups,
I was somewhat intimidated and confused about the whole imaging issue.

Thanks for all your help.

BBDS.

Unless you almost live and breathe PS'c, it's always confusing.
You really should post your specs (hard drives and how the partitions are set up) here and get advice. You might be wasting your time otherwise.
For example, if you don't have at least one hard drive besides the drive your system is on, it's probably a waste of time even thinking about system images.
There are guys here who know Macrium very well, and they can make it pretty easy for you.

 

[Victor S]

The first is why I image - it is just so much easier, quicker and more reliable than any other method to recover particularly if like yourself and I you tend to tweak your system rather than leave it mostly 'as found'. And I also agree about testing your restore capabilities, using something that is reliable sometimes has to be a leap of faith initially - like deleting the inbuilt Factory Restore partition and relying on imaging - but for myself it is worthwhile having used a similar system with XP.

:huh:

Right. And some people see it as no big deal reinstalling Windows. Different strokes. I know some people who even seem to *like* reinstalling.
As to "leap of faith," not me. I always disconnect my install hard drive and test the restore function of new imaging software on a different hard drive. It's just once.
When it works - and it always has - I'm good to go with a normal process.
But I never had a factory restore partition, or that special Windows restore partition, because I didn't allow Windows to set that up.
So I think I understand what you're saying. And I understand that some people either might not have a spare hard drive, or think about repurposing a drive for that purpose.
But once your image restore works on that test drive, you're free to hack off whatever you wish on the original drive.
So I just have a minor quibble about "leap of faith."
Sounds too much like "Take the reins, Murphy!"

 

[F5ing]

As to "leap of faith," not me. I always disconnect my install hard drive and test the restore function of new imaging software on a different hard drive. It's just once.
When it works - and it always has - I'm good to go with a normal process.

Same here. Unless you've tested the restore you never really know if you can truly rely on it.

So I think I understand what you're saying. And I understand that some people either might not have a spare hard drive, or think about repurposing a drive for that purpose.
But once your image restore works on that test drive, you're free to hack off whatever you wish on the original drive.

If you think about it, that may be the best way for someone to get started. They've got to purchase extra media anyway, so instead of purchasing an external hard drive they buy an internal instead. Buy one extra device that's relatively cheap: an external HD dock.

Do the initial image saving to the external. Copy the image file(s) back to internal, then restore the image to the external. Swap drives to see if it works. If it does, you're set. Now you know you've got a reliable imaging app and a place to store images/standard data backups/whatever.

As funding permits you can buy extra HD's to allow offsite storage, many multiple versions, etc.

 

[pincushion]

The first is why I image - it is just so much easier, quicker and more reliable than any other method to recover particularly if like yourself and I you tend to tweak your system rather than leave it mostly 'as found'. And I also agree about testing your restore capabilities, using something that is reliable sometimes has to be a leap of faith initially - like deleting the inbuilt Factory Restore partition and relying on imaging - but for myself it is worthwhile having used a similar system with XP.

:huh:

Right. And some people see it as no big deal reinstalling Windows. Different strokes. I know some people who even seem to *like* reinstalling.
As to "leap of faith," not me. I always disconnect my install hard drive and test the restore function of new imaging software on a different hard drive. It's just once.
When it works - and it always has - I'm good to go with a normal process.
But I never had a factory restore partition, or that special Windows restore partition, because I didn't allow Windows to set that up.
So I think I understand what you're saying. And I understand that some people either might not have a spare hard drive, or think about repurposing a drive for that purpose.
But once your image restore works on that test drive, you're free to hack off whatever you wish on the original drive.
So I just have a minor quibble about "leap of faith."
Sounds too much like "Take the reins, Murphy!"

Perhaps I should have expanded a bit. Once you have altered your partitions to suit, i.e. bringing the system partition down to a managable size then the Factory Restore is useless and the only thing appropriate then is some form of imaging, like Macrium. That is what I meant by 'leap of faith' - not much point having the Factory Restore when it will not do that but just destroy everything that you have set up.

:huh:

 

[boyboyds]

For example, if you don't have at least one hard drive besides the drive your system is on, it's probably a waste of time even thinking about system images.

Do you mean if my HDD is not partitioned it would be a waste of time to create an image....?

Or do you mean I need an external HDD for this....?

What kind of details about my system are needed for a successful system image.....?

Thanks,
BBDS

 

[Brds7t7]

Boyboyds, he means you need to backup a system image to a different drive.

If you only have the one drive and that drive fails then you have lost your System Image backup too.

An external HDD is the best option for System Images.

Also if you split your partitions so that you have Windows on one and Your Personal Data on another then the System Images will be much smaller and quicker to backup/restore.

 

[boyboyds]

Of course, there is no question here - image backup needs to be saved to a separate HDD.

Though I can find where my personal stuff is, like My Documents etc., I will need to figure out where the Windows are.

And I need to do it for both XP and W7. Does macrium work the same way for both....?

I think most/all programs I installed are in C:\Programs.


Thanks,
BBDS

 

[F5ing]

boyboyds,

Imaging apps are typically going to work with whole disks or one or more whole partitions. If you keep your personal stuff in the default locations it would be included in your image, along with your OS/apps.

That works fine but is not the most efficient way of doing things. To reduce the size of your images, the time it takes to make them, as well as how often you would need to make new ones, you would want to store all your personal stuff on a separate partition.

If you separate your personal data from the OS/app, you only need to image when your OS/apps change (ie, OS/app updates, new apps installed, settings you make that you don't ever want to lose, etc.). That may mean doing it only once a month or so. Although some folks do it much more frequently.

Your personal stuff on a different partition would be backed up with a different routine/method, keeping in mind that it's the stuff that's very hard to replace, if not impossible. If you add to or change your personal stuff frequently that could mean everyday or even much more often.

 

[Victor S]

Good advice from Burdus77 and F5ing.
You really have to understand what is the "system," (Win 7 and XP) and what is "personal data."

Keeping any important data in My Documents folders, or letting programs store important data in their default C:\Programs or C:\Programs(x86) folders is dangerous if you start imaging the "system".
Because all those folders are part of the "system" image.
So if you restore a system image you can easily lose all the data that has been added since you took the image.
So, as F5ing said, consider backing up your system (system image) and your personal data (other backup mechanisms) as separate processes.
Pretty sure that's the general consensus among those who use imaging.
Some people image the system and their personal data together, and most soon run into problems, usually because of size.
If you don't mind reinstalling your system and your apps in the rare event where the system fails - and it really is a rare event for most people - don't bother with imaging. It won't pay you back.
Just choose a program that backs up your personal data to your preference.
Personal data is simply files that can be put anywhere. Different topic.
The "system" is a different animal, and requires imaging. (Maybe cloning works too, but I haven't done that.)
Here I am talking like this, when I said before I would never discourage imaging.
Well, I'm a big fan of imaging, but millions of people get along fine without it.
You may be one of them, especially if you don't want to do some work in understanding how it works, which is perfectly understandble.
There are some on this forum who know plenty about imaging, but prefer doing a reinstall. That works for them.

 

[kado897]

It's not so much the programs that is the problem. It is the data. documents, pictures, music and Videos which tan take a huge amount of space and are better backed up separately and more frequently. If you use a backup program that uses versioning, after the first long backup all others are incremental. I have 500GB of data which is backed up daily with FreeFileSync and the daily backup only takes a few minutes and I can always go to the versions if I need an older or deleted document.