Solved A little help finding backup software

It is also possible to make wim image backups. Lots of advantages to the format, however it is one partition at a time.

dism++ makes it easy and you can do exclusions as well as append where only the differences are backed up.

I tend to use wimlib rather than dism.

@tbmljk says
Acronis true image needs to be installed on your computer to create and use a bootable USB to make and restore image backups.

@hdmi

shall I copy this dl iso to my usb stick? what do I do then boot it up or does it open itself as an app?

btw neat trick for covert ops how did you do a spoiler

@fixer ru saying that the iso file from HDMI wont work without onerous registering with their site, he said it was a free util

seems Fixer is right

BrianS said:

View attachment 50507

Hmm when you browse around you find many scary stories in the Backup Industry. OBTW this was from Trustpilot

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For me it has been fine, maybe they fixed issues if any? Maybe the guy had other issues ? Makes no difference to me if anyone tries it or not.

BrianS said:

how did you do a spoiler

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[SPOILER]Hide this!!![/SPOILER]

Brill

BrianS said:

shall I copy this dl iso to my usb stick?

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No, it's a virus. Just kidding...

BrianS said:

what do I do then boot it up or does it open itself as an app?

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Just boot your computer from your bootable USB stick. It should boot into Ventoy so then you should be able to continue booting into the ISO file from there.

@hdmi

Just boot your computer from your bootable USB stick. It should boot into Ventoy so then you should be able to continue booting into the ISO file from there.

OK so how do I make a C drive iso - seems the above link you gave doesnt work anymore

so to get the full picture do I need to have stick something that will boot a new drive to start with Win PE (as some say)

BrianS said:

OK so how do I make a C drive iso - seems the above link you gave doesnt work anymore

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Which link? The image of your C: partition (and other partitions needed to be able to run Windows like normal) will not be an ISO, it will be a .tibx file. (With older versions of Acronis─older than version 2020─this used to be a .tib file.)

BrianS said:

so to get the full picture do I need to have stick something that will boot a new drive to start with Win PE (as some say)

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The easiest way to get WinRE (not WinPE) is to use the official Windows Installation ISO from Microsoft.

You see we are back to my original assertion that the Win back up system will only (with luck re instal the Win 11 prog itslef, it will not contain all the original user settings which you have to start all over again. worse still all your apps will be lost. I thought making an iso copy of the disk partition was suppose to deal with this, but I suppose in the event of a crash you need a full disc iso to include all partitions

The image of your C: partition (and other partitions needed to be able to run Windows like normal) will not be an ISO, it will be a .tibx file. (With older versions of Acronis─older than version 2020─this used to be a .tib file.)

Now this really has confused me. I thought an ISO clone was a bitwise action. So when it is mounted on a new disc you will get a complete replica of what was on the original disc

Are we on the same page

BrianS said:

@tbmljk says
Acronis true image needs to be installed on your computer to create and use a bootable USB to make and restore image backups.

@hdmi

shall I copy this dl iso to my usb stick? what do I do then boot it up or does it open itself as an app?

btw neat trick for covert ops how did you do a spoiler

@fixer ru saying that the iso file from HDMI wont work without onerous registering with their site, he said it was a free util

seems Fixer is right

View attachment 50577

Click to expand...

My understanding is that you cannot download the bootable iso unless you have previously purchased and registered it with Acronis though I guess there may be ways around that. In any case, even after you have copied it to your Ventoy stick you may find the iso won't boot if your computer is UEFI and has secure boot enabled.

BrianS said:

You see we are back to my original assertion that the Win back up system will only (with luck re instal the Win 11 prog itslef, it will not contain all the original user settings which you have to start all over again. worse still all your apps will be lost. I thought making an iso copy of the disk partition was suppose to deal with this, but I suppose in the event of a crash you need a full disc iso to include all partitions

The image of your C: partition (and other partitions needed to be able to run Windows like normal) will not be an ISO, it will be a .tibx file. (With older versions of Acronis─older than version 2020─this used to be a .tib file.)

Now this really has confused me. I thought an ISO clone was a bitwise action. So when it is mounted on a new disc you will get a complete replica of what was on the original disc

Are we on the same page

Click to expand...

When you create a disk image, whether with the MS Win7 system or with Acronis or any other third party imaging app, your system image contains EVERYTHING on the disk, including drivers, your apps and all your settings. You are making really heavy weather of this - just get Acronis, Macrium Reflect, Aomei or whatever and try it.

well thnx @fixer
My understanding is that you cannot download the bootable iso unless you have previously purchased and registered it with Acronis though I guess there may be ways around that. In any case, even after you have copied it to your Ventoy stick you may find the iso won't boot if your computer is UEFI and has secure boot enabled.

Im beginning to wonder if Im just dealing with idle speculation here, so far its all dead end or leading to a subscription liaison with one of the main far east Vendors

At this rate its getting to the stage of letting the inevitable worn out disc crash, buying a new HDD and trying to reinstal or otherwise buy another version of W 11 - at least I know where I will be and the apps that I have I can reinstal them - just takes up time

But the bottom line here after all this is that, unless you are a specialist nerd, then you are fooling yourself thinking you have made a reliable back up.

Show me Im wrong

hdmi said:

Which link? The image of your C: partition (and other partitions needed to be able to run Windows like normal) will not be an ISO, it will be a .tibx file. (With older versions of Acronis─older than version 2020─this used to be a .tib file.)

The easiest way to get WinRE (not WinPE) is to use the official Windows Installation ISO from Microsoft.

Download Official Windows 11 ISO file from Microsoft Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to download an official Windows 11 ISO file from Microsoft. Microsoft provides ISO files for Windows 11 to download. You can use these ISO files to clean install or in-place upgrade Windows 11. The Flight Hub can also help you keep updated on which Windows 11...

www.elevenforum.com

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The installation Environment is WinPE. WinRE is the recovery Environment which is what you get if you make a recovery disk.

BrianS said:

well thnx @fixer
My understanding is that you cannot download the bootable iso unless you have previously purchased and registered it with Acronis though I guess there may be ways around that. In any case, even after you have copied it to your Ventoy stick you may find the iso won't boot if your computer is UEFI and has secure boot enabled.

Im beginning to wonder if Im just dealing with idle speculation here, so far its all dead end or leading to a subscription liaison with one of the main far east Vendors

At this rate its getting to the stage of letting the inevitable worn out disc crash, buying a new HDD and trying to reinstal or otherwise buy another version of W 11 - at least I know where I will be and the apps that I have I can reinstal them - just takes up time

But the bottom line here after all this is that, unless you are a specialist nerd, then you are fooling yourself thinking you have made a reliable back up.

Show me Im wrong

Click to expand...

I can't be bothered arguing with you - Macrium Reflect 8 Free is still downloadable. Get it, try it, and come back here and publicly eat your words.

BrianS said:

You see we are back to my original assertion that the Win back up system will only (with luck re instal the Win 11 prog itslef, it will not contain all the original user settings which you have to start all over again. worse still all your apps will be lost. I thought making an iso copy of the disk partition was suppose to deal with this, but I suppose in the event of a crash you need a full disc iso to include all partitions

Click to expand...

The ISO file format isn't intended for this purpose, but there exist several other types of image file formats that are.

BrianS said:

Now this really has confused me. I thought an ISO clone was a bitwise action. So when it is mounted on a new disc you will get a complete replica of what was on the original disc

Are we on the same page

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It depends. To save space, you can choose between capturing the entire disk and capturing only those specific partitions you want. Also, you can specify file/folder exclusions so that those will be skipped during the image creation. Some filetypes will be excluded from image by default (e.g., the Windows pagefile). In addition to exclusions of specified files/folders, skipping all the unused sectors on the disk/partitions (unused space) is common practice unless maybe if the goal is to gather forensic evidence in a legal investigation or to try to recover data that has been corrupted/damaged or deleted in such a way that it might still be possible to (partially) repair or undelete.

P.S., by reducing the total amount of data to be processed, the time it takes to finish the job can also be reduced so, if imaging the whole disk is not needed─especially if large portions of it are not needed─it very often makes good sense to choose a capture method that specifically avoids capturing every sector (called "sector-by-sector") of the disk. So, that's another valid reason to want non sector-by-sector images.

kado897 said:

The installation Environment is WinPE.

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Yeah, my bad, sorry about that. I had a brain fart.

BrianS said:

, unless you are a specialist nerd,

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That I am, but I am not alone. Temporarily disabling Secure Boot in the UEFI settings before booting from a bootable USB stick shouldn't be that hard IMO, it's just a basic admin skill that most people can learn.

hdmi said:

Yeah, I abandoned Norton Ghost not too long after Norton had been taken over by Symantec. This was a very long time ago.

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Peter Norton would roll over in his grave, if he saw what Symantec did with his name. How or why Symentec stuck Peter's name on Ghost was always way beyond my understanding. I was too busy making a living in those days, to pursue the investigation. Peter Norton certainly did not write Ghost. I found the following, by doing some web snooping:
The technology was acquired in 1998 by Symantec . The backup and recovery functionality has been replaced by Symantec System Recovery (SSR), although the Ghost imaging technology is still actively developed and is available as part of Symantec Ghost Solution Suite.
Binary Research developed Ghost in Auckland, New Zealand.

Anyway, back in the day it was at least a common opinion on the WWW that Symantec screwed up everything that they touched.
Symantec had quite a following, , , with torches and pitchforks!

They even turned Ghost into a Windows program. I never liked that idea, since how would I run it if my PC had just Crashed.
I didn't have the time or need to mess with that, so I just stayed with what I already had, and that worked...Ghost 11.5 on a Disk.

The latest page in the Saga of Ghost, is a version similar to the Ghost 11.5 that I still use, that runs from within a bootable Windows shell.
Some 'expert' might say that's not right, but it's what I'd call it anyway. It was prepared and released by "Broadcom", in 2021.
And is available today, from a web site on the WWW.
When the Brodcom version boots up a PC , it displays the little blue window, and looks like Win-10 starting to boot up. Then the screen changes to a blue screen with the Ghost program window in the center of the screen. Then Ghost runs exactly like it did years ago.

I've tried it, and I like it, but for some odd reason, it will not boot up and run on one of my PC's. So on that PC I still use the older DOS version on a Flash Drive.
If anyone really wanted to know how to acquire that 2021 Version of Ghost, I could maybe tell them, in a PM.

@fixer
Bit rude
I can't be bothered arguing with you - Macrium Reflect 8 Free is still downloadable. Get it, try it, and come back here and publicly eat your words.

I have dld MR8 as above and got suitably chastised. It showed me I really wasnt up to this task to confidently assure myself that I had created a truly reliable backup and restore system without going to the faff of physically installing a new drive to simulate a crash.
I (a noob) have stumbled into a nerd world where I dont understand and nerds dont understand why I dont understand. By default nerds dont have the patience to educate noobs - fact of life.
For example - a typical dead end - I discovered in the small print that cloning my C drive to an external HDD is fine BUT to recovered this to a new replacement HDD would need me to remove my ext hdd from its caddy and insert it within the PC. Microsoft dont allow restore from a USB drive (obvious when you think about it I suppose. So to go that far I might as well buy another identical HDD and insert it into the spare D slot. THEY DONT TELL YOU THIS.

I think I may just carry on till that ultimate crash (maybe 5 years hence say - my last one was 8 years, by which time W12 will be in your face and my PC will be deprecated anyway), carefully saving data externally. My Apps can be re loaded. Time to move on and get a life or whats left of it the way we are going.

For me this has highlighted a glaring error in the Microsoft PC monopoly - the total failure to provide a user friendly system backup/restore - no factory reset button. The Media/Industry have utterly failed in their duty of care to the domestic consumers (not applicable to commercials of course).

BrianS said:

@fixer
Bit rude
I can't be bothered arguing with you - Macrium Reflect 8 Free is still downloadable. Get it, try it, and come back here and publicly eat your words.

I have dld MR8 as above and got suitably chastised. It showed me I really wasnt up to this task to confidently assure myself that I had created a truly reliable backup and restore system without going to the faff of physically installing a new drive to simulate a crash.
I (a noob) have stumbled into a nerd world where I dont understand and nerds dont understand why I dont understand. By default nerds dont have the patience to educate noobs - fact of life.
For example - a typical dead end - I discovered in the small print that cloning my C drive to an external HDD is fine BUT to recovered this to a new replacement HDD would need me to remove my ext hdd from its caddy and insert it within the PC. Microsoft dont allow restore from a USB drive (obvious when you think about it I suppose. So to go that far I might as well buy another identical HDD and insert it into the spare D slot. THEY DONT TELL YOU THIS.

I think I may just carry on till that ultimate crash (maybe 5 years hence say - my last one was 8 years, by which time W12 will be in your face and my PC will be deprecated anyway), carefully saving data externally. My Apps can be re loaded. Time to move on and get a life or whats left of it the way we are going.

For me this has highlighted a glaring error in the Microsoft PC monopoly - the total failure to provide a user friendly system backup/restore - no factory reset button. The Media/Industry have utterly failed in their duty of care to the domestic consumers (not applicable to commercials of course).

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Hi there

Like most complex things (and computers are complex) one needs to learn gradually -- it's the same with any complex activity -- whether engineering, physics or whatever. You can't just expect a computer just to be "load and go". It's not a passive device say as a toaster or an electric shaver. You need to have a bit of patience -- and there's a load of really god online tutorials. We were all "Noobs" once and some of us had to do it the hard way -- the web was barely in existence, email etc was by text only and forums were generally "bulletin boards".

Some people do unfortunately have zero patience or tolerance -- best thing is to just ignore them. !!!

MR8 isn't going away any time soon - but another good one which has been around "Since Pontius was a Pilot" !! is the stand alone version of gparted. It has an Easy GUI - can copy partitions / data etc etc. It's free and won't go away any tome soon.

Cheers
jimbo