How often do you do a full back-up

I do not understand why you need to dismiss others' strategies. Very few Windows installations will have only one partition!
Macrium Reflect will backup just as well as Ghost and is regularly updated. I use MR because, if I accidentally mess up my Windows laptop, MR can restore it in less time than it would take to troubleshoot and much less time and interaction than reinstalling.

Each to his own, but please don't insult me. MR can also install a backup to different hardware.

MiguelAngel11 said:

in my main's one per week, in my other 2 once a month. Full image method. I distrust the incremental method.

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I use Acronis and have it set to run backups on a weekly basis. Then after every 6 incremental backups it does a full backup.

pietcorus2 said:

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

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Ditto with AOMEI and Hasleo.

Josey Wales said:

Well I have 5 Photos, it is a choice of any user to have whatever they want in The Pictures folder or any other for that matter. I have zero Videos in my Videos Folder and only one in Documents.

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Anyone got 6?

Aw, c'mon, man. You made me take three pictures of my window-feeder birds, and now I have seven (That's 7 in digital).

TechnoMage2021 said:

From what I've read here, I'm starting to believe that there are a lot of folks who just don't understand what a full backup is. Eh?

I'm pretty sure that some folks have a main hard drive that is all ONE partition. So a full backup would be a bit for bit copy of that entire drive, with the resultant Image File written to another drive.

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Wait a minute. A full backup does not by definition require to be a bit-for-bit copy of an entire drive. A dataset does not by definition require to encompass (a) whole partition(s) or drive(s), and, the bit-for-bit copy (or sector-by-sector clone) requirement is not part of the definition of full backup either.

• A full backup is where all data in a specific dataset is copied. A dataset (or data set) is a collection of related, discrete items of related data that may be accessed individually or in combination or managed as a whole entity.
• An incremental backup is where only data changed since the last backup is copied.
• A differential backup is where only data changed since the last full backup is copied.
• A synthetic full backup combines the last full backup with subsequent incremental backups.
• An incremental forever backup retains full backups and subsequent incremental backups.
• A reverse incremental backup is where a synthetic full backup is the default, but incremental backups are retained.

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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Whenever I make a backup, something goes wrong, causing me to be unable to use it and have to reinstall Windows.
I learned that if I don't back up, there won't be any consequences.

I usually restore my latest backup from the previous Patch Tuesday then update to newest Patch Tuesday + any other needed updates then do a new full Backup with Macrium Home or AOMEI Pro and if there is a major version update to one or more of my programs or I add/remove a program than I will also do a full backup.

GCG1000 said:

Ditto with AOMEI and Hasleo.

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What are your thoughts on Hasleo? I used it before I fell in love with it

The trouble I experienced was when I needed to do a restore; it failed and I never got a resolution. EaseUs were less than helpful. It made my laptop unbootable and I had to do a complete reinstall of Windows, losing everything that was not in the cloud.

Firas said:

What are your thoughts on Hasleo? I used it before I fell in love with it

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Hasleo is an excellent (free) back-up and recovery suite for most users. It's easy to use, with plenty of good options, and performs a complete recovery when necessary.

GCG1000 said:

Hasleo is an excellent (free) back-up and recovery suite for most users. It's easy to use, with plenty of good options, and performs a complete recovery when necessary.

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Yeah, I like it too. Good choices.