Have you used windows backup before? Is it practical?

[netadict]

I use Macrium Reflect to image my hard disk, out of interest I ask if Windows backup is useful or practical?

 

[truckinguy]

I used it and it was fine. Saved me a few times when I first got the new Win7. But I had bought Acronis for other reasons and it took over Win7 and even when I uninstalled Acronis Win7's backup was trashed for good. This is a known issue with Acronis and Win7.
So I'm looking into another backup. Right now I clone the drive to a media bay drive in my Dell Latitude.

 

[netadict]

Using Windows backup can you create an image of partition and also create a "rescue" cd or flash drive that will restore the image to the original partition?

 

[kado897]

Windows imaging is usable but as mentioned above can be a bit fragile. It also insists on backing up every partition it considers to be "system" each time, so if you have OEM partitions or a pagefile or SQL Server database on another partition it will include that one also. Macrium is much more stable and flexible.

 

[cyrilhubert]

I used it on my father's laptop before. Be prepared to use many DVDs even if the backup you have is fairly small. My dad's backup used 2 DVDs and my own, the all 10 pieces of DVD.

 

[kado897]

It's not a good idea to back up to DVD if you have any alternative. DVDs are not very reliable and it only takes one of the set to have problems for the entire set to be useless. Far better to buy a USB attached hard drive for your backups.

 

[AddRAM]

Windows imaging works perfectly and is very flexible, it lets you choose only what you want to backup.

 

[cyrilhubert]

It's not a good idea to back up to DVD if you have any alternative. DVDs are not very reliable and it only takes one of the set to have problems for the entire set to be useless. Far better to buy a USB attached hard drive for your backups.

Thank you kado897 for telling me this. I was thinking that DVDs are rather slow and troublesome especially waiting the discs to be finalised. A HDD will be faster.

 

[whs]

I had a lot of problems with Windows imaging. Free Macrium is a much better choice.

 

[Jacob7]

I run Windows backup regularly and it helped me to recover a lost file or two. However, it didn't quite work to backup or restore the whole system or even an individual user account profile.

http://www.sevenforums.com/backup-restore/286937-windows-backup-does-not-save-my-ntuser-dat.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...ms-executables-after-full-system-restore.html

Looks good on paper, but seem pretty fragile IMO.

 

[Britton30]

I used Macrium just tonight to restore an image of me w7 drive in a 2-drive system, I'm on it now. the restore was lengthy though, it took 4 minutes, 18 seconds. working like a charm.

 

[kado897]

If you image then everything is backed up. I guess you are talking about the file and folder backup. That is intended for user data. I guess that NTUSER.DAT is considered system.

 

[Jacob7]

If you image then everything is backed up. I guess you are talking about the file and folder backup. That is intended for user data. I guess that NTUSER.DAT is considered system.

Yes. File and folder backup. I personally consider any backup tool that does not clone all files, "system" or user data, together with all file attributes, to be broken. It did backup plenty of other "system" files, including what looks like old versions of NTUSER.DAT, but just not that file itself.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

The only time I used an image was several years ago when I was still using Norton Ghost. It worked just fine.

I'm using the Pro version of Macrium Reflect now. I haven't had to do a restore although I did do a test restore form one HDD to another to make sure the recovery disk I burned would work and I could figure out how to use it (it did and I did). I make only full images of my C:/ drive on onto 160GB HDDs.

I got the Pro version of Macrium Reflect so I could make incremental backups (faster than full images) on my notebook before I built my desktop but, once I get ambitious and restore the 500GB HDD on my notebook back to factory condition, shrink the C:/ partition down to about 100GB or so, and create a data partition, I won't need to make any more incremental backups. Since I'm using 500GB HDDs to put the backups on, a full image of the hidden partitions and the C:/ and D:/ partitions won't take very long and I'll have plenty of room on the backup HDDs to keep several of them. The only data that will be permanently kept on the data partition will be duplicates of what's on my desktop machine (music and books mostly), which is already backed up to the nth degree, so won't need to be backed up on the notebook. Anything I do put on the machine while on a trip (photos, mostly) can be temporarily backed up to an HDD I take with me, a 32GB SD card I keep in my purse, and to my Amazon Cloud Drive until I get home and can transfer the data to my desktop.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I used Macrium just tonight to restore an image of me w7 drive in a 2-drive system, I'm on it now. the restore was lengthy though, it took 4 minutes, 18 seconds. working like a charm.

Dang! You could die of old age waiting that long for a restore.

 

[netadict]

I currently use Macrium Reflect and have been for the past year or so, it's excellent!! I was interested if the local backup feature was any better. Oh well, good to know I'm using a very good backup/restore software.

Thank you all

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I currently use Macrium Reflect and have been for the past year or so, it's excellent!! I was interested if the local backup feature was any better. Oh well, good to know I'm using a very good backup/restore software.

Thank you all

Like I always say sometimes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

[Britton30]

I used Macrium just tonight to restore an image of me w7 drive in a 2-drive system, I'm on it now. the restore was lengthy though, it took 4 minutes, 18 seconds. working like a charm.

Dang! You could die of old age waiting that long for a restore.

At my age yeah it's possible.:shock:

I currently use Macrium Reflect and have been for the past year or so, it's excellent!! I was interested if the local backup feature was any better. Oh well, good to know I'm using a very good backup/restore software.

Thank you all

Keep on keepin' on mate!

 

[kado897]

Macrium Reflect is my choice also. I have done several restores with it. No problems at all.

 

[netadict]

I usually image my C drive and not the system reserved D partition. Is it a good idea to image ( and later restore when needed) the D partition?