How to Backup and Restore Your Windows in 10 Minutes

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I use the Windows system image tool built into Win 7. I just save an image of my whole C drive on one of my larger hard drives since my C drive is only a 128gb SSD anyway. I install "most" of my games on a different drive as well, so it doesn't use up as much space on my SSD. My backup is around 50gb, so it's not a big deal.

I recently had to restore back to my last image save, which was in June. Never lost a thing, and only had to reinstall one program. I got the Arconis software with my SSD and have yet to use it. lol, no point really...
 
As a full time computer tech for the last 7 years I have to say Acronis is great. I use Disk Director for managing partitions and True Image is great for cloning. On my old desktop, instead of "backing up" my machine, I would just boot off the disc and clone my entire HDD to my second HDD, then I have a full drive ready to go, don't have to worry about a corrupted backup set or even restoring it.
 
I use the built in Windows system image tool built into Win 7. I just save an image of my whole C drive on one of my larger hard drives since my C drive is only a 128gb SSD anyway. I install "most" of my games on a different drive as well, so it doesn't use up as much space on my SSD. My backup is around 50gb, so it's not a big deal.

I recently had to restore back to my last image save, which was in June. Never lost a thing, and only had to reinstall one program. I got the Arconis software with my SSD and have yet to use it. lol, no point really...

EDIT: Why can't I delete this double post? lol, a tech site that can't get their comments section fixed...
 
Avoid Acronis! They refuse to add Windows 8 compatibility to the True Image 2012 when the said backup software were merely 10 months old, and it weren't even 2013.
EaseUS have better backup softwares, and they are mostly free.
Or Paragon, which is also better than Acronis.
 
I can see the good in cloning the drive in a business environment kawininjazx. To be able to just pop in and go again would save a lot on down time. I just think a simple windows system image is sufficient for most home users if they save the image to an additional drive just in case the registry was to get corrupted.
 
Acronis works like a champ, have done many diskclones from one ssd to another without having to go through the hassle of reinstalling windows, drivers, software, etc.

Best software I've ever paid for on Windows
 
Good advertisement for Acronis. It is a good product but you need to buy it. Win 7 has and equally as good free set of back up utilities. Why submit a guid that is copied from some third party software providers instruction set? He did not create this he copied it.
 
The system that my kids use is notorious for infecting virus, malware, getting corrupted, etc. The only sure way is to use Windows restore point. Yeah, brute force, but it works. (shrug)
 
How to put ads on your Tomshardware for cash profit.

That said, I trust true image, and acronis tends to make solid software (between drive monitor, disk director and true image, we've got the triumverate of data going on.)
 
Clonezilla is decent product for 'home' use and even professional use and is completely open source. The GUI interface isn't bad and has commandline for advanced usage. It has a network server capability much like GhostCast. Norton(Symantec) Ghost is still a great tool as well that I use often at work.
 
I personally hate Acronis products because I lost a lot of data once when i tried resizing my partitions, I use GParted ever since.
 
I also use the built-in windows image backup to external USB drive, HOWEVER, it does not have any compression or encryption features that 3rd party backup packages usually have.
 
Acronis is pretty good, but it's also a nightmare to work once in a while. I would recommend R-Drive Image (www.r-tt.com). It's simple and painless with great speed and compression. DO NOT USE ANYTHING WINDOWS BASED. Those backups have a strong tendancy to become corrupt for no reason and they don't restore system state or some of the other useful information really well. Do it right, use imaging softare. If you want a free one DRIVEIMAGE XML is pretty good, but if you want longevity, reliability and no fuss restoring, it's hard to beat R-Drive Image from R-TT (r-tt.com) plus they have linux options.
 
Hey all. One very important thing to clarify: this tutorial was presented without any input from Acronis and its partners. There was ZERO advertising behind it from any entity. It didn't even contain a link to Acronis' site or any retailer selling the product.

It was simply a submission from our Tutorials forum that was intended to be helpful content for all Tom's Hardware readers. That's all.
 
Coincidently, after a bit of googling around, I started using Acronis TrueImage (latest version) yesterday to backup my Mom's system drive C (SSD). It's a 128Gb Vertex 4 which was just about 100Gb full. The image backup, destined to another SSD, took about 20min with "full compression" setting on her i7 laptop. End result was a ~40Gb .tib file which I later moved to a NAS. Nice, surprisingly intuitive to use piece of software. It was my first time ever to use imaging software too. I'm definitely recommending it. Also, I've set it up to do incremental backsups every night of her secondary (storage) drive D to the NAS.
 
I tried Acronis once but couldn't get it to work. I used to use DriveImage XML, but
it's too slow. I had much better success with Macrium Reflect, and that's what I'm
still using now.

Ian.

 
What do people suggest if I want a use a Windows system image tool - like the one built Win 7.
EXCEPT for Windows 8. I think that feature was taken out in 8.1. I think it's still possible in 8.1, but you need to use the CLI.
Any alternatives?
No Windows 8 compatibility to the True Image 2012 - Is there a newer version?
 
WHS 2011 worked great until computers started using a different boot (UEFI instead of BIOS) and partitioning (GPT instead of MBR) scheme. Now I am forced to find an alternative solution, but the built-in features of Win 7 and Win 8 are actually quite good. The win 8 features are even better than a bulk backup/restore, because you can do just an O/S rewrite - it overwrites the existing operating system installation, and retains your data and installed programs.
 
Just started using True Image roughly a month ago. So far so good. The software seemed quite user-friendly to me, and I really appreciate nonstop PC backup feature.
 
I guess it's hard to find another team who can provide so distinct and clear instructions as Acronis does.I really liked the interface and the number of functions they provide.Have been using their products for years already and pretty happy so far
 
I think True Image is a really handy tool to use if you want to save your time and be sure your data are in safe hands. Honestly speaking I would call cloning a big breakthrough in the IT sphere. Thank guys for your work!
 
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