@AlanHo  you could give Aomei a try Best Free Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP Backup Software 2017 | AOMEI Backupper Standard It's simple to understand and the free version works well for me

[AlanHo]

@Craig - thanks for the recommendation.  I will take a look at it - but first :-

You are going to think I am crazy - but this is my belt and braces back-up procedure.

I have so much valuable stuff on my Win 10 desktop computer that it really would be a disaster to lose it all. So I use the following back-up system.

I have Acronis and Second Copy installed on the computer. I have a 2TB USB 3 hybrid external hard drive permanently connected to the computer and a 1 TB Seagate USB 3 portable drive which is stored in my garage - remote from the house. Hence if we are burgled or the house burns down - my data is as safe as I can economically make it.

I use Acronis to back up the C: drive (OS and Programs) and D: drive (All data) every week (normally Saturday or Sunday) on both the external drive in the study and the portable Seagate drive. This is done manually and not using the Acronis schedule facility.  I always do a full back-up. I am not a fan of incremental or differential back-ups ever since one of them was corrupted and the chain was broken

I use "Second Copy" to make a duplicate of all my data on the external drive in the study, plus on an extra internal drive in the computer tower. Second copy is set-up to copy all changed files every time the computer is shut down. it keeps copies of changed files of the last two versions in an archive folder.  Keeping such archive copies has been my saviour many times. Doing this probably adds a minute to the computer shut-down time, during which I am in the shower.

I thus have back-ups of all drives and files in both the study and the garage (which is 30 metres from my house). The garage data can be a week old.  "Second Copies" of data files in the study are always bang up to date.

The only thing missing with this scheme are back-ups of the data archive files - but I can live with that.

Recovery


My usual recourse when the computer system or software gets grumpy is to try the simple fixes. If I have to recover the computer I use Acronis to recover the C: drive and leave all the data on the D; drive alone.

When data gets corrupted or lost - then Second Copy comes into play. The Second Copy files can be restored using File Explorer either singly, by selection or by complete folders with a simple copy and paste.

I have used this system for more than 10 years and whilst it may be rank over-kill, it has saved me numerous times.

That is the background to the following questions.

What are the differences between the AOMEI Backupper and their sister program AOMEI One Key Recovery AOMEI OneKey Recovery|One Click Backup Windows System

I am confused why they offer 2 programs for the same chore.

Will the program you recommend fit my current procedure. I would still retain Second Copy and use the new programme to back up just the C; drive - unless the Second Copy files were lost in a fire and and I was having to get a new computer up and running - in which case the Acronis (or another) back up would be used to restore everything.

Mad innit...................

What a cluster f**k

One key recovery I haven't used but the free version is quite basic, it's for making backups and restores to and from the recovery partition of your computer, Backupper standard is more like Acronis where backups/system images are made to an external drive.

I'm unfamiliar with the features contained in Acronis but Aomei should do you fine, it does everything you've mentioned for your needs from Acronis, it probably does most of the stuff of your second copy too

[AlanHo]

@CraigB

I have downloaded and installed AOMEI Backupper but not yet tried it out.

I am wading through the instruction manual and videos which look very well presented - Acronis could learn a lot from it.

At first sight it appears to be very user friendly and does everything I need.

I just need some spare time now to play with it. I am optimistic.

Get Started

AOMEI Backupper Video Tutorials


Thanks a bunch CraigB you may well have converted me.

You're very welcome Alan

[AlanHo]

I have now taken full back up of my C: and D: drives with AOMEI Backupper. Before doing the backup I deleted some unwanted stuff from my C: drive. I did the test back up onto a spare internal hard drive E: on my computer and then carried out a restore of just the C: drive
 
I’m not sure about this – but I have a 512 GB SSD C: drive and a 2TB hybrid hard drive for D: I get the impression that if I had just one hard drive partitioned into C: and D: you have to restore both if you included them in the backup. I need to check this sometime out of curiosity.

The software is very simple to use and holds your hand as you move through each stage – so much better than Acronis. I chose to back up the two drives – but you can select system, partitions or even files if it takes your fancy.

When you do a restore you first select which back-up file to restore from – I had only done one so it was Hobson’s choice.
You then choose which drive to restore to. This is where it gets interesting because you need to know which is drive 1 and which is drive 2. On my computer drive 1 is the D: drive and drive 2: the C drive. Another way of telling is their sizes in MB’s.  I chose the one that I knew was C:  (Acronis is the same in this respect - if you are not careful you could easily cock things up - especially if your two drives or partitions are the same size).

The restore worked (almost) perfectly  – but with a nerve twitching interjection.

At the end of the restore, the computer is rebooted. When my computer tried to reboot – after the BIOS started -  I was presented with a black screen and the message “The Boot Manager is Missing. Press Ctrl+Alt+del”

Which I did.

The computer then restarted with the same message.

So I entered Ctrl+Alt+Del again, but this time pressed F2 to open the BIOS when the computer revved up.

This revealed that the boot manager was now at the bottom in the boot order – so I moved it to the top and the computer booted fine – and has subsequently.  I checked the C: drive and the test files I had deleted were back again – confirmation that the C: drive had actually been restored.

On this evidence I like this software but will use Acronis alongside for a while to make absolutely sure.

One thing to point out is that Backupper is quite a bit slower than Acronis – with Acronis a back up of C: and D: takes about 20 minutes – with Backupper it took 30.

With Acronis, a restore of just C: takes about 18 minutes – with Backupper this was almost 30.

This is a small price to pay for the pure convenience of the new software and its ease of use. I probably waste 10 minutes each time I use Acronis trying to fight my way through the Acronis interface anyway.

[Surferdude]

I seem to remember Steve gave us a link to AOMEI a couple of years ago.

I still have it but will download the version above.

[Shambles]

All of which is - and you knew this was coming - 

[AlanHo]

All of which is - and you knew this was coming - 

It's a good job that the thread is in the OFF TOPIC section isn't it......................

[Surferdude]

All of which is - and you knew this was coming - 

It's a good job that the thread is in the OFF TOPIC section isn't it......................

 

[AlanHo]

I tried making a DVD boot disk this evening using AOMEI. It failed.

I tried twice – but each time in reached 99%, sat there for a minute, and then ejected the disk from the DVD drive. I tried to boot the computer with the disks – but as I kinda expected - it ignored the disk and booted into Windows

I looked on their customer support and got no joy. I googled the problem – I am far from alone. Quite a few people had experienced the same problem.

AOMEI had advised people that this sometimes happens and the way round it is to download an iso file and burn it onto the disk using other software.

So I tried downloading an iso file using the option buried in the create boot media section. This stuck at 0% for 15 minutes so I stopped trying

Frankly I can’t be arsed with AOMEI so I have uninstalled it.

Damn – it looked so promising too.

  but Windows 10 can create boot media

Which reminds me, I haven’t created a new boot rescue USB since I had Windows 7

[AlanHo]

I assume that a boot disk created in Win 10 will not load the AOMEI software.

Their user manual states that boot discs created by other software will not work

Yeah unfortunately Aomei only works with itself.

Additional information regarding the recent CCleaner APT security incident

https://blog.avast.com/additional-information-regarding-the-recent-ccleaner-apt-security-incident