mettelus
Hi Susan. My apologies for not digging that up for you earlier. For some reason, Google wants to return the mobile link to that post, but this is the link to it specifically. I am not sure why Google does the mobile link at times. My phone seems to have a conniption fit any time I try to copy/paste a link on it.

Hi Michael-
 
No need to apologize at all! I didn't have a problem doing a quick search and now I remember xcopy from when I used it years ago along with .bat files ;)! Thanks for the in-forum link.
 
-Susan

fireberd
My comment about "paying for software" was really a general statement and not specifically to you.  

Hi Jack-
 
I understand and I didn't take it personally. I was just commenting on your comment ;)!
 
Thanks-
 
-Susan

Hi Jon & ...wicked-
 
I downloaded EaseUS and my first impressions are very good.
 
Thanks for the suggestion-
 
-Susan

BobF
I'm still on 8.1 (and will be as long as possible)
 
I also use Macrium Reflect free version for images.  I use FFS (also free) for file and folder level backups.  One really cool feature of FFS is that once you setup something via the GUI, you can save it as a batch file that can be scheduled.  The combination works great.
 
I have no problem using "free" software as a home user - the type of user the vendor targets with their free versions.
 

Hi Bob-
 
I heard about FFS a while ago but never looked into it, so thanks for that nudge.
 
-Susan

I really hope to settle on one backup solution, since as it stands I have rescue media for several, each with their own proprietary formats. I think I'm too much of a packrat when it comes to keeping backups (among other things!)
 
Right now it's between EaseUS & Macrium Reflect. I have lots of Acronis .tib files, but I really don't like the 2016 version and I can restore those with previous versions if I need to. One reason I upgraded ATI was I thought I might use the cloud backup feature, but apparently I can use EaseUS for that if I want to.
 
Thanks again, all!
 
-Susan
 

Susan G
I really hope to settle on one backup solution, since as it stands I have rescue media for several, each with their own proprietary formats.

It is probably a mistake to use the same program to backup files that you use to image a drive. The best backup is to just make a copy of the file in native format. For most things the compression is unnecessary with the cost of hard drive storage these days. As you point out, being locked into a proprietary compression format is a potential problem, and will also often explain why you cannot access backups directly from a new location. If you must compress, there are a lot of backup solutions that will use zip or 7z  (7-zip) for larger files. Zip offers some limited repair/extraction options. But remember that the larger the compressed file, the greater the danger of corruption. 
 
Richcopy https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2009.04.utilityspotlight.aspx is a very fast option for copying with a more intuitive front end than Robocopy. I assume that Cobian Backup still works in Win 10, and that will automate backups with a choice of compress or not. 
 

+1, if you hunt and peck "data" files, I think you will find they are not massive (save for audio/video files potentially). The most common locations to "just copy" are C:\Program Data, C:\Users, and the Cakewalk directories with dynamic content (projects, etc.).
 
Robocopy does have a longstanding bug in that it makes the target directory "hidden" upon completion which is truly a PITA to undo, but robocopy is required for a handful of situations which xcopy cannot handle (and the GUI is terrible). I prefer xcopy by far when it will "do the trick."
 
Another reason for the image/data file separation is the situation of "I want to do a fresh OS build but pull back in all of my data files afterwards." In this scenario, it is easiest to backup the data files "one last time," wipe the C: drive completely, and copy the data files back.
 
Interesting caveat if you use the desktop as a temporary repository and then move files on occasion to another "final home," is that a duplicate cleaner on the data archive may also be useful, but one which allows for protecting the "final home" path while selecting all other duplicates. This really depends on your file management schema, and unless you save audio/video or installation files, may or may not be applicable to you.