Windows 7 Hate to say it but Windows 7 sucks in my experience

[whs]

I don't back up my OS, seems to be a waste of space to me. I rather back up all my data and games with the little 2TB backup drive that I have.

That may work for you. But as a general rule it is not viable. If you have no images, the option in case of a major problem is a reinstall of the system, all updates since the dawn of time, all programs (appr. 50 in my case) all settings have to be redone, etc. Last time I did that, it took 3 days elapsed - mainly because the downloads take forever. E.g. WAIK alone takes over 1 hour (1.7GBs). Similar with big updates like SPs for the system and Office.

 

[Joe S]

I use Acronis to make images a recovery takes less than 15 min. I have the HD partitioned with system and programs on one and data on the second. I only image the system and backup data separately on mutiple HDs.
Joe

 

[NaiyaShamiso]

Oh no, don't get me wrong, I see why you would do it. I just don't thats all. I guess partly cause I enjoy installing the OS and software. If I invested in a licence for Ghost, I would most likely do it though. I might do that thinking about it now. Though I would do a full reinstall and then do the restore from there. Not to mention I would want to get my servers back up and running again as well.

 

[whs]

No need to wait for Ghost (which I used for 3 years). Free Macrium is a lot better. I made a tutorial which can get you started. I like full images because they are easy to manage. But if you prefer differentials, use free Paragon. That is a good imaging program too, but a bit more difficult to use than macrium.

 

[Drew]

And if one does want to make an 'image back-up' , certainly Windows 7 can to that quite nicely, all by itself, w/out any 3rd party added software.

Drew

 

[NaiyaShamiso]

whs, will either of those work over the network?

 

[Super Sarge]

I backup daily using automatically using W7 generic to a different internal other than the OS Drive, I also backup weekly on Wednesdays using Macrium Reflect Pro to a completely different drive than the on I use on daily basis. I keep 3 weeks worth of backups on each drive. Gotta love redundancy . I have 4 internal drives

 

[whs]

And if one does want to make an 'image back-up' , certainly Windows 7 can to that quite nicely, all by itself, w/out any 3rd party added software.

Drew

It can, but 50% of the time you cannot recover. Believe me. I have fixed a dozen of those cases.

 

[whs]

whs, will either of those work over the network?

The pro versions do. But you do not want to image over the network. You are talking 10GB to 40GBs of data depending on the amount of data on the partition. That would take hours.

 

[NaiyaShamiso]

My system wouldn't change that much after the original backup.

 

[Super Sarge]

I have never had a problem using W7 to recover to an earlier version on my primary machine. the reason I got Macrium Pro it allows you to recover to a dissimular Hardware then you have to re-activate with proper key you also have re-activate a few Programs, Office 7 comes to mind. I used it to put W7 on my laptop and then used the Extra Key I purchased back in 2009, worked like a champ

 

[whs]

My system wouldn't change that much after the original backup.

What kind of a system is that. You get updates all the time.

 

[whs]

I have never had a problem using W7 to recover to an earlier version on my primary machine. the reason I got Macrium Pro it allows you to recover to a dissimular Hardware then you have to re-activate with proper key you also have re-activate a few Programs, Office 7 comes to mind. I used it to put W7 on my laptop and then used the Extra Key I purchased back in 2009, worked like a champ

You were lucky. I had to reimage the Win7 VHDs with Macrium for a bunch of people. Win7 imaging is just no good - like system restore that works only half of the time.

 

[NaiyaShamiso]

Okay, yea that is true. I do have 7 Ultimate 64 Bit. But I haven't had an update in a little while. Though I can see how it could get up there quick. I have seen it before.

 

[Drew]

No, not over a network, although it can be done & is done

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Yes, usually just do an initial image (full system) back-up; thereafter just backup New or Changed Data.

Drew

 

[MikeHawthorne]

All I can say is that I have used Malwarebytes for many years and never had a false positive that I know of.
In addition I can say that it's what I use to remove viruses and Trojans from my friends computers.

I run it in safe mode from a usb stick and it has almost always done the job.
It seem especially good at getting rid of those fake Antivirus Scanner Trojans that pop up all the time.

After the malware is removed I install it on their computers and tell them to use in regularly (they usually don't) and eventually they call me agian.

 

[Andrea Borman]

I don't back up my OS, seems to be a waste of space to me. I rather back up all my data and games with the little 2TB backup drive that I have.

You have not got your operating system backed up? I thought that a computer expert like you would have back up images of your operating system. And that you would also have all of your original Windows CDs,so you could reinstall Windows.

So what do you do if something goes wrong with Windows and you have to do a reinstall? I hope you have not deleted your recovery partition. Because if you did you won't be able to do a system recovery to restore your computer to factory condition.

 

[NaiyaShamiso]

I back up only the important stuff, pictures, music, videos, save games, that kind of thing. If anything goes wrong with my OS I just scrap it and reinstall from a disk downloaded from MSDN. Its not hard, only takes about two days from start to running like nothing happened. I hardly ever have to do it, one maybe twice every three years. I have all my software saved on a 2 TB External drive, with all the SP. I never even have to let it get on the web till I install my Steam games and messengers. Though like I said, I rarely do it.

One, I am not an expert, and never have I said I am. I am good at what I do. Second, I know enough to not need any recovory system with a bunch of bloat ware and crap ware cramed in it. The recovory system is the first thing I delete when I get a new system. I install from a Windows install disk. No HP or Dell homo helper software crap. I choose what I want on my system at all times, and nothing more goes on it. As long as I have my important non-replaceable files backed up, the rest can be reinstalled. Yea it takes time, but I dont get paid or run the risk of getting fired from my home life. If this was work computer we where talking about then it would be a completely differnt story.

 

[Andrea Borman]

I back up only the important stuff, pictures, music, videos, save games, that kind of thing. If anything goes wrong with my OS I just scrap it and reinstall from a disk downloaded from MSDN. Its not hard, only takes about two days from start to running like nothing happened. I hardly ever have to do it, one maybe twice every three years. I have all my software saved on a 2 TB External drive, with all the SP. I never even have to let it get on the web till I install my Steam games and messengers. Though like I said, I rarely do it.

One, I am not an expert, and never have I said I am. I am good at what I do. Second, I know enough not to not need any recovory system with a bunch of bloat ware and crap ware cramed in it. The recovory system is the first thing I delete when I get a new system. I install from a Windows install disk. No HP or Dell homo helper software crap. I choose what I want on my system at all times, and nothing more goes on it. As long as I have my important non-replaceable files backed up, the rest can be reinstalled. Yea it takes time, but I dont get paid or run the risk of getting fired from my home life. If this was work computer we where talking about then it would be a completely differnt story.

But backing up your program files is not enough.You need to back up your whole operating system.

Otherwise how are you going to reinstall your Windows 7,Windows XP or whatever version of Windows you have got?

You cannot just download it from the Internet. There are no Windows XP or Windows 7 operating system ISO files or downloads.

And you did not make the mistake of deleting your recovery partition did you?

 

[NaiyaShamiso]

Yes I did delete that crapfest of bloat ware called a recovery and no it was not a mistake. I do not need it. I install from a clean copy of Windows. Also, I was not thinking that you are not familiar with MSDN. Microsoft Developers Network or MSDN for short. Is a community of people that work on and with Windows. If you have a subscription and pay for it, then you can download a .iso of Windows anytime you want, however many times you want. So yes I can download Windows from the Internet any time I want. I really like having access to a premium MSDN account.