How to copy backups to multiple drives? (the "3" in 3-2-1)

I will continue the 3-2-1 backup strategy that I have confidence in and has worked flawlessly for many years.

hdmi said:

The main difference [between the verification process that the bootable Rescue Media of Acronis True Image has and the restore operation that it also has] is that

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Thank you for this explanation.
I'll try to research that, I'll also try Acronis before deciding on the product.

I imagine you're annoyed with these questions and also about the fact that, as you mentioned, you have to repeat the same idea but it gets ignored.
But I'll definitely rely on your recommendations.
Also, it's hard to find out all the nuances when there's so much to learn in the beginning (e.g. I also need to find good drives and it turned out to not be that easy; there's a need to decide which PC to buy, and so on and so forth).

misterpersister said:

Thank you for this explanation.
I'll try to research that, I'll also try Acronis before deciding on the product.

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When you use the bootable Rescue Media to create your image, it does not create a disk snapshot as there are no running applications (and Windows isn't running either). Otherwise the verification process that I am talking about here would not be able to read the same data a second time from the source. That's just because, then, Windows would, pretty much as soon as the snapshot creation completes, continue to modify the data on the source. Thereby causing the data captured in the snapshot to no longer match the data on the source when verification begins.

If you decide to keep Acronis installed on Windows, there will be several background services running continuously on Windows, though, and the program also takes up more disk space than really should be necessary to achieve the goal of occasionally creating (and almost never needing to restore if you don't break your Windows nor break your applications) a customized (with exclusions) system image (albeit Macrium Reflect and similar programs also take up disk space when you keep them installed on Windows). On a modern PC, these background services don't bog the system down, but they might still interfere with other applications you use, BUT... you can simply uninstall the program after you have used it to build the bootable Rescue Media (ISO file) like I earlier said.

misterpersister said:

I imagine you're annoyed with these questions and also about the fact that, as you mentioned, you have to repeat the same idea but it gets ignored.

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Not really annoyed, no. Just a little bit surprised to see a few people continue to deny that which is still a known limitation of VSS and is documented by Microsoft.

misterpersister said:

But I'll definitely rely on your recommendations.
Also, it's hard to find out all the nuances when there's so much to learn in the beginning (e.g. I also need to find good drives and it turned out to not be that easy; there's a need to decide which PC to buy, and so on and so forth).

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Good drives are drives that contain the kind of data you KNOW matches the data you need. Bad drives are drives that contain the kind of data that, mainly as a result of choosing to use (or keep insisting to use) a verification mechanism that fails to provide this knowledge, might not match the data you need.

This is in addition to verifying the integrity of the drives, periodically, and to keep multiple copies of the same (and verified that it is the same, AND periodically re-verified that it is still the same) data stored in such a way that each copy is kept in a diferent information repository that is separate and isolated from all the other information repositories.

For example, if two separate drives are physically hooked up to a system directly through SATA/NVMe/USB, then they're not separate nor are isolated from each other. Rather, they are in the same information repository, and all data in an information repository can be lost at once. Suddenly, and without any prior warning signs.

Also additionally, it is of critical importance to isolate and protect each information repository against various other potential risks besides the risk of an unexpected hardware failure.

When I was using Macrium and now with Terabyte, I just use the old win copy/paste. rarely I might create an image to an offsite NVMe, but usually I already have it on one of my 3 onboard sticks. But. The point is to do it!!!

For the copy itself, Robocopy is probably still one of the simplest options here.
The part I’d treat separately is verification. After the copy finishes, comparing the source and destination independently gives you more confidence than relying only on the copy command finishing successfully.
For important backup files, I’d especially want a content-level comparison rather than checking only names, dates, or sizes.
I’ve been working with that kind of workflow recently and it’s a useful extra step before rotating or wiping any backup drive.

I don't copy images. I got into trouble doing that once and learned my lesson. I rotate my 2 backup drives, each having 3 images on it. I delete the oldest image when I create a new one. I keep one of the drives in a 5 foot fireproof, waterproof steel gun safe bolted to the concrete floor in another building on our property. Sensitive data is not on my devices but in my bank vault. As fast as imaging is with Macrium or Haselo is, I can't understand why anyone would want to copy an image rather than make another one in less time.

krism said:

When I was using Macrium and now with Terabyte, I just use the old win copy/paste

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Copy and paste can corrupt backups.

I'd suggest Robocopy.

@misterpersister

I use a highly technical method.
After I make the backup image, I right click it and choose: Copy
Then I Paste it where ever I want.