What Exactly Does Win Backuo Do?

I asked this once before here, but I am still confused. Windows is always notifying me I need to back up my computer. Here are the points I am confused about, broken down into 3 separate questions.

1.Does backup save installed programs?
2. If I have to do a fresh install of my OS, Does a backup restore the computer to where it was when the backup was made? Or do I have to reinstall all the software that was blanked by the fresh install?
3.How do I find out how much size a media needs (in megabits/gigabits) to do a full backup?

 

Running a backup through windows will save data files and extensions only!
Not software you have installed.

To clone your PC (including all installed programs) the best solution is to make an Image backup.
Note: You cannot correctly clone a hard drive that is in use. ie you will need to boot to another media (usb) to do so.
Have a read here.

If you want to restore your PC to a previous point in time when things were running well, you will need to create a restore point.
This will save all files and programs installed at that particular point in time.

 

OK, Thank You, Does a disk Image have to be the same size as the original disk? Dang inconvenient if so.

In my case I have a 1 Terabyte (Desk Top) and 160 Gig (Lappie). Generic Thumb drives from Micro Center are fairly inexpensive.16 Gig for just under $3, and512Gig for $30.I am going to use my desktop to backup(or whatever you want to call it. my Lappie. For me this is one of the great mysteries. of modern computers.

 

Disk image sizes depend on how much data is actually filled in your original disk.

ie How much space is taken up on your 1TB drive?

Generally its a half rule......I have a 1TB drive of which 660G is taken up with data i needed to image so my image backup file size was around 300GB.

Yes, Image backups are quite large so you would need a good sized external drive as a store repository.

 

My 2 cents...

1. Backup is used to backup a the files that you create. It does not back up your operating system. Some folks use it regularly, others use different forms of backing up files. I, for instance, just copy my data files (not my applications) to an external USB drive.

2. If you do a "fresh install" the process will delete everything on your disk and will then install Windows. Unless you back up your data, it will be gone forever. You will also lose any changes that you made to customize your OS.

3. If you click on "My Computer" and then select "Properties" in the drop-down menu, you can then see how much of your disk drive is used and how much free space remains.

Hope this helps...

 

and my 2 cents ...

I'm a great believer in regular imaging but not if your system drive, usually the C drive, holds masses of personal files. As you were advised by someone else, first move your personal stuff to a separate drive or partition. Once that has been done you are able to create a system image pretty quickly - less than ten minutes usually - and the image file will be kept small. Imaging a drive that has gigabytes of largely static personal data can be a tiresomely slow business, enough to put most ppl off doing it at all, not to mention the storage space it requires.

As to backing up your personal stuff there is an endless choice of methods, but you do have to choose one that meets your requirements. Things like family photos and so on are irreplaceable if you lose them.

 

So Making a complete backup of a HD requires the same amount of space that is used on the original HD? What software makes a complete backup, installed programs and OS included?

512Gig can not hold a disk image of a 1 TB HD? Sounds dumb, but I'm also wondering about data compression techniques that might also be used.

I usually copy my personal files to another HD or a thumb drive using copy/paste.

I would like to sync my data on my Lappie to my Desktop since I do th majority of my writing and drawin on my Lappie. If I make changes on my desktop it would be nice if it were put in my Lappie too.

 

No one has said that, you are misunderstanding. Replicator said data is typically compressed 50% and I would agree with that. So if you move all your personal stuff to a different drive, and backup what's left - the OS and your programs and settings, it will be compressed about 50% giving you a minimalised system image. The Win 7 backup system can create a full disk image and there are several free systems that can also do that or do selective imaging. I use and prefer Macrium Reflect 7.1.

Try SyncBack Free for syncing folders between laptop and desktop.

 

Everyone's Image Backup compression percentages will differ depending on what is being backed up.

If some of the data your backing up is already in a compressed format (zip, winrar etc) the image compression % will be much lower than uncompressed data backups.
Same for data that is encrypted, same for differing file extentions (ie JPEG images will compress greater than JPG, MP3 greater than WAV or FLAC) etc etc

 

My most recent Win 10 backup using Macrium Reflect at its default compression setting occupies 27.7 GB. Win 10 itself occupies 54.2 GB, so the image is 51% the size of the original.

 

I use Images for Dos from Terabytes Unlimited. Runs for a dos prompt so no install. Spartan interface but I have found it to be bulletproof.

imo and I know that many users do this, you should have a boot drive for your o/s or multi boots, preferably an SSD and then a separate HDD for your data.

Image your o/s frequently and save them onto the HDD and for redundancy, copy everything on the HDD to an external USB drive.

Good luck