[SOLVED] PC backup and restore options stink.

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

tmpc1066

Distinguished
Oct 29, 2016
67
3
18,535
I come from the Mac world and use Carbon Copy Cloner which I consider to be the best backup / reinstall program in existence for regular people like me. I am now also using a PC and was hoping to find a CCC equivalent, but there doesn't appear to be one.

What do I want it to do?
  1. A differential backup with versioning.
  2. An external, bootable backup that can be used without the application that created it.
  3. The ability to access files on that bootable backup without the application that created it.
  4. The ability to write the contents (including the OS) of this bootable drive to a new drive installed in the computer that will boot and run properly on its own.
  5. No yearly subscriptions.

Do any of you know if anything like this exist?
 
Solution
Right. You need Macrium installed to create the Rescue, and to create the backup Images.
As I mentioned above, it is my tool of choice for this. It is one of those applications that "just works".
Fine grained scheduling. Individual folder backup if desired. Ability to mount an Image as a drive letter, and extract a single file.

And kudos for being proactive. Far too many aren't.

tmpc1066

Distinguished
Oct 29, 2016
67
3
18,535
Yes, you can create a generic ISO file, directly from the client
0IEsROj.png



EDIT:
I just created an ISO from the MR client. 288MB
Ah man! That's great!!!
 

tmpc1066

Distinguished
Oct 29, 2016
67
3
18,535
So, I downloaded the free version, installed it on both PCs, backed them up, and verified the backups. I also made the Rescue Disk ISO files for both computers. However, I don't see any way to perform a verify on these ISO files. Am I missing something here, or is there no way to do it?
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
So, I downloaded the free version, installed it on both PCs, backed them up, and verified the backups. I also made the Rescue Disk ISO files for both computers. However, I don't see any way to perform a verify on these ISO files. Am I missing something here, or is there no way to do it?
Not sure that exists.
Then again, I've not really looked.

I know my RescueUSB works, because I've tried it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tmpc1066

tmpc1066

Distinguished
Oct 29, 2016
67
3
18,535
Hi, USAFRet. I guess I could make an actual USB drive from both images and try them. Does booting from a Macrium Rescue Disks automatically start to do anything to the computer's hard drive, or change any settings that will mess up normal operation? I'd hate to screw something up just trying it.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Hi, USAFRet. I guess I could make an actual USB drive from both images and try them. Does booting from a Macrium Rescue Disks automatically start to do anything to the computer's hard drive, or change any settings that will mess up normal operation? I'd hate to screw something up just trying it.
It just boots up.
It changes nothing until you start clicking and tell it to do something.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tmpc1066

tmpc1066

Distinguished
Oct 29, 2016
67
3
18,535
Just one last followup on this little adventure; it all works. However, I was surprised that Macrium didn't include a way to burn the ISO image it created to a flash drive. I ended up using a recommended free app called Rufus that worked well.

The HP zBook was no problem, but my wife's Surface Pro 3 just wouldn't boot from the USB Rescue drive. I poked around online and came across someone who had a similar problem. The thing that fixed it for them was using an older version of Windows PE that was in use when the computer was released. Someone also mentioned completely erasing the new USB flash drive and formatting it with FAT32. I also found that I had to set Rufus to a GPT partition scheme, UEFI, and a FAT32 file system. Some of these four things may be unnecessary, but they were all easy enough to, so that's it for me.

Thanks again for the help, USAFRet.
 

jblackmd

Honorable
Mar 20, 2018
88
3
10,545
I haven't tried doing that, but I'm very interested in what happened you didn't like.
Heh. I don't know if this was dependant on the brand of SSD (Samsung Evo). Basically I tried to clone the C: drive. When it was completed, the clone didn't boot. I then used the software recommended by Samsung to clone it. That worked. So maybe the clone function of Macrium works better with other brands, but I didn't experiment around with it. Anyway, I then did disk imaging/full/differential/incremental with Macrium. Like USAFret said, it just works. Not only that, it just works fast. I popped in a blank SSD, and the OS was up and running literally in minutes. I don't quite get how it's able to do it as fast as it does, but at that moment I became a believer. I bought a single license, but I'm thinking of expanding that as I use it on two computers.
 

tmpc1066

Distinguished
Oct 29, 2016
67
3
18,535
Could it have something to do with the drive format? Does it have to be formatted properly to clone to it?

There is a section in the Macrium manual called "Fixing Windows boot problems" on page 130. Did you look at that?
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Heh. I don't know if this was dependant on the brand of SSD (Samsung Evo). Basically I tried to clone the C: drive. When it was completed, the clone didn't boot. I then used the software recommended by Samsung to clone it. That worked. So maybe the clone function of Macrium works better with other brands, but I didn't experiment around with it. Anyway, I then did disk imaging/full/differential/incremental with Macrium. Like USAFret said, it just works. Not only that, it just works fast. I popped in a blank SSD, and the OS was up and running literally in minutes. I don't quite get how it's able to do it as fast as it does, but at that moment I became a believer. I bought a single license, but I'm thinking of expanding that as I use it on two computers.
Its possible you left off the boot partition.
I've used Macrium on Samsung drives, with no problem.