Upgrade Or Not Upgrade That Is The Question...

Haydon said:

25H2 better be stable enough for office computing use.

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My experience, after a year of using W11 an average of 10 hours a day, is no instability whatsoever.

So today I get home from work and fire up my system. Everything loads quickly and I'm happy with Windows 11. Till I try and access File Explorer "Win Key E" as I always do. All I get is a SLOW... RUNNING... GREEN... ADDRESS BAR... My first thought is a Windows 11 issue. So I restart and nothing changes. "Thinking" Then it occurred to me that it must be my old 500 GB HDD that I knew had issues and forgot about and that I had imaged three weeks ago. This is a seldom-used drive and has old apps you can't find anymore. "Important to me" Witch surprises me! I must be losing it... The odd thing is... No warnings? I pulled the drive and stuck in the drive I had imagined it too. Upgrade to 1TB. All is good. S.H.I.T happens out of nowhere unexpectedly! I had fun actually. I,m Glade that it's fixed! But still had fun. That's the geek in me.

Always Image your drives folks! Whether it's your boot drive or storage drive. This issue with me reinforces that procedure. If I hadn't imagined that drive I would have lost all of my collection. I have just now imaged my other three HDDs with preshess apps and data. This through a scare in me! Imaging will save your ass one day! Trust me.

Lance1 said:

Always Image your drives folks! Whether it's your boot drive or storage drive. This issue with me reinforces that procedure. If I hadn't imagined that drive I would have lost all of my collection. I have just now imaged my other three HDDs with preshess apps and data. This through a scare in me! Imaging will save your ass one day! Trust me.

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I never put all my trust in only one backup method.
I use 3 backup methods simultaneously:
1. Microsoft OneDrive
2. Microsoft File History
3. Macrium Reflect Disk Images

Thanks, Bree and Ghot. I have always been an advocate for imaging. But this really brought it home for me with this issue. As a tech and geek, data matters as it should for everyone on this forum. People should recognize that when you ask for help. You are asking to protect your data. And that's where Imaging comes into play.

TraderGary said:

I never put all my trust in only one backup method.
I use 3 backup methods simultaneously:
1. Microsoft OneDrive
2. Microsoft File History
3. Macrium Reflect Dis

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I never put all my trust in only one backup method.

Please Explain the reasoning for this.

1. Microsoft OneDrive "NO"
2. Microsoft File History "Why"
3. Macrium Reflect Dis "Yes"

Lance1 said:

I never put all my trust in only one backup method.

Please Explain the reasoning for this.

1. Microsoft OneDrive "NO"
2. Microsoft File History "Why"
3. Macrium Reflect Dis "Yes"

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1. OneDrive is a real-time mirror of my work on my data in cloud OneDrive. I subscribe to Microsoft 365 and that gives me all of Microsoft Office and 1 Terabyte of cloud OneDrive storage. I could lose my local drive or computer at any time during a working day and my data on cloud OneDrive is exactly like the last keystroke I made. I've used OneDrive since 2007 and OneDrive has saved my bacon more than once. I have more than one computer. They all use the same OneDrive, and they all contain the same exact copy of all my data, and they do it simultaneously in real-time. I also love it when I get a new computer and all I have to do is log in to Windows and all my data is instantly there. After 15 years of using OneDrive, I would never give it up.

2. Microsoft File History also contains all my data but not in real-time. I do my File History backups before I shut down at the end of the day. I do that because I'm only connected for a very short time to do the backup update. I do that because of ransomware. File History also keeps all versions ever made of a file. This has proven its value many times when I needed to go back to a particular earlier version of a file.

3. Macrium Reflect Images. You know very well the value of having a disk image as you've stated earlier. You could always make multiple Macrium images on different media. But now you are trusting the Macrium software to always work.

Why do I keep 3 backups going simultaneously? No given media is perfect. Any one of these backups could fail. Maybe because of a disk storage error. Maybe because of a backup software error. But the odds that all three fail at the same time is implausible.

You may be more than willing to trust having only one backup method with your precious data and photos. I am not. That's just me.

TraderGary said:

I never put all my trust in only one backup method.
I use 3 backup methods simultaneously:
1. Microsoft OneDrive
2. Microsoft File History
3. Macrium Reflect Disk Images

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All my documents and photos are on OneDrive and GoogleDrive. Photos are also on USB sticks and some are Facebook albums.

CharmaineK said:

All my documents and photos are on OneDrive and GoogleDrive. Photos are also on USB sticks and some are Facebook albums.

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Great! Redundancy gives peace of mind that not all your eggs are in one basket!

TraderGary said:

My experience, after a year of using W11 an average of 10 hours a day, is no instability whatsoever.

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OS stability for office computing means that the OS behavior does not change (much) from one release to the next.

It takes MS 3 years to stabilize a new OS that way, much like the 9 months it takes to make a baby

Haydon said:

OS stability for office computing means that the OS behavior does not change (much) from one release to the next.

It takes MS 3 years to stabilize a new OS that way, much like the 9 months it takes to make a baby

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Interesting concept. I didn't know that!

Well, yeah, corporate America won't adopt W11 much sooner than 3Q24 (3 years after general availability) not wanting to deal with much changes. Not all companies will have the funds to pay for 'freezing' the OS.

CharmaineK said:

I say wait a bit longer until a few more bugs are worked out. I was impatient and had some issues with Windows Security/Device Security and Controlled Folder Access/Protection History, accent color on File Explorer title bar, OneDrive sync dropping... I'm a little techy but thought to just do a clean install and reinstall Windows Security (which is not is in the Microsoft Store!) LOL. Some issues r

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Lance1 said:

I never put all my trust in only one backup method.

Please Explain the reasoning for this.

1. Microsoft OneDrive "NO"
2. Microsoft File History "Why"
3. Macrium Reflect Dis "Yes"

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I like many others here separate my data from the OS and programs and back up critical data separately.

Macrium Reflect is great for OS+programs, less so for data. I like to keep my Reflect images lean and mean.

By using onedrive or any cloud service, data is backed up in real time.

Although data is on a separate drive, folders with critical data are sym linked to onedrive and backed up in real time.

I also just manually copy criticak data AND less critical data to external drives periodically.

I do not use File History Backup but it is a fine alternative tool if it suits you.

The point is each user should devise a backup strategy that suits them.

@TraderGary"s strategy follows the most important point about data backup i.e. (critical at least) data should be backed up in 2 places as a minimum.

cereberus said:

@TraderGary"s strategy follows the most important point about data backup i.e. (critical at least) data should be backed up in 2 places as a minimum.

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And I follow one other very important point. One of your backups must be offsite!

An actual case in point. Several years ago, we came home from work and our back door was caved in. We had been robbed. All our TV's, electronics, Kate's jewelry, my coin collection, our computers, backup media, was stolen. The ONLY backup I had left was cloud OneDrive. I bought a new computer, logged in to Windows, and BAM, all my data and photos were instantly there, as if nothing had ever happened.

TraderGary said:

I never put all my trust in only one backup method.
I use 3 backup methods simultaneously:
1. Microsoft OneDrive
2. Microsoft File History
3. Macrium Reflect Disk Images

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After reading all the comments on your backup and image solution I can now appreciate your stand. I have never been a fan of online backup. It's a trust factor. Maybe I should give it a fresh look and reevaluate.

Stigg said:

It should be.
But I don't assume that everyone does these things.

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Sadly, a large number of people don't.

One drive and Flash Drives for me, to save files.

For me: One Drive and Flash Drives to save files. Was this thread stolen?

I sadly don't have any eggs worth protecting in my basket D: Or gladly, Im not sure

Lance1 said:

After reading all the comments on your backup and image solution I can now appreciate your stand. I have never been a fan of online backup. It's a trust factor. Maybe I should give it a fresh look and reevaluate.

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If you research Microsoft Data Centers, you will be surprised to find that your data is safer in cloud OneDrive than it is in your own home. If your backup strategy is to use multiple concurrent methods, it does negate that trust factor you are feeling.