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What do YOU do to save your stuff?

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I have a backup to an external hard drive.  What I want to do is protect myself in the event of a catistrophic hard drive failure.  I thought that "Clone' sounded like the way to go.  Maybe not.

In the "Clone" wizard I was selecting the destination drive. My intended target (ext WD 4TB drive) was greyed out. Both it and the source drive are Basic.  So it seems that an external drive is out as the desination drive.

OK, Acronis users, what is the best process for protecting my drive from getting lost?   Can I ever save O/S, programs (apps) and data?  If so, how?

Thanks for the advice.

Windows 10 / Dell XPS desktop / x64 / i7 Intel / 16GB RAM

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Edward,
I have used clones in the past for backups, like you described. It worked but it always felt very risky. I was always concerned that I might select the wrong drives. With ATI 2015 I started using full disk backups. I am a backup freak! I have backups of backups and I also use the "backup reserve copy" option to copy my backup files to another disk. I am not saying you need to have backups of backups. What I do say is that I think if you do a full disk backup and keep that backup on a separate drive you should be safe. Having maybe a copy of that on 2 different drives is better. I am always concerned that I loose my backup and system at same time.

I had to restore my system at least 3 times during the last 3 weeks and it always worked. Restoring a 100GB system took 20 minutes or less.

When you do the full disk backup make sure that you have a bootable restore cd, which you can create from within ATI. And like my backup files, I have 2  copies of those :-)

 

 

I'm with you on the multiple backups.  I also use my Nortom 360 backup and send it to another ext. drive.  Brings up another question.  If I ever go to buy another computer is it possible to set it up just as my current computer - with programs and settings?

I never tried to restore a full system to a new machine. I do not think ATI can do backups of applications and settings.

A number of years ago I used a program which could do that. You select the application and it would create an exe file which contained the app, settings etc. Running the exe would "restore" the app. Unfortunately I cannot remember the name. It could have been part of the "Disk Doctor" software package.

Hi Edward, Hi Stephan,

     The purpose of the TrueImage backup software is to make a backup which can be used to restore your existing system or to replace or upgrade to a new disk. The type of backup is all important as the backup must include all content of the disk including any partitions which are non-lettered, etc.  In 2015 & 2016, this backup type is called "Entire PC" backup.  

     When a restore is needed, whether you restore the entire backup or just parts of it depends upon what is needed to be restored. Whether you use a disk  restore or a partition restore or a file restore depends upon the situation.  The guides in my signature link 3 provides examples of each method and you will need to choose which best fits the situation.

    Get a test disk and perform the restore.  When performing a restore from the TI Recovery CD, whether 2014-2016, the procedures are the same and any time spent testing can be to your advantage.  Don't wait until you have a failure to begin your testing.

Good luck.