I hope my question is sufficiently within the topic to be tolerated here .....

Having been alarmed by these issues I want to make a better effort at backing up stuff. I use the word "stuff because I already do backup but I want to do a better job of it. I've just ordered a new 3tb usb hard drive which I plan to connect and disconnect solely for the purposes of backing up to isolate it from any trouble.

My main PC is purely home use and I don't want the backing up processes to become so that it "overtakes" me and I become lazy. My thoughts are to take a whole fresh image of the main drive (I use seperate drives for programmes and data - and already have backing up drives - but these are left permanently connected and are intended solely for data and for HDD failure on one of the data drives) and to use Secondcopy for routine backing up of all my data drives.

I'd appreciate recommendations as to whether the current Windows 7 backup programmes would be OK for systems and programme backup or whether there's something else I should buy to image the main drive. In fact - I should ask - is full disk regular imaging ie not incremental the best approach? I plan to do this say once a month or so.

Any pointers on software, processes and procedures written loud and large and simple would be appreciated.

At http://www.pcworld.com/article/168223/image_backup.html and http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2278661,00.asp
backups are discussed.
But at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...#1TC=windows-7 [official MS site], from within windows 7 you can do a free image b/u

Windows is technically capable of doing a full image backup, but the last and only time I've ever relied on it, the restore failed on me.

I've had much success over the years with Acronis TrueImage as well as ShadowProtect for image-based backup systems. For files, I use CrashPlan with two targets - a couple of drives in my home as well as CrashPlan's cloud (using my own encryption keys) to get files off site.

I've been using the version in Vista and 7 since Vista came out, about 7 1/2 years now, to good effect. The version in XP was never reliable for me; at the time I used various versions of Paragon; these days I use CloneZilla for friends' XP machines.

Oh dear .... I want to be safe rather than just feel safe .....

I use DriveImageXML and have never had a problem restoring files from it. I do a disk image weekly, if not more frequently.

Question: You have a complete image of your C: drive (which contains windows XX, and your programs), saved on a removable drive or DVD(s), your C: drive fails (mechanical, malware etc.). You replace your C: drive with an essentially "blank" new one. What are the mechanics of utilizing your image? It seems if you used Windows imaging creation system, you have to be running windows (which you don't have, since it is on the failed drive); unless you made bootable emergency media (or have your original installation disk) you can't do anything.
Does the emergency disk allow you to retrieve your image?
PS: Using MS disk image creation system, you cannot selectively restore files, it essentially takes a snapshot of your whole drive, and is supposed to restore that snapshot.

A) Windows will offer to burn a repair disk after you make your image, which contains a WinPE recovery image.
B) For Windows 7, you can download a full copy of Windows 7 from Microsoft (free, and legal, if a slow ~3GB download unless your connection is fast), and burn and use that. I believe there were trial downloads for Windows Vista that could be used similarly.
C) Many manufacturers (at least Lenovo and Dell) will send you a recovery disk under warranty, or at a small cost, matching the original OS on the system. Dell's is just a Windows install disk with the minor Dell customizations; Lenovo's last I checked was a restore image, at least on the models we get at work. I know the Dell one works to do restore; not sure about the Lenovo ones.
D) If you don't have any of the above, you can use someone else's Windows 7 installation to create a repair disk ( http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...em-repair-disc ) -- not sure if that applied on Vista.

Clonezilla, which is my recommended 3rd-party tool, is always bootable; there's no "live" image creation on a running system. Same bootable CD/DVD/USB used both to create the image or to restore it.

With the VHD-based system used on Vista and Windows 7, while they don't publicize the capability (or even make it very easy to see the VHD file) you can mount the VHD file via "Computer Management->Disk management, Action->Attach VHD" and get at individual files that way.

Responding to your PS first: DriveImageXML, which I use, does allow you to selective restore files.

My order of priority:
1. Reinstall Windows
2. Reinstall programs such as Carbonite, PogoPlug Backup and DriveImage XML. (Again, I don't use DriveImageXML to create a disk image, so I need DriveImageXML to reinstall these files.)
3. Start the process of restoring files using Carbonite (slow) while also begin to transfer documents, pictures, music and videos onto the computer from another external HD or NAS (probably using a backup other than DriveImageXML, which can be slow).
4. Reinstall other programs.
5. Use DriveImageXML to recover files that weren't backed up using Carbonite, etc.

Having read about ShadowProtect - this seems like the product I'd like to try. I can see that it's possible to download a trial but it is proving difficult to find how to actually purchase it in the UK. It looks like the US site sends out physical product rather than activation keys if you purchase online.

..... I have just found that I have Paragon Hard Disk Manager 12 on my PC. I think I bought it to attempt a transfer to an SSD some time ago.

Can I be confident in this as a solution please? Opinions welcomed.

Thanks.

My HP system started as Vista (with an "emergency" recovery partition D: of C, I upgraded (to "inplace") W7 and then to ("inplace") W8.
W8 was a one time download from my Universities Mall.
Had I not made an emergency boot DVD and thumb drive, I would not be able to do: 1. Re-install Windows.
["inplace", each of these operating systems was installed on top of the previous one.]
PS: Except for current files, my C: drive essentially has only programs--my data "stuff" is on external HDs.

And you didn't back up the ISO file?

There's a pretty easy way to get a legitimate Windows 8 install image from Microsoft, if you need one:
http://www.ghacks.net/2012/11/10/how...windows-8-iso/
(unfortunately, no such way that I'm aware of for Win 8.1, and while 8.1 is a free upgrade once you have 8, they don't make it easy to install directly from an 8.1 disk with an 8.0 key. There is a way to do it, and it's kind of lose-lose being (A) doing it directly is a pain, and (B) the 8.1 upgrade is really, really slow.)

BTW my reference to the telephone support was to reuse the activation key if there is a problem with that.

Not sure who your university uses for their mall, although if you have the install key, you can always get the installer from anywhere (often including a legitimate copy without key Microsoft itself), and just reinstall using your key.

Which doesn't mean it isn't a good idea to back up installers as well as your keys.

I use SyncBack (Free) and have it set to backup things that are important every Saturday night. It checks before moving everything to see if it's newer than the copy made at the last run.

I've been using Crashplan on the theory that whatever happens with Windoze I'll want to reinstall and usually what I need is just a few files. It runs on Windoze as well as Liinux and stores multiple versions of things. Upload speed is pretty darned gd, too.

Oh - and Crashplan can be used without their service so you can back up your machines to each other.