Best Windows 11 back up option

[dontlookdown]

I've been using Windows File History to back up my stuff since I got a new Win 11 PC ca 18 months ago. I stopped using Windows Back Up & Restore after a tech mate told me it hasn't been supported for ages and could potentially just stop working at some random point in future. I'm self-employed and it's my work PC - such a failure could be v bad news for me and my clients.

But - while I am no expert - the whole idea of File History seems kinda sketchy by comparison. What I want is to run full scheduled daily back ups to an external HD. Is there a better option, either from MS or a 3rd party?

[dmsims]

Ideally you want local and off site backups - look at something like Idrive

[biggiles]

How many GB are you talking about?

If all "documents" are stored in the cloud (e.g. Dropbox, Microsoft office), this can reduce the amount you need to back up significantly. (Assuming you count those as backups, which is a can of worms).

[Motorman74]

Depending on what the data is, have a look at Backblaze.

It's an all you can eat cloud backup that is quite reasonably priced. I can vouch for it working very well, I've recovered data from there with no issues. It backs up everything without any intervention (as long as it's set up right)

You encrypt the data at the client end, but even so I'd not be storing anything particularly sensitive etc, in there, but other than that it's a good option for a single PC.

[Mr Pointy]

Dropbox & Onedrive? Personally I find Dropbox easier to get on with: just keep all your project files in the DB directory & they are synced automatically. It even keeps old versions for a period - 30 days I think.

Yes, I know it isn't "backup" but it does a job.

[eeLee]

If you want to image your device then consider Macrum Refrlect free version. It's being discontinued but it works really well.

I don't tend to back up my Windows per say as I have a winget script to build out my software on a clean Win11 and all of my data is on OneDrive and then on two NAS systems too. Getting from blank to working is an hour and it's clean; restoring an image might not deliver the results you want.

So the question is - what do you want to back up?

[Far Cough]

Mr Pointy said:

Dropbox & Onedrive? Personally I find Dropbox easier to get on with: just keep all your project files in the DB directory & they are synced automatically. It even keeps old versions for a period - 30 days I think.

Yes, I know it isn't "backup" but it does a job.

BOX does the same and is free for personal use. I've been using it for years and it's great being able to access your files on your phone when the need arises

[wombleh]

I use Spideroak as it encrypts on the client so the cloud provider has no visibility of your data. The downside is that you're the only one with the key, if you lose it then you lose access to the backups.

[mikef]

I have used Acronis Cyber Protect for years, to back up both locally and to their cloud. It does restore very reliably, which I think is key with backup solutions

[dontlookdown]

Tks for some good ideas here.

I do use Google drive and pay for extra storage to keep impt files and folders in off site, as it were.

But what I want is a regular scheduled back up so if anything goes pop I can restore my whole set up quickly and steadily, to either them same pc or a new one.

[dmsims]

Macrium

dontlookdown said:

But what I want is a regular scheduled back up so if anything goes pop I can restore my whole set up quickly and steadily, to either them same pc or a new one.

[eeLee]

dontlookdown said:

Tks for some good ideas here.

I do use Google drive and pay for extra storage to keep impt files and folders in off site, as it were.

But what I want is a regular scheduled back up so if anything goes pop I can restore my whole set up quickly and steadily, to either them same pc or a new one.

Win11 reset is excellent. I would not restore Windows on the same or different hardware. It will likely glitch.
Back up your data. OneDrive, GDrive, Dropbox, pCloud, whatever.
Go to https://winstall.app and build out a script to install your software on a clean system.
Link your data back and rejoice.

[Mr Pointy]

dontlookdown said:

Tks for some good ideas here.

I do use Google drive and pay for extra storage to keep impt files and folders in off site, as it were.

But what I want is a regular scheduled back up so if anything goes pop I can restore my whole set up quickly and steadily, to either them same pc or a new one.

In the past Macrium Reflect was often recommended but unfortuneately they are stopping the free version (although you may be able to find old versions on their site) & it's now £58 for a permanent licence. You can make regular scheduled backups of your whole HDD using this software, but maybe others will know of another option.

https://www.macrium.com/products/home

[Greenmantle]

Mr Pointy said:

dontlookdown said:

Tks for some good ideas here.

I do use Google drive and pay for extra storage to keep impt files and folders in off site, as it were.

But what I want is a regular scheduled back up so if anything goes pop I can restore my whole set up quickly and steadily, to either them same pc or a new one.

In the past Macrium Reflect was often recommended but unfortuneately they are stopping the free version (although you may be able to find old versions on their site) & it's now £58 for a permanent licence. You can make regular scheduled backups of your whole HDD using this software, but maybe others will know of another option.

https://www.macrium.com/products/home

Disk Genius is now the free replacement for Macrium Reflect.
Just downgraded a 512GB NVME SSD with a windows 11 os to a 256GB NVME.
Obviously had to get the NVME to USB adapter thing - I think it was a tenner.
With regards to personal or business files - word and excel - I never store them on my laptop. Always on an encrypted USB stick which is backed up to other things.

[JamesMcd]

mikef said:

I have used Acronis Cyber Protect for years, to back up both locally and to their cloud. It does restore very reliably, which I think is key with backup solutions

I was looking at this product but looking on their forum there are complaints about the pop-up advertising messages that can't easily be disabled, even in the paid product. Have you found this to be a problem?

https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-cyber-prot...

Edited by JamesMcd on Wednesday 1st May 19:22

[Ronstein]

I also use Acronis to run a scheduled monthly back up to a local SSD and have no issues with it (or pop-ups!)

[wombleh]

Thought Windows came with backup software built in these days?

[mikef]

Ronstein said:

I also use Acronis to run a scheduled monthly back up to a local SSD and have no issues with it (or pop-ups!)

No popups at all, wonder whether that's a nagware version that some people are using?

[alock]

With 20 mins of effort you can create some scheduled tasks that call robocopy to sync folders.

Just remember that a USB disk, or mapped network share, is not a good backup. Any malware has complete access to corrupt anything it can access. Your backup needs separation from your daily user account.

[Arnold Cunningham]

I use a combo of the above. For normal stuff, I use onedrive with my downloads, desktop & documents folders all in onedrive. This means I can log in to any of my machines and as long as they are online, everything is just "there". Dropbox and Google drive would likely to this just as well, I am sure.

On top of that, I have a media drive with about 100TB of films etc stored on it. Bit much to backup to onedrive, so that all goes on to backblaze - plus I also use stablebit drivepool on that drive to hopefully minimise the chance of needing to restore from backup.

Edited by Arnold Cunningham on Wednesday 1st May 17:38