Backup Program to Use With Win7?

[gumboman]

I have Win7 Computer and really need to replace my Backup Program - Can anyone advise on the BEST Backup Program to use? I would like to backup my Entire Disk and be able to Restore individual Folders/Files as necessary. Can anyone advise me on the best one to use?

Thanks for any advise on this issue/

Charlie

 

[Ranger4]

Most users on this Forum use Macrium Reflect as I do & it should meet your requirements. There is a free version & of course a paid version. This website might help you.

Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free

 

[Paul Black]

Hi gumboman,

I have Win7 Computer and really need to replace my Backup Program - Can anyone advise on the BEST Backup Program to use? I would like to backup my Entire Disk and be able to Restore individual Folders/Files as necessary. Can anyone advise me on the best one to use?

There are two imaging programs which are very popular among members here, the first is AOMEI Backupper Standard [FREE], and the second is Macrium Reflect [FREE].

I hope this helps!

 

[johnhoh]

note that restoring individual files and folders from a backup image requires that you first "mount" that backup image within another program, then that program provides you the ability to browse and restore items individually. The Macrium program has this ability to mount an existing image as well as restore individual components of it. Because this feature is used far less often than the main backup image function itself, here is a link that details how to use just the mount and restore feature of macrium.

How to use Macrium for individual file and folder restore

 

[RoWin7]

gumboman--

before you back up, you might want to consider partitioning your drive, and moving all your data to a drive (actually partition) D. It's not required, but it enables future backups of just the D drive and easier searches through your data. On my machines, the system and programs change very little, but my data changes constantly.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

gumboman--

before you back up, you might want to consider partitioning your drive, and moving all your data to a drive (actually partition) D. It's not required, but it enables future backups of just the D drive and easier searches through your data. On my machines, the system and programs change very little, but my data changes constantly.

I totally agree. Imaging (I recommend Macrium Reflect Free) is necessary to restore the System (boot) drive or partition but is too slow and space wasting for backing up data only.

For backing up data only, I recommend using a folder/file syncing program like FreeFileSync. When set to mirror mode (not the same as RAID 1), it compares the source drive (the drive you are backing up; this can also apply to a partition) with the destination drive (the backup drive), then copies over only files that have been added or changed. It will also delete any files on the destination drive that aren't on the source drive. The result is essentially a clone of the source drive on the destination drive. Since only new, changed, and deleted files are involved, backup updates can be very fast compared to imaging.

The better folder/file syncing programs, including FreeFileSync, have a feature called Versioning. When enabled (which I highly recommend), it will put ny files deleted from the destination drive into a user designated folder or file. This protects you from losing accidentally deleted files or ones that get deleted from the destination drive because the original one on the source drive became corrupted.

 

[RoWin7]

Another tip: to prevent disastrously deleting wrong files, I give all my drives logical names.
My C drive is called C-SYS-PROG and my data partition is D-DATA,
my backup images are named "BACKUP-SYS-PROG" and "BACKUP-D-DATA." Macrium will fill in the dates.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Another tip: to prevent disastrously deleting wrong files, I give all my drives logical names.
My C drive is called C-SYS-PROG and my data partition is D-DATA,
my backup images are named "BACKUP-SYS-PROG" and "BACKUP-D-DATA." Macrium will fill in the dates.

I also name my data drives and backup drives since I set FreeFileSync to identify drive by drive name rather than drive letter since drive letters can change, especially for the external backup drives.

 

[arena12]

I also name my data drives and backup drives

It is a good idea to name them,so it isn't hard to confuse them.

 

[Lance1]

2 Week old I know. My backup solution is "EaseUS Todo Backup". It comes in as number 2 in the Top 10 Backup Software for 2019. I was a Norton Ghost guy for many years but times change. I like Todo back, its solid solution.

EaseUS Todo Backup​

Cut and Past from the site.

Comprehensive Backup
File-level and image-level backups are both supported. Users may back up their entire PC hard drive, or select individual folders & files.
System Backup
Backs up Windows operating system and user settings to restore in case of hardware failures. You may also store your operating system on a removable drive to use your personal system on any computer.
File Backup
The best file-level backup software safeguards specific documents, photos, music, videos, audio, folders, or network shared files
Disk/Partition Backup
EaseUS block-level disk imaging software makes HDD and SSD backups. You may choose to only backup select partitions from your drive, if you do not wish to back up everything.
Outlook Email Backup
Back up all contents of your mailbox, or choose only a select part of the folder.
Cloud Backup
Supports backup of files and Outlook to popular cloud storage services, like OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox with high efficiency

 

[RolandJS]

I'm late for this nice party! Agreeing with the others here... I too believe in a BEST backup/restore program -- the BEST being the one or two that are regularly used, and with which the program and enduser get along together quite well. And, I name both the physical hard-drives and my partitions within said physical platter HDs with unique names, the partition names include their normal Windows respective partition, i.e. S02[174]C, S02[174]D, and so on -- one reason: F8 boots, external CD boots, external USB boots often assign their own drive letters. And, during backups and restores, I am assured as to from what partition to what partition.