Yes, You Need Image Backups (and here's how) - Comments Page 2

A "Lite" version of Acronis TrueImage can usually be downloaded from WesternDigital website FREE of charge (does not expire).

Thanks, Bob, for some good advice. I have been using Windows system image, but I will give Macrium a try since you prefer it over the Windows back-up.

Smoky,

Not sure what the problem was. Macrium Free is available, although not shouted from the rooftops on their website. Did you find the proper downlooad page ?

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Thanks, Bob, for the useful information on this particular type of backup. I have my treasured photo images.....and videos......(many thousands of them) and documents backed up in just conventional fashion on my home network's external HD and also on my desktop AND my laptop PC's. But I'm aware of what a hassle it would be if one of those drives completely crashed and had to be replaced. So I think I shall follow your suggestions. Thanks again.

It amazes me that people save SO MUCH CRAP on computers! They've become ELECTRONIC HOARDERS!!1 When you die, your kids are just going to carry your computer to the local recycling station. Nobody is going to want your "Many Thousands" of photos and documents. Pick a few dozen significant family photos, put them in picture frames or albums, and delete the rest. Hit the OFF button, unplug the damn thing, go outside, smell the flowers, walk the dog, and get your life back!

The problem I see from creating periodic system images is that down the line that image might unknown to me contain malware. Whereas an image created from a clean install should not have any malware. I just did a recovery using windows recovery and it did not take long before I suddenly found myself facing 203 updates which after several hours it was completed only to find out that there was an update failure. 202 updates failed. So I am caught between having to deal with that kind of situation and that of using a relatively recent image that might contain malware. I do use Avast free and MalwareBytes premium, so hopefully I won't have any malware located in the image.

For Chris McClellan (07Feb2017)
Check https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image-for-linux.htm

Sure, backups are essential (regardless of whether you choose an image backup or only valuable files). But are they vulnerable to encryption by Ransomware when located on a local drive (USB or network)? CNET says "Yes": https://www.cnet.com/forums/discussions/can-my-backup-hard-drives-be-affected-by-ransomware/

Very proud of myself this morning! Did my first full image backup using Macrium Reflect and have differential backups scheduled per your advice. Worked like a charm! And thank you again for your eBook on backups, 5th edition. A great guide!

Macrium Reflect Free
I'm wondering if I made a mistake by downloading the 30 day free Home version but hope to learn what is the real difference between it and the free version before the 30 days ends. Will I have difficulties using the Free version of another one later after starting with it? I'm on disability so do not have much in the way of extra resources so will probably end up using something for free.

Am freaked on back-ups! Have three external drives hanging off my main Hard disk and do a back-up to each in turn at 5.45 pm Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I now use Acronis 2017 and it is very successful - but it has a chequered history and some of the earlier versions were nothing but trouble and a pain in the posterior. Look in the online forums to see the troubles some users have had with previous versions. Have used Macrium and the EasUs free programs but found some inadequacies and difficulties with both - especially when trying to restore the C drive.

Bob,
I learned a lot about backup after reading your ebook. worth money spend.
I have thousands of files which I wanted to rename them because these files had numerical number in first four digits positions and I could not sort them. After much research I downloaded "Bulk Rename Utility". This utility works fast and easy. Best part it is free.

I have been using Macrium Reflect for years. I have it set to do a backup each month and a differential backup every day during the week. I sometime do not turn the desktop on so I always get a backup when ever it runs.
I have had a hard drive fail twice in one year. Never lost anything because I had a backup. I back up my financial files (Quicken) to a flash drive every time I use it. That is just in case my backup is not good.

Unless there are special, unannounced limitations to the free version, Macrium Reflect is even better than that.

It isn't limited to NTFS files :

http://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW/Minimum+System+Requirements

(Rapid Delta Restore and Rapid Delta Clone are the two features supported on NTFS files only. But the free version does not have them.)

You can also create your rescue media on a flash drive instead of a CD :

http://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW/Preparing+a+USB+stick+for+Windows+PE

From what I have read, neither Macurium, EaseUS nor AOMEI can backup to the Cloud whereas Acronis can. It seems to me that this difference is crucial in many cases. I personally would not want the backup media to be at the same site as the computer. Of course, it's true that Acronis is not free but isn't having a safe backup worth it?