Any good /free OS/SSD cloning/back up software recommendations?
- Thread starter Slap
- Start date
Soldato
One of the forum guys
Has the free version of macrium stored just in case
drive.google.com
Also available on major geeks website
Has the free version of macrium stored just in case
reflect_setup_free_x64.exe
drive.google.com
Also available on major geeks website
Soldato
The free version macrium should work fine
For a good while
Unless windows makes a major file system change
Only had it happen once
In all the years I have used macrium
Windows updated something
I think it was to do with shadow volume copy file system
Or something like that
Forgot the exact details
But it messed up macrium again forgot exactly how
Have just started testing hasleo free backup
Made images and bootable rescue usb
But not actually tested restore of an image yet
Even though I like macrium
Even my backup software involves a backup plan lol
So images from 2 softwares won't hurt
There's also the built in windows image creator
Only tried that once years ago
And it failed to restore
So never tried it since
For a good while
Unless windows makes a major file system change
Only had it happen once
In all the years I have used macrium
Windows updated something
I think it was to do with shadow volume copy file system
Or something like that
Forgot the exact details
But it messed up macrium again forgot exactly how
Have just started testing hasleo free backup
Made images and bootable rescue usb
But not actually tested restore of an image yet
Even though I like macrium
Even my backup software involves a backup plan lol
So images from 2 softwares won't hurt
There's also the built in windows image creator
Only tried that once years ago
And it failed to restore
So never tried it since
If you're OK with a bit of command line use Windows DISM
Use the Windows setup USB to boot the PC.
At any setup screen press SHFT+F10 to open a command window
Use diskpart to identify the disk you want to capture
Capture the entire disk (all partitions) as an FFU
Code:
DISM /capture-ffu /imagefile=d:\backup.ffu /capturedrive=\\.\PhysicalDrive0 /name:disk0 /description:"Windows 11 Backup"To apply\restore the FFU
Code:
DISM /apply-ffu /ImageFile=d:\backup.ffu /ApplyDrive:\\.\PhysicalDrive0If creating the FFU internally from NVMe to NVMe a 30GB file takes <3 mins to write.
The only downside compared to a WIM (partition only) is the FFU needs to be restored to a disk of the same size or larger, even if the actual FFU is only a few GBs. And you can't mount the FFU like you can a WIM to read, copy or edit induvial files. But backups and restores are super quick, can also be done from the Windows recovery options if you don't want to boot from a USB.
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Clonezilla and Gparted are both free solution for cloning, I use Gparted more often and recently used it to clone a 500GB disk to a replacement 4TB
Another shout out for Clonezilla. The GUI is a bit confusing even after using multiple times.
Agreed, gparted has a much nicer UI and also provides a lot more functionality, I ended up using gparted as I needed to alter the partition type to gpt to allow for the larger partition size, so created the gpt partition on the new disk and then copied the partition from the older smaller disk to the larger one, then also in gparted resized it to full size of the disk, booted back into windows and all worked perfectly.
I went for a years subscription on the Acronis Cyber Suite in the end. Figured it was a minimal investment to layout for peace of mind and all the extras that comes with it, all in a smooth polished idiot-proof user-interface/product.
Soldato
Got acronis free with some stuff I bought
May have been Sn850x drives
Or my motherboard
Forgot now
It wouldn't even run
Just gave an acronis schedule error message
Even after doing what acronis support told me
Still didn't work
If it does what you want fair enough
Though until you do a successful recovery
Total peace of mind isn't guaranteed
May have been Sn850x drives
Or my motherboard
Forgot now
It wouldn't even run
Just gave an acronis schedule error message
Even after doing what acronis support told me
Still didn't work
If it does what you want fair enough
Though until you do a successful recovery
Total peace of mind isn't guaranteed
For peace of mind I would restore it to an SSD and make sure it booted etc
To be honest I have nothing on the OS drive that an OS re install would not put back
Soldato
Yeah I test my image backups
Got 9 drives in my build lol
So definitely got 1 spare for testing
Macrium allows mounting them in a VM
But I still test them
On an actual physical drive
And make sure they boot up
All the recovery images in the world
Won't save you if they don't work
Exactly, You could do backups for years but when coming to use them if they do not work then they are hopeless.
I need to do an OS backup on my sons PC before updating it to Windows 11 and was just going to use the Backup and restore (Windows 7) option in the CP under windows 10
I feel your pain...
sorry to hear Mcnumpty.I guess worst case scenario for me is having to install Widows from scratch if there is a fail on cloning. I've backed up all the important stuff to me onto an external 2Tb ssd for good measures.
I'll.post back with results once I upgrade the case and a few parts over the next day or two.
Tally ho!
Soldato
I use FreeFileSync for backups and for cloning the manufacturer of your discs usually provides clone software.