How often do you do a full back-up

I maybe paranoid, but I do 3-5 full backups a day. It only takes a minute or so. Every time I get an update and see that it is working correctly, I do a backup.

Reading many of your posts, I get the impression that some of you only do full backups once every week or once a month.

I am conscious that I'm wearing out the SSD drive I keep my backups on. I use Macrium Reflect and keep the last 6 backups. Am I over doing the backups?

Every 5 days 2 full backups ; Macrium (1) and AoMEI (2) , never problems anymore............

I do 3-5 full backups a day

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I maybe paranoid

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Depends on individual need. When writing a novel it might be good idea to back up any documents that have been changed several times a day.
Something like karens replicator can do it automatically backing up only changed files.

Full system backup every Sunday morning, followed by daily Incrementals. I do an extra incremental before a driver or Windows update.
Personal files are saved to OneDrive, with a local external backup also done every 3 days.
Personal files are NOT on the Windows partition, but on a separate SSD

I keep two weeks of System backups, and the files backup is an ongoing incremental, unless I do a Full one again.

thecaretaker said:

Reading many of your posts, I get the impression that some of you only do full backups once every week or once a month.

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Yes, that is plenty, because it is mostly to backup OS and even an old backup would do.
Personal files are ussualy backed up nonstop, when using cloud services like onedrive.

Personal files daily (Syncbackfree)

Macrium full (Mon, Thurs) AOMEI full (Wed, Sun)

All unattended overnight (early a.m. between 1am and 4am)

About once a month because all my personal stuff is in the cloud. And only because it's much quicker than reinstalling Windows if I mess it up.

thecaretaker said:

I maybe paranoid, but I do 3-5 full backups a day. It only takes a minute or so. Every time I get an update and see that it is working correctly, I do a backup.

Reading many of your posts, I get the impression that some of you only do full backups once every week or once a month.

I am conscious that I'm wearing out the SSD drive I keep my backups on. I use Macrium Reflect and keep the last 6 backups. Am I over doing the backups?

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That is really excessive unless you have rapidly changing data. There are better and more efficient ways of backing up data than using image backups.

thecaretaker said:

I maybe paranoid, but I do 3-5 full backups a day. It only takes a minute or so. Every time I get an update and see that it is working correctly, I do a backup.

Reading many of your posts, I get the impression that some of you only do full backups once every week or once a month.

I am conscious that I'm wearing out the SSD drive I keep my backups on. I use Macrium Reflect and keep the last 6 backups. Am I over doing the backups?

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I always say you can never have enough backups, but that is a lot more frequent than mine. Really, it all depends on what you're backing up and how frequently it changes.

I do a Full backup using Reflect once a month, immediately after each Patch Tuesday cumulative update. There usually isn't much in the way of significant OS changes through the month, nor does my software get updated that often. I keep three full updates, this month's and the two previous months. If necessary I can restore my system to its state from three months (two cumulative updates) ago. If I read your post correctly you can only take yours back a couple of days.

Separately I have a batch file that I run twice a week. That just copies my significant user files to a networked drive. That is as frequent as I need, it's about as often as my data changes.

You say you do "3-5 full backups a day. It only takes a minute or so..." and that "I am conscious that I'm wearing out the SSD drive I keep my backups on". That sounds quite fast for a Full image, are you sure you are really doing a Full each time? If so, and you have the paid Reflect, then you can keep the same backup frequency while significantly reducing the writes to the SSD by using Incremental images. This would also reduce the storage needed for each consecutive image, allowing you to keep a longer history of backup on the same backup drive. For more details on choosing a backup plan see:


Even if you only have Reflect Free you could still use Differential images to reduce the load on the SSD.

Usually only about every 3 years. That is, each time after I buy a new laptop. After this full image has been created, I always put some of my personal files on the Windows partition, BUT... each time when I make another new image of the Windows partition, I exclude all personal files from this new image, which is easy enough to achieve with a reasonably fast USB flash drive (that has Ventoy on it, plus the bootable Rescue Media ISO file of Acronis True Image 2021). To save both storage space and time, these new images are almost always the incremental type, and, I only make one a few times per year. More would be absolute overkill, as it doesn't take that much extra effort or time to re-apply updates from the past several months after doing a restore, and besides, I can't even remember when was the last time when I actually needed to perform a restore, anyway in the first place, so... thanks, but I'll still pass even if you paid me. All my personal files are backed up separately with FastCopy, which is just a copy tool so no dependencies on backup software when dependencies aren't necessary in that regard. Put simply, dependencies on backup software solutions are for business/corporate type of environments where specific criteria and goals have to be met. Outside of such added complexities, to a large degree in fact, they are for those ppl who prefer to create problems and additional risk factors in a location where there aren't any.

OK, thanks for your comments. I also have 2 identical drives E & F. They hold all my music, video and pictures and backup copies of all my personal files (My Documents) from C Drive.



I also regularly back up my Thunderbird profile and Firefox profile and store them on my E Drive. I have 4 robocopy bat files to back up all my documents to my E drive, Thunderbird profile to E, Firefox to E and then a file to replace any differences on the E drive to the F drive.

My H drive is the Macrium Reflect (paid for) I can boot with boot manager to restore Windows 11 (C drive) from the saved files on the G drive.




It does keep me busy

I was once told I could never have too many backups.

I've never used One Drive.

Interesting reading. Thanks.

I forgot to add, I also have 2 external 2tb drives connected to my Netgear R8000 router. One has all my music on and the other all my videos. I can watch those on my main TV. Guess they are also backup drives in effect as they hold the music and videos that are on E & F.

My work and my photos are important to me.
My backup strategy utilizes 3 concurrent methods.

1. Microsoft OneDrive - continuous, real-time, offsite
2. Microsoft File History - continuous, local
3. Macrium Reflect Image - daily, local

I run the Canary builds on both of my desktops so I do full backups of them weekly. On my other computers I back them up every month or two. I don't have any important programs or data on them so it would be easy to do a clean install and start over if needed. My pictures and data are stored locally and on OneDrive. If I download something I don't want to lose I'll copy it to a Folder on OneDrive.

I run the 2016 Essentials server 1x a month on the Main Rig for my BU solution.
I don't have much new photos or data added very often.
The other 3 PC/Laptops I do maybe 1x a year as they are mostly test rigs.

Edit: Oh ya I also BU the WSE2016 Server to several (I rotate them) 4TB Samsung external SSDs in OYEN cases.

Using Macrium:
Full backup on the 1st of the month.
Differential on Monday every week
Incremental Tues - Fri every week.
I may also run a quick incremental before installing major updates or programs.

Do I think making multiple images daily is excessive for a normal user.... Absolutely Yes I do. Once a week or twice a month is more than sufficient for most people unless one is in a corporate environment. But only you know what changes you make during a day that might warrant taking it to such an extreme.

The only time I've ever made multiple images in one day is when I bought a new computer. I made one right after OOBE and another after I got everything set up to my liking. Now it's always once a month right after update Tue. with sometimes one in between if I make major changes. All my data is separate from the OS and backed up about every 2 months since most of it is not something I couldn't live without. What little data I have that is sensitive is in a special folder that automatically syncs to Google Drive.

As others suggested, instead I would be considering cloud storage or automatic differential backups. (I'm not a fan of using incremental backups nor am I a fan of having ALL personal data in the cloud, but that's just me). Only YOU know how you use your system and your choices should be based on that. But like with computer security, you shouldn't become paronoid about it. Just use good common sense and you'll enjoy your computer a lot more.

thecaretaker said:

OK, thanks for your comments. I also have 2 identical drives E & F. They hold all my music, video and pictures and backup copies of all my personal files (My Documents) from C Drive.

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I also regularly back up my Thunderbird profile and Firefox profile and store them on my E Drive. I have 4 robocopy bat files to back up all my documents to my E drive, Thunderbird profile to E, Firefox to E and then a file to replace any differences on the E drive to the F drive.

My H drive is the Macrium Reflect (paid for) I can boot with boot manager to restore Windows 11 (C drive) from the saved files on the G drive.

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It does keep me busy

I was once told I could never have too many backups.

I've never used One Drive.

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Backups require a secondary data storage space. By hooking a separate storage device up to the same computer motherboard directly through SATA/NVMe/USB/Thunderbolt/etc. you are just expanding the primary data storage space as opposed to are creating a secondary one.

As a result of this, none of these separate storage devices can be used to store backup copies in any way that can be considered to be reliable. For that, these storage devices require to be physically unplugged, both from the computer and from the power grid, and, next, they additionally require to be moved to a safe location away from the computer. If you have two external USB 3.0 HDDs, for example, you can move one of them to the safe spot before you hook the other one up. By doing this, you have two (2) backups as long as both drives are in the safe spot, and, as long as only one of them is in the safe spot, you have exactly one (1) backup. That is, if we can assume that neither one of both these two drives has died before you actually got the chance to retrieve the data stored on them. Because else, the number of backups you have will be reduced to zero (0). (Even, if only for a short while, like, only until you finished creating a new one.)

Pulling the SATA cable out of an internal HDD/SSD is not enough. Similarly, pulling it out of the computer case before either putting it on top of the computer case or putting it right next to it is not enough. Even if you have a NAS with advanced RAID (e.g., RAID 10) that is standing in a different room, you still need to factor in the potential risk of losing both the computer and the NAS at once. This could happen due to a home fire, a burglary, an earthquake, a flood, a lightning strike killing multiple electronics devices that are hooked up to the same power line, etc.. Also it could happen due to a software error, a user error or a hacker/virus attack. The protections of a router/firewall that sits between the computer and NAS can still fail. The built-in surge protector of a typical consumer-grade powerstrip also has its own limitations, and, the same can also be said about the power supply unit of the computer and that of the NAS.

That being said, some individuals here and elsewhere continue to obsess over a two percent difference in HDD failure rates in spite of the fact that no solid evidence exists to support the claim that this two percent difference is real, and they continue to obsess over it in spite of the fact that, by the time that some evidence has emerged, the HDD model in question has already become outdated to the point of mere hopelessness. These same individuals very often fail to see the fundamental difference between primary and secondary storage space, just like they fail to see the reason why this key basic principle applies to any and all backup strategies, whether these strategies be intended for average home use or be inherent of corporate infrastructure.

When it comes to the colorful exclamation of "you can't have too many backups", the harsh reality is that those who are the most vocal about it often are those who fall victim to human error number one, which is failure to understand the simple fact that two reliable backups can still offer much better protection than a full dozen ones the reliability of which predominantly exists in people's collective imaginations.

I take a Macrium full image every 2 weeks with differential daily.
I also use R-Drive image for a full image every day. Stored off my computer (fireproof safe).