Poll on Backup software

jimbo45 said:

Is there actually a market for used computers (Home type computers -- I know offices etc when they upgrade donate older machines to Schools and 3rd world).

I've usually found parts are often cannabalizeable e.g HDD / SSD / NVME, RAM etc or they can make useful testbeds.
If I were to buy a used machine it would only because there's a part inside it that I need and can't source elsewhere.

Cheers
jimbo

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Absolutely. There are many people out there who want a laptop and can't afford one and can pick up something for a very reasonable price. For a number of years I used to buy and sell the little Eee netbooks. Originally the 701's. Then the 701sd's (8gb) There was usually nothing wrong with them apart from the fact XP no longer fitted on them or they had borked the install. They were virtually throw away machines going for £20. I needed spare parts for mine and initially bought another for £20. Then found how easy they were to fix or reinstall on. The 4gb ones I put linux on (nothing else would fit) and sold them set up for children - people were very happy! Then moved on to the 10" ones that came with Windows 7 starter. Upgraded those to Windows 10 and sold them on again. This was hardly a profit making exercise - I was lucky if I made £10 or £20 profit. But I got satisfaction from making them work better with newly installed software and set up right, and that people were happy to buy a cheap working netbook. Always offered to reinstall if anything went wrong but was never taken up on that. The netbooks were ideal for younger children - if set up safely. Initially did one for my stepson and went from there. I still have a box full of spare parts and spare drives for them. Sadly they won't run Windows any more (apart from the 10" ones). A bargain for a parent - £40 for something that keeps a younger child happy and learning how to type and can play the odd game. They are still being bought and sold as well! Just very pocketable. But now tablets have been around for so long I think they will disappear. :)

Later did this with older laptops. (Hence commenting elsewhere on here I think I'm addicted to clean installs!). But not so much. Nothing wrong with most of them except the software needed upgrading. I even bought old Windows 7 licences to upgrade some of them to Windows 10 and the computers were fine!

My personal laptops also stay with me till they die usually. But we usually buy used for family laptops and occasionally sell one on to help pay for an upgrade.

It's like used cars! Some people are happy to buy cheap and run an old banger for a year. And then find it goes for five years. That trend may be disappearing now newer thin laptops have been around for a while. But there are also donation schemes to refugees etc where they need working used laptops.:)

Whenever I look in secondhand pc shops selling second hand laptops, they are nearly all xp/vista era devices with a small hdd and 2-4 GB RAM.

However, the prices being charged are still quite high and I bet the shops only paid owners a small fraction of the new asking price. Even buying from these guys, you have to be careful, as some dodgy dealers put illegally activated versions of Windows on them to save ('them) money. Also, buying from a dealer means you have to pay 20% VAT as well.

For any relatively decent modern spec, the prices are just not attractive enough, especially as they only have 3 months limited warranty (unlike US, we get 1 year for new devices as minimum).

Of course, you can always use ebay, gumtree or similar to do a direct purchase from a private seller, but then CAVEAT EMPTOR really applies. At least private purchases are not subject to 20% VAT.

I just give away my really old devices to elderly persons or charities. I usually have 3 laptops:

1) main laptop

2) travel laptop (cheap enough losing it is not a heartache)

3) backup laptop to main one (always the one I bought before current main laptop). This is for insurance in case main one craps out or goes walkies.

So when I am ready to replace my main laptop, the current backup will go to a good home.

I think whatever has been working for you is the best. I've been using Acronis since 2009, it's simple and easy to use "for me" and some of the latest versions you can back up to Acronis cloud.

cereberus said:

Whenever I look in secondhand pc shops selling second hand laptops, they are nearly all xp/vista era devices with a small hdd and 2-4 GB RAM.

However, the prices being charged are still quite high and I bet the shops only paid owners a small fraction of the new asking price.

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For Cash Converters I've been on both ends of the transaction. They pay about 50% of what the will sell it for.

When I'm hunting for a new(ish) machine I never bother visiting their shops, not when they have an online one

There are plenty of newer machines available. Random example at £136:
Lenovo Ideapad 3 With Windows 11 14Iml05 Intel Prentium 6405U 4GB 128GB SSD Blue | 045800056884 | Cash Converters

I’ve got all ours on eBay (although have cash converters bookmarked). There are genuine ordinary sellers who are just selling a two or three year old laptop to put the money towards a new one. Never had a bad one - but you need to read descriptions carefully, ask questions and use your instincts.

Hazel123 said:

I’ve got all ours on eBay (although have cash converters bookmarked). There are genuine ordinary sellers who are just selling a two or three year old laptop to put the money towards a new one. Never had a bad one - but you need to read descriptions carefully, ask questions and use your instincts.

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Sure, so long as you accept the risk - granted most people are honest but I bought a second hand tablet and the touchscreen was clearly water damaged but no mention of that in description, and did not work (I had right drivers). I tried to get my money back but no joy.

I have not used cash converters for years as our local one shutdown.

Stigg said:

I'm starting to tire of all the numerous "What's the best backup software" threads

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A fair statement, but what one feels is tiresome could end up being someone else's salvation. Although the main purpose of forums like this is to assist, we also have a responsibility to educate. Nothing is more important than encouraging people to protect their data. If they see a subject with as many responses as these threads always get, we set an example and encourage them to do just that. They don't know what is available to them and they don't always read old threads. I think there should be a sticky thread about it in big bold letters right at the top of the forum list. It's that important.

I bought all mine new, as they are very important to me so backup is vital

well i coulda told you that about the poll results before it was done xD, i think macrium has a bunch of salesmen and advertisers on this forum for it though xD!, I read more about macrium on here daily than nearly any other subject and guess what, 15 years in, never backed up a full OS and never ever needed it and never been bit by not having it :) Careful where ya click and what ya do and you won't need a get outta jail free card.

Devlin1888 said:

a get outta jail free card

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Well, if ransomware,hard drive failure, OS failure, or my error ever puts me there, I darn sure appreciate being able to get out in 15 minutes.

glasskuter said:

Well, if ransomware,hard drive failure, OS failure, or my error ever puts me there, I darn sure appreciate being able to get out in 15 minutes.

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Happened to me. Sudden Corsair SSD (boot drive) failure on one of my home PCs. Replaced it with a spare and restored a MR backup. The PC was up and running in about 20 mins. I kid you not, this software has saved me a lot of time and effort several times over the past decade.

Was a Win 7 Backup user for years, then Acronis for several years, and have been on AEOMI for a year or so now.... Based on the poll numbers I am getting sorely tempted to try Macrium though.

I really, really liked the Win 7 product and had used it for imaging until I got to AEOMI. Disappointed that Microsoft is deprecating it, because it worked very, very well, had a relatively simple interface, and seems to have been much speedier than AEOMI.

glasskuter said:

Well, if ransomware,hard drive failure, OS failure, or my error ever puts me there, I darn sure appreciate being able to get out in 15 minutes.

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How many times has that happened? Literally 0 for me across the board.

I have used Windows Restore-Point on occasion long time ago, but never needed to restore an image. Good to know of the vast selection of image backup software available, though.

My adventures in personal computing started with a dual floppy desktop. My first 3 HDD were someone else's crashed 10MB that I nursed along more for fun and learning. My only other failed HDD was a 6 year old Samsung OEM in my last Dell laptop, about 5 years ago. After installing a new boot WD HDD I was able to salvage that old HDD as a 2nd drive and get all the old Doc files and folders off it before I eventually trashed it. That's when I started backing up (copy&paste) my DOC files once in a while to a couple of thumb drives. Then I got a bit more formal and started using FreeFileSync for my Doc backups.

Now I have a new PC with a SSD and more partitions than I know what to do with. But that 'new' WD HDD from my old laptop is my current Doc folder backup USB storage drive. Dunno if I can use it for a system / image / restore drive. While I have full confidence in my new Dell I believe Dell keeps a Restore file just for me, so no hurry creating a system backup. Besides, I have a backup laptop that I can connect to and have access to my most recent files.

I have Macrium,Easus, and AOMEI installed, to try out. So, no vote in the poll as yet.
I started first just looking at Macrium screens but it threw up a few invalid this and wrong that errors, so I guess I should RTFM....

dbartenstein said:

Was a Win 7 Backup user for years, then Acronis for several years, and have been on AEOMI for a year or so now.... Based on the poll numbers I am getting sorely tempted to try Macrium though.

I really, really liked the Win 7 product and had used it for imaging until I got to AEOMI. Disappointed that Microsoft is deprecating it, because it worked very, very well, had a relatively simple interface, and seems to have been much speedier than AEOMI.

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Easy enough to try it out I got the hang of it but it freaked me out a couple of times, and prefer a simpler interface.

Devlin1888 said:

well i coulda told you that about the poll results before it was done xD, i think macrium has a bunch of salesmen and advertisers on this forum for it though xD!, I read more about macrium on here daily than nearly any other subject and guess what, 15 years in, never backed up a full OS and never ever needed it and never been bit by not having it :) Careful where ya click and what ya do and you won't need a get outta jail free card.

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It's always a sensible idea to have at least one system image of your initial set up. In case of hard drive failure or in case you ever want to change the drive for a bigger one. Then you just reinstall from the image and are back to where you started. Assume you back up files instead? That's ok as you can do a clean install if ever there was a drive failure, but a much slower process to re-add all your programs again.

I know there was a mainstream article a few years ago which said - don't bother with system images, just do file back ups - because you can reinstall. But - it is a lot quicker and easier to reinstall an image.

Devlin1888 said:

never backed up a full OS and never ever needed it and never been bit by not having it

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Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it

dbartenstein said:

Was a Win 7 Backup user for years, then Acronis for several years, and have been on AEOMI for a year or so now.... Based on the poll numbers I am getting sorely tempted to try Macrium though.

I really, really liked the Win 7 product and had used it for imaging until I got to AEOMI. Disappointed that Microsoft is deprecating it, because it worked very, very well, had a relatively simple interface, and seems to have been much speedier than AEOMI.

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Me too. I think most people used it in Windows 7 (once you knew it was there!). I don't remember alternatives back then. The main downsides were remembering to change the name of your image so that when you did the next one it didn't replace it - as they were just called "Windows image backup". So it had to be Windows Image backup 1 or something or the next one would just replace it. Then remembering to change it back to just "Windows image backup" again when you want to reinstall. It still works. I don't quite understand why people hate it so much if it still works!

I'm guessing that if they left it in Windows 11 it was just a salve until people get used to using a different program - before they remove it.

Stigg said:

I'm starting to tire of all the numerous "What's the best backup software" threads, as the OP can easily look through all the existing threads.

But I'll say this instead.
Most people don't care about backing up until after they've lost stuff. And even after data loss, I don't think they're too concerned with backing up. They see it as an annoyance. I've preached "Backup" for years, and they never listen and act. I think for most people, it's probably best to set a backup schedule for them.

I've seen some people devastated by the loss of data, and in particular, family photos. And some just don't care at all. One guy I know had a hard drive failure and lost his family photos. I told him that his photos were gone, and he said, "It doesn't matter, I'll just take new ones."

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Yes.. this^^ It's so true that you only care after you've been burned and lost data or other things that are important.

As for the multiple thread about backup software.. it is what it is I guess. And I doubt this is the last one of these we'll see

CornishRattler said:

Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it

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It depends. In my case I can reinstall Windows and all of my apps in about 3 hours, tops. The only thing that takes time is setting the options in Photoshop back to the way I want them