Solved Need some basic backup advice

gunrunnerjohn · Jul 15, 2025

A system image will get everything.

Froggie · Jul 15, 2025

If you did a standard product install (and haven't redirected anything from the installation), your bookmarks/favorites will be on the OS drive (c:).

You can install a disk image on another computer but you will have hardware differences. These differences may need different driver software in order for the different devices to run successfully... and many times you will have licensing issues with some of your licensed software due to the hardware differences.

Helmut · Jul 16, 2025

"would my browser bookmarks be part of a system image? Or do I back those up separately?"
Browser Bookmarks/Favourites are part of the system image. An Image contains everything.

What I do is occasionally export Bookmarks as an HTML file to a folder in My Documents. In turn that is manually uploaded to OneDrive. Also the My Documents folder is included in File History to a NAS box on a daily schedule.

"can I restore a disk image from one computer to a different computer?"

Not a good idea as the hardware and drivers maybe very different, thus very messy.

Hazel123 · Jul 16, 2025

Helmut said:
"Would I mount the disk image onto a drive with Windows already on it? Or would I mount the disk image onto a bare metal drive? Is the disk image bootable? I'm still not quite clear about it."

You need to make a bootable drive which would normally be a USB flash drive. That will contain typically Windows PE and the Imaging App.
You boot up with that USB flash drive then access your image.
That image is then restored to a new Laptop drive, maybe the same drive or whatever.

You can also use my windows 11 install usb

To make that, if you don't have one already, you just go to the Microsoft download Windows 11 page and use the "Windows 11 Installation Assistant". You're not actually installing you're just making a usb stick. Two options though - either allow it to burn directly to a USB stick or (my preferred option) have it download the iso to computer, where you can keep it indefinitely, and make your own usb stick from the iso using a program called Rufus.

You then have Windows 11 on usb if you ever want to install it. I have a number of ISO's of different versions now, which can be useful if you ever want to go back a version, because the Windows Installation Assistant only ever gives you the latest version.

So you just boot the Windows 11 usb stick (noting you can also do this with a Windows 10 or even Windows 7 usb stick). But you don't actually install - when it gets to the install page you click (bottom left) "Repair" then troubleshoot - can't remember what comes next but you go through the menu options until you get to "restore a system image". At that point you plug in your external drive with the image (leaving the usb stick in as well), click on restore an image and it scans your external hard drive and finds the image, just click to restore it. When it's finished, it restarts and boots into your installed image.

However some imaging programs let you create a usb to restore. Eg if you use EaseUS for imaging it allows you to create a "rescue disk" which does the same thing - you boot from that and it allows you to find and restore a system image on an external hard drive.

Hazel123 · Jul 16, 2025

"would my browser bookmarks be part of a system image? Or do I back those up separately?"

As others have said - they are still on your system image. However, if you're also thinking of doing a separate backup of just your files (eg copying and pasting all files and saving them to an external drive, then at the same time:

1) Export bookmarks - this creates an html file you can call bookmarks 16.7.2025 or whatever, and copy and paste that as well. If you click on and open that html file, all your bookmarks are listed in it, as clickable links.
2) I also screenshot my list of installed programs and save copies of those screenshots to the external drive with the copied files also - then you have an easy viewable record of what programs you had installed - if needed.

So two different types of backup

1) System images which includes everything on your drive and restores as it was when saved
2) File backups - which are just files saved to an exernal drive (where they can also be viewed) along with bookmark backups maybe.

For file backups I mainly rely on idrive as mentioned before - which backs up all files daily so they're always up to date. Which can complement having system images which you may not do daily. Although I do have most files backed up to external hard drive as well because some files never change really (eg my music and video folders rarely change and the list of programs rarely changes). So if updating that, I just copy documents, downloads, pictures and desktop, plus exported bookmarks.

I still do images but not as often as some do. If you have any image at all it is better than no image. The image itself will be fine, even if the files on the image are out of date - not updated. You can just reinstall the image, delete all the files, and re-download the files from idrive (or copy them back from an external drive, if it's up to date).

Some people do images daily though. Then that might be all you need. I still like copies of files as well though.

As regards external ssd's or hdd's. You had a great explanation as to the difference earlier. My non-scientific view is - an hdd is less likely to fail (unless you drop it). The couple of times I've used ssd's they didn't last long and just suddenly failed. Of the external hdd drives, I've found:

A number of transcend ones have died on me - not immediately, but more than other makes. I've had two Seagate ones that seem very fast and have been very reliable. I had one 4TB Western Digital one that failed very quickly (very annoying as it was expensive). So I tend to stick to 2TB Seagate drives.

Madrona · Jul 16, 2025

Hazel123 said:
"would my browser bookmarks be part of a system image? Or do I back those up separately?"

As others have said - they are still on your system image. However, if you're also thinking of doing a separate backup of just your files (eg copying and pasting all files and saving them to an external drive, then at the same time:

1) Export bookmarks - this creates an html file you can call bookmarks 16.7.2025 or whatever, and copy and paste that as well. If you click on and open that html file, all your bookmarks are listed in it, as clickable links.
2) I also screenshot my list of installed programs and save copies of those screenshots to the external drive with the copied files also - then you have an easy viewable record of what programs you had installed - if needed.

So two different types of backup

1) System images which includes everything on your drive and restores as it was when saved
2) File backups - which are just files saved to an exernal drive (where they can also be viewed) along with bookmark backups maybe.

For file backups I mainly rely on idrive as mentioned before - which backs up all files daily so they're always up to date. Which can complement having system images which you may not do daily. Although I do have most files backed up to external hard drive as well because some files never change really (eg my music and video folders rarely change and the list of programs rarely changes). So if updating that, I just copy documents, downloads, pictures and desktop, plus exported bookmarks.

I still do images but not as often as some do. If you have any image at all it is better than no image. The image itself will be fine, even if the files on the image are out of date - not updated. You can just reinstall the image, delete all the files, and re-download the files from idrive (or copy them back from an external drive, if it's up to date).

Some people do images daily though. Then that might be all you need. I still like copies of files as well though.

As regards external ssd's or hdd's. You had a great explanation as to the difference earlier. My non-scientific view is - an hdd is less likely to fail (unless you drop it). The couple of times I've used ssd's they didn't last long and just suddenly failed. Of the external hdd drives, I've found:

A number of transcend ones have died on me - not immediately, but more than other makes. I've had two Seagate ones that seem very fast and have been very reliable. I had one 4TB Western Digital one that failed very quickly (very annoying as it was expensive). So I tend to stick to 2TB Seagate drives.

Thanks Hazel.

That's what I am now thinking I should do. Store my disk images on an external HDD drive, with a smaller partition for all my individual files and folders from my directories, so I can access them quickly if needed, rather than extracting and restoring them from an image file. Then I will use syncing software to keep my PC and external drive synced and up to date together at all times. I'll also get a second HDD to put in another drive bay on my external multi-bay enclosure that I will copy my first drive to, and then rotate each one out to an off-site location.

I checked out iDrive and it looks like all what I need. It can back up disk images as well as sync files (it will keep 30 versions which is handy, though I'll probably never need that many). iDrive is also cheaper than Macrium / EaseUs / Aeomi etc. and has several pricing tiers, including free. It also has 24/7 phone support. The only thing I don't like is that iDrive's cloud servers are mostly located in the US and other Five-Eye countries, which makes me a bit nervous. But I think I will try iDrive and see how it goes, since it offers both disk image backup and file syncing.

Hazel123 · Jul 16, 2025

I didn't realise it could back up images. The plan I have just backs up files. I can login to the account online and view the files if needed, or download them to any laptop. It has changed my way of working slightly. In that I use the desktop more and delete no longer needed files from the desktop or file them in documents and run a manual backup. This means that any file that has ever been on the desktop is saved in idrive. So I occasionally go into the online account, delete all the desktop files, and then run another manual backup to put the current ones back in idrive. Not entirely necessary but if I ever did have to download everything I'd hate to have a mass of desktop files to sort out!

Hadn't thought about where it was based

Madrona · Jul 16, 2025

I am assuming this is a disk image feature (and not cloning)?

IDrive® Entire machine backup - Backup your entire system

Backup the entire machine — the OS, system files, and boot files, included — to the cloud or a local drive, enabling easy file and entire machine restore in the event of a disaster.

www.idrive.com

Hazel123 · Jul 16, 2025

Madrona said:
I am assuming this is a disk image feature (and not cloning)?

IDrive® Entire machine backup - Backup your entire system

Backup the entire machine — the OS, system files, and boot files, included — to the cloud or a local drive, enabling easy file and entire machine restore in the event of a disaster.

www.idrive.com

It sounds like it - it says entire machine backup including operating system. That wasn't available when I took my plan out. They have a separate plan for cloning so this sounds like just what it is - a full back up image (noting it says you need bitlocker turned off, as you would need to to save and restore any image).

This is the file backup option

One IDrive account backup multiple PC, Mac, iOS & Android

Backup multiple PCs, Macs, iPhones, iPads and Android devices into a single IDrive account

www.idrive.com

Clone backup seems to be a different option

Server cloud backup for your businesses with IDrive®

Secure backup and restore for all types of servers and virtual machines such as MS SQL, On-premise MS Exchange Server, Oracle, VMware and Hyper-V

www.idrive.com

Hazel123 · Jul 16, 2025

Can't see the pricing for full machine back up though.

I have the idrive personal option on this page, which is just file backups (but from multiple devices).

IDrive® pricing plans

IDrive Online Backup offers various pricing plans, which can be selected by users based on their backup needs

www.idrive.com

Madrona · Jul 16, 2025

The features listed to the left of the Personal Plan include disk clone -- but also says entire drive backup as an image file. So a bit confusing.,

Maybe you have that feature, or can get that feature if you want it by contacting them.

Hazel123 · Jul 16, 2025

I don't know unfortunately - and yes probably best to contact them and ask.

user1010 · Jul 20, 2025

I try to keep the backup routine as simple as possible.

As primary desktop computer I have two internal M.2 2280 disks. Kingston Fury Renegade 1TB; OS installation + private data. Backup disk and storage; Kingston Fury Renegade 2TB.

I’m using a powershell script with Robocopy lines as a schedule task. For example;
Robocopy.exe C:\Drivers\ D:\Drivers\ /mir /LOG+: D:\Backup\drivers_backup_log.txt
It runs daily.
Backed up the schedule tasks as well.

As for the installed programs I get them from the registry and export them to a structured html file with a powershell script in schedule tasks. In that way I can see which programs I had installed and can manually install those if I need to reinstall the OS. Runs as weekly schedule task with powershell.

As a offline disk I currently using a WD Elements Portable - 1TB. I manually copy data to that drive when I need to update. Just to have some data if both internal disks breaks down.
Maybe I will automate this with the serial number from the external disk, so I just have to connect it, but it’s still pretty old school.

For my powershell scripts I have another script that zips them and spread it on the other disk as well as on my Google drive storage. I’m using Google drive with 2TB storage (upgraded).
Think it very usable, primarily used for my pictures. Manually uploaded images and created albums and I can edit it from the mobile as well. It’s good for sorting and searching. All my pictures from my mobile syncs to my google drive storage also. I can also copy other data that I want backed up to google drive storage. I don’t know if I want all of my data at google but some of it at least. I use google chrome signed in and backed up data there.

My WD elements portable disk is an old 2,5” drive and it’s getting slow and I want som faster ssd disk (Kingston XS1000 2TB for example), I think I will upgrade soon. Maybe also change the usb drive to a NAS (Synology DiskStation DS124) when I got some good space for it.

System restore in Windows 11 is activated but I have never used it.

I noticed the built in backup feature in windows 11, I haven’t tried it before but it seems to backup apps, settings and credentials?

Solved Need some basic backup advice

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