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In search of ... reasonable backup software

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barney:
My current/previous problem is several install-once pieces that are no longer available.  In order to recover [?] them, a full disk image is requisite, wherein lies my dilemma.  Not the first time  :mad:.  There's no viable way to recover what was lost, but I'd certainly like to find something viable for the future, as this will happen again.  Syncless and FreeFileSync work well, but they don't do well save for data (been using both for a while, now).  I hate it when both belt and suspenders fail  :'(.

MilesAhead:
I haven't tried Clone as restore myself.  But Macrium Reflect claims this allows restoring to a HD with different capacity.  I guess with SSD poplarity there's incentive now to be able to take images of large "spinners" where the used space is within the capacity of the SSD and clone onto the SSD or smaller conventional HD.

It is tough with copy protection as the software publisher is not going to detail the schemes used.  You are kind of stuck with not knowing until you have to try it under pressure.

Shades:
The design decision of MS to put everything into the C:\ partition I will never understand or appreciate.
Hence, I always make sure that there are at least 4 partitions in my PC. Now I should mention that in my lifetime I only bought once a Dell and once an Acer PC. Those experiences have made me build all my PC's after that.

C:\  - will contain only the Windows files (no user profiles, to temp files, no swap, no program files).
D:\  - will contain only 3rd party software that I install + portable apps.
E:\  - will contain only data.
F:\  - will contain all temporary files and swap file (I always disable hibernation and sleep options, these always have been too problematic to me. As this setup is actually fast with booting, hibernation and sleep become useless in my opinion anyway).

Initially this is  (a lot) more work, but reconstructing a PC into a working state again is easier, making backups is easier and even a Windows recovery will not have that dramatic effect on your data (being stored separately has that effect, you know).

Each time you install a piece of software from a 3rd party software, you do need to keep a watchfull eye out, because some of these want to install (some part of it) to the C:\ partition anyway, even if you indicate that it shouldn't. Whenever I notice this, these pieces of software are removed and the search for a portable version or alternative software begins.

Anyway, when a piece of software does find its way to my system, I'll make a backup of the registry with ERUNT (to my E:\ partition). First restoring a Windows System Restore point and then restoring the appropriate ERUNT registry backup is a very fast way to be running in a good state again without having to install and/or reconfigure the 3rd party software you need/like. 

- As the content from the C:\ Partition hardly changes, it is easy create an image from it that doesn't require much updating anymore.
- The content of the D:\ partition isn't changing that often either, so you can choose to make an image from this partition if you don't install a lot of software. Even if you do install/remove software often, using incremental backup software is a fast way to secure your software.
- Making a backup from the content of the E:\ partition could be as easy as a simple file copy to a different (USB) hard disk, re-writable DVD/Blu-Ray, tape or other computer.
- The content from the F:\ partition can be disregarded at any time any event may occur.

This setup has already saved me a lot of work rebuilding/reconstructing (Windows based) Oracle database servers that run databases varying in sizes of 50GByte to 400GByte. Also personal computers that had their hard disk(s) fail. An hour or two of downtime at most and then run again if nothing has happened, makes me glad I sacrificed time and effort to create these Windows setups.

cranioscopical:
He does your basic backup imaging(I think he uses Macrium.)  But periodically he puts an internal drive that is identical make/model/size to the system drive in his PC, in a docking station and restores the image of his working system to that drive.  He stores the drive away.  Now if he has a drive failure he opens the box, replaces the HD, and boots to a working system.

Of course if there's nothing wrong with the boot drive physically, then he just does an image restore from the drive in the dock, booting the Macrium rescue disk from USB or whatever.-MilesAhead (December 31, 2013, 12:22 PM)
--- End quote ---

FWIW, I do the same thing, also with Macrium Reflect. Luckily, on my main box I have a twin-bay drive caddy with two SSDs, so its a piece of cake to do this. That caddy is one of the most convenient items I've ever had on a computer.

I used to use Rollback RX when on XP but even the latest versions of it hose my W7 and W8 systems.

I have yet to see Macrium fail. For example, I just restored a four-drive system to Win7 from Win8.

Having a clone of the boot drive is useful but I tend to forget to keep it up to date, whereas I do remember to carry out regular backups, rotating the backup media (I know that's illogical).

MilesAhead:
@Shades a well thought out strategy.  That's the type of setup a consultant should create for clients.

@cranioscopical wish I had some of those. I never saw a HD R & R on a PS/2 but one time the IT guy came by to replace the 3 1/2" floppy.  I was envious as it was a zero tools operation.  The dude held down a spring latch while pulling the drive out and just slid the new one in.  I think total time to replace the drive was 10 seconds max.  (It took that long because he was gossiping with me at the time.) 

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