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Backing Up On Windows [merged]

grmlin

grmlin

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 16, 2015
1,110
777
Hi,
now that I use a Windows laptop for work, what backup software do people use? There are somehow two different backup solutions shipping with Windows 10? One for file history and the other for system images? Do you use these?

On my Mac I used Carbon Copy Cloner and it worked great.

Thanks for your help!

-----

Bonus question somewhat related... I'm a Crashplan user but would like to backup more than one device in the cloud. Crashplan gets too expensive then. Anyone here has any experience with iDrive (the cloud backup service)?
 
c0ppo

c0ppo

macrumors 68000
Feb 11, 2013
1,890
3,268
I've used Acronis True Image. After I've installed and configured everything to my needs, I've simply used (paid) ACI to make a backup. Haven't touched it until my new X1E arrived. Then I've used it to restore everything. Worked like a charm. Worth every penny, because it saved me hours upon hours of tedious work.
 
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grmlin

grmlin

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 16, 2015
1,110
777
I saw this one, sounds good.

Whats ACI though? 🤔
 
grmlin

grmlin

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 16, 2015
1,110
777
Ah, of course lol. I like the idea of an image, but if the Windows tool does the same I’ll use that for now.
 
LeeW

LeeW

macrumors 601
Feb 5, 2017
4,341
9,442
Over here
Queen6 said:
W10's own backup solutions, never failed to restore across multiple systems. I create system images and have reloaded them countless times without issue.
Click to expand...

This, I backup using Windows own software directly to my NAS. Tested restores and they work fine.
 
Queen6

Queen6

macrumors G4
Dec 11, 2008
11,279
11,562
Flying over the rainforest at dawn - Priceless
grmlin said:
Ah, of course lol. I like the idea of an image, but if the Windows tool does the same I’ll use that for now.
Click to expand...

LeeW said:
This, I backup using Windows own software directly to my NAS. Tested restores and they work fine.
Click to expand...

Most importantly it's reliable as that's what really counts. I've probably used it hundreds of times, across multiple systems. After a project and the data archived, it's simply far more efficient to reload a clean image than pick though it all again to clean up. First to say no mercy on the SSD's 😆 equally yet to be an issue so don't care nor is it likely to be.

Just for fun, just checked this notebook, primary SSD has written just short of 40TB in the last couple of years, some of the older systems have way more writes, potentially more than double...

1593035504971.png


Q-6
 
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grmlin

grmlin

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 16, 2015
1,110
777
Cool, thanks!

just to be clear, it's what they call Windows 7 backup, right?

backup.png
 
P

pshufd

macrumors G4
Oct 24, 2013
10,133
14,562
New Hampshire
This is a problem I have to solve. In general, though, I could recreate everything on my Windows desktop. The important stuff is on 2 MacBook Pros which get backed up to Time Machine.
 
S

sbarton

macrumors 6502
May 4, 2001
263
65
I ended up using a program called AOMEI Backupper which allows you to crudely Sync a volume to a backup volume and only copy things that have changed since the last run (much like Time Machine) however, i say crude in that it does not allow a "Point in Time" recovery like TM. So in the event of a recovery scenario, i would (out the box) have to recover all files that have ever graced my data drive which is unacceptable to me.

So here's what i did. The backup program allows a pre/post script to run so i wrote a python script to capture file path and name of each file in my source backup volume. I run it as a post-backup routine and that on the backup drive in a folder with each file having date/time stamp as it's name. In included copy commands in front of each filename in the file so in case of need to recover, i just run that file as a script to return the files that were present in my source volume on any given date/time.

Windows 10 has a built-in backup/sync program that some use, however i don't trust it after playing with it a bit and i'm not sure of all it's capability
 
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BeautifulWoman_1984

Contributor
Sep 5, 2016
536
70
Hey guys,

I'm hoping I can get some help with this from the experts on MacRumors because this has been something I've been wanting to do for a LONG time.

I just want to backup my Windows 10 Pro PC.

I 100% trust Apple's Time Machine because Time Machine is made by Apple, however there are so many "Backup Apps" for Windows...

What backup Apps can people recommend?

Thank you for any advice!
 
W

Willie Heckaslyke

macrumors member
Jun 26, 2020
66
11
BeautifulWoman_1984 said:
Hey guys,

I'm hoping I can get some help with this from the experts on MacRumors because this has been something I've been wanting to do for a LONG time.

I just want to backup my Windows 10 Pro PC.

I 100% trust Apple's Time Machine because Time Machine is made by Apple, however there are so many "Backup Apps" for Windows...

What backup Apps can people recommend?

Thank you for any advice!
Click to expand...

On my Windows 10 PC, I've been using Macrium Reflect (Free) With that version, there are a few restrictions (like scheduling a back up for eg..) I just have a reminder pop-up every 2 days as that meets my needs.

It's done a full restore for me on a couple of occasions lately after I'd screwed-up something due to my tinkering 🙄

Now I know it really works, I'm going to get the Full version.
 
Boyd01

Boyd01

Moderator
Staff member
Feb 21, 2012
7,947
4,879
New Jersey Pine Barrens
I used Acronis for many years on my Windows 7 PC and it worked well, but there were a few things I didn't really like about it. It can be setup to work pretty much like time machine on the Mac.

But this forum is about running Windows on the Macintosh, and I'm just finishing up migration from a Windows 7 PC to a Windows 10 virtual machine running under Parallels on my new Mac Mini. Am really happy with how this is working out, it is noticeably faster than the old Windows PC and my old software runs great. It also lets me use Time Machine, Carbon Copy Cloner and BackBlaze for backups. So, no more need for Windows backup software! :)
 
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Ifti

Ifti

macrumors 601
Dec 14, 2010
4,023
2,597
UK
I used to use CloneZilla.
You can create a bootable USB with the program on - boot off of the USB and you are met with a simple GUI. Follow the prompts, connect an external drive, and the software will create a clone image of the entire drive.
I've used it a few times in the past to restore computers, or when upgrading to higher capacity drives, and its always worked perfectly well...….
 
M

mwptrsn

macrumors newbie
Jun 18, 2020
14
11
I've used OneDrive to back up when I've used a Windows machine and it's been pretty good. I believe Arq also has a Windows client these days.
 
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wardie

macrumors 6502a
Aug 18, 2008
551
179
I use WinClone to backup my Bootcamp partition, if that’s of use (I’m assuming here you’re talking about running Win10 on a mac)
 
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BeautifulWoman_1984

Contributor
Sep 5, 2016
536
70
Thank you all for your replies!

I should have been clear that I'm wanting to backup my Windows 10 Pro PC which is not running on Mac hardware.

I wish I could use Apple's Time Machine as I'm very trusting of Apple with my data/privacy, but it's obviously only available for Mac hardware. Is there some kind of equivalent to this on Windows 10?

I really want to backup soon, but I don't know which backup app/company I can trust with my data... 😥 😥 😥
 
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