Question about system image backup

jamesmerlin

New Member
Messages
7
When I bought my (Windows 8.1 PC) it had a very unusual internet problem - was very slow and took ages to fix. Anyway now it works fine as long as the power setting (in Power4Gear Hybrid) is set to max performance. I can't remember what I did to fix the problem...

Anyway I want to update to Windows 10 but am worried that this will cause the problem to reoccur. If I did a system image backup, will this save my settings EXACTLY as they are and enable me to go back to Windows 8.1 as it is now if Windows 10 does cause the problem to reoccur?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1
When I bought my (Windows 8.1 PC) it had a very unusual internet problem - was very slow and took ages to fix. Anyway now it works fine as long as the power setting (in Power4Gear Hybrid) is set to max performance. I can't remember what I did to fix the problem...

Anyway I want to update to Windows 10 but am worried that this will cause the problem to reoccur. If I did a system image backup, will this save my settings EXACTLY as they are and enable me to go back to Windows 8.1 as it is now if Windows 10 does cause the problem to reoccur?
Yup. It's a image of how your PC is at the moment of pulling the trigger, programs, settings ,partitioning... everything. A lot of us in the forums use Macrium Reflect to do this. For informational & site links, see this post/thread.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Update Pro in Hyper-V/Windows 10 Pro 64 bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Cliff's Black & Blue Wonder
    CPU
    Intel Core i9-9900K
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero
    Memory
    32 GB Quad Kit, G.Skill Trident Z RGB Series schwarz, DDR4-3866, 18-19-19-39-2T
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS GeForce RTX 3090 ROG Strix O24G, 24576 MB GDDR6X
    Sound Card
    (1) HD Webcam C270 (2) NVIDIA High Definition Audio (3) Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ BL2711U(4K) and a hp 27vx(1080p)
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080 x 32 bits (4294967296 colors) @ 60 Hz
    Hard Drives
    C: Samsung 960 EVO NVMe M.2 SSD
    E: & O: Libraries & OneDrive-> Samsung 850 EVO 1TB
    D: Hyper-V VM's -> Samsung PM951 Client M.2 512Gb SSD
    G: System Images -> HDD Seagate Barracuda 2TB
    PSU
    Corsair HX1000i High Performance ATX Power Supply 80+ Platinum
    Case
    hanteks Enthoo Pro TG
    Cooling
    Thermaltake Floe Riing RGB TT Premium-Edition 360mm and 3 Corsair blue LED fans
    Keyboard
    Trust GTX THURA
    Mouse
    Trust GTX 148
    Internet Speed
    25+/5+ (+usually faster)
    Browser
    Edge; Chrome; IE11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender of course & Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit as a
    Other Info
    Router: FRITZ!Box 7590 AX V2
    Sound system: SHARP HT-SBW460 Dolby Atmos Soundbar
    Webcam: Logitech BRIO ULTRA HD PRO WEBCAM 4K webcam with HDR
Hear, Hear

Yes, do the Macrium, and do a system disk image. Much faster than any other way to get back what you lose. Everyone should be doing the Macrium. I do incrementals daily and hardly notice.

Sign me: tired of restoring Windows.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 10 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Built (ASUS/Intel Based)
    CPU
    i7 4790 4.0GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS Sabertrooth Z-97 Mark 1
    Memory
    32 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Twin Radeon HD 7900 Crossfired
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Sharp LC42D62U
    Screen Resolution
    1080p
    Hard Drives
    Seagate SATA III, 1 TB HDD
    2 X 1TB HDD Dynamic Array
    Case
    Thermaltake
    Cooling
    Corsair H-110 water for cpu
    Mouse
    Logitech
    Internet Speed
    14 MB/s on a good day
    Browser
    Various, mostly Chrome
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky Internet Security
When I bought my (Windows 8.1 PC) it had a very unusual internet problem - was very slow and took ages to fix. Anyway now it works fine as long as the power setting (in Power4Gear Hybrid) is set to max performance. I can't remember what I did to fix the problem...

Anyway I want to update to Windows 10 but am worried that this will cause the problem to reoccur. If I did a system image backup, will this save my settings EXACTLY as they are and enable me to go back to Windows 8.1 as it is now if Windows 10 does cause the problem to reoccur?
Yup. It's a image of how your PC is at the moment of pulling the trigger, programs, settings ,partitioning... everything. A lot of us in the forums use Macrium Reflect to do this. For informational & site links, see this post/thread.

Thanks for the reply, if you don't mind me asking, what are the benefits to using Macrium Reflect to do this instead of the standard Windows tool?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1
It's much easier to use and you can set a schedule to do it as often as you wish. With the recovery drive you can do an image on any windows PC, and now you can add a Boot Menu option so you can bot to the recovery environment after having a BSOD or Black screen.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Update Pro in Hyper-V/Windows 10 Pro 64 bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Cliff's Black & Blue Wonder
    CPU
    Intel Core i9-9900K
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero
    Memory
    32 GB Quad Kit, G.Skill Trident Z RGB Series schwarz, DDR4-3866, 18-19-19-39-2T
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS GeForce RTX 3090 ROG Strix O24G, 24576 MB GDDR6X
    Sound Card
    (1) HD Webcam C270 (2) NVIDIA High Definition Audio (3) Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ BL2711U(4K) and a hp 27vx(1080p)
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080 x 32 bits (4294967296 colors) @ 60 Hz
    Hard Drives
    C: Samsung 960 EVO NVMe M.2 SSD
    E: & O: Libraries & OneDrive-> Samsung 850 EVO 1TB
    D: Hyper-V VM's -> Samsung PM951 Client M.2 512Gb SSD
    G: System Images -> HDD Seagate Barracuda 2TB
    PSU
    Corsair HX1000i High Performance ATX Power Supply 80+ Platinum
    Case
    hanteks Enthoo Pro TG
    Cooling
    Thermaltake Floe Riing RGB TT Premium-Edition 360mm and 3 Corsair blue LED fans
    Keyboard
    Trust GTX THURA
    Mouse
    Trust GTX 148
    Internet Speed
    25+/5+ (+usually faster)
    Browser
    Edge; Chrome; IE11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender of course & Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit as a
    Other Info
    Router: FRITZ!Box 7590 AX V2
    Sound system: SHARP HT-SBW460 Dolby Atmos Soundbar
    Webcam: Logitech BRIO ULTRA HD PRO WEBCAM 4K webcam with HDR
Macrium works good.
The free version now supports the boot time recovery environment. :)

When you get a BSOD or black screen you will appreciate this option. :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    AMD K140 Cores 2 Threads 2 Name AMD K140 Package Socket FT1 BGA Technology 40nm
    Motherboard
    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
    Screen Resolution
    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
    Hard Drives
    AMD K140
    Cores 2
    Threads 2
    Name AMD K140
    Package Socket FT1 BGA
    Technology 40nm
    Specification AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphics
    Family F
    Extended Family 14
    Model 2
    Extended Model 2
    Stepping 0
    Revision ON-C0
    Instruction
    Browser
    Opera 24.0
    Antivirus
    Avast Internet Security
I recently transferred a system to a new SSD using Macrium Reflect Free for the first time and can confirm it is an excellent utility.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 64 bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Build
    CPU
    Intel i3570K
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-77X-UD5H
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire R9 280X Toxic
    Sound Card
    Realtek on motherboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Viewsonic VP2770
    Screen Resolution
    2560 x 1440
    Hard Drives
    Intel 520 180GB SSD
    Seagate 2T HDD
    Seagate external 1T USB HDD
    PSU
    XFX 850W
    Case
    Nanoxia Deep Silence 1
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D14
    Keyboard
    Microsoft
    Mouse
    Microsoft
    Internet Speed
    50Mbps
    Browser
    Chrome
...A lot of us in the forums use Macrium Reflect to do this. For informational & site links, see this post/thread.

I'll look into that, too.

Right now, however, I use Clonezilla to image copy my two hard drives to other identical hard drives I store "elsewhere". First power down the PC completely, insert backup drive into Thermaltake external SATA dock, power that up, then power up the PC with the Clonezilla CD/DVD in; a USB memory module would boot as well. When Clonezilla comes up it's a simple matter to image copy the entire source hard drive to the external hard drive. When done the external hard drive is identical to the internal hard drive. Power down, rinse and repeat for the other internal hard drive.

Why do it this way? (1) the images are exact thus the backup drives can simply be substituted for the internal drives in case of drive failure (just did that with one of my relatively ancient drives), (2) the copies can be stored anywhere NOT colocated with the source drives, thus are somewhat "safer" as backups, and (3) the copies are stored on nonpowered inactive hard drives so there is NO wear-n-tear on them; even if the source drive fails the copy of it will be on a robust little-used hard drive.

During this Windows 10 fiasco, I made good use of a late July image of C: to restore my internal C: drive repeatedly (using Clonezilla in "the other direction" to restore)...then finally to actually physically replace the internal C: drive.

======

The failed drive was built in August 2011 and probably bought shortly after that so lasted about 3.75 years. The drive was typically powered up in the morning and shut down at night, maybe 16 hours per day typical, 365 days a year. 16x365x3.75 or 20,000+ hours of use before it started to generate strange messages in Windows' event logs .

Post-post addendum - it's remarkably hard to find totally-meaningful statistics on hard drive lifetimes. If you Google for such a thing you'll get about 4,000,000 hits that ALL reference some stats produced by Backblaze (offline backup company). But those stats are for drives that undoubtedly are little "used" in that they're powered up but mostly inactive - not at ALL like your typical main hard drive on your computer that is being pounded and randomly read/write accessed from the time it's powered up to the time it's powered down.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1, 10, various Linux
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    homebuilt
Just wanna share here. When I started to use Windows 8.1 the backup image program I used were Acronis True Image 2012 and Macrium Free. Fired it up from a Yumi created usb multiboot so I did not have to install either one of them on the Windows 8.1 partition. I always have relied on both software's (ATI most often as the size of the image backup compared to Macrium is much smaller (for 36gb partition ATI backup was only 19gb compared to Macrium's 21.6gb backup/restore was also much faster in ATI but that's just me).
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Ultimate / Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    AMD A8 56000 APU
    Memory
    16gb DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radeon HD 7560D
    Browser
    Dragon, Cyberfox, Opera
    Antivirus
    Avast Premier(no firewall) CIS8 with HIPS

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 64 bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Build
    CPU
    Intel i3570K
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-77X-UD5H
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire R9 280X Toxic
    Sound Card
    Realtek on motherboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Viewsonic VP2770
    Screen Resolution
    2560 x 1440
    Hard Drives
    Intel 520 180GB SSD
    Seagate 2T HDD
    Seagate external 1T USB HDD
    PSU
    XFX 850W
    Case
    Nanoxia Deep Silence 1
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D14
    Keyboard
    Microsoft
    Mouse
    Microsoft
    Internet Speed
    50Mbps
    Browser
    Chrome
Microsoft gives you 30 days from the day you upgraded to Windows 10 to roll back to your previous version of Windows. Before you do so, however, it's a good idea to back up your data, even though it will remain intact. Personally, I'd recommend installing a free rollback tool - System GoBack , although Windows 10 has a rollback feature of its own, the option expires after one month.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
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