[SOLVED] Backing up Data using an Ironwolf drive in desktop.

[Boots27]

So I'm aware of a few solutions to data backup like having a NAS or manual backups to say a cloud service or an external drive. Whilst I'm aware these solutions work well I need something that's less time consuming, more elegant and not overly expensive. My idea currently is to automate the backup using Windows 10's built-in backup tool with the backup drive being a Seagate Ironwolf Drive. My current HDD is 2TB with a 240GB SSD. My questions are:

1. Is an Ironwolf drive necessary?
2. Since I know I can choose which folders to backup and most of my storage usage is games which don't need backing up, would 1TB be enough?
3. Would I be able to use this backup if a drive fails? I know it can be used to recover deleted files and I believe system images but other than that I don't know much about the integrated windows tool.
4. Would I be able to use the drive to restore files on a new install of windows with different drive sizes?
5. Is there a better solution to this problem that's not overly complex or expensive?

I know there's a lot of questions and I appreciate the time looking into my problem.

Kind Regards.

 

[Lutfij]

1| Not really but they are advertised to work in a NAS meaning they are rated for 24/7 use. I think the tool backup any and/or all files that are located on one physical drive.

2| Probably, you might be better off having your games library on a different storage device altogether.

3| It will act as a backup to the files you backup from the OS installation drive. As far as I know.

4| I think you're thinking that the tool will rectify other partitions on other drives, which is not the case, it's only a restoration point for the OS installation drive. Again I could be wrong but that's how I saw it when I last used it a couple of months ago.

5| The better solution would be to have an external storage device so it's not affected by any issue of the system you're plugging to, like power issues or people trying to snoop on your system online.

 

[USAFRet]

An external drive, and NOT Windows backup tools.

I much prefer Macrium Reflect for this. Either whole drives, whole partitions, or individual Folders and files.

While this procedure in the first post here may seem overly complicated, it can be boiled down to a single external drive.

What is your backup situation at home?

What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong...

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