Backup Now! Easy Windows system images.

[RV_]

[Skip to the link with the full article below to skip my comments and just see how easy it is to do. It has a lot of screen shots that make it easy and clear to do yours. Remember to back up individual files before you do your first image. I use Windows File explorer to copy the files to an external drive. Just get a drive with more than twice what you have on your main drive.]

I was a big proponent of the Windows 7 on up built in system imaging software over the trash from Acronis True Image. Macrium Reflect free is good but there is no other free imaging program that works as well or easy for Windows. IT seems rare lately for MS software to be the best but in this case it is for images.

Remember images cannot be restored to a different machine, only the one you made it from.

I did images weekly back in the early Windows 7 days and then decided monthly was good enough. I got lazy and when the actual Microsoft tech (I called them) deleted my data accidentally, just this past August 2018, when he was supposed to be fixing apps that crashed a lot after the April 2018 updates made them unreliable with one click. Yep my computer booted, but all my docs, videos, music, and pics were gone.

I went through all my backup storage hard drives and found the 2TB Hitachi drive I had it on and it had my 2720 System image on it! Yay! But it was from almost exactly a year earlier from 2017. I lost all the past year's data. I mulled suing MS  But after trying to restore the data with the correct data recovery tools and not having used it for several months, I bought a refurb HP Mini tower AMD 3.4 gHz quad core/8GB/500GB desktop with a 1 yr warranty from Newegg for $159.99 and a new glare free 27" Quad HD Acer monitor with Free sync, in its place as my main daily  machine. I decided I wanted my 2710 back. I missed the touch screen for fast resizing. I actually buy all my music on CDs from Goodwill, yard sales, and Pawn shops for a buck with many still in cellophane. I keep my disks both music and Blu-Ray in Case Logic 250 disk give or take storage albums with their CD cover art and song list. So I have maybe 100 disks to rip I bought in the last year

So a giant PITA, but the system images work as well as ever if not better. I just reset my computer with a full erase and a fresh version of Windows 10. When it was back up I Then I went to system/Update and Security/Recovery/and clicked on restart now under Advanced Startup, then I selected to restore an image from a USB device because my drive dock is connected via USB3. I located the saved image and selected it. IT brought me back to the last image I made in 2017 and after it was restored, I did all the Windows updates as they came up.

So later when we've settled into our new house in Colorado Springs, I'll find what music is missing and re-rip them to the best mp3 quality. Remember I own the disks and can play the original source anytime I want, I did not nee to have multiple Hard drives and my main SSD drive filled up with perfect copies of the disks I have at hand. I've already transferred my pictures from my phone .

You still will want to back up your files separately. I have had to return my Surface Pro 4 three times and am waiting on that third attempted replacement hoping this one isn't just another bad refurb with messed up ports and assemblies. So I just copied my docs,/favorites/pics/videos etc. to one of my portable 2.5" drives in  enclosures, THen I set up the new Surface Pro with my programs and updates, and copy my data over to the folders where they belong.

Excerpt:

" The built-in backup utilities in Windows are pretty solid. Let’s take a look at how to create a full backup image of your PC without the need for a third party utility. 

Normal backup programs, like CrashPlan or Windows’ built-in File History feature, essentially copy your files to another location. A system image backup, on the other hand, is like a full snapshot of an entire hard drive. The advantage of a system image is that if a hard drive crashes, you can replace it, restore the image, and have your system right back to where it was when the image was captured. No need to reinstall Windows or your apps.

The biggest disadvantage with system image backups—other than taking a bit longer—is that you can’t restore the backup to a different PC. You’re creating an image of your full Windows installation and, since Windows is set up specifically for your hardware, it just won’t work as-is in another PC. It would be like trying to plug your hard drive into another PC and expecting everything to load well. With that in mind, though, image backups can still be really handy.

Third-party apps like like Macrium Reflect or Acronis True Image—at least, the paid versions—do offer some advanced features you won’t find in the Windows system image backup tool. For example, both support incremental backups, password protected images, and the ability to browse backups for individual files. But free is free, and if you don’t need the extra features, the Windows tool offers a solid way to perform a full backup of your system."

Click here and be sure to read the entire article before you do your first image:

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/4241/how-to-create-a-system-image-in-windows-7/

 

[RV_]

Of course some folks are too far behind hardware-wise:

[docj]

One thing to point out is that, in addition to making an image, it's also important to create a recovery USB drive to bring the system up so you can load the image.

[RV_]

Yep,

For Windows 10, how to is here:

https://www.bing.com/search?q=windows+10+recovery+drive&qs=n&form=QBRE&sp=-1&pq=windows+10+recovery+drive&sc=8-25&sk=&cvid=FD80D101B10348769F19A6BF499DAE57

I use 16GB thumb drives, one for each computer.They sell them at Newegg for $3.99 ea. I have 4 or five ADATA USB 3.0 flash drives already and they haven't failed me yet.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211760&Description=16gb flash drive&cm_re=16gb_flash_drive-_-20-211-760-_-Product