Back Up

After much listening to folk on YouTube waffling on about full/incremental/differential backups I'm waffled out!
At the moment I have Widows set up to back up certain folders every 15 minutes.
The reason being I can be editing 100 or so photos per hour so want to keep the back up up to date.
Windows 10 adds the .bak extension which I'm assuming would be there if I had to restore meaning I would have to rename thousands of files, unless I have that wrong?
From what I've gleaned thus far incremental is the way to go?
I have AOMEI back upper downloaded
The issue I have with image files is that there is no way to check if they are actually doing what you want them to do, until you restore, is there?
With Windows, at least I can look in a folder or two and check that changes have happened.
So, what I want to happen is, as I'm editing I want the original file to be overwritten by the edited file.
Not the original file kept and the edited file.
To be able to restore the files (if ever needed) as I named them, not how the back up programme names them.
To be able to see that the back up is happening as I want it to.
Possible?
Is there a tutorial on here somewhere?
Cheers

 

Tutorial: Backing Up Your Data Effectively: A Geek's Guide - MajorGeeks

Backup solutions can be found at Download Back Up Tools for Windows - MajorGeeks

 

Thanks Maxwell
I will delve.

Edit. As a heads up it looks like Macrium Reflect no longer has a free version.
Could do with the list updating if not.

 

It looks like my thoughts were correct regarding image files as it's recommended to check that your backed up data will successfully restore in case of disaster.
Preferably I would like to use an image file as a secondary back up and Windows back up as primary back up.
So the first thing I would like to know is, can the Windows back up be tweaked to stop it adding a .bak extension?
Why do they do that anyway?
It's backed up to a different drive so no conflict with file names.
Is it just another Microsoft " let's annoy everyone" type thing or is it necessary?
If it can't be tweaked and a disaster happened is there a way of getting rid of the extension in bulk once restored?
Cheers

 

Best advice I can give you and is broadly speaking the manner in which I backup is as follows

If you only have one drive in laptop or desktop:
1. Create 2 partitions on that hard drive one for your o/s and programs and another for your data. These partitions will be listed as C:\ & D:\ respectively
2. Use which ever program you want to to image the boot drive C:\. I use Terabyte Unlimited and save it to D:\
3. Get yourself an external HDD and copy all of the contents of D:\ onto it. You can use Syncback Free which works very well.

If you 2 have drives in laptop or desktop:
1. Use one of the drives as your boot drive for o/s and programs. Will be labelled C:\
2. Use another drive uniquely for storing you data. This drive will come up as D:\
3. Follow steps 2 and 3 under one drive only

If you only have one HDD and that drive only has one partition on it then all your data will be on the same partition which has the o/s system and progs on it.

Only way to get around that is to either / and image the entire partition and / or separately copy the data to an external HDD.

Do not bother with incremental backups imo.

My set up on my desktop is a boot SSD for o/s and progs and 2 additional internal HDDs which effectively mirror one another just for my data (including any images of my boot drive). Then backed up to external disks mirroring one another. My laptop only has one SSD drive so I use the first method...

The imaging prog which I use from Terabyte Unlimited will firstly check an image for any errors at the time it is created with byte for byte validation. Subsequent to an image being created, that program can also mount an image by creating a virtual drive on the laptop/pc which can be browsed / searched and even copy any file from the mounted image to your laptop/pc

My advice is for you not to rely on Windows

I am sure that other users may prefer other ways but this is what I do

Good Luck

 

I'm sorry about bragging but think I might have something to offer. I'm also sorry about the OT post here. I have a batch file on my Win11/64 laptop that backs up my source code on demand using 7Zip. While backing up, it removes some rebuildable files from the back up, including .exe files. I admit that it backs up to the hard drive. That's because I usually keep my programs on a flash drive and floppies, but you can change this. I want to attach it here, but it will require some editing. Should I post it here? BTW, I forgot to mention that it requires another batch file to get the current date. There are also some other issues with the file that I need to discuss.

 

rr, thanks for the reply.
I have two drives.
C for OS
D is where I back up to.
I do have an image file so I'm not solely relying on Windows
You state don't bother with incremental back ups.
How do you back up changes on your machine?
I want mine to back up every 30 minutes or so, and only back up changes.
Ie, if I edit a photo, I don't want to keep the original photo and another file with the changes
My perfect scenario is the way Windows saves changes every 15-30 minutes but WITHOUT the extra (2024_02_20 13_12_53 UTC) nonsense tagged onto the end of every file.
No one seems to know why Microsoft thinks this is a good idea or if there is a workaround.
Then an image file updated every day or so.

HarryPotter.
Thanks also for the reply, if only I knew what you were on about!!

 

I presume that you must be talking about the data side rather than the o/s side.

If so the prog that I use is Syncback which can automate a backup processes by using the Windows Task Scheduler.

So on my pc anything added to my 1st HDD is incrementally added to the 2nd one regularly. The 2nd HDD is a mirror image

But there are many other programs to help backup / synchronise your data to choose from