Solved Windows 7 backup running incredibly slow

[cinque8]

Hello,

I am running Windows 7 on my HP laptop. I tried to backup my hard drive which has about 132 GB of data on it to an external hard drive. I went to Control Panel and selected Backup and Storage. I started a backup, it ran for hours all night long and only backed up about 65 GB of data. Can anyone tell why my backup is running so slow?

Thank you

 

[mrjimphelps]

I'm not that familiar with Windows Backup and Storage, but I am familiar with two other products: Macrium Reflect Free (Windows) and FWBackups (Linux). FWBackups takes a very long time (but not as much as you have described), while Macrium is quicker.

Perhaps if you restarted the computer into Safe Mode and ran the backup from there, it might run quicker. In other words, there could be things going on in Normal Mode which are slowing down the backup.

Also, if this is your first time to use Backup and Storage, it may take longer the first time you run it.

 

[RolandJS]

+1 on any 3rd party backup / restore / cloning program; scuttlebutt has it that even Microsoft recommends any reliable affordable 3rd party utility.

 

[cinque8]

Thank you for the information. I will check it out.

That was the very first time that I tried to do a back up from the Control Panel.

 

[mrjimphelps]

I'm with Roland -- try a third party product. I use Macrium Reflect Free; others at this forum use other products.

 

[cinque8]

Thanks mrjimphelps, I will give it a try.

With a third party product, if my computer crashes, will I be able to restore using my Windows 7 disk?

Thanks!

 

[mrjimphelps]

The whole point of the backup is so that you don't have to restore using your Windows 7 disk. Doing a backup gives you a way to get right back to where you were at the time you made the backup.

When you say "restore using my Windows 7 disk", I believe you are referring to Restore Points. That is a different type of backup. A restore point restores only Windows, not your data. And it is not a perfect restore like you would get if you did a full backup with a third-party backup program; in other words, it is possible that you can't get back in business with Restore Points.

When you say "restore using my Windows 7 disk", if you mean the Factory Restore disks, you won't be doing a restore of your current Windows install; you will instead be doing a restore of how the computer was new, when it was first pulled out of the box. So it is valuable to have a set of Factory Restore disks as an alternate way of getting back up and running; but not to get back to where you were right before the crash occurred.

Let's say your hard drive crashes, and you need to replace it:

• If you have done a full backup with a third-party backup program, you can install the new hard drive, restore the latest backup, and be right back in business.
• If you restore using the Factory Restore disks, you will be back to square one, in brand new condition; and you will have lost everything you did since that time.
• All of your Windows restore points would be gone and therefore useless, if your hard drive crashes.

If you want to upgrade from a hard drive to an SSD, you can do a backup with a third-party backup program, install the SSD, do a restore to the SSD, and then enable TRIM on the SSD. You will then be up and running in about an hour with an SSD.

If you go with a third party backup program, be sure to create their emergency boot disk for your computer. The emergency boot disk allows you to boot the computer and do a restore if the hard drive is blank (i.e. if Windows is not on it). Without the emergency boot disk, you are dead in the water if your drive crashes.

 

[cinque8]

Great information, thanks a lot!