What is the best way to Back-Up?

SebasSmits

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Hi everyone,

So i was backing up last morning and i Always make a backup on an external drive via windows 7 file recovery program.

So i got thinking is this the best way to backup my pc and does it backup everything.
I allways thought that it would backup my entire system so if my laptop would crash completaly i would be able to get everything back by this backup. Just a small question.

Greetings Sebas
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1, Win 8, Win 7, Win Vista, Win XP
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus X301A
    CPU
    Intel I3
    Motherboard
    Default
    Memory
    640 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Default
    Browser
    IE 10
    Antivirus
    Norton
Windows backup (image that is) has worked fine for me a couple of times, i have always a repair disk handy.Just to be on the safe side, i am using Macrium Reflect aswell, an excellent program,both for imaging and cloning too.My ultimate backup gun,is AOMEI Backuper,i cloned my installation partition to another internal HDD (you could do the same on an external) ,set as active,anything goes wrong,i just boot from that one (F8) and try to solve any issues on the main drive.I consider myself safe.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    W8 Pro 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home...made ®
    CPU
    Intel i7 2600k
    Motherboard
    GA-Z68X-UD3P-B3
    Memory
    Corsair Vengeance 4x4Gb 1600 Mhz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS GTX 680 DirectCU II SLI
    Sound Card
    onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG Flatron W2240S PN
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1080
    Hard Drives
    SanDisk Ultra Plus SATA 3 128GB X2

    Western Digital Caviar Blue 2x1TB + WD Caviar Black 1TB
    PSU
    Corsair RM 850 X
    Case
    Chieftec Dragon
    Cooling
    Thermalright Macho HR-02
    Keyboard
    Ivation mechanical backlit
    Mouse
    MS Optical 6000
    Internet Speed
    24 Mbps
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    ESET NOD32 8.0.312.0
I think a backup program is something you choose and stick with until you get into trouble, because they often take a lot of time to tweak and set up.

I used to use SCSI DAT backups a long time ago, then later Norton Ghost, now I use Acronis for images and Retrospect for incrementals and file recovery.

I have had initial problems installing and running Acronis 2011, 2012 and 2013. I have posted long and loudly on their forums about these issues.

But still, I use it, although I'm not in any hurry to upgrade to Acronis 2014, because once I get it to work it is rather solid and trustworthy.

I do not use System Restore points because I beta test a lot of software so they would just become a big handicap. Instead I do image backups when I have a good, clean and stable system. I do this often perhaps weekly, or at least a few times a month. And always before Patch Tuesday.

I also do nightly backups using Retrospect 8.2 - but that is for file backup and retrieval, not for system recovery.

I have a USB thumb drive with Acronis recovery media set up so that I can boot into it and restore from a system image from BIOS. That's a lot faster and easier than finding a BOOT CD/DVD.

The standard Acronis recovery is via a Linux-style boot, but I have the 'Plus Pack' which adds a Windows PE boot environment. I have both - the Linux on a CD/DVD, the WinPE on the USB Thumb drive.

I use YUMI from pendrivelinux.com (YUMI - Multiboot USB Creator (Windows) | USB Pen Drive Linux) to make the USB drive - I put Acronis TrueImage ISO, Acronis Disk Director ISO, Linux Mint and a few recovery and virus scanners on it. You'd be surprised at how much you can save on these little wonders.

I use the Patriot TAB USB3.0 16GB thumb drive. (Amazon.com: Patriot Tab USB 3.0 Flash Drive (PSF16GTAB3USB): Computers & Accessories)

Good luck on whatever you do.

Many of my tech friends use Macrium Reflect with good results. ( I volunteer at a local PC Tech support center for seniors.)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center (64-bit)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom-build
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-2600K @ 4.3 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8P67 PRO Rev 3.0
    Memory
    16 GB G.SKILL Ripjaws X DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (4 banks 4GB DIMM DDR3 8-8-8-24 5-32-12-7 1T 1.5V)
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 440
    Sound Card
    Firewire Focusrite Saffire Pro 14
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG W2353V
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    2 of Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS (2TB ea.);
    1 of Seagate Barracuda Green ST2000DL003 (2TB);
    1 of Hitachi Deskstar HDS722020ALA330 (2TB);
    2 of Seagate Desktop ST4000DM000-1F2168 (4TB)
    PSU
    Corsair AX850 Gold
    Case
    Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced
    Cooling
    ThermalTake Silent 1156
    Keyboard
    Logitech K520
    Mouse
    Logitech M310
    Internet Speed
    7Mbps
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky
    Other Info
    Event Studio Precision 6 powered audio monitors;
    Boston Acoustics CS Sub 10 Powered Subwoofer;
    NI Kore controller;
    NI Maschine controller;
    M-Audio Axiom 61 keyboard controller; expression pedal; sustain pedal;

    ... and tons of audio software ...

    I also keep two USB 3 thumb drives (A: and B:) attached with boot recovery and security stuff that I can boot into from BIOS in case of emergency
Here it's ,

Macrium Reflect of my OS and boot partition before a major change or once a month...(whichever happens first)

Freefilesynch every weekend for a copy of my local outlook files, all my installer program files , my MP3 library and anything else I consider a pain to recover, to a 2TB USB drive (thats only connected at the time of this backup) and also to a networked storage device.

The networked storage also automatically backs itself up daily to 1 of 5 DVDs (full backup every 4th backup and incremental every other day , so the full backup is not on the same DVD all the time)

My wife thought I was OCD about it until the system went down a few months ago and she needed some of the files for work.... it was definitely <smug mode on> for a few days after that. :p
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Memory
    6 GB
    Screen Resolution
    1280 x 1024
    Hard Drives
    12 TB in 6 disks
    PSU
    TX650
    Keyboard
    G15
    Mouse
    Intellimouse 3.0
    Internet Speed
    100 Mbits
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    Trend Micro
Acronis true image to clone my boot SSD. As for the two other hard drives in the machine and my HTPC, I just stick backup 3TB hard drives into a hard drive dock and copy over updated files using a sync command from Directory Opus. Takes about a hour to back up 8 TB once the initial backup is done. I do it once a month.
Need to boot or read a file? just grab a drive and go.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit GA
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    i7-4770K Haswell
    Motherboard
    ASUS Z87-PRO
    Memory
    16 GB of Corsair 1866
    Graphics Card(s)
    GTX 780
    Sound Card
    Cooler Master Storm Headphones
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell 27 inch U2711 IPS
    Screen Resolution
    2560 by 1440
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 Pro 250GB SSD plus 2 3 TB drives
    PSU
    Corsair-750
    Case
    Corsair White Graphite Series 600T
    Cooling
    Corsair H00i Water
    Keyboard
    Corsair K90
    Mouse
    Logitech G9 Laser
    Internet Speed
    6.3 MBps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    MS
I have 3 drives: -

1. SSD for OS and software. I do what Wullail does and use Macrium Reflect to create an image once per month after installing Windows Updates, plus I'll also do it if I make big changes to the system, although that's rare. I'm currently using about half the space on a 128 GB SSD and it only takes 4 minutes to create a full system image with Reflect. Reflect images can be mounted in Windows, so they appear with a drive letter just like a regular partition, which is handy if you just need to retrieve a file that you accidentally deleted or whatever.

2. HDD for data. This holds all of my personal data - music, videos, photos etc. This is where the system image from step 1 is stored.

3. External HDD for local backups. This is a mirror of my main data HDD. I use Cobian Backup for this as it's free and works great. I use incremental backups, so it only backs up files that are new or have changed whenever it's run, which makes it really fast (as I back up often).

I also keep backups of the files I really can't afford to lose in the cloud. I currently use SkyDrive for that as I signed up to it early and got 25GB for free, plus it's baked into Windows 8.1. But if you don't want to use that, there are plenty of alternatives such as Dropbox or SugarSync. There are also complete cloud backup solutions such as Carbonite, where all of your data is backed up on the fly, although you have to pay a monthly/annual fee for those.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center (64 bit)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    Asus Maximus V Gene
    Memory
    Corsair 4 x 4 GB 1,600 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte GTX 670
    Sound Card
    RME HDSPe AIO
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell U2713HM
    Screen Resolution
    2,560 x 1,440
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 830 SSD 128 GB
    Hitachi 7K3000 2 TB
    PSU
    Seasonic X-760
    Case
    Silverstone TJ08-E
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D14 Special Edition
    Keyboard
    Logitech K800
    Mouse
    Logitech M570
    Internet Speed
    60 Mbps/3 Mbps cable
    Browser
    Opera 12.16
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