mettelus

abacab

mettelus
A quick note on Macrium Reflect I just found out replacing an SSD. The FREE version does NOT allow restoring an image to a drive other than its original source. The retail version does. Although I have always restored to the original disk without issues on the free version, that loophole makes the image worthless in the event of catastrophic failure of the SSD using the free version.

Luckily I did a preemptive strike on the SSD failure and Samsung's Data Migration worked like a charm, BUT that requires the source disk in tact. All authorizations and junctions took (Win7), even though only the two SSDs were connected to the computer.

Are you saying you that could not restore to a replacement drive with Macrium Free after a drive hardware failure?

Correct, and it seems to be baked into the image as well. I pulled the old SSD, put in a new, and there is an option to apply the image but only in the paid version. I am not sure if there is an out to that if the SSD is already gone (both the image itself and recovery disk seem to have "free" baked into them). After cloning the original, Reflect says the last two images done with the old SSD do not match the installed hardware.
 
I am not sure if it is possible to upgrade Reflect after the imaged SSD fails.

mettelus
That is odd, I am using 6.3 as well and booted from the DVD, but am on Win7. I will have to revisit this, since my system was still remembering the removed SSD until the system said "System Recovery is turned off." When I checked options in there, it had two C drives listed, so I removed the old and set it to the new one.
 
I did just check Reflect, and the images of the old drives are now valid, so I suspect the system remembering that drive may have been a part of it.
 
Initially the new SSD was also not formatted, so when I get a chance will boot off the DVD and see if I can see all images now.

BobF
 
I like the interface and workflow in Reflect better too.

polarbear
After my recent format and reinstall I set up Acronis and bought a 5TB USB3.0 drive. It creates drive images with incremental updates (keeps the last 5) of all 3 of my internal drives (C: OS, D: Samples, E: Projects) as 3 separate scheduled drive backups... I haven't looked at it since it started... I'd like to assume it's working haha. Eventually I'll get some solution for backing up my backups. (I love computers).

• New! Backup Statistics and Activity graphically represents content of a backup, provides statistics for backed-up file categories, such as documents, photos, videos, music, and others. Backup activity streams allow you to track history of backup operations starting from a backup creation, the operation statuses, and to analyze the statistics for successfully backed-up data.

• Improved Media Builder to create WinPE media by using Windows Recovery Environment without downloading the additional component—Windows ADK or Windows AIK (up to 6 GB). You can customize your media in Advanced mode, or use the predetermined settings of Simple mode.

• New! Active Protection Dashboard monitors how many potentially risky processes have been flagged, and the number of files duplicated in cache to protect them from the risky processes. The dashboard provides statistics for blocked, trusted processes and allows you to manage a permission list so your trusted applications could run as normal.

• Improved Active Protection compatibility with Windows Defender and other third-party antivirus software.

• Improved Clone disk utility—You can clone disk on an active Windows system without having to use bootable media. By using the volume shadow copy service (VSS), Acronis True Image allows you to create a snapshot of the active partition and boot from the new disk.

• New! Conversion to Virtual Machine—Convert Acronis backup files to the Microsoft Virtual Hard Drive format to ensure the system will boot starting a virtual machine with Hyper-V. You can also mount a .vhd(x) file as a virtual hard drive.

• New! Faster file and system recovery with the enabled WAN optimization option that increases download speed from Acronis Cloud data centers.

• New! Faster Incremental Backup for disk and partition backups with Acronis Changed Block Tracker (CBT). The Volume Tracker reduces the amount of time taken to perform incremental or differential images by monitoring the changes to an image in real-time mode.

• New! Laptop power setting allows you to pause backup while working on battery to save the battery power. The paused backups will continue automatically after connecting power adapter.

• Usability and other improvements:
  • Mobile devices are available in the backup source list.
  • Access to backup shortcut menu with right-click.
  • Progress bar was updated with application window blurring.
  • Fixed issue with the search dialog that did not provide functionality of recovering several files from different backup versions.
  • Fixed issue with possibility to move a backup from a password-protected network to a local drive or to another share.

Known issues

• [TI-109637] Windows Defender is paused after installing Acronis True Image 2018, until Windows is restarted.
• [TI-92941] Running mobile backup prevents the computer from going to sleep.

dlesaux
Here's what I do! I have a 1TB USB drive where I installed my OneDrive directory. I use a free program call FreeFileSync that allows me to mirror my project files to my USB drive which in turn mirrors to OneDrive. Initial backup takes a while since it's mirroring the whole drive but afterwards, it only updates files that have changed. I backup every day and it takes about minute.
 
I've always followed the rule, if your data doesn't exist in three places, it doesn't exist. This method meets that intent.
 
As usual, YMMV..

raisindot
I have a two phrase strategy. 
 
I manually copy all folders to an external 1 or 2 gig drive. I don't want to have to trust some kind of proprietary softrware program to restore folders.
 
Then I use the free Macrium product (recommended by a person on this forum) to do an image file of my C drive and create a recovery flash drive in case of a system-wide failure. 
 
I'll never the use cloud for anything other than temporary backup. A few days ago my cable was done for a few days and I was Internet-less. Had I needed to get something from the Cloud, I would have been SOL. I also don't trust the security of Cloud-based storage. If hackers can get into CIA and DOD databases, it can't be that difficult for them to get into cloud based servers. 

polarbear
After my recent format and reinstall I set up Acronis and bought a 5TB USB3.0 drive. It creates drive images with incremental updates (keeps the last 5) of all 3 of my internal drives (C: OS, D: Samples, E: Projects) as 3 separate scheduled drive backups... I haven't looked at it since it started... I'd like to assume it's working haha. Eventually I'll get some solution for backing up my backups. (I love computers).

abacab
It never hurts to at least make sure that you can test boot into the standalone recovery environment, and access the stored images.  If you can't, it's easier to fix now before your computer breaks and you really need those images.
 
It is also a good idea to actually perform a test restore onto a spare drive, just to make sure that it works as planned, and you know the process before you really need it in a crunch.
 
I don't bother with incrementals, because it complicates the restore process.  I stick with full images only, which is simple if you have enough external drive space.  That way you only need one image file to complete a restore with.

JohanSebatianGremlin

igiwigi
I BACK UP AFTER A MAJOR UPDATE

Not to pick nits but most pros would probably tell you its a better idea to backup BEFORE the update.

Do not bother with online backup. get yourself a decent terrabyte usb drive  and backup and put in a draw ready for any mishaps.

This would be great advice if everyone in the world was like you. But alas its been my experience that most people are not like you.

BobF
My primary objection to Cloud backups is my 300baud internet connection.