johnoo Posted April 19, 2014 Report Share Posted April 19, 2014 I am using Windows 8.1 with IE 11Weekly I take a copy of my "C" drive Documents & Photos onto 2 USB Flash Drives. I take 2 copies in case one of the Flash Drives failsAlso weekly onto a External drive I take a INCREMENTAL, ie those files that have changed, Backup up using the software within Windows 8.1, Control Panel/Save Backup Copies of files & file history.However I have now found that I can do a "Systems Image Backup" onto a External drive using again software within Windows 8.1 (You get to this from Control Panel/Save Backup Copies/& there is a icon in bottom Left hand corner)Questions:-Is it worth doing this "Systems Image" Backup?2 Is my overall plan good enough in the case of a Hard Disc failure? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bludgard Posted April 20, 2014 Report Share Posted April 20, 2014 Image backup wins out for me.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted April 20, 2014 Report Share Posted April 20, 2014 Personally, I use an external plug in hard drive and make mirror images using ACRONIS. I then transfer a copy of the latest image to my internal D Drive as a duplicate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted April 20, 2014 Report Share Posted April 20, 2014 johnoo - what make are your drives ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnoo Posted April 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2014 Boris,The machine is a Lenovo ThinkCentre Edge 72The drive is WdcModel WD5000AAKX-08ERMA0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted April 20, 2014 Report Share Posted April 20, 2014 Then you can use the free Acronis True Image Western Digital Edition - which supports Windows 8/8.1http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119&wdc_lang=enthis includes Drive Image Backup - to provide full drive image backups of a source drive at any time.Backup drive images will be stored as a file, which can be copied to any direct attached drive, network attached storage drive or optical media (CD/DVD). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnoo Posted April 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2014 Boris,Could be that we are at cross purposes, the Drive in my machine is a WDC.The external drive I use is a Seagate Freeagent Goflex, Model STAA320200.Having just quickly read the User Instructions for the link you kindly provided I think this refers to the backup being done onto a WDC drive.It would, to me, be foolish to do the Backup onto the Drive in the machine as this would be the one that has failed.Would you please put me right/correct meThanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted April 20, 2014 Report Share Posted April 20, 2014 As long as you have any Western Digital drive in the procedure you can use it OK to back up to your Seagate. Seagate also give you an equivalent free Acronis product to use, but the W/D version is based on a later Acronis version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D4\/!d Posted April 21, 2014 Report Share Posted April 21, 2014 Then you can use the free Acronis True Image Western Digital Edition - http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119&wdc_lang=en Boris, I didn't know about this free version of acronis. I still use an old 2011 version of acronis. I tried more recent versions but didn't like them, so reverted back to my friendly 2011 version. Would you recommend I ditch that old version and now use this freebie? I see it was updated to Version: 16.0.0.5962; Publish Date: 04/16/2014 I'm on Win7x64. My int drives are seagate; my ext drives are WD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnoo Posted April 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2014 Boris,Many thanks for guiding me to the free version of Acronis.I have used this backing up to an External Seagate drive, with I think no problems.Just three questions if I may1 On setting up the backup to my External drive in "D", I could not get the True Image "Make this Media Bootable" flag to come on. Can I assume this is only used if backup is carried out to a DVD/CD's?2 I have now got the first Backup completed.When I carry out future Backups are old versions overwritten or do I have to delete old backup versions?3 If I have to delete, I assume I do this via the True Image Software, if so does this also remove the Backed up files from the external drive or do I have to do this as a separate action?Again many thanks for your help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted April 21, 2014 Report Share Posted April 21, 2014 Re. 1 - Correct, this only works if you are making an image on a series of DVD/CDs Re. 2 - if you do incremental backups then you need to keep the previous files.If you do a full backup each time then I suggest you keep the 3 latest versions and delete anything else before then ? - depends on how much space you have on your external. Re. 3 - I use the normal right click Delete command Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted April 21, 2014 Report Share Posted April 21, 2014 Would you recommend I ditch that old version and now use this freebie? I see it was updated to Version: 16.0.0.5962; Publish Date: 04/16/2014 I'm on Win7x64. My int drives are seagate; my ext drives are WD. This free version is based on True Image Home 2013. It is up to you, some of my kit doesn't have Seagate or W/D drives so I use real True Image Home 2011 on them. On the others I use both the latest W/D + Seagate Free versions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnoo Posted April 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2014 Boris, again thanks very much Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D4\/!d Posted April 21, 2014 Report Share Posted April 21, 2014 @johnoo, I don't bother with incremental backups.I always do a full backup and keep at least the previous two. Plus a selection of old ones just in case.Like andsome I copy a duplicate elsewhere. I also have old copies stored at other family members' houses.Belt and braces I know. johnoo, another tip. Do a practice restore.Make a backup as usual. Then go through the restore procedure with an old version. Just for fun. No really it will familiarise you with process so when you have to do it for real, and you're really really stressed, you know what to expect. Then restore back the latest version and you're back to square one.Have fun, ...and thanks Boris. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted April 22, 2014 Report Share Posted April 22, 2014 I am still using ACRONIS 2010 in Windows 7. It works perfectly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnoo Posted April 22, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2014 Thanks, don't think I will keep another copy as I have no where to put it, I've only got one external drive.Re your other comments thanks & I agree totally.Also re the incremental backup, I thought it best to continue this so I could pick up latest changes to my system in the form of document changes after the last "True Image". I could then use these to do a restore after doing the bulk restore with the "True Image", am I wrong? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.