Backup/Cloning Software (1 Viewer)

[ShiftZZ]

Suggestions, for W10, prefer to be free...

Cheers

 

[ambulancekidd]

Suggestions, for W10, prefer to be free...

Cheers

Do you mean software that'll copy an official version of W10 from a CD? To back it up the best way is to partition your hard drive, but afaik trying to add W10 to another PC other than the one that uses it isn't practical/possible.

 

[ShiftZZ]

I am thinking about backing up the PC, with a view to installng a clean version of W10 (current upgrade) and then reinstall all the software from backup, rather than from the original, am I being optomistic?

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[ambulancekidd]

I am thinking about backing up the PC, with a view to installng a clean version of W10 (current upgrade) and then reinstall all the software from backup, rather than from the original, am I being optomistic?

Yes this should be possible mate. Have a wee browse on You tube for a tutorial on how to do this. A mate of mine is currently doing this to save the free upgrade W10 on his old W7 laptop & the hard drive must be partitioned as the free version of W10 isn't available anymore. Hope this helps.

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

Hi ShiftZZ,
What you want to do is not possible as far as I know. There was some software long ago which was not very reliable but not that I know of now.

But "Macrium Reflect" which is free for private use is fantastic for backing up and very fast.

If you re-install windows then all the software has to be reinstalled.

I only keep the operating system and all installed programs on the C drive which for me is solid state then all portable programs and data is kept on another drive and all installation disks are kept as images on yet another drive. For Drive you could read partition if you only have one drive. Very sensitive and important data like my accounts, is also encrypted and additionally stored in my DropBox after every single change.

I then take a snapshot with Macrium, of the C drive after any software update or change and a daily backup of the data drive and a backup of the software drive after any addition or change. All these are kept on portable drives which are only connected during use.

So if you are unluckily enough to suffer a ransom-ware attack you can wipe your disk and be back in action within an hour. Macrium will put the operating system back exactly as it was from the backup equally for the data. The drive with the disk images is of course only connected when it is needed so is unlikely to be affected.

Hope this helps but sadly all software must be reinstalled after a windows reinstall. But after each software change it is worth taking an inventory of your computer with Belarc Advisor which makes it easy to systematically reinstall from the drive holding the installation disks which are mounted with Virtual Clone Drive. But for me my annual wipe and reinstall is a three day job.

Good luck,
Steve
p.s. When doing backups disconnect from the internet before connecting your USB backup drive. Just in case you already have the virus or malware on your drive which will probably want to "phone home" first to get the latest encryption code.

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

as the free version of W10 isn't available anymore. Hope this helps.

Not exactly correct, if you use any of the assistance tools in windows which include the on-screen keyboard or magnifyer then the win 10 upgrade still comes free, I did it just a month ago. And will be doing it again this weekend. I regularly use the onscreen keyboard for filling in passwords as key-loggers cannot grab the characters and I sometimes use the magnifier. so just use the on-screen keyboard once and you can tick the box which says you do and still get the free upgrade. Can't remember the link offhand but if I find it I will post later. As I said above software must be installed into windows it cannot just be copied in.
Steve

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[Mark James]

bear in mind if your machine is already registered for Win10 then all you need to do is reinstall windows and select SKIP when prompted to enter your product key, Microsoft servers hash your code with a machine identifier for you and will re-authorise your machine when back online, no need to re-enter code, as for the "other" software you cant just copy from the backup back onto the machine, often protected registry and system files are placed for it all to work correctly, the recommended procedure would be:
Ensure windows 10 is registered to your machine.
Download install media for your version of Win10 (free)
Backup any personal docs and files.
Reinstall windows from media ( USB or DVD )
Copy back over personal data.
re-download any latest versions of software and reinstall just what you need.

 

[ambulancekidd]

Not exactly correct, if you use any of the assistance tools in windows which include the on-screen keyboard or magnifyer then the win 10 upgrade still comes free, I did it just a month ago. And will be doing it again this weekend. I regularly use the onscreen keyboard for filling in passwords as key-loggers cannot grab the characters and I sometimes use the magnifier. so just use the on-screen keyboard once and you can tick the box which says you do and still get the free upgrade. Can't remember the link offhand but if I find it I will post later. As I said above software must be installed into windows it cannot just be copied in.
Steve

Excellent, every days a schoolday & thats very useful to know.

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

Hi,
The word I was searching for was "Assistive Technologies" rather than "assistance tools". The Page you want for the FREE win10 upgrade is but there is a good clear article HERE that explains the various ways to get win10 free but as long as you use some of the tools then you will qualify to legally get it the first way. Remember it is far more secure to insert an important password with a soft keyboard. If you use Keypass (which you should) you can get one to load automatically just by adding a dll file which can be downloaded from the Keypass website.
Hope this helps.
Steve

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[OldAgeTravellers]

I just put an important p.s. on my first post above.
Steve

 

[Gellyneck]

I use Macrium Reflect Free, Belarc, Speccy, etc (similar to OAT) however it's not possible to back up only the installed software \ programs without cloning Win 10 itself. The required registry entries wouldn't be present allowing the restore programs to run.

 

[Gromett]

I use CloneZilla for cloning partitions etc.
It is a boot USB stick, I boot off it, plug another USB drive in, then clone the partition to a file on the second USB hard drive.
Reverse it to recover.

It supports any partition types, NTFS, MAC, FAT and all linux partition types.

Totally free.

http://clonezilla.org/

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