Another good reason for good backups

hsehestedt · Aug 18, 2022

We often preach here about the importance of having a good backup plan in place. Here is an example of another reason for having backups:

I fired up my computer today and immediately encountered a weird problem. My mouse pointer had a small rotating circle next to it non-stop. I tried a bunch of troubleshooting steps including disabling every single startup program and all non-Microsoft services, but the problem remained.

However, I knew that I have great backups, including one from less than an hour earlier. So, I started uninstalling programs with reckless abandon and finally found that the problem was resolved when I uninstalled the "ASUS Framework Service". But, in the meantime, I had uninstalled like a dozen other programs. No problem! Did a quick restore of my C: drive backup and then uninstalled ONLY the ASUS Framework Service. Problem solved.

The point? Backups are great not only for data loss or corruption, but you can go hog wild on your Windows installation and start yanking stuff out and modifying things with not a worry in the world because you can simply restore your backup afterward. In my case, this saved me a ton of time.

Ghot · Aug 18, 2022

Yep, yep.
Having good backups is only the beginning.
Figuring out the best way to use those backups is practically an art form.

cereberus · Aug 18, 2022

Ghot said:
Yep, yep.
Having good backups is only the beginning.
Figuring out the best way to use those backups is practically an art form.

For sure.

I have lost count of number of times some driver issue has arisen, and I am able to rollback to an earlier one from an image backup.

Bastet · Aug 19, 2022

I find I am confident in doing more drastic fixes for Windows problems knowing I have a Macrium backup which I can restore if I really mess things up.

jimbo45 · Aug 19, 2022

Hi folks
There is simply NO reason whatsoever to have no backups. However you do it or whatever software you use -- these days often your personal data is more valuable than the machine itself. Just take them --the old adgae is true --you can never have "too many backups".

Imagine if you were on serious medication and the medical system lost details of your condition. Probably result in a premature R.I.P.

However it's a Friday -- nice weekend in prospect so not wanting morbid stuff.

@Bastet

I see you are from Manchester UK -- what's up with that airport --used to be a synch coming into UK and getting train to York to stay with friends. Now it's quicker to go to Amsterdam from Iceland and back to UK via Humberside Airport (nobody in the UK seems to have heard of that one apart from about 17 people living in E.Yorkshire and a load of Shell Oil workers going to Holland and further !! - but it works !!) and then taxi, bus or train to York !!!

Cheers
jimbo

Bastet · Aug 19, 2022

@jimbo45 Rail strikes, missing or very late trains, Metro/trams not running so buses are running in place of these, Bus drivers going on strike. It’s like a madhouse here at the moment.
Busiest airports will have extremely long queues so it is no wonder that lesser known airports will be better for travel.

jimbo45 · Aug 19, 2022

Bastet said:
@jimbo45 Rail strikes, missing or very late trains, Metro/trams not running so buses are running in place of these, Bus drivers going on strike. It’s like a madhouse here at the moment.
Busiest airports will have extremely long queues so it is no wonder that lesser known airports will be better for travel.

@Bastet

Not visiting again until around Xmas --we've all had problems in all sorts of countries including here which is normally 100% safe etc but the UK does seem to have a particularly bad set all at once with a govt that seems "Absent on Parade". -- Anyway enough politics --UK has enough latent talent and history to get out of its mess eventually -- its history inspite of "Extinction Rebellion nonsenses" etc is remarkable for such a small country -- anyway enough of the politics - although the "Br---t" word probably was the last straw in generating the current mess over there.

Enjoy the nice weather over the weekend and have a good one. I did some post Phd studies in Manchester UK and always enjoyed the city - and Man Utd of course --forget City with all those "Dubious investors".

Cheers
jimbo

Bastet · Aug 19, 2022

I hope you’re right @jimbo45. Bxit is the main problem here along with the high prices for power & the probability those bills will reach £4.000 per annum which the majority of people will not be able to afford & food prices rising at a fast rate. I can’t see any light at the end of the tunnel for the UK.

jimbo45 · Aug 19, 2022

Bastet said:
I hope you’re right @jimbo45. Bxit is the main problem here along with the high prices for power & the probability those bills will reach £4.000 per annum which the majority of people will not be able to afford & food prices rising at a fast rate. I can’t see any light at the end of the tunnel for the UK.

@Bastet

Don't fret -- UK actually in the end after a load of endless dicusussions or so always comes out OK in the end. Current people just have no idea currently. Our politicians in Iceland are just as clueless but at least we have almost endless cheap thermal and hydro energy systems and sustainable agriculture even if during winter 50% of us might be called by International standards as raving alcoholics. !!

So enjoy -- the UK is just "Too good as a Brand name and a force for good" even if currently the wheels seem to be slipping off it.

And latest versions of Windows are actually good to play around with too.

Cheers
jimbo

Bastet · Aug 19, 2022

Thanks @jimbo45. It’s certainly a waiting game here.

BrianInEngland · Aug 19, 2022

I make a Full image on a Sunday morning, with daily Incrementals every day Mon-Sat. If there's a Windows update or I'm installing new drivers, another ad-hoc incremental just beforehand so it's bang upto date if anything goes wrong.

Like you said, you can never underestimate a good backup regime

hsehestedt · Aug 19, 2022

My eyes were opened back in the day when I did tech support and on multiple occasions I arrived at the conclusion with a customer that they had hardware failure resulting in data loss. I couldn't believe how often the answer to "how current are your backups" was "what backups?".

These were business people!!!

glasskuter · Aug 19, 2022

hsehestedt said:
what backups?

It's not a bit different now. For years I have preached backups. Every year I send out emails about it (to both residential and commercial users I worked for in the past). Every contact I discuss it. They refuse to heed my advice. As cheap as external storage or cloud storage is and with free applications to do the job and they still will not do it. It just makes no sense to me. One would think that after so many years the public perception of the importance of backups would have changed, but it hasn't in so many cases.

BrianInEngland · Aug 19, 2022

glasskuter said:
It's not a bit different now. For years I have preached backups. Every year I send out emails about it (to both residential and commercial users I worked for in the past). Every contact I discuss it. They refuse to heed my advice. As cheap as external storage or cloud storage is and with free applications to do the job and they still will not do it. It just makes no sense to me. One would think that after so many years the public perception of the importance of backups would have changed, but it hasn't in so many cases.

Well you can only give so much advice, if they lose their data it's not your fault!

hsehestedt · Aug 19, 2022

Isn't there a Muphy's Law governing this? The more important your data is the higher the probability that your HD will die.

That actually reminds me of another one I like. Murphy's Law of Inanimate Reproduction: The more often you take something apart and put it back together again, the more parts you will have left over, until you finally have enough parts to make two of it.

Anibor_11 · Aug 19, 2022

hsehestedt said:
The point? Backups are great not only for data loss or corruption, but you can go hog wild on your Windows installation and start yanking stuff out and modifying things with not a worry in the world because you can simply restore your backup afterward. In my case, this saved me a ton of time.

That was the reason imagen programs were created in the first place, some 20 years ago.

cereberus · Aug 19, 2022

Its an age thing. For those who grew up with floppy disk where one in ten disks typically failed, we soon learnt importance of (multiple) backups.

Modern drives are so reliable, people do not even consider failure.

Ghot · Aug 19, 2022

Another good use for backups...

I had my W10 install running clean and tight. It was installed on a 2.5" Samsung 860 EVO SSD.
So... I made a backup of my W10 install. Then I bought another 860 EVO SSD.
I then restored my W10 backup to the new SSD, and then did an In-Place Upgrade from W10 to W11.

Now I have two 500GB SSDs. One has W10 on it, and the other has W11.
Best of all, the software installs on both, are identical.

Bree · Aug 19, 2022

And another good use......

My System One is a UEFI/GPT supported device. It's running a Windows install that started life on my old 'main machine', an unsupported Legacy Bios/MBR machine. To migrate the installed Windows 10 with all my data and installed apps I clean installed Windows 10 on the new machine, made a system image of the old machine, then restored just the C: partition to the new machine to replace the one created by the clean install.

With Windows 10 now running on supported hardware, shortly after that Windows Update offered it the upgrade to 11.