Online backup is the way to go. @asiacurious mentioned it earlier but it may have been drowned out by the debate on updates to Windows 7. Online backup is safer than having a locally stored external hard drive and you can backup in real-time; thus, not losing data from the time of the last physical backup and until the hard drive crashed.

 

If you have more than 1 computer, a synchronization service may be better. You get instant backup and you always have the same files on all the computers.

 

Personally, I use Dropbox which makes it very easy to go from my computer at home to my laptop or my computer in Thailand. This is not free; however, for me, it is certainly worth the price. IDrive may be better for a Windows user, I am using Linux and the IDrive solution for Linux is not very good. IDrive offers both traditional online backup and synchronization.

On 12/19/2020 at 8:29 AM, Jeffr2 said:

Some interesting comments here.  I was at first reluctant to upgrade to Win10.  Wow!  Sure glad I did.  I wasn't able to get a free upgrade, but found a used license on eBay.  Quite cheap and several years later, still working great.  Updates and all.

 

As for backup software, I've tried Google Backup.  Don't really like it.  Tried to do a restore one time and couldn't.  It was just a test, but wow.  Scary.  I'm now trying EaseUS Todo.  The free version.  Just starting today.

 

 

I have the Pro version of EasueUS, but I prefer to do my backups with Macrium. Even cloning your HD is possible with the free version.

 

    Just saying.....

12 minutes ago, teacherclaire said:

I have the Pro version of EasueUS, but I prefer to do my backups with Macrium. Even cloning your HD is possible with the free version.

 

    Just saying.....

I did my first backup with EaseUS.  Was pretty easy, but lengthy as I've got some 4TB to back up.  I'm setting up an incremental to see how that works.  I'll try a recovery also just to make sure that works also!!!

 

I'll look into Macrium.  Thanks!!

 

 

On 12/20/2020 at 6:19 PM, teacherclaire said:

I had Acronis for a few years, but Macrium does most tasks for free and it's easier to do so. 

 

I have the perpetual licenses, so when I buy a new computer, I just transfer over the old software download and license from an old computer I am decommissioning.  

Has anyone tried the Windows 10 Image Back Up software that comes with Windows 10?  

4 hours ago, KhunHeineken said:

Has anyone tried the Windows 10 Image Back Up software that comes with Windows 10?  

No incremental backups. No mounting the image, exploring, and restoring individual files.

Macrium. The free version works fine.

https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

22 hours ago, BigStar said:

No incremental backups. No mounting the image, exploring, and restoring individual files.

 

Is it just a complete rewrite over the C drive from the day it was created?  

On 2/11/2021 at 1:14 PM, KhunHeineken said:

 

Is it just a complete rewrite over the C drive from the day it was created?  

Rewrite of, yes. That's OK for some people. But then you need more disk space. I don't think Windows overwrites the first backup but simply makes another one so that you have 2 full backups. Eventually you'll have more. ???? And where are those? Suppose you got only 1 drive.

 

Incremental backups are a lot faster and take up less space. I have those but I also regularly make a clone of my system drive when something's changed I don't want to lose.  

On 2/12/2021 at 5:31 PM, BigStar said:

Rewrite of, yes. That's OK for some people. But then you need more disk space. I don't think Windows overwrites the first backup but simply makes another one so that you have 2 full backups. Eventually you'll have more. ???? And where are those? Suppose you got only 1 drive.

 

Incremental backups are a lot faster and take up less space. I have those but I also regularly make a clone of my system drive when something's changed I don't want to lose.  

 

I guess you could delete the first image and then create another one, but from what you say, the software is missing some standard features.