Old 12-26-2020, 01:25 PM   #1
b2001
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Default Windows 10 Backup/Recovery Strategies

I use Windows Backup/Recovery all the time and I backup all my Reaper song folders.

I have automatic updates turned off and very rarely am on the internet but do get on.

I am re-reviewing my strategies around this and know i need to do better.

I don’t want to just turn automatic updates on but perform updates that I control (when). I will figure that out.
I know i need to backup my Reaper configuration files and will figure that out.
The thing that I want to do and need help on is doing mirror image backups of the entire hard drive.

What is the best strategy and the best software for doing this? I am assuming I could route over to and recover from an external usb drive? I tried searching on the Cockos forums but getting too many threads not associated with this.

There are certainly recommendations and info on the www just wanting a perspective from a DAW point of view...

I appreciate any advice on this...
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Old 12-26-2020, 04:14 PM   #2
panicaftermath
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I still have Windows 10 on probation as far as using it for my main computer, much less for DAW work. But being able to reliably make and restore system images is one of the foundations of my maintenance and backup strategy. Probably my main rule is that only with rare exceptions will I install software onto the C drive, and I NEVER keep ANY of my own work or data on the C drive. That makes it much easier to make and restore images.

For images I've used Macrium Reflect for years and with one exception I have never had any problems with it. The exception was when the boot menu item for Reflect failed to load the program after restoring an image that contained a different boot menu. I was able to get around that by using a USB drive that would boot into Reflect's Windows boot environment. I strongly suggest always having backup media like that.

The probation I mentioned above is based on how twice earlier this year I had catastrophic failures when Windows 10 hosed my user profile after an update and and would only let me sign in with a temporary profile that did not let me save any data at all. In both cases I was unable to do anything but a complete fresh reinstallation of Windows 10 -- twice over just one month. Not even using restored images would get me in. Others have had similar problems but I don't know what accounts for it. I've found some indication that is was a problem with a Feb 2020 update, which is around when this happened. But it left me extremely gunshy about relying on W10 with this device.

Actually, this morning I finally upgraded this device to the 20H2 update and then spent some time making and restoring images to it, trying to break it. That's when I discovered the boot menu issue I mentioned above.
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Old 12-27-2020, 12:30 PM   #3
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I still use the stock Windows Systems Image utility to create a system image of my C: drive. I keep all of my executables on one drive and all my data on another separate physical drive.

I use an external USB drive as my backup device. I create a new system image every 6 months or so, but I copy and paste all the data from the D: drive to a folder on that USB drive at least once a month. More often if I've been working a lot.

I've had to use that Windows System Image a couple of times in the past. It always worked for me.

My requirements are pretty basic, so they may not apply in your case. But regardless of what you do, make sure you protect your data, even if it's just copy and paste to an external device of some type.

Operating systems and programs can be re-installed, but once data is gone, it's gone.
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Old 12-27-2020, 02:37 PM   #4
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Been using macrium for several years. Not necessarily for beginners, but a solid product. I've had no issues with windows 10 that wasn't self inflicted or the result of crappy software.
I also recommend trend micro av software. Gatta have av running..!
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Old 12-27-2020, 06:18 PM   #5
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I just use the Windows system image thing. Don't know how it compares to Macrium (I've never had to recover anyway...not looking forward to it).
But I'll say that when I do a system image I do two of them (to separate drives).
Same with data..backup x2.
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Old 12-27-2020, 06:23 PM   #6
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I just manually copy my project folders to external backup drives. I don't trust backup software due to past experiences with it.
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Old 12-28-2020, 07:34 AM   #7
Robkress
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B2,

I don't build any recovery files for my OS installation but like others here, I keep a really tall wall between my OS and data. Windows installs so quickly anymore, that if I ever had a serious problem, I would just do a fresh install. Sure, I'd have to reload all of my software as well but that's pretty quick too.

I find the thing that is most important is a map on what to load and how to load. So I have notes on my install. All of the software loaded. Any special requirements during the load, etc.... Then all of my software is very neatly organized in a folder structure so I know where it is and can get to it all very quickly and easily. This includes my reaper configuration and custom theme (along with other things).

Then for data (which is REALLY the point), I use Synchredible.

https://www.ascompsoftware.com/en/pr...le/tab/details

It's nothing fancy but effective and easy to use. So on a schedule I push data from all of my pc's to the on premises NAS. I have another product (subscription) that takes care of archival backups off prem.

Synchredible allows for bidirectional file synching though I don't use it that way. I only push data one way up to my NAS. I do file versioning so that the same file (unchanged) doesn't get copied over and over for no reason. There is no compression and files show up in my NAS location just like copied files. This can be done with a USB drive as the destination as well.

We all have our risk tolerance for file backups and recovery. This one that I do is very light weight and gets me a very long way to covered. It is important to note however that an off prem, timestamped archive is a critical component that can't be overstated. I don't do much in the way of antivirus or malware protection so it is important for me that I can go back in time to recover files if I needed to (think ransom attack). Synchredible has no facility for this (at least not that I have investigated or used).

Good luck

Cheers,

Rob
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Old 12-28-2020, 09:52 AM   #8
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I would recommend EaseUS ToDo backup software. I've found it to be reliable and it's prevented disasters for me numerous times.

Of course you can back up to an internal drive, an external USB or SATA drive, or over a network. Personally, I use a NAS Raid array over a network, but it doesn't matter.

I have set up EaseUS ToDo to run at night while I'm not working. One caveat: if EaseUS ToDo is running while you're working, any plugins that are authorized on a Pace iLok dongle won't work with Reaper. Why, I don't know. I've tried a couple of other backup programs and they do the same thing. I've informed EaseUS, and they say they are working on it. I just have to be sure that it's not running when I want to work.

A few tips if you're just getting into regular backups.

1. Files that change often need to be backed up often. Files that don't change often can be backed up infrequently. For a long time I was running weekly backups of the drive where I have all my plugins and sample, terabytes of Native Instruments, Vienna Symphonic Library, Spitfire and other stuff. This was stupid. These files don't change unless the vendor has an update or I buy something new. Now I just back those up monthly and use SyncToy every few days to back up only the changes, not the whole mountain of data.

2. Set your backup software to do one full backup, and then incremental backups every day / week or whatever. Incremental backups are super fast, and just as easy to recover data from. I run one full backup, then about eight incrementals, then start over. All this can be set up to execute automatically.

3. Very important for DAW backups... If you have inadvertently deleted or otherwise lost some files, your backup will also lack those files. If you have an older backup including those files, all is well. But every backup scheme involves deleting the old backups and starting over at some point. If that happens, your stuff is gone for good. For this reason, I do monthly backups onto an external drive, so I always have backups that are at least a month or so old.

This is far from a perfect scheme, but I think I'm relatively safe with all this.
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Old 12-28-2020, 02:57 PM   #9
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Macrium Reflect (Free for the basic edition which is what I use).
Amazing software, I like how it lets me image (backup) drives using its GUI interface while I continue to go about composing or whatever while it does its thing.
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Old 01-18-2021, 10:38 PM   #10
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One thing I don't like about Reflect, and this wasn't always true, is that it automatically runs services even when Reflect itself is not running. It has a "UI watcher" (or something like that) that is an exe file, and also a system service that I just disabled called Macrium Service that (its says) "Provides scheduling and communication services for Macrium Reflect and associated products. This is a required service that should not be disabled or turned off."

I only recently noticed that second one. The first one presents itself in Startup (via Task Manager) and can be disabled.

I find these running after every new install and upgrade, and they are completely unnecessary and useless. It seems worse in Windows 10 than in 8.1.

Intrusive colonizing software. Bah. That's a factor in why I resist buying the paid version. But it's a must have program. Totally reliable.

Last edited by panicaftermath; 01-18-2021 at 10:46 PM.
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Old 01-19-2021, 11:13 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pgodfrin View Post
Been using macrium for several years. Not necessarily for beginners, but a solid product. I've had no issues with windows 10 that wasn't self inflicted or the result of crappy software.
I also recommend trend micro av software. Gatta have av running..!
+1 on Macrium
I've never had any luck with built-in Microsoft backups. They appear to run, then when you need to restore they just don't.

Save the drive image on an external drive. DEFINITELY not C:
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Old 01-19-2021, 12:08 PM   #12
b2001
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Thanks for all the replies!!!
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Old 01-20-2021, 02:20 AM   #13
Geoff-h3o
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Something that has worked really well for me is Aomie but others on this forum have pointed out that it is copycatted from another company.
However my music pc is dual boot and a lot of these programs don't work with that, so I use clonezilla from a dvd/ usb .More complicated than Macrium etc but very good.
And both of these are free. :-)
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Old 01-20-2022, 07:26 AM   #14
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Recently, the issue of backup has also become relevant for me. That's why I use Partition Recovery when it comes to files that need to be recovered. And I set up backups using standard Windows 10 tools.

Last edited by Katapumb; 01-31-2022 at 05:08 AM.
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Old 01-20-2022, 09:21 PM   #15
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I have tried them all over the years and now only use AOMIE Backup on every computer....

it makes life quite easy
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Old 01-20-2022, 10:03 PM   #16
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Yeah, I use AOMEI backupper to make images that i can use to re-image a new drive in case of a dead drive or corrupted OS, and use microsoft file history for a more continuous backup of project files that allows me to go back a bit in time too.

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Old 01-20-2022, 11:08 PM   #17
Philbo King
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I use Macrium for C: drive, and PathSync for data drives.

http://cockos.com/pathsync/
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Old 01-21-2022, 04:08 AM   #18
lizzard
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Hard drive hardware cloning jig still works well with win 10 .

Just get 2 identical sshdd's and clone back and forth as desired.

This keeps all licensing intact as the hardware clone does an exact copy.

Just don't expect to be able to read and write files to the cloned drive with the original as they bug out and wont be recognized by each other.
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Old 01-21-2022, 04:46 AM   #19
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I am a heavy VMWare user (werk werk werk) and run VMWare Workstation continuously. My new gig has provided me with an absolute beast of a laptop, so I spun up a Win10 VM purely to see how Reaper performs. If it is manageable, VM snapshots will become the new backup strategy.
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Old 01-21-2022, 09:46 AM   #20
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Check out Backblaze
https://www.backblaze.com
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