Is Windows 7 backup any good? Are there better free alternatives?

[Night Hawk]

Windows Live is being dumped however. Existing W.L.Hotmail accounts will remain available but now see the option for the new Outlook.com styled gui there while soon no new accounts will be allowed with the service being discontinued. Skype replaces the live messenger as well.

What that all shows is that any service like SkyDrive being web based is also subject to changes as well as being discontinued at some point by the provider(MS) on short notice. For laptop users on the go the cloud offers a safe temporary place to store things.

For those on the other hand who accumulate a lot of data, download frequently, and simply fill drives 7gb is only a drop in the bucket on the other hand compared to what other cloud services already offer as well as what will come.

Now what happened with Macrium is still an unknown while the Vista install back then was still on while 7 was being tested and the need for additional drive space prompted the look at the free Reflect download. All programs and data were there and packed into the image made at the time since the storage drive(external) was removed from the casing for internal use where the image was also going to be stored.

The drive that had Vista on it was then wiped for the 32bit RC install there while the 64bit RC install was made the host OS. both platforms were still provided looks while I knew back in late 2007 and later on in 2008 the 32bit Windows was on the way out. Following the 32bit install and then deciding on a drive letter change for that as well as the drive added in the restoration attempt to replace the 32bit RC then saw the "invalid image selected" type error message appear.

Note there wasn't any repartitioning of the drives as far as splitting them up as had been seen for the XP/Vista dual boot to add on both 7 betas(32bit, 64bit installs) on second primaries on each of the two drives present. Since the image hadn't had a chance to be tested at the time it could well have been corrupted when Reflect failed to create a good one. But either way it wasn't going to be a program under consideration for backup purposes.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
System Imaging can be done with Windows -- agree and all of the free backup programs -- however when we are talking about DATA backup this is a very different animal. Data is usually wanted irrespective of WHAT OS or computer you are running. Typical examples Music libraries, photos, videos, power point documents, spread sheets etc. Maybe you even keep scanned copies of bills / tax returns etc on your machine.

This data doesn't change very frequently and if it does it's only by small amounts so it's not necessary to backup the entire 30 TB or so you *might* have as your own data.

Where 3rd party products come into their own is that you can take a full BACKUP of all your data say ONCE and then just regularly do what is called "Incremental" backups. This means that only data files that have changed is backed up to a "History" backup data set.

For example if your music library has 2 TB of data and you add say 3 more new songs - the incremental data backup will just backup the three new songs - obviously saving a lot of time and space.

On restore you just start off with the last FULL backup volume and then the "history" data to restore the latest version.

You would then say only need to re-backup your DATA COMPLETELY once a month or so -- depending on what you are doing and the frequency of changes and daily run the "Incremental" backups.

The 3rd party paid products aren't expensive and will save you loads of time - especially if you are installing / uninstalling software including various versions of Windows. These products can also automatically schedule jobs to run at times convenient to you such as when you go to bed and also can be used to clone disks and move important data.

While this is a W7 forum some users here are undoubtedly trying W8 -- W8 has a nice feature called "History" which effectively keeps a log of changes to your data files so it itself can restore the latest version if you have to recover it. While not as good or full featured as a 3rd party product it might well suffice for those with smallish amounts of user data when running W8. (You have to enable the feature however --see on the W8 Forums how to do that).

I would honestly say that for the 50 or so USD that I spent on a good 3rd party backup solution - every CENT has been worth while.

Windows backup and a lot of the "freebies" have problems if the "target device" (i.e disk you are backing up to) becomes full. The 3rd party one's allow "multi-volume" and just prompt for new media (in the case of removable media such as DVD's or USB drives, and the backup will continue.

Some of the "freebies" also insist that data is restored to the same volumes which isn't always what you want - especially if installing new drives or additional drives.

I use Acronis now -- I had trouble with ATM 2011 and 2012 but they've fixed it now and ATM 2013 is fine --although I would have preferred the old interface of Acronis True Image before they "dumbed it down" with ATM2010 etc.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Excellent advice, jimbo (I'd rep you but the *&^%$#@! won't let me). I bought a full version of Macrium Reflect for the reasons you gave. I'm now doing a full version once a month (just before installing updates from M$ Update Tuesday) and incrementals between full versions everytime I add important data to my machine.

 

[mjf]

The advice has been given many times - separate your large data storage from your OS partition + installed programs in order to make regular imaging worth doing.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

The advice has been given many times - separate your large data storage from your OS partition + installed programs in order to make regular imaging worth doing.

Why would that make a difference? Both partitions would still need to be backed up.

 

[gregrocker]

Having data on a separate partition makes the OS/Programs partition image smaller for storage purposes, but more importantly it gives you a current file set in its own partition so in case Win7 ever becomes irreparable you can reimage it to C in minutes while your data is still current and waiting - no need to sift through the old data set in the image to update it.

But you are correct that the data partition also needs to be backed up which is easy if it's linked to the cloud using a method such as the one I posted earlier, or using Windows Backup, SyncToys or just dragging the active User folders regularly to external or another HD.

In addition my images are only of my OS/Programs because i like to apply them to new or different hardware using an Adaptive Restore program like Acronis' or Paragon offer. That way I can reimage any PC in 20 minutes and pull my files down from Skydrive which is already installed and running when it starts up.

I also got 25gb free from Skydrive during that promotion which helps a lot, although where I do bump up against them is the 2gb file upload limit so I keep some larger files on external or in C.

 

[whs]

LF, data you can backup with e.g. sync. That is a lot faster. You probably use differentials or incrementals because you have a Macrium pro version. But I am not really a friend of that. I always make full images.

 

[Kari]

The advice has been given many times - separate your large data storage from your OS partition + installed programs in order to make regular imaging worth doing.

Why would that make a difference? Both partitions would still need to be backed up.

It is a huge difference!

To start with, if things go really bad and you need to reinstall your OS, user data on a different disk is still safe and intact even when system drive is formatted / wiped. Notice I said different disk, not different partition: storing user data on same disk than OS but on different partition makes it vulnerable if the HDD is damaged.

I could not even dream to have my user data on the same disk, not to mention same partition. Storing user data on the same partition than OS is IMO foolhardy.

Self-explanatory screenshot from my disk management to better explain what I mean. I use clear enough volume names so you get the picture, first HDD highlighted with yellow, second with pink:



Kari

 

[Night Hawk]

I run with two identical storage drives, a second drive used for testing and storing full system images, and then the host drive where I can grab a complete snapshot at any time. No worries about replacing one image with another if needed.

As far as imaging programs also including backup options as well Acronis offers that as well as the secure drive erase option. Acronis can also mount a full image as a second C drive in order to edit the image to add in or subject files as part of the incremental options there.

 

[robinb9]

I use windows 7 system image as an additional backup all the time. I found myself in a dead hd on a laptop and when I installed a me HD , put the DVD restore disk Om
N and the external HD that had the backup, I was back in business after 1 hour, everything was put back exactly as I left it. I only lost about a week which was no boggy because no new software was put on nor new documents. I on,y lost about a weeks worth of emails. I back up my documents on a external HD using Second Copy Back up program which is real easy to set up and use

 

[Night Hawk]

I don't lose any emails since I login online to the inbox there even while still seeing the WLMail installed locally on the drive. Anything like downloads go to three separate identical folders on 3 separate HDs in case one of the drives should fail I still have everything backed up already.

The two main storage drives look identical when looking over all files and folders. But this is on a desktop allowing for more drives to begin with. For the old Vista build in use by a friend the main drive failed and saw an Acronis image restored on the new replacement drive while that person still needs to learn how to back things up on a second drive there set aside for storage and backup purposes since he is out his photos unless they can still be retrieved with the drive in an external enclosure. The funtionality as far as Windows was gone however mostly due to age and wear.

The idea of maintaining a full system image was illustrated right there when a drive became unusable. Besides teaching someone how to manually back things up to be on the safe side at all times the image bailed him out fast once the new drive was in rather then what he ran into when his own old XP case fell apart literally when hardwares there stufed up on him! When you don't have a backup program scheduled the good ole "copy + Paste" can still save the day as some have to learn the hard way however.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

If I rarely added data and had frequent changes to the OS/programs, then having them separated would save time. In my case, I make few changes to the OS (other than updates and they can be reupdated) and I frequently add data and change existing data. That is a large chunk of the HDD that is affected so keeping data and the OS/programs wouldn't make a significant change in the amount of time it takes me to make backups (actually, none since I backup everything). Where it does save time is when one needs to restore the OS/program partition. I have needed to do that only three times in my life.

 

[Night Hawk]

Many simply opt to wipe the main drive yearly to end up with a fresh registry when the clean install goes on as well as reduction of a lot of clutter on the drive. Here I create an image following the fresh install once all programs and updates are on and then may simply restore that image several months later. I ran the last restored image from Oct. 2010 to June 2012 without any issues!

Incremental backups or just simple copy and paste of files and even folders at times or multiple downloads for the same thing on separate drives(in case of a bad download try the next!) is how to keep up if you are not creating replacement images or keeping more then one onhand over time to prevent losses. A copy and paste is a one on one each time where you can verify the copied file or folder afterwards.

 

[Dallas 7]

I have backup setup in windows 7, but was curious if I should be using something else as well? I've yet to have to restore with it, so I'm not too trusting on it yet

Backup can mean your personal file/folder type backup or a system image which takes a snapshot of everything important for full system operation - even to a new HDD.
Let's assume you mean image then my view, particularly when you haven't done a system image restore, is to use two programs. I have done many restores and still use two: Inbuilt Windows and the free version of Macrium Reflect. I've used both without any problems. Be aware that some people do have issues with Windows inbuilt so I would not rely solely on it. If you want only one I would choose Macrium which also happens to be more flexible.

When you can afford the $ buy another sata drive (=or> than your existing HDD) and restore to it and then you will gain some confidence in your imaging software.

Now THERE'S an interesting idea!
I've never tried imaging till just recently and that was with W7 Backup. I've wondered the same thing, how it will work if and when I need it. Right now my image is on an exterior HD.
Put an image on a second built in HDD and restore to that. Hmmm.
Thanks for the idea mjf!

 

[gregrocker]

Has anyone else had problems restoring Win7 backup image to a replacement HD? This advice has been given here for years as valid without any reports it failed until recently.

Since the backup image might well be needed to replace a failed HD, this would seem to rule out Win7 backup imaging but I'd like to hear more about others experience with re-imaging to a replacement HD with it. I use Acronis myself, although help others use Win7 backup imaging frequently to same HD.

 

[alan10]

My incremental backups are less than half the size that they used to be.

This is because I have cut down on the frequency of imaging the 750 MB of used space in D:\.
This has more drastic changes to the content of Disk Sectors than my 11.5 GB used space of Windows 7 Ultimate.

D:\ is where I keep things like my browser profile.
I update my backup on D:\ only when I have updated browser Addons / Plugins etc.

If D:\ was corrupted and I restored a 2 month old backup,
I still have the latest versions of xMarks and LastPass and they will sync from their servers and I will then regain the bookmarks and passwords that I created last night.
I just accept that urlclassifier3.sqlite is a couple of months out of date,
but it will get updated automatically before I click on any unsafe links.

Regards
Alan

 

[mjf]

Has anyone else had problems restoring Win7 backup image to a replacement HD? This advice has been given here for years as valid without any reports it failed until recently.

No matter what you do there will be situations that work for most but not absolutely everyone. Many of us know that Windows imaging is problematic for some people/system configurations. It has never failed me on 3 different PC systems and I have undertaken a system restore to new HDDs on a number of occasions.
Likewise I have used Macrium Reflect to restore to a new HDD and SSD.
Like I've said, try it to a new HDD then you know all your images are lifeboats. Like requested above if you have problems your feedback should help others.

 

[Night Hawk]

After numerous images on two totally separate systems 1)Vista/XP build used to test and first to see 7 retail and 2)present build I've never run into any problem using the backup options in 7. In fact I tested dual boots when first restoring a 7 made image and afterwards one made with Acronis just to try that idea out and each image restored with ease.

I have been using Acronis more often however since it will compress things down in size as far as how much drive space each new image will take. With the 7 option there's about a 1-2% compression compared to ondrive space used up as to the 15-20% compression rate seen with Acronis there. With the 7 option however you can start the restoration process without the need for the 7 dvd or repair tools cd since the restoration tool will automatically load itself into memory when the system restarts itself once started up while in the Control Panel>Backup & Restore.

The usual causes for any problematic image are a tainted volume on the drive the image is to be created and stored on when it comes time to restore the image. And even more common running a demanding app while the image is being created at the same time which can cause a few hiccups as a result when the program accesses the same parts of the drive the backup tool is accessing for the image. Av programs and firewalls can also hamper the creation of a new image at times.

 

[bcgirton]

Windows 7 Backup is fine, though too limited in what it will do. I strongly suggest that you avoid Paragon and Acronis, which IMHO are little more than camouflaged gateways to tech support hell. They do not work properly, they do not work as documented, and they will not make you happy.

 

[vaidas3]

I had some problems with restoring file backup from windows 7 backup created backups, lost about 25% of data. Altough I sometimes do image restore created on my windows 7 WM to test it and it works without problems.
now I use windows backup for system images and data.. and also use file sync tool for data on one more separate disk so two separate backup disks and two backups, but now when large HDDs are cheap data has much more value than HDD.