Backup Software

[|MaguS|]

I got a 4TB External recently for cheap and have it hooked up to my network for easy access. What I am wonder is what is a good backup software? Windows 10s default backup system doesn't create images and using the old Windows 7 system for some reason wont work with the network drive.

What are ones you guys use to back up your OS? I would like the option to create an image and recover from the image. Paid or Free, don't matter.

[Munkus]

I use Acronis TrueImage 2017. Works well.

[DigitalDemon]

Personally I use Paragon Software, and they have a free personal use backup & recovery software.

If anyone needs/wants, I pretty much have unlimited codes for Acronis True Image HD, which will get the basics done, if you like Acronis software.

[Lupine]

I'm partial to Macrium Reflect. The free version is pretty full featured. Haven't used Paragon, but its rated well.

[Talon_262]

I'm partial to Macrium Reflect. The free version is pretty full featured. Haven't used Paragon, but its rated well.

I was a faithful user of Acronis TIH for years, even as they kept dumping features and dumbing down the UI...until one time early this year that I need to recover the boot drive on my media server, and the up-to-date TIH recovery boot media almost completely hosed the UEFI BIOS on the machine, causing me to spend hours to recover from that (which, fortunately, I was able to). From that point, I went to Macrium Reflect Free and haven't looked back; in fact, I just ponied up for a full license for my media server during their Black Friday sale (even with the deal, one license was $50, more expensive than TIH's 3-license pack that was on sale at about the same time). Every other machine that I own or set up for family and friends runs Macrium Reflect Free.

[Seyiji]

I'm partial to Macrium Reflect. The free version is pretty full featured. Haven't used Paragon, but its rated well.

2nd poke for Reflect. I use it to backup Windows and Linux to my file server.

[Silent-Runner]

another vote for Reflect.

[|MaguS|]

Gonna give Macrium Reflect a try with the free version. Wish the free version had incremental images included since the Personal Use 4 Licenses is pretty pricy.

[guest]

I've used TrueImage for many years. I've backed up four drive RAID 0 SSD on LSI controllers and restored on a Intel SATA RAID1 or just stand alone hard drive. The software has never failed me in any way. Alignment on SSDs is always properly handled etc.
The explorer plug-ins to go into backups to pull out a single file is nice as well. All good stuff.

[|MaguS|]

Really liking Macrium Reflect. It's working great so far!

[Mahjik]

Back from the dead......



I'm looking at some backup software. I'm not looking for full cloning/image backups, but just folder based backup. I'm planning to backup specific folders from Windows devices to my NAS, and then have my NAS do a cloud backup.

I'm looking at GoodSync which seems to fit the bill, but wanted to check to see if others had similar solutions. Would prefer something free but I don't have a problem buying a good solution.

[Mahjik]

Testing out: https://freefilesync.org/

[Trunks0]

You can also apparently use OneDrive to do this. Just look at Method 1 in this guide.

https://www.epinionated.net/sync-nas-drive-onedrive/

[Mahjik]

It's interesting their second alternative is to use FreeFileSync. FreeFileSync actually seems to do exactly what I want, however, it doesn't run in the system tray. So, if I use that one I'll need to run something like Minimize to Tray Tool.

[Galmok]

I too went with Macrium Reflect and bought a license just to be able to get incremental images with 30 days history. This works as differential daily files and at day 30, a full image is preserved and daily updated to be 30 days old (which, when combined with 30 days differential backups make up a full fresh backup). It is also quite fast, taking only a few minutes to make a daily backup of my C: (300GB, approx 2-5GB daily differential).

[Pr3tty F1y]

Just to pile on - also Macrium Reflect here.

[Mahjik]

For what I'm looking for, Macrium Reflect is a bit overkill. FreeFileSync works, but it only sync's once a day and it doesn't run in the system tray. It's free, but doesn't do what I'm looking for so I'm going to keep looking.

GoodSync is still looking good, and seems pretty inexpensive per year. Even if it doesn't work, I waste $25 on worse things during the week.

[Hardwood]

Back from the dead......



I'm looking at some backup software.

Synctoy2.1 seems to work just fine.

[Mahjik]

Synctoy2.1 seems to work just fine.

Thanks! Will take a look...


The sad thing is that I created exactly what I need now, 23 years ago. I wrote a file synchronization system for the company I was working for at that time. Should have kept the source code (and I no longer desire to write code today).

[Pr3tty F1y]

Thanks! Will take a look...


The sad thing is that I created exactly what I need now, 23 years ago. I wrote a file synchronization system for the company I was working for at that time. Should have kept the source code (and I no longer desire to write code today).

I used to user SyncToy on WinXP when I was in college to sync my flash drive with my home PC.

It worked great until it corrupted it's database and you didn't know if it actually sync'd everything or not when it broke down and refused to work (until you started from scratch). I hope MS fixed those bugs for these later iterations.

[Payne3d]

Synctoy2.1 seems to work just fine.

interesting software..but it looks like you have to create a windows task for it manually. there's no "schedule to run every x mins/days", etc., built-in.


i use paragon on a family member's machine. it's still free and seems to be working fine.
https://www.paragon-software.com/us/free/br-free/

[Talon_262]

I too went with Macrium Reflect and bought a license just to be able to get incremental images with 30 days history. This works as differential daily files and at day 30, a full image is preserved and daily updated to be 30 days old (which, when combined with 30 days differential backups make up a full fresh backup). It is also quite fast, taking only a few minutes to make a daily backup of my C: (300GB, approx 2-5GB daily differential).

Just to pile on - also Macrium Reflect here.

For a general backup solution, I rely on Macrium Reflect, both the free and paid versions; I like it a lot.

[Mahjik]

interesting software..but it looks like you have to create a windows task for it manually. there's no "schedule to run every x mins/days", etc., built-in.

Yep, that's what I'm seeing (testing it today).

i use paragon on a family member's machine. it's still free and seems to be working fine.
https://www.paragon-software.com/us/free/br-free/

Thanks, I'll take a look.

[Hardwood]

interesting software..but it looks like you have to create a windows task for it manually. there's no "schedule to run every x mins/days", etc., built-in.

That's right, a couple minutes spent in task scheduler though and it's good to go. You can have it execute pairings with the -r command line argument. It's explained in the help file.

As for the corrupt database. That would be unfortunate. I just don't mess with the folder's .dat files.

[globalist]

Windows 10s default backup system doesn't create images and using the old Windows 7 system for some reason wont work with the network drive.

Not sure how relevant this still is, but I'm having no issues using the Win7 system (image) with a network drive:

https://imgur.com/a/7ZHWC0O

[Mahjik]

i use paragon on a family member's machine. it's still free and seems to be working fine.
https://www.paragon-software.com/us/free/br-free/

Ended up using Paragon for now. Thank you for the suggestion!