Free Backup Software

[CorylusMaxima]

Just wondering what people are recommending now that the free version of macrium reflect is not so availiable and will soon run out of support.

[king1]

you can get the V7 downloader linked here 2nd post
https://forum.macrium.com/47892/Download-Latest-v7x

then I just grab the full installer from the d/l location and keep it on hand...

as a bonus it still does a free upgrade to V8

[CorylusMaxima]

you can get the V7 downloader linked here 2nd post
https://forum.macrium.com/47892/Download-Latest-v7x

then I just grab the full installer from the d/l location and keep it on hand...

as a bonus it still does a free upgrade to V8

Yeah, I read that there's a way of tweaking the v8 installer to get it to offer the free version, but I haven't tried it
https://forum.macrium.com/69449/What-hap...ee-version
If there are no security updates after the end of this year, I wondered if it is worth bothering with or whether there is a good alternative.

[Wainuitech]

The Free version will keep working just wont have any newer updates.  As for security -- Its backup software so who cares Its only making copies of your working Software. Keep in mind the Free version  is meant for home users only, not in Businesses or commercial usage.

You can easily get it still from Majorgeeks. Just downloaded to try on a VM, its version 8.0.7279

https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details...ition.html

End of the day, good backup software is important, used many over the years and Macrium has worked more reliably than any of the others, next to no failures. So even if you pay for a life time license its well worth it.

[nzoomed]

I use cobian backup most of the time and that's free.

[Wainuitech]

I use cobian backup most of the time and that's free.

Does it actually Image the Whole drive ??

With Macrium, you can backup only selected files /folders, or as I do  once a week it images the whole drive, then daily backups on things that have changed,, keeps those sets for two weeks then deletes them.

everything is completely automatic.

So in case of a complete reinstall, its simple, just drop back a image, and bingo, everything is back, the whole OS, Programs and data. 

Last time I changed this drive (to a larger one) Imaged, put the image back, took around 15 minutes from start to finish that includes changing the drive, booted right away, and carried on as if nothing had happened. The actual completed backup took just on 4 minutes.

Many backups only back up data, which while OK is still a pain having to manually reinstall the OS and programs.

Macrium also has the option to run the backed up image as a VM, real handy sometimes

[CorylusMaxima]

Yes the whole system image is what I need and macrium reflect has served me well over the years, so good to know it is still the preferred option.
I've just finished fixing up a laptop that an IT challenged friend had inherited from work with quite a few issues, so thought I'd get it backed up and periodically check it out and do fresh backups for him.

[nzoomed]

I use cobian backup most of the time and that's free.

Does it actually Image the Whole drive ??

With Macrium, you can backup only selected files /folders, or as I do  once a week it images the whole drive, then daily backups on things that have changed,, keeps those sets for two weeks then deletes them.

everything is completely automatic.

So in case of a complete reinstall, its simple, just drop back a image, and bingo, everything is back, the whole OS, Programs and data. 

Last time I changed this drive (to a larger one) Imaged, put the image back, took around 15 minutes from start to finish that includes changing the drive, booted right away, and carried on as if nothing had happened. The actual completed backup took just on 4 minutes.

Many backups only back up data, which while OK is still a pain having to manually reinstall the OS and programs.

Macrium also has the option to run the backed up image as a VM, real handy sometimes

I dont believe it can image a whole drive, but trying to do that with the whole C drive while its in use is near impossible anyway. If i want an image backup I just use the built in windows backup which is able to do that.
The biggest annoyance with cobian backup is if you are trying to restore an incremental backup, it can be very difficult if every incremental backup is in its own folder with timestamps. I typically set it to do a full backup every week and then separate incremental ones each day in between

[Kenj]

Does it actually Image the Whole drive ??

With Macrium, you can backup only selected files /folders, or as I do  once a week it images the whole drive, then daily backups on things that have changed,, keeps those sets for two weeks then deletes them.

everything is completely automatic.

So in case of a complete reinstall, its simple, just drop back a image, and bingo, everything is back, the whole OS, Programs and data. 

Last time I changed this drive (to a larger one) Imaged, put the image back, took around 15 minutes from start to finish that includes changing the drive, booted right away, and carried on as if nothing had happened. The actual completed backup took just on 4 minutes.

Many backups only back up data, which while OK is still a pain having to manually reinstall the OS and programs.

Macrium also has the option to run the backed up image as a VM, real handy sometimes

I dont believe it can image a whole drive, but trying to do that with the whole C drive while its in use is near impossible anyway. If i want an image backup I just use the built in windows backup which is able to do that.
The biggest annoyance with cobian backup is if you are trying to restore an incremental backup, it can be very difficult if every incremental backup is in its own folder with timestamps. I typically set it to do a full backup every week and then separate incremental ones each day in between

"but trying to do that with the whole C drive while its in use is near impossible anyway."

No problems, I've been doing exactly that with Acronis for many years

[king1]

I tend to rely on my macrium images more than cobian backups nowadays (i do both), mainly since the macrium images can be mounted to a drive letter and explored...

live image backups work well as long as VSS is working OK - not always the case if the drive has issues

[nzoomed]

I dont believe it can image a whole drive, but trying to do that with the whole C drive while its in use is near impossible anyway. If i want an image backup I just use the built in windows backup which is able to do that.
The biggest annoyance with cobian backup is if you are trying to restore an incremental backup, it can be very difficult if every incremental backup is in its own folder with timestamps. I typically set it to do a full backup every week and then separate incremental ones each day in between

"but trying to do that with the whole C drive while its in use is near impossible anyway."

No problems, I've been doing exactly that with Acronis for many years

Never played around much with Acronis, might be worth a look at. You will probably find that the software reboots into its own startup mode to image the drive while windows is shut down?

[Wainuitech]

"but trying to do that with the whole C drive while its in use is near impossible anyway."

No problems, I've been doing exactly that with Acronis for many years

Never played around much with Acronis, might be worth a look at. You will probably find that the software reboots into its own startup mode to image the drive while windows is shut down?

Any Backup is only any good if it works. Years ago I used Acronis, one of my customers used it as well. BUT on the customers machine, even though it said it was backing up OK, when it was actually required the whole lot were corrupted. We contacted Acronis, and there reply said it was  the Owners fault for not checking the backups actually worked, and nothing they would do.
Thats when I changed to Macrium.

At least with Macrium  you can go into any backup as a mounted drive and extract any number of files. And the actual Image can also be run in its own Viboot as a VM.

Mine backs up every day, as long as the computers on, including full Images, no reboots required, it will run quite happily if I'm using the computer or not.

Got several types of backups, Images from Macrium (daily) 1 Full backup weekly and incremental daily, as well as documents and files that change all the time are backed up live, meaning as soon as any changes are done they auto backup. (using One Drive).

The other day, I reinstalled one computer in the lounge, did a backup with Macrium, then the following day when installing some programs something went horribly wrong and corrupted the system   Put the Image back from the day before ( took all of 4 minutes) and carried on.

[Kenj]

Never played around much with Acronis, might be worth a look at. You will probably find that the software reboots into its own startup mode to image the drive while windows is shut down?

Any Backup is only any good if it works. Years ago I used Acronis, one of my customers used it as well. BUT on the customers machine, even though it said it was backing up OK, when it was actually required the whole lot were corrupted. We contacted Acronis, and there reply said it was  the Owners fault for not checking the backups actually worked, and nothing they would do.
Thats when I changed to Macrium.

At least with Macrium  you can go into any backup as a mounted drive and extract any number of files. And the actual Image can also be run in its own Viboot as a VM.

Mine backs up every day, as long as the computers on, including full Images, no reboots required, it will run quite happily if I'm using the computer or not.

Got several types of backups, Images from Macrium (daily) 1 Full backup weekly and incremental daily, as well as documents and files that change all the time are backed up live, meaning as soon as any changes are done they auto backup. (using One Drive).

The other day, I reinstalled one computer in the lounge, did a backup with Macrium, then the following day when installing some programs something went horribly wrong and corrupted the system   Put the Image back from the day before ( took all of 4 minutes) and carried on.

You can extract files from Acronis backups as well WT

[Wainuitech]

You can extract files from Acronis backups as well WT

Yeah maybe so, But after having customers failures as well as some of my own, my trust in the software left ages ago.

Just curious -- when was the last time you did a complete recovery of the Drive to test, using Acronis -- As in blank empty drive and put everything back, complete OS, Programs data etc. ?

[Kenj]

You can extract files from Acronis backups as well WT

Yeah maybe so, But after having customers failures as well as some of my own, my trust in the software left ages ago.

Just curious -- when was the last time you did a complete recovery of the Drive to test, using Acronis -- As in blank empty drive and put everything back, complete OS, Programs data etc. ?

About 4 years ago   I only have the OS and Software programs as an Acronis backup so restoring is simple. All Data goes one of 3 Optical drives (rotated)

[Wainuitech]

Yeah maybe so, But after having customers failures as well as some of my own, my trust in the software left ages ago.

Just curious -- when was the last time you did a complete recovery of the Drive to test, using Acronis -- As in blank empty drive and put everything back, complete OS, Programs data etc. ?

About 4 years ago   I only have the OS and Software programs as an Acronis backup so restoring is simple. All Data goes one of 3 Optical drives (rotated)

Oh Dear, So no real idea 100% that they are any good ???

Guess it all depends on what's changed on the computer. If its next to nothing then  not so bad, but if like my works PC's that change daily, trying to recreate weeks or months of data would be next to impossible.

Worst case with mine I'd lose a days worth.  The full backups get tested every Two weeks Via ViBoot, if they boot from them, they will work fine on a reinstall. Then what ever data has changed gets put back Via onedrive or another backup that happens automatically.

Just had a call from a long time customer in a panic, sounds like their NAS drive spat the dummy, just as well that was backing up automatically live to google drive, worst case they have lost about 10 minutes of work.

[Kenj]

About 4 years ago   I only have the OS and Software programs as an Acronis backup so restoring is simple. All Data goes one of 3 Optical drives (rotated)

Oh Dear, So no real idea 100% that they are any good ???

Guess it all depends on what's changed on the computer. If its next to nothing then  not so bad, but if like my works PC's that change daily, trying to recreate weeks or months of data would be next to impossible.

Worst case with mine I'd lose a days worth.  The full backups get tested every Two weeks Via ViBoot, if they boot from them, they will work fine on a reinstall. Then what ever data has changed gets put back Via onedrive or another backup that happens automatically.

Just had a call from a long time customer in a panic, sounds like their NAS drive spat the dummy, just as well that was backing up automatically live to google drive, worst case they have lost about 10 minutes of work.

Never had a failure in all that time. Always kept a base version from the latest epic of Windoze plus Video and Photo editing programs and used that if I needed to do a clean install. Didn't do much on it other than those 2 progs. As the Beatles sang in Penny Lane, "its a clean machine"

[king1]

Time to revisit that Kenj - four years is definitely tempting fate with backups