Microsoft Backup is crap...according to The Register

Phone Man said:

The main reason I don't use the Microsoft image backup is the restore function. On my system disk I have multiple partitions. If I want to restore just the system partition, MS will erase the other partitions on the disk. I now use Macrium and it will not affect the other partitions on the disk during restore.

Jim

Definitely understandable. The Windows Image Backup really is for people who want to restore their ENTIRE system.

etalmar said:

Perhaps I am in the minority with this opinion, but I feel it is an extreme waste of space to have a 500 GB hard drive, with disk management showing that 94% of the hard drive is free, yet I still have to buy an external hard drive to create a complete backup of my system, in the event that a system restore would ever be needed.

In the old Win98 days, one could simply backup C: drive to D: drive and use the built in system restore function. Simple and effective. Used it several times over the 10-year life span of my Win98SE OS.

Now..Windows 7..new OS..new mindset. All recovery data must be stored on a separate external drive. Such is progress..if you wish to look at it as such. I do not.

Many people consider external drives to be safer for backup purposes. And incidentally, you don't have to use the external drive *exclusively* for the system image, you can store other things on it too.

Does this backup drive have to be "external", or can it just be a second physical hard drive in the computer?

I'm all for not letting people back up to a second partition. That's just a false sense of security in the event that drive dies.

pparks1 said:

Does this backup drive have to be "external", or can it just be a second physical hard drive in the computer?

I'm all for not letting people back up to a second partition. That's just a false sense of security in the event that drive dies.

Either or on ? #1
I like external so if computer fries and can save a ton of stuff for the new one!

pparks1 said:

Does this backup drive have to be "external", or can it just be a second physical hard drive in the computer?

I'm all for not letting people back up to a second partition. That's just a false sense of security in the event that drive dies.

Mine will let me pick another physical internal drive, but I'm running Pro, etalmar is running Home.

I think it allows separate physical drives...but I think the person concerned here wants to backup to their second partition on the same physical disk. While convenient, this really isn't a safe practice and I would consider this more or a feature than a limitation.

etalmar said:

Hello pparks1,

While I do see your point about the need for an external hard drive as a safety net for extreme situations, I was mainly referring to being able to make a basic backup as more of a system restore function, similar to what you could easily do in Win98SE. In the event one would encounter spyware or malware, you could easily revert back to a copy of your system that was conveniently stored on your D: drive. That is no longer the case, as MS has decided to store the OEM factory image there.

I am going to invest in an external hard drive and have been looking at one from Western Digital that has 500 GB storage.

I fully agree with the general consensus here that it's a very good plan to keep a complete set of backups on another physical HDD or external HDD.

My recovery plan is actually overkill, I have a 80GB partition on my main HDD (ready for another OS when required) that I keep a recent backup on, the second OS is on the first partition (Primary OS on a small SSD).
My second HDD has storage and backup partitions, with several backups.
My two external HDDs have backups partitions, these holds backups for 5 computers.

BTW, I use Acronis and Macrium Reflect.

etalmar said:

Perhaps I am in the minority with this opinion, but I feel it is an extreme waste of space to have a 500 GB hard drive, with disk management showing that 94% of the hard drive is free, yet I still have to buy an external hard drive to create a complete backup of my system, in the event that a system restore would ever be needed.

In the old Win98 days, one could simply backup C: drive to D: drive and use the built in system restore function. Simple and effective. Used it several times over the 10-year life span of my Win98SE OS.

Now..Windows 7..new OS..new mindset. All recovery data must be stored on a separate external drive. Such is progress..if you wish to look at it as such. I do not.

You mentioned that "I feel it is an extreme waste of space to have a 500 GB hard drive, with disk management showing that 94% of the hard drive is free", I would have to agree with that.

You can add another partition after your D partition, use this for a convenient place to keep 'some' of your backups.

The amount of backups you decide to use is, of coarse, your choice.
As no one likes to re-install an OS from scratch, backups are a very good solution to recover your OS and personal files.

We see a lot of people that lose everything. This is why most members here recommend an image backup, the safest and most secure is on another physical HDD.

Everyone will decide what's appropriate for them.