Microsoft de-emphasizes backing up

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ON SECURITY By Susan Bradley Got backup? Many Windows users consider the second Tuesday of every month a bit like Russian roulette. Will their system
[See the full post at: Microsoft de-emphasizes backing up]

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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lmacri, bbearren, rc primak, oldfry

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I also configure a backup system that has built-in protection against ransomware

Ransomware protection isn’t a task for backup software. Backup software should do just backup/restore. Ransomware protection is A/V’s software task (that is one of the reason I haven’t upgraded my Acronis backup to version 2021 as they added ransomware protection and some A/V tasks).

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Agreed.   I had to migrate from Acronis to Macrium Reflect for this very reason.  Also, I did not like the Acronis emphasis on cloud backup when I wanted to backup to USB drives that get detached and stored offsite.

I did not notice Macrium Reflect has some anti-ransomware design that does not interfere with my Internet security suite, until I read Susan’s post.

Windows 10 22H2 desktops & laptops on Dell, HP, ASUS; No servers, no domain.

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Apparently I didn’t explain that well enough.  “One of the most powerful features of Reflect 8 is Macrium Image Guardian. Our software stops ransomware from targeting backup files, making data recovery a breeze. By granting write access only to Macrium-specific file types, it’s nearly impossible for any unauthorized modifications – like encryption by ransomware – to take place.”  It’s a file/access/permission thing, not an antivirus thing.  I don’t see that a/v’s job is to protect from ransomware – clearly it’s not doing it well these days. 🙁

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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At the moment, this feature, and the entire Macrium Reflect Version 8, is paid versions only.

Macrium Reflect Free does not have these features, and is still stuck on Version 7.

And yet, this is the version I use for Windows 10 Pro. I also back up data in a non-proprietary format about once or twice a month. For a home user, this should be OK. Some files may be more valuable or may change so frequently that users would find Windows 10 File History on a dedicated external USB drive useful. I just use flash drives for temporary storage of files or transfer between one device and another within my apartment.

And I do use Google Drive for Cloud Storage. Especially for photos from my phone. No syncing of any kind.

-- rc primak

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Obtaining the free version of Macrium Reflect 8 is possible directly from Macrium. Download and install the trial of Reflect 8 Home. When the trial expires in 30 days, you will be prompted to either extend the trial, purchase a license, or continue with the free version. I have personally verified the “free version” scenario and it remains v8 (no v7 reversion). Eventually v8 free will be available directly but, for now, this is a viable workaround.

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rc primak

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Very useful information!

But I think the reason for the delay is to iron out the “beta bugs” so that free customers aren’t mobbing the help forums with issues. That’s how it’s been with all previous Macrium Reflect upgrades. I’m in no hurry.

It’s just like the Windows Feature Updates — I will install no upgrade before its time. Let others take the slings and arrows of early adoption.

-- rc primak

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Hi Susan. A good topic and one sadly overlooked by many. Years ago in the Windows 3.11 era I can remember being the last to leave work on Fridays as I always took backups – then on floppy disks! – and put the backups in the safe before leaving. Sad, I know 😉

My choice of backup has always been image backups as for over 2 decades I’ve partitioned my main drive from C to K (and in recent years added more drives to P:). Each has a distinct use, e.g. OS (C:), my active data, videos/photos, software, apps (for those well behaved apps that give a choice of installation location), temp drive, etc. I find imaging quite quick and the drives have a different backup frequency from daily to monthly and a cycle of full and incremental.

Over the years I’ve used a number of paid for imaging products. I initially preferred TrueImage until they changed the user interface. O&O was a disaster. Now I use Macrium Reflect. A very good product and very good support.

Last week I had a bit of a slip up. After a new software package had installation problems I tried to do a System Restore but the new package had made loads of SR points and replace nearly all of the previous ones. I chose the one left but Windows System Restore failed. So, no problems I thought, and restored C: to a few weeks ago. That worked but over the next few days I realised I lost many recent user settings and logs. Some “horrible” programs don’t give a choice of location for data and choose “C:\Users\<user id>\AppData\”.

Whilst I have redirected my “C:\Users\<user id>\Desktop\”, \Music (never used as I use a specific drive),  \Pictures(ditto),  \Videos (ditto) and \Download(ditto) to the relevent data drive – as Windows provides a means to do this – the \AppData was therefore not being backed up daily.  In fact it is a hidden directory.

My AppData is 13GB and could only be backed up daily by using the slower file backup. But I suspect much of AppData contains static or slow to change data.

Next time (and I’ve said this before!), I MUST take an incremental backup of C: before installing a new software package. But it would help if all packages kept all user data separated and allowed the user to choose the location.

PS Today had to reinstall Fusion 360 – another package using AppData 🙁  though my designs are stored in the cloud.

Susan, I’m so pleased you and others have decided to continue Ask Woody 🙂

Alan

 

 

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oldfry

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2 questions – I backup to two different external SSD drives connected via USB enclosure on an alternating basis.
1) On the topic regarding SSDs can sometimes can fail abruptly, is it safer to use usb enclosure backups with rotating drives? 2) Backing up fills up my external SSD drives fairly quickly. Is it recommended to optimize external SSD drives connected via usb?

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rc primak

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Sueska wrote:

Is it recommended to optimize external SSD drives connected via usb?

There is no need to optimize SSDs as optimization, TRIM, is build-in in firmware.
SSDs hold 10x years (50 years) than HDDs. There is no need to panic unless you buy some no-name SSDs.

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cmptrgy, rc primak, Sueska

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Thanks one is Crucial and one is Microcenter Inland. Cannot find any indication that MC Inland has built-in firmware to optimize. Concerned that auto optimization driven by firmware may not work if connected via an usb enclosure.

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rc primak

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There is no need to optimize SSDs as optimization, TRIM, is build-in in firmware.

Windows does optimize SSDs. It does not do a defrag, but initiates the Trim function. The firmware Trim is better, but much more difficult to access. I let Windows do the job. If the drive is not attached all the time, Windows will not automatically optimize it. So I would do this manually for an external SSD.

SSDs hold 10x years (50 years) than HDDs.

Not true. There’s a maximum number of writes for each cell of an SSD. Once this maximum is reached (and often long before) the drive will become Read Only or will fail completely, often with no warning. For drives which are written to frequently, this happens in about 5 years or less. SSDs also have a limited shelf life. So just leaving them on a shelf for a few years can result in the drive no longer working. No warnings about that either.

All the resources I have ever read say not to use SSD for archival backups. Spinning-platter hard drives are the safest way to go. And even these fail sometimes. So have one or two extra copies of the backup drive, just in case. SMART data will predict HDD failure, but not always. Still, much better prediction for HDDs than for SSDs.

-- rc primak

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Sueska

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Thank you rc primak. You clarified and addressed all my concerns. I deleted several gigs of old backups off one of the usb connected ssd drives and manually ran optimize. A windows message indicated trim was occurring and it was complete within a few moments. Keeping logs of when trim is manually run. I have a spare (newish) rotating drive which fits the same enclosure which I can begin using for backups.

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rc primak

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I don’t doubt that Macrium Reflect is very good imaging software.  @RetiredGeek uses and recommends it, as do other members here.   I’ve never used it, because twenty or so years ago I started using TeraByte’s imaging software (it was included in BootItNG then), and I’ve never had a reason to try anything else.

I’m now using Image for Windows.  It isn’t free ($38.94), but the license for a home user is good for installation on 5 PC’s/laptops.  More details are available at https://www.askwoody.com/forums/forum/askwoody-support/backup/backup-software-image-for-windows/

Create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates, in case you need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do. We don't all have to do the same things.

Computer Specs

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Just a few days ago I asked a tech at my favourite local computer service store for a recommendation about the most useful and reliable backup software for Windows that in the store’s experience had a reliable restore feature to restore the OS and all installed software and data thereon from a full ‘image’ backup.  His reply shocked me.

He said none of them do full restores.  He said that, while most of them can clone a disk, and some of them can copy all the data files from any partition to a large USB Flash drive, to another hard disk, SSD, large USB flash drive, or any external drive attached to your computer, which can be brought back to any drive, whether the old one or a new one, NONE of them can “restore” a full backup image  to re-establish a bootable image of the original backed-up drive to a replacement drive, even on the same computer (minus the old dead or failed drive).

Perhaps such a restore attempt would work on a damaged and unbootable OS on the same drive Windows was installed on.  Is that correct?  If so, it is some comfort.

However, if this is all a restore can accomplish, what is the point of wasting money on such software?

Another thing: How can one test the software’s ability to restore a full backup image without risking the installation on your bootable drive?  If that should fail, then you really are screwed.

I have read many complaints about users trying to restore  what the companies call a full image backup to the exact same computer hardware without success.  These stories I have read mostly related to Acronis.

Any enlightened opinions out there?

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Time to find a new tech

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rc primak, wavy, Alex5723

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I extremely disagree.  I’ve done it a ton of times.  Especially when moving to a new bigger hard drive/restoring when a hard drive failed.

I’ve restored to dissimilar hardware even.  Windows 10 finds the drivers, and goes on.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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P.S. buy a spare SSD and test. While this is ridiculous for home users as a guiding principle, not so much for businesses.  You HAVE to test your restore processes.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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rc primak

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WSthesquire wrote:

He said none of them do full restores.

He is beyond doubt 100% in error.  I’ve restored images more times than I can remember.

I have replaced failed drives with blank new drives and then restored my drive images to them with no issues and no failures.  The PC boots and runs as if nothing happened.  I must agree with ‘anonymous’,

anonymous wrote:

Time to find a new tech

Create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates, in case you need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do. We don't all have to do the same things.

Computer Specs

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rc primak

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NONE of them can “restore” a full backup image to re-establish a bootable image of the original backed-up drive to a replacement drive, even on the same computer (minus the old dead or failed drive).

Macrium Reflect can clone a complete HD to another (needs to be the same capacity or more). I’ve done it and the clone was completely bootable. However, there may be a problem with Windows (I did not have a problem for the short period I used the clone).

As an anti-piracy device Windows tries to detect if a licenced  installation is running on new hardware. For the clone the hard disk will have a different serial number. However, Microsoft does allow for small/incremental changes, so may accept the new disk if the processor, motherboard, network MAC address etc. are unchanged. What is allowed is supposed to be a MS secret.

Also the Macrium Reflect when imaging partitions shows the System Reserve partition with all the boot and partition information as a separate partition. When I image the C: drive I always include the System Reserve partition.

Alan

PS From memory, cloning is done by rebooting the PC into a stand alone Windows PE mode. After cloning the PC will reboot back into Windows. If the cloned drive is still in the PC then the partitions on the clone will be different, in fact I think the whole partition letters across both hard disks changed with the 2nd System Restore partition actually getting a drive letter assigned (on the main disk it has no drive letter). It’s a bit of a pain to shuffle them around. It’s best to not reboot with both drives in. So remove one after cloning.

 

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rc primak

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WSthesquire wrote:

He said none of them do full restores. He said that, while most of them can clone a disk, and some of them can copy all the data files from any partition to a large USB Flash drive, to another hard disk, SSD, large USB flash drive, or any external drive attached to your computer, which can be brought back to any drive, whether the old one or a new one, NONE of them can “restore” a full backup image to re-establish a bootable image of the original backed-up drive to a replacement drive, even on the same computer (minus the old dead or failed drive).

I’m not sure what the tech had in mind when he said this, but I can report that I have used Macrium Reflect Free multiple times to do exactly that: a full OS image to a new disk that will then boot just fine on the same computer. Same brand or different brand of disk, doesn’t matter. (Note that these are not “clones” but system images; IIRC Reflect offers a separate option to make clones and that’s not what I do.)

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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rc primak

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Susan, in your article I was especially paying attention to your comments regarding monitoring SSDs; since they can apparently fail without much advance warning.  Part of what you said there was this:

While the S.M.A.R.T predictive tools should work for HDDs as well as SSDs, often the alerts for the SSD drives get overlooked. Regularly using the health apps provided by the SSD vendor is important, or you can use tools such as StableBit Scanner tool to alert you to drive problems.

I’ve never had any experience with StableBit Scanner.  Other than the SSD vendor’s monitoring tool (in my case Crucial Storage Executive), I’ve been relying on a freeware tool: CrystalDiskInfo.  On my main system that gets heavy daily usage, the Health Status reported by CrystalDiskInfo for the SSD boot drive is “Good 96%”.  But I’m not sure how much confidence I can have in that “Good” status if some alerts for the SSD are possibly getting overlooked by the software.

I guess I’m asking for an opinion as to whether paying for the StableBit Scanner software would buy me any added early warning of a potential SSD failure beyond what I’m already getting with the free CrystalDiskInfo tool.  I’m just curious as to your thoughts on that.

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rc primak

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My Samsung SSDs come with or I can download, Samsung Magician. It monitors SSD health according to the manufacturer’s specs. It also helps with setting up overprovisioning, which is another safeguard against sudden SSD failure. That said, I would NEVER trust an SSD over 5 years old. Period.

-- rc primak

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Tom-R

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rc primak wrote:

That said, I would NEVER trust an SSD over 5 years old. Period.

I keep my drive images current, and so I’m not concerned about running my drives to the point of failure.  All I lose is the failed drive itself.  I have its contents safely tucked away in drive images.

YMMV

Create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates, in case you need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do. We don't all have to do the same things.

Computer Specs

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rc primak

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Tom-R wrote:

I guess I’m asking for an opinion as to whether paying for the StableBit Scanner software would buy me any added early warning

In a word, no.
SMART data is the only predictor of failure, but it can’t predict sudden failure.

Backup your data to protect from drive failure.
If the disk is your backup and you have the same data on your PC, you already have protection because you have 2 copies.

To test your disk/data is OK, read the data from the disk – simple.
Topic: From the Lounge: Simple and cheap data backup and storage @ AskWoody

cheers, Paul

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rc primak

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I’m pretty well covered for backups.  I’m using Macrium Reflect to make disk images (with verification) at least weekly to two separate external USB drives that I alternate between with each backup.  And that’s in addition to my daily user file backups, which also alternate between two separate backup drives.  So I’m not too worried about being able to recover from a system failure.

The question I was really posing was if there’s any way to reliably tell if an SSD is getting close to failing.  In other words, is there any utility I can use to monitor the condition of the SSD that would let me know that it’s time to get ready to replace it before it actually stops functioning?

I’ve always felt that it’s easier to schedule a preemptive hardware replacement or upgrade when it’s convenient for me, rather than having to recover from a hardware failure at a point when it might be horribly inconvenient (e.g., in the middle of a time-sensitive project that can’t wait).

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Your best bet to check on the status of your SSD may be the software (if any) that the SSD’s manufacturer puts out to monitor/maintain the drive. For example, a little upthread, @rc_primak had good things to say about Samsung Magician and I endorse his recommendation. Check with the maker of your SSD: they probably have something along similar lines for their own products.

If you’re looking for third-party software, I’ve had good success with HD Tune, which provides a visual representation of the drive’s test performance. (The free version is plenty good enough for my purposes.) Another good choice is Hard Disk Sentinel. You can download a trial version and see what it does for you.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
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rc primak, Tom-R

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Cybertooth wrote:

If you’re looking for third-party software, I’ve had good success with HD Tune, which provides a visual representation of the drive’s test performance. (The free version is plenty good enough for my purposes.)

The free version doesn’t mention Windows 10. Do you only use it on Windows 7?

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.1483 + Microsoft 365 + Edge

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rc primak

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I just downloaded the free version to my Windows 10 test laptop and installed it. HD Tune ran fine, same as on the Vista and Windows 7 systems that I have it on.

However, my new Windows 10 work PC has an M.2 NVMe drive and, while the error scan and the benchmark tests work well, HD Tune doesn’t seem to be able to find the drive information. It does find this info for the SATA SSD on the test laptop. So I’m guessing this issue has more to do with the drive technology than with the operating system. (Not sure if the Pro version, which does specify Windows 10, would be any different in this respect.)

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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Tom-R wrote:

The question I was really posing was if there’s any way to reliably tell if an SSD is getting close to failing

No there is not.
Hardware can fail at any time. All you can do is keep it as cool as possible to reduce heat stress.

cheers, Paul

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rc primak

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Since it’s often the controller which fails in an SSD, it is not predictable with disk analyzing software.

-- rc primak

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Cybertooth, Tom-R

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Paul T wrote:

All you can do is keep it as cool as possible to reduce heat stress.

You left out the most important step.

Create drive images regularly so that when it fails, you won’t lose anything except the hardware.

Create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates, in case you need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do. We don't all have to do the same things.

Computer Specs

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Create drive images regularly so that when it fails, you won’t lose anything except the hardware.

I think I’ve got that part covered.  #post-2380926

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The only time I have preemptively changed hard drives was either to increase storage (bigger drives) or change over to SSD’s (faster).  Over the last couple of decades I’ve lost two PC’s in a house fire (not much preemptively to do there) and about a half dozen or so drive failures.

Two of the drives (a few years apart) failed so catastrophically that they shut the PC down and it would not even POST.  In all cases I have restored OS, programs and data with zero losses.

In 2007 Google published a study that had been done using Google server drives and S.M.A.R.T data.  The reliability of S.M.A.R.T data was in the neighborhood of 50% able to predict a drive failure.

“After our initial attempts to derive such models yielded relatively unimpressive results, we turned to the question of what might be the upper bound of the accuracy of any model based solely on SMART parameters. Our results are surprising, if not somewhat disappointing. Out of all failed drives, over 56% of them have no count in any of the four strong SMART signals, namely scan errors, reallocation count, offline reallocation, and probational count. In other words, models based only on those signals can never predict more than half of the failed drives.”

Tom-R wrote:

I think I’ve got that part covered.

Just keep doing what you’re doing.  Drive imaging has saved my bacon more times than I can count.

Create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates, in case you need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do. We don't all have to do the same things.

Computer Specs

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oldfry, Tom-R

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Since there seem to be so many Macrium Reflect user/experts on this thread, I’d like to ask a MR question.  I currently have MR Ver 7 Premium. I do not plan to update to Ver 8. I do not have Macrium support – can only search KB.  I am going to buy a Mac Mini to replace my Dell computer – but I am not getting rid of the Dell and still need Macrium backup.  It is on a Seagate 1TB drive. I want to repurpose that drive to use with Time Machine backup for Mac.  I have an older Western Digital drive with less storage.  I run a full backup, once/month. I have XML backup config files for the Seagate. Can I run MR using the Western Digital (create new xml’s) and then move a few of the MR backup files off the Seagate to that HDD? (I had read that MR backup files can be moved around like any other file)?  The Seagate will be reformatted when I run Time Machine.  I will delete the old XML backup files.

I thought if I re-do the Macrium backup on the Western digital, save the xml’s and move the stored backups, that would work for backup for the Windows machine.  I do not plan to keep using the Dell once I am up & running on the Mac, so I probably won’t have to keep running monthly backups, but I want to keep it for a while and be able to recover it, if needed. Will this work? thanks. Donna

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The WD drive should work for the Windows/MR backups, providing it is large enough.
You will have to reformat the Seagate to Apple File system to use it for a Time Machine for the M1 MacMini.

I have had my new M1 MacMini up and running for a month now. The only app that I know that need Rosetta was Waterfox Current. The rest seemed to have M1/ARM versions available. I did have to update a couple of the apps to current versions, though.
Enjoy!

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Thanks. I had read that Time Machine will auto-format upon the first backup.

The only app that I know that need Rosetta was Waterfox Current.

What is Rosetta?

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Rosetta is the “translator”=”interpreter” for Intel/x86 apps on Apple M2 machines.
I am assuming you ar getting one of the new ARM-based M1 MacMinis?

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Yes I am getting the M1 Mini.  I suppose that is something else I have to do – check my programs for compatibility with the M1. I do not use a lot, this is about all I see in control panel that needs to be addressed:  Firefox, MS365, Carbonite, Adobe, Epson, Nord VPN, Malwarebytes.

I have to check on Adobe and Nord.  I know FF, MS365 Carbonite, Epson and MBAM work on Mac. I have to find out about transferring Carbonite & MBAM subscriptions.  I’d read that the Epson should have the drivers.  There are lots of Dell & Intell items in Control panel – but that goes away.  Macrium doesn’t work.  Will use Time Machine.

I was going to check on using Safari vs. FF or Duckduckgo for that matter, I’d read that Safari recently had some security improvements.  thanks.

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You will need Mac versions, it doesn’t run Windows versions.
Firefox, Adobe Reader are good – I am running those. Waterfox is good and Rosetta will install automatically with your permission.
I think Office365 is OK.
Your Epsom printer should be good – Mac is good about finding and installing printer s/w in my experience.
I ran Mbam on my Intel Macs, but haven’t tried to see if there is a version for M1.
I know nothing about Carbonite (I use SugarSync for the same thing and it runs on the M1.) or Nord VPN. Do they have Mac versions?

Here are some of the other apps I’m running on M1:
VLC Player, Thunderbifd, Calibre, Kindle Reader, CCleaner, TrendMicro, Open Office, Firefox extensions (AdBloc Plus, Disconnect, NoScript), Hp OJ8720 and Brother MFC-J435W printers, and InSSIDer.

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Thanks for your help.  O365 has Mac version- I just have to logon and download (I think).

I checked on MBAM and think it’ll work, but I have to find out about transferring my license, it’s Premium good for another 240 days.

https://www.malwarebytes.com/mac

Carbonite has Mac version but I have to call to ask how to transfer my subscription – I am one year into a three-year term (trying to save some $$, which I won’t if I have to forfeit my time!)

Nord has a Mac version. So I think it should be ok.

 

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