Images and Backups

Started by Optomist, August 26, 2014, 18:46:07 PM

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Optomist

Just wanted to thank Compton publicly for all his help through posts and PMs . Clearly there was a lot of time involved and for that i am extremely grateful as through his assistance i can confidently say I now having a perfectly safe backup and image to restore absolutely everything from should i need it again .

:tiphat:
If you see someone without a smile give them one of yours .


compton

What I would be inclined to do is,
   
Wipe the 1Tb drive and partition it as 2 x 500gb (they will actually be about 485 each allowing for system overhead)

Copy all your personal data ie the libraries, Document, Pictures, Music, Videos and Downloads (and any others if you have created them, onto one of the 500gb partitions. Label the partition DATABACKUP

Verify that they are complete and that you can read and access them.

Delete all the personal data from the working hard drive. NOT THE LIBRARIES THEMSELVES JUST THE DATA INSIDE THEM

Remove any old unwanted program files and their settings

Empty the recycle bin

Download all the latest updates for Windows, and programs you have installed

Not essential but consider deleting all saved restore points and then create a new one as you know the system is running fine

Run any system maintenance software you have, run scan disk, and through the windows system properties dialog boxes remove any unwanted system files, system logs (do not compress any files)

Make sure the system has been defragged

Check all TEMP folders to ensure they are empty.

Anything else you can think of to do to make sure the system is running at its best as there is no point in transferring dross and rubbish to the system image.

From within Control panel, administrative tools, Computer management, Disk management right click on the largest partition and select shrink volume partition. Make it as small as possible.

Do not create a new partition in the free space that is created, make sure it shows as UNALLOCATED space,  I would expect the drive to shrink to about  300gb or even less.

The reason for doing all this is that there is no point in creating large partition images that contain either empty space or personal data that will have to be re installed from later backups anyway. And you are limited on the overall space available on the 1TB drive.

Now go ahead and create a system image of the drive, this should easily fit into the remaining 500gb partition on the 1tb drive.

When this has completed you can go back to disk management and extend the main partition back to its original size and then copy your data back to the libraries.
Your image of the drive will be sufficient  to enable you to recover a failed HDD.

Think about using Easus Todo Backup software http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/download.htm as you can do incremental backups with the free version and backup your personal data on a regular basis.

Hope I have explained it fully but if not then come back and I will try and help further.
If you need to reinstall many utilities as I stated in an earlier post then have a look at this site  https://ninite.com/  select the items you want and download the installer file, run the file and it will download and install all of your selection. Best thing is it takes all the ticks out of the crapware boxes so you don't end up with loads of toolbars and free offers. Another bonus is that if you save the downloaded file and re-run it at month end then it will check and download any updates that are available and skip over the files that are ok.
Lastly consider purchasing another backup drive solely for the image
Let me know how you get on or If can be of further help or explain things differently.
2 men in a bar, the first asks for a H2o. His mate says I'll have an H2o too. The mate  dies!!
There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.
If nobody comes from the future to stop you doing it, then how bad of a decision can it really be?


Optomist

#8
Quote from: compton on August 27, 2014, 11:51:15 AM
Can you confirm the partition sizes, you stated 100mb and 600mb ( i assume this is a typo for the 600, you maybe mean gb) but what is the third one? which i believe is the recovery partition (i assume it will be in the 5 - 15gb size. Also how much data (used space) is there on the 600mb partition?

Yes was a typo they actually are 13gb , 11.74 used ( PQSERVICE ) - 100mb , 19.77 used (D ) and 583gb , 364.34 used ( ACER ) as i did a sector by sector image it also copied all the un unsed space also so the total image was just under 600gb , with just over 200gb unused in total exactly the same as the C: drive . All NTFS format on both source ( C ) and destination ( F ) drives .

I hope the above helps , for my sake i mean , thank you for the interest and assistance Compton , i appreciate it .
If you see someone without a smile give them one of yours .

RedEyes

Quote from: GINGER NUT on August 27, 2014, 08:47:09 AMwhen i lost every thing, the computer repair man wanted 40€ just to re put the stuff on my computer

That's a bit unfair on your part.  He didn't have the benefit of a back-up of your system and would had to have started from scratch, installing the OS and them each program that had been lost.


compton

Can you confirm the partition sizes, you stated 100mb and 600mb ( i assume this is a typo for the 600, you maybe mean gb) but what is the third one? which i believe is the recovery partition (i assume it will be in the 5 - 15gb size. Also how much data (used space) is there on the 600mb partition?
2 men in a bar, the first asks for a H2o. His mate says I'll have an H2o too. The mate  dies!!
There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.
If nobody comes from the future to stop you doing it, then how bad of a decision can it really be?


Optomist

#5
Quote from: compton on August 27, 2014, 09:56:29 AM
What you really need is an IMAGE of the operating system and program files
A partition backup if you have recovery software located in a hidden partition
And a data backup on say a monthly basis, Ie Backup month 1, create second backup month 2, create third backup month 3, and on the fourth month  create a backup as usual but replace the month 1 copy. So you have a 3 month replacement cycle.
Depending on what software you are needing to reload after a major reinstall, say Chrome, Java, Picasa Adobe reader, Google earth etc  one click software is available to download all these and others without any intervention from the user.
But firstly
What OS are you using?
What is the size of the disk you are attempting to take the back up from? ( I mean the PHYSICAL DISK not the individual partitions
What is the size of the disk you are backing up to?
Do you have any HIDDEN partitions on the disk? Go to Control panel, Administrative tools, Computer Management, Disk management. Does the graphic representation shown match the IMAGE you created with Macrim ie partitions and size?
Get back to me and I will sort out some details for you.


Yes thats exactly what i need and i probbly have it on the program i posted a link to , i just dont understand which option to use .

Windows 7 Home premium service pack 1
600gb
1 tb
no hidden partitions that i know of , possibly windows boot files as their sometimes hidden .
Macrim was identical in every way , 3 partitions , hard disk size and size and used part of each partition .

The only problem with Macrim is the free version wont do incremental or differential backups , have to a complete backup and takes hours when there might only be a couple of files and possibly a program changed or maybe a windows setting or two .
If you see someone without a smile give them one of yours .

compton

What you really need is an IMAGE of the operating system and program files
A partition backup if you have recovery software located in a hidden partition
And a data backup on say a monthly basis, Ie Backup month 1, create second backup month 2, create third backup month 3, and on the fourth month  create a backup as usual but replace the month 1 copy. So you have a 3 month replacement cycle.
Depending on what software you are needing to reload after a major reinstall, say Chrome, Java, Picasa Adobe reader, Google earth etc  one click software is available to download all these and others without any intervention from the user.
But firstly
What OS are you using?
What is the size of the disk you are attempting to take the back up from? ( I mean the PHYSICAL DISK not the individual partitions
What is the size of the disk you are backing up to?
Do you have any HIDDEN partitions on the disk? Go to Control panel, Administrative tools, Computer Management, Disk management. Does the graphic representation shown match the IMAGE you created with Macrim ie partitions and size?
Get back to me and I will sort out some details for you.
2 men in a bar, the first asks for a H2o. His mate says I'll have an H2o too. The mate  dies!!
There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.
If nobody comes from the future to stop you doing it, then how bad of a decision can it really be?


Optomist

#3
Thanks GINGER NUT but that's what i have , a 1tb external hard disk , the problem I'm having is trying to work out what options i need to make a mirror image of the laptops hard disk that i can quickly update any changes regularity such as personnel files , windows updated and system configuration changes or recently added programs .

Incidentally our daughter had a problem with a fairly new Transend external drive , after using it daily for a few months it would not start at all , just a bleep , contacted Transend after telling them it contained a years worth of two university degree courses material and their reply was that their not responsible for data and that we should use recovery software to recover the files , they ignored the fact that the disk was dead , wouldn't spin so cant see how it was possible . They went on to say that they don't recommend using an external drive as a secure method of back up , wondering what they intend their drives to be used for then or what they recommend as a secure method of storing backups is .
If you see someone without a smile give them one of yours .


Regular nut 🥜

#2
your best bet would be to get a portable hard drive that's what i did after my computer went up the spout and i lost every thing, so now i back every thing up, and don't get a usb stick one get a proper one like 250gb samsung you will not regret it, so easy to do takes minutes, when i lost every thing, the computer repair man wanted 40€ just to re put the stuff on my computer, which after finding out how easy it would have been for him to do and already charging me for the repair thought that was taking the you know what.  so yes amazon cheap as chips as well.
Good luck
And then only you will have the info as well not some one in cyber space as well

Optomist

#1
Being a real novice at this im having problems understanding which method best suites my situation . I decided to keep a copy of everything that was on my hard drive to make things as simple as possible should i get problems in the future so i downloaded Macrim Reflect then created an mirror image , was identical to my hard drive with clear 3 partitions showing on the image exactly as on the C: DRIVE  , 1st PQSERVICE , 2nd was 100mb , think its something to do with windows and 3rd the large data partition of 600gb , took about 5 hours to do a sector by sector image then another 4 hours to verify it . I then i discovered i couldn't update it with incremental or differential backups and at between 5 and 9 hours each time i wanted to create an up to date backup its wasnt going to be of any help so I scraped that one and downloaded another program which gave the option to do those updated copies of everything that's where it gets complicated or rather confusing , possibly because of the terms they use , i notice what one program calls something another program will call it something different .

http://www.backup-utility.com/download.html

The above link is to a program that appears to have everything however they give 4 back up options , don't see why as i would have expected the image to have everything as Macrim did however when i did the Disk backup which says to back up the hard disk to an image file the result was just one file not 3 . More confusing is the 4 options where Macrim only has the 2 , Image or Clone , this new program has .
                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                  FILE BACK UP , to back up files and folders
                                                                                                                  SYSTEM BACKUP , one click system drive backup
                                                                                                                  DISK BACKUP , back up hard disk drives to an image file
                                                                                                                  PARTITION BACKUP , back up partitions or dynamic volumes

Made a WiPe boot on usb  , changed boot order and it worked perfectly so that part was simple but now what do i need to do to have an image copy containing the 3 partitions each containing all the data from the hard disk or do i have to run each of the above options and if so how are they integrated into a single image for restoring the hard disk if needed . Possibly the program works differently than Macrim but i did read somewhere that its almost the same .

Now done a PARTITION BACKUP also and still the one partiton on the external hard drive but taking up twice the space and from reading the description of each option iit appears they are all necessary for a complete restore so would use about 1.7tb of space to store them , doesn't seem right to me .

The program gives a good explanation of how to go about each option but no where does it explain which is needed or in which order to do them or how they interact or integrate to give a complete back up of everything on the hard drive . The whole point is to have something that will save the time involved in installing a new operating system , files , programs and settings that were on the doner system . Installing a fresh operating system is the quick simple bit ,  , fortunately Chrome can be set to remember them all whatever computer you use and with cloud storage important files are safe , its the time and hassle involved having to download and install about 30 of the programs i use regularly as well as all the settings on windows im hoping to avoid having to go through again .
If you see someone without a smile give them one of yours .