How to backup windows 8

garry35

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when creating a backup image using acronis or other backup program, do i need to image the entire disk or just the windows partition and hidden (100 meg) partition ?

Gazzer
 

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If you use an OEM imaging program, you can just image the C partition. I would, however, recommend to image the 100MB system partition (which is 350MB now) at least once - in case your disk breaks.

If you moved your data to another partition, you should periodically back that up too. I use imaging for the data partition because it's easy. But there are many other methods - e.g. sync.

The imaging program that has given me no trouble at all in Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 is free Macrium.
 

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    Vista and Win7
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    2xHP, 2xGateway, 1xDell, 1xSony
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If looking for 3rd party App, I would look for a 3rd party Partitioning,Backup & Cloning software, which fully supports Windows 8, uEFI, GPT & Secure Boot.
Which is signed by Microsoft.
 

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    Towers x 4
If looking for 3rd party App, I would look for a 3rd party Partitioning,Backup & Cloning software, which fully supports Windows 8, uEFI, GPT & Secure Boot.
Which is signed by Microsoft.
And which one is that ??
 

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  • OS
    Vista and Win7
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    2xHP, 2xGateway, 1xDell, 1xSony
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    5 SSDs and 12 HDs
If looking for 3rd party App, I would look for a 3rd party Partitioning,Backup & Cloning software, which fully supports Windows 8, uEFI, GPT & Secure Boot.
Which is signed by Microsoft.
And which one is that ??

The only two 3rd party software that I know of, that fully supports Windows 8 is PARAGON 12 & SSR Desktop Edition, both are is signed by Microsoft .

Paragon 12 has support for Windows 8 uEFI, GPT & Secure Boot.

PARAGON Software Group - partition manager, drive backup, hard disk partitioning

or could consider SSR Desktop Edition

* Now Released * Symantec System Recovery 2013 | Symantec Connect Community
 

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Thanks for the info. Paragon sounds good. The Symantec one I'd rather not touch. Had too much trouble with Ghost 14.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Vista and Win7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2xHP, 2xGateway, 1xDell, 1xSony
    Hard Drives
    5 SSDs and 12 HDs
Why not just use the built-in Windows 8 Backup Program to create your system image. I've tested it several times by creating several system images and then restoring from same. It is also very fast IMHO and works perfectly. However, I am curious as to why one would choose to use 3rd party software in this case so am I missing something that I should know? Thanks, in advance, for responding.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Why not just use the built-in Windows 8 Backup Program to create your system image. I've tested it several times by creating several system images and then restoring from same. It is also very fast IMHO and works perfectly. However, I am curious as to why one would choose to use 3rd party software in this case so am I missing something that I should know? Thanks, in advance, for responding.
In Windows 7, the built-in imaging was not too swift. Had practically no options and was not very reliable. A lot of people got stuck when they wanted to restore. For those poor souls I wrote this tutorial at the time so that they could at least recover.

I guess then it has become a habit to use alternatives and now people know which alternatives they can trust. Maybe the Windows 8 version is better - I never tried it. I run Windows 8 in VMware and just copy the VMware folder. That beats any imaging.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Vista and Win7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2xHP, 2xGateway, 1xDell, 1xSony
    Hard Drives
    5 SSDs and 12 HDs
Why not just use the built-in Windows 8 Backup Program to create your system image. I've tested it several times by creating several system images and then restoring from same. It is also very fast IMHO and works perfectly. However, I am curious as to why one would choose to use 3rd party software in this case so am I missing something that I should know? Thanks, in advance, for responding.

I have been using Windows system imaging since Windows 7 first came out. For the most part it is pretty dependable, but there were times when I simply couldn't get an image to restore, so I started using Macrium Reflect to create a second set of system images. I am happy to say that I have never once had an image created by Macrium for either Windows 7 or 8 that wouldn't restore. Of course I have Windows 8 installed on an MBR drive, so I don't have any experience with uEFI. That could well be an entirely different matter, especially with secure boot.
 

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Thanks whs and Little Jay,

I didn't realize others were having such difficulty with Windows 7. I'm hoping those problems don't port over to Windows 8 and I certainly hope I don't run into any of them too!

Thanks again!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
My brother and I have both used the backup imaging in Windows 7 with great success, for years prior to Win 7 we used a program called Drive Image by Power Quest who also made Partition Magic. Power Quest was subsequently bought by Symantec and Drive Image is no more.
 

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Why not just use the built-in Windows 8 Backup Program to create your system image. I've tested it several times by creating several system images and then restoring from same. It is also very fast IMHO and works perfectly. However, I am curious as to why one would choose to use 3rd party software in this case so am I missing something that I should know? Thanks, in advance, for responding.

More functionality and features mainly. I've used the built-in tool in Windows 7 and didn't have problems. But I "prefer" the way 3rd parties do it with a single backup file that I can copy to anywhere I want. And I can have a single file for end of month December, and a single file for end of month Jan, and a single file for end of month Feb. You cannot achieve this with the built in tool. The third parties also let me do full, incremental or differential backups. The third party tools let me clone directly from 1 hard drive to another.
 

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I have used EaseUS Todo for xp and 7 to clone the HD.

Is there any reason not to use it in 8
 

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  • OS
    Microsoft Windows 8 Pro with Media Center 64-bit
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    homebrew
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    intel i3 3220
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    asus P8H61-MX USB3
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    8gb ddr3
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    on board
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    on board
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    1440 x 900
    Hard Drives
    500gb
Should be ok, the site says it supports W8.

EaseUS Todo Backup Free

Haven't used this version, according to other members it works fine.
Have used Macrium Reflect and Aomei with W8.
 

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  • OS
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