What is the easiest "non geek" backup program for Wins 7-64? **HELP**

[melen001]

What is the easiest "non geek" backup program for Wins 7-64? **HELP**

There is so much technical (geeky) talk when you speak about backing up that I am a little confused. All I want to do is have an adequate back of my PC in the easiest manner possible . What should be backed up? What program should I use that is easy for a newbie with no technical skills? If you have a solution that is quick and easy PLEASE let me know. I am considering either Macrium Reflect Free or AOMIE Backupper Standard Edition so please give me some feed-back on what is best and easiest that doesn't require any technical skills. Something like a one and done solution... Thanks a million......

George

Puerto Rico

 

[fireberd]

I am currently using Macrium Reflect (paid version). I don't have any experience with AOMIE, but I know Macrium is a very popular backup program.

I do full hard drive (all partition) backups to a separate hard drive. Then if the hard drive were to fail or get corrupted I can restore the entire hard drive back to how it was at the last backup.

If you just want to backup user files such as pictures, music, documents, etc you don't need a backup program for those, just copy them to a separate hard drive, flash drive or make data CD's (or data DVD's).

Best to do full hard drive backups when backing up. Most backup programs offer an "incremental" option, where you first make a full back up and the subsequent incremental backups are only what has changed since the last backup. That can become confusing, thus just do full backups and you will avoid this.

 

[whs]

AOMEI is really easy but buggy. I don't trust it after trying it on several systems. I would suggest you go with free Macrium. Here is a tutorial I made together with Keith (Kado) that should help.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html?ltr=I

 

[melen001]

I am currently using Macrium Reflect (paid version). I don't have any experience with AOMIE, but I know Macrium is a very popular backup program.

I do full hard drive (all partition) backups to a separate hard drive. Then if the hard drive were to fail or get corrupted I can restore the entire hard drive back to how it was at the last backup.

If you just want to backup user files such as pictures, music, documents, etc you don't need a backup program for those, just copy them to a separate hard drive, flash drive or make data CD's (or data DVD's).

Best to do full hard drive backups when backing up. Most backup programs offer an "incremental" option, where you first make a full back up and the subsequent incremental backups are only what has changed since the last backup. That can become confusing, thus just do full backups and you will avoid this.

Hello Firebird...

Thank you so much for such a fast reply to my non-geek question. I see that it's not that difficult at all so I will stick with Macrium, look at the tutorial and perform full backups maybe every other week and store on an external hard drive. That should do it and I will also backup my files (pictures, documents etc.) to my external hard drive. Easily explained and easily done. I have had so many explanations on what to do that it was very confusing and in my native language which is Spanish I should have understood but you have done an admirable job on what I have to do so again THANKS A MILLION .....

George Melendez
Puerto Rico

Please excuse my English, it's my second language.....

 

[melen001]

AOMEI is really easy but buggy. I don't trust it after trying it on several systems. I would suggest you go with free Macrium. Here is a tutorial I made together with Keith (Kado) that should help.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html?ltr=I

GREAT....

Thanks a lot and I will use Macrium Free since I have been told and read in reviews that same concern about AOMEI so I will take a look at the Macrium tutorial and start doing my backups. Firebird also gave me the same info so I will follow and do as you guys say.



Thanks so much for your time

George Melendez
Puerto Rico

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I am currently using Macrium Reflect (paid version). I don't have any experience with AOMIE, but I know Macrium is a very popular backup program.

I do full hard drive (all partition) backups to a separate hard drive. Then if the hard drive were to fail or get corrupted I can restore the entire hard drive back to how it was at the last backup.

If you just want to backup user files such as pictures, music, documents, etc you don't need a backup program for those, just copy them to a separate hard drive, flash drive or make data CD's (or data DVD's).

Best to do full hard drive backups when backing up. Most backup programs offer an "incremental" option, where you first make a full back up and the subsequent incremental backups are only what has changed since the last backup. That can become confusing, thus just do full backups and you will avoid this.

Hello Firebird...

Thank you so much for such a fast reply to my non-geek question. I see that it's not that difficult at all so I will stick with Macrium, look at the tutorial and perform full backups maybe every other week and store on an external hard drive. That should do it and I will also backup my files (pictures, documents etc.) to my external hard drive. Easily explained and easily done. I have had so many explanations on what to do that it was very confusing and in my native language which is Spanish I should have understood but you have done an admirable job on what I have to do so again THANKS A MILLION .....

George Melendez
Puerto Rico

Please excuse my English, it's my second language.....

Your English is fine. It's better than many native speakers in the U.S.

 

[melen001]

I am currently using Macrium Reflect (paid version). I don't have any experience with AOMIE, but I know Macrium is a very popular backup program.

I do full hard drive (all partition) backups to a separate hard drive. Then if the hard drive were to fail or get corrupted I can restore the entire hard drive back to how it was at the last backup.

If you just want to backup user files such as pictures, music, documents, etc you don't need a backup program for those, just copy them to a separate hard drive, flash drive or make data CD's (or data DVD's).

Best to do full hard drive backups when backing up. Most backup programs offer an "incremental" option, where you first make a full back up and the subsequent incremental backups are only what has changed since the last backup. That can become confusing, thus just do full backups and you will avoid this.

Hello Firebird...

Thank you so much for such a fast reply to my non-geek question. I see that it's not that difficult at all so I will stick with Macrium, look at the tutorial and perform full backups maybe every other week and store on an external hard drive. That should do it and I will also backup my files (pictures, documents etc.) to my external hard drive. Easily explained and easily done. I have had so many explanations on what to do that it was very confusing and in my native language which is Spanish I should have understood but you have done an admirable job on what I have to do so again THANKS A MILLION .....

George Melendez
Puerto Rico

Please excuse my English, it's my second language.....

Your English is fine. It's better than many native speakers in the U.S.

Muchas gracias...... Thank you....

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

De nada.

 

[melen001]

De nada.

Hablas Espa~ol.....

 

[whs]

If you have any questions regarding free Macrium, post beck. Here are many members that use Macrium and will be glad to assist.

 

[melen001]

Thanks for your concern and I will do so if anything comes up.......

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

De nada.

Hablas Espa~ol.....

Un poquito, just enough to get me into trouble.

 

[melen001]

De nada.

Hablas Espa~ol.....

Un poquito, just enough to get me into trouble.

That's wonderful.... the more languages we know the more access we have to different cultures and so many other things. It's good to know that many of us have that advantage of speaking other languages and having access to all that the world has to offer is great.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Macrium will backup EVERYTHING on the partitions you include--you can control what partitions.

Is your data on the same partition as Windows? Most people are set up that way. If Windows and data are both on the C partition, then your data will be backed up along with Windows when you make an image of C.

BUT, I'd advise you to additionally make a separate backup of your data ONLY with a regular file by file backup program, not an imaging program. Why? Because your data is probably much more important to you than Windows itself. You can always reinstall Windows, but your data may be irreplaceable. Secondly, imaging isn't quite perfected and can fail, so I wouldn't want to rely on it completely for data backup.

There are numerous file by file backup programs suitable for data backup, many of them free. I use FreeFileSync, but they all work roughly the same way.

When using Macrium, you will be asked to make a "recovery" disk of some type that you will need to boot your PC from if you have to "restore" the image file. It's absolutely critical that you confirm that this recovery disk will in fact boot your PC. You confirm it by practicing the recovery procedure. Either the PC will boot from the disk or it won't.

Store the Macrium image files on a physically separate hard disk than Windows is installed on if at all possible. You could store the images on another partition on the same hard disk, but that's taking a significant risk--if the drive fails completely, you wouldn't be able to restore.

If you have a "system reserved" partition (most people do), you need to make an image of it--either separately or as part of the same image file that contains the C partition.

 

[melen001]

Hello...

Thanks for the suggestions which are appreciated. I will be using Macrium and doing full backup files. I understand that it's the least confusing and more secure way of creating a backup. I will be using an external hard drive so all should be good. I will also make a backup of my photos, videos, music and all my personal files.

 

[whs]

Free Macrium makes images of whole partitions. So if your photos, etc. are on the C partition, then they will automatically be backed up. If they are on another partition, you can image that partition too.

When you image the C partition, you should also imege the 100MB system partition that contains the bootmgr. Check in disk management whether you have that 100MB partition.

 

[melen001]

Free Macrium makes images of whole partitions. So if your photos, etc. are on the C partition, then they will automatically be backed up. If they are on another partition, you can image that partition too.

When you image the C partition, you should also imege the 100MB system partition that contains the bootmgr. Check in disk management whether you have that 100MB partition.

Thanks for the info.....

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Macrium will backup EVERYTHING on the partitions you include--you can control what partitions.

Is your data on the same partition as Windows? Most people are set up that way. If Windows and data are both on the C partition, then your data will be backed up along with Windows when you make an image of C.

BUT, I'd advise you to additionally make a separate backup of your data ONLY with a regular file by file backup program, not an imaging program. Why? Because your data is probably much more important to you than Windows itself. You can always reinstall Windows, but your data may be irreplaceable. Secondly, imaging isn't quite perfected and can fail, so I wouldn't want to rely on it completely for data backup.

There are numerous file by file backup programs suitable for data backup, many of them free. I use FreeFileSync, but they all work roughly the same way.

When using Macrium, you will be asked to make a "recovery" disk of some type that you will need to boot your PC from if you have to "restore" the image file. It's absolutely critical that you confirm that this recovery disk will in fact boot your PC. You confirm it by practicing the recovery procedure. Either the PC will boot from the disk or it won't.

Store the Macrium image files on a physically separate hard disk than Windows is installed on if at all possible. You could store the images on another partition on the same hard disk, but that's taking a significant risk--if the drive fails completely, you wouldn't be able to restore.

If you have a "system reserved" partition (most people do), you need to make an image of it--either separately or as part of the same image file that contains the C partition.

I also use FreeFileSync to back up my data along with Macrium Reflect to backup my OS/Programs but the OP specifically asked for the "easiest non-geek" way to make backups and imaging alone meets that requirement. Sticking with one procedure dramatically simplifies backups.

As far as the reliablility of imaging goes, Macrium Reflect has a provision to automatically verify an image immediately after creating the image. I always allow Reflect to verify my images and have only had one fail to verify; I simply ran another image and it verified. I've never had an image fail to restore.

 

[melen001]

GREAT Jeannie...

I will stick with the imaging procedure using Macrium Reflect. It seems like the best choice and I will have to just follow one procedure. I can now rest and be assured that my PC OS and personal files are "backed-up.

 

[melen001]

Thank you and I will take you up on that if I get into any problems.... You help is much obliged...