How to make a good backup of a Windows 7 machine?

Al Hart

I know I should just post this question at some random place on the web, but I trust you guys a lot more than a bunch of random responses from random forums.

What is a good way to back up a Windows 7 machine?

For both of these scenarios:

1. Full, recoverable, backup

I would like to make a back up which I can use to completely recover the machine it it is lost, or if the drive breaks - without having to install a lot of stuff - except perhaps Windows.

I hoped Windows 7 System Image backup would do this - but it turns out that it won't work with the new, large, USB drives from Seaagate because the sector size is 4096 rather than 512.
I am getting ready to purchase and try Norton Ghost 15, but I would like your advice first.

2. Everyday File by file backups

How about everyday backups of changed files.

Windows 7 backup looks like it would work for this. But do you have a better suggestion?

Al

andybot

Al - my best advice - get an external drive, at least 300GB, but 1TB is pretty cheap. You can use the windows backup to write a backup image of the C drive and system files. I've used it successfully to restore my windows 7 to a previous state. For file backups - use something like synkron (there are many other synchronization software that do the same thing) that allow you to duplicate and keep your files up to date on an external drive. (it only copies new files and files that have changed, so you are not having to copy the entire directory every time you back up.) Hope that helps.

Andy

Al Hart

@andybot said:

Al - my best advice - get an external drive, at least 300GB, but 1TB is pretty cheap. You can use the windows backup to write a backup image of the C drive and system files. I've used it successfully to restore my windows 7 to a previous state. For file backups - use something like synkron (there are many other synchronization software that do the same thing) that allow you to duplicate and keep your files up to date on an external drive. (it only copies new files and files that have changed, so you are not having to copy the entire directory every time you back up.) Hope that helps.

Andy

Thanks for the response. The problems is that I purchased a couple of Seagate 3 TB USB External drives just for backups, but they won't work with Windows System Image backup. Because the drive manufacturers have switched to a different physical sector size (4096 rather than 512 bytes), and Windows 7 won;t support it unless the drive reports the new size (whic WDC does apparently, but Seagate does not)

david.

I just did a System Image recovery on one PC from the Win 7 Backup. It couldn't have been easier. I didn't have to reinstall any applications. It just worked.

On my primary PC, I just purchased a Seagate 1 TB FreeAgent GoFlex external drive for the images and folder backups. I don't know what the sector size is, but Win 7 has no problem doing backups with that drive.

Charlie__V

@unknownuser said:

Thanks for the response. The problems is that I purchased a couple of Seagate 3 TB USB External drives just for backups, but they won't work with Windows System Image backup. Because the drive manufacturers have switched to a different physical sector size (4096 rather than 512 bytes), and Windows 7 won;t support it unless the drive reports the new size (whic WDC does apparently, but Seagate does not)

Al,
Curious what error message you get when trying to save an image. (is it something like "fails to recognise the drive")
I ask because I have a 1tb Seagate Goflex ext. drive I purchased of October 2011 to which I have no problem with saving a Win7 drive image.

I purchased another 1tb Seagate Goflex ext. (identical packaging to first ext. drive) drive in March 2012 to which I cannot save a Win7 drive image....I get an error that says something like "failed to recognise the drive".

So I am guessing the reporting you speak of occurs on my first drive but not the second...........bummer.......because I specifically purchased the second drive for saving drive images.

Charlie

EscapeArtist

I too have encountered difficulties with Win 7's built in backup features. I also use large HDDs, 1TB and 3TB, in an external enclosure. I switched to Acronis backup software and have had zero trouble since. It allows full or incremental backups, and allows you to browse your backed up files like a Windows Explorer file tree if you're looking for just one particular file.

Just my experience with this software, there are probably other exelent backup applications available as well.

Al Hart

@unknownuser said:

Al,
Curious what error message you get when trying to save an image. (is it something like "fails to recognise the drive")
I ask because I have a 1tb Seagate Goflex ext. drive I purchased of October 2011 to which I have no problem with saving a Win7 drive image.

Charlie

The error is something like "I/O error while writing to drive"

You can see if the drive i unsupportable by typing in:

Fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo F:

(replacing F: with the drive letter)

It is the Bytes per Physical in bold below which is the problem. "Not Supported" means that the drive does not report the number of bytes to Windows, so Windows does not know that it is not a 512 byte drive.

NTFS Volume Serial Number : 0x7420b59d20b566b0
Version : 3.1
Number Sectors : 0x000000002baa0a1f
Total Clusters : 0x000000002baa0a1f
Free Clusters : 0x000000002b78d793
Total Reserved : 0x00000000000df800
Bytes Per Sector : 4096
Bytes Per Physical Sector : <Not Supported> <-------
Bytes Per Cluster : 4096
Bytes Per FileRecord Segment : 4096
Clusters Per FileRecord Segment : 1
Mft Valid Data Length : 0x0000000000d00000
Mft Start Lcn : 0x00000000000c0000
Mft2 Start Lcn : 0x0000000015d5050f
Mft Zone Start : 0x00000000000c0100
Mft Zone End : 0x00000000000cc900
RM Identifier: 230A744D-C625-11E0-9ECD-101F740C3A98