Tasks for the weekend – August 14, 2021 – how’s your backup?

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Youtube here demonstrating Windows and Mac backup software It’s that time of the month that I make sure that I’m getting a good backup.  So I open up
[See the full post at: Tasks for the weekend – August 14, 2021 – how’s your backup?]

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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DrBonzo

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Some apps that store your data put it in locations that are not obvious – email is notorious for this.
And your music played will have a database, somewhere.
And your bookmarks are stored by your browser somewhere else.

The safest backup is an image of your entire hard disk.

cheers, Paul

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Paul T wrote:

Some apps that store your data put it in locations that are not obvious – email is notorious for this.

My email data is where I put it.  I know exactly where it is, and it gets backed up weekly.  In addition, all my email is POP3, and is configured to stay on the server until I purposefully delete it from there.

Paul T wrote:

And your music played will have a database, somewhere.

All of my music is on a logical drive (partition) organized by Artist/Album.  When I add to that collection, I create a new partition image.  It doesn’t need routine backup, only when the content changes.

Paul T wrote:

And your bookmarks are stored by your browser somewhere else.

My bookmarks are stored by my browser in my User Profile.  I know where they are.  They are backed up weekly.

Paul T wrote:

The safest backup is an image of your entire hard disk.

There is no need to create a fresh image of something that has not changed since your last image.  There is a reason that I have 21 partitions scattered across six SSD’s.  OS and Data that changes or has additions needs regular backup.  Data that does not change with any regularity only needs to be backed up when changes are made.

I can create and verify a bit-for-bit drive image of my OS partition in a little over 5 minutes.  I can restore that image in a tad over 3 minutes.  That’s what I do when I’m tinkerin’ in the registry.  If I pooch something, I can restore my image and start over, skipping the step that pooched the system.

Task Scheduler, in the wee hours of Sunday morning, creates a total of six partition images, three for the A side of my dual boot, three for the B side.  These are OS, Programs, and User Profiles.  After they are created, a Robocopy script copies them to my NAS.

Sunday when I get up and make coffee, I plug a 3TB drive into the drive dock on top of my NAS and copy those six new partition images from the NAS to the HDD.  When that’s finished, I swap that HDD out for a second 3TB drive and repeat.

For those infrequently updated partitions, I create a partition image and then copy that to an external HDD in a similar fashion.  There is no real justification for making full drive images of my complete system regularly.  The images I have are all up-to-date considering the type of data stored.

And as Susan advises, I check my images by restoring an image to the appropriate drive/partition from time to time, to insure that I’m getting what I expect from my imaging regimen.  It has paid off beyond measure a number of times.  I lost two PC’s to a house fire a decade or so ago, but not the OS’s, and none of the data.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We were all once "Average Users". We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems, we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

Computer Specs

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One key folder to back up is the user’s AppData hidden folder. That’s where most settings and application data is stored, unless your app is “weird”. The best thing to do is to back up the entire Users folder, this way you have Firefox/Chrome/Outlook/Thunderbird/etc data for the whole computer. You can usually copy those folders back and restore user settings after a Windows re-installation.

Martin

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A good thing to do, although if you’re doing that as less than a full system image (e.g., via a scheduled process) it’s common to get conflicts from open files.  Most of the time, those tend to be things like lock files and other semaphores where you don’t really need to get them backed up.  However, depending on the backup tool that you use and how you use it, that will give “incomplete backup” warnings.

It’s possible adjust settings exclude certain file types or folders where those are, but it is a good thing to not have to review lists of warnings.

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Hey Y’all,

As I’ve posted before I Image all 4 of my computers biweekly and a file backup of my Raid 1 NAS Monthly to a set of 5 rotating bare HDDs using Macrium Reflect V6. I also have multiple USB thumb drive Macrium boot devices.

I have an Excel spreadsheet that keeps track of the backups (fully automated) and scheduled tasks to automatically pop up the Excel spreadsheet on Backup Friday and one to nudge me every morning at boot if I haven’t backuped up in the last 14 days.

Do I forget to backup…HARDLY!

HTH 😎

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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server 2016 essentials, clients backup to it daily.

 

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Every feature release the client software gets lost and there is no product team left that cares about it.  I moved to Macrium site manager to handle the workstation backups.  I finally had to walk away from Essentials.  I loved it too.  But given that NO ONE at Microsoft cares about it anymore just be aware that no one does.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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I’m new to on-premise backups. Saw Susan’s video and wondered why she suggests Western Digital hardware but apparently uses Macrium software instead of Western Digital’s own. My question is why is Macrium better?

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Fire drill!

If you can’t prove that you can recover your backups when you need them, then you don’t have backups.  I’ve seen too many cases over the years of backups that were unusable, when the time came to recover data.

There are lots of ways that backups can fail.  I’ve seen bad backup media, corrupt files, bad controllers, bad backup patterns (e.g., less than full backups, where data has been stored to folders not backed up), even something as simple as a forgotten access password.

It’s essential to do regular testing.  This is perhaps more obvious for regular/routine backups, but can potentially bite you when you do the “back up your system before you upgrade” (e.g., prior to applying Patch Tuesday updates) .  I know of lots of people who routinely do those kinds of backups, but I’m far less aware of those people who actually test recovery capacity before upgrading.

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Still Anonymous wrote:

If you can’t prove that you can recover your backups when you need them, then you don’t have backups.

I concur.

bbearren wrote:

And as Susan advises, I check my images by restoring an image to the appropriate drive/partition from time to time, to insure that I’m getting what I expect from my imaging regimen. It has paid off beyond measure a number of times. I lost two PC’s to a house fire a decade or so ago, but not the OS’s, and none of the data.

bbearren wrote:

I routinely test my drive images by restoring them. Which is to say, I am always running on a restored drive image, except immediately after an upgrade (such as is coming in October). A week or two into that one, I will again test my drive images by restoring my latest, and once again I will be running on a restored drive image. Needless to say, after more than two decades of this practice, I am quite satisfied that my drive images are good, reliable, and without issue of any kind. As for whole disk images, I have done that many, many times, every time I have replaced a failed drive and every time I have upgraded an older drive. I’m now running on six SSD’s, all of which began their service life running whole drive images, and are now running on restored logical drive images. I am very many image/restore cycles removed from any original installation/upgrade.

As recently as Sunday I restored my OS backup after pooching some registry editing.  After the restore, I refined my registry editing, and got what I was looking for.

And then I made a fresh OS drive image.

 

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We were all once "Average Users". We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems, we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

Computer Specs

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Teepeekay wrote:

My question is why is Macrium better?

Good, known for its flexibility, Site Manager allows you to manage all your backups and it’s free (you pay for a Macrium license on each machine you backup).

An alternative is to install a NAS (~$300 for a mirrored unit + disks) and use that to backup / manage your backups – see this Synology software.

cheers, Paul

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Teepeekay, Fred

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Many thanks, Paul T, for the reply and for including a solid alternative.

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