Reliable Free Backup Software

SIW2 · Aug 20, 2023

the .vhdx will be about the same size as the used space of the drive being imaged (same size as a 'Backup & Restore (Windows 7)' system image)

There are already tools built into windows to create vhd(x) files. The backup and restore gui as well as the command line wbadmin.

SIW2 · Aug 20, 2023

TairikuOkami said:
EaseUS Todo Backup is the only free software with PreOS, so you do not need a bootable media to restore.

It is booting into a wim file that it has created on your hard disk. Many other tools do the same.

johnlgalt · Aug 20, 2023

SIW2 said:
If it works fine, why change?

Bree said:
But one day Reflect Free may stop working in a new version of Windows, and the paid-for version might price itself out of the market. The question was asked 'is there any other way, preferably one that's free and not Chinese?' It's good to know that we do have other options.

^^^^^^ This.

Bree · Aug 20, 2023

SIW2 said:
There are already tools built into windows to create vhd(x) files. The backup and restore gui as well as the command line wbadmin.

They are rather clumsy to use, create an individual .vhd(x) for each partition, and require a lot of additional catalog and .xml files in order to put the jigsaw back together as a whole disk.

Code:

Z:\WindowsImageBackup\14393-447>dir /d /s
 Volume in drive Z is TOSHIBA 2TB
 Volume Serial Number is 04A3-9D55

 Directory of Z:\WindowsImageBackup\14393-447

[.]                        [Backup 2016-11-09 031933] [Logs]                     [SPPMetadataCache]
[..]                       [Catalog]                  MediaId
               1 File(s)             16 bytes

 Directory of Z:\WindowsImageBackup\14393-447\Backup 2016-11-09 031933

[.]
[..]
0c0dd84c-0000-0000-0000-e0fd39000000.vhdx
7b6a8d44-f6de-11e3-9f63-806e6f6e6963.vhdx
7b6a8d45-f6de-11e3-9f63-806e6f6e6963.vhdx
b6147e72-0a3c-4981-a8e6-dfddd1fab1d6_AdditionalFilesc3b9f3c7-5e52-4d5e-8b20-19adc95a34c7.xml
b6147e72-0a3c-4981-a8e6-dfddd1fab1d6_Components.xml
b6147e72-0a3c-4981-a8e6-dfddd1fab1d6_RegistryExcludes.xml
b6147e72-0a3c-4981-a8e6-dfddd1fab1d6_Writer4dc3bdd4-ab48-4d07-adb0-3bee2926fd7f.xml
b6147e72-0a3c-4981-a8e6-dfddd1fab1d6_Writer542da469-d3e1-473c-9f4f-7847f01fc64f.xml
b6147e72-0a3c-4981-a8e6-dfddd1fab1d6_Writera6ad56c2-b509-4e6c-bb19-49d8f43532f0.xml
b6147e72-0a3c-4981-a8e6-dfddd1fab1d6_Writerafbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485.xml
b6147e72-0a3c-4981-a8e6-dfddd1fab1d6_Writerbe000cbe-11fe-4426-9c58-531aa6355fc4.xml
b6147e72-0a3c-4981-a8e6-dfddd1fab1d6_Writercd3f2362-8bef-46c7-9181-d62844cdc0b2.xml
b6147e72-0a3c-4981-a8e6-dfddd1fab1d6_Writere8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220.xml
BackupSpecs.xml

              14 File(s)  1,563,762,730 bytes

 Directory of Z:\WindowsImageBackup\14393-447\Catalog

[.]                   [..]                  BackupGlobalCatalog   GlobalCatalog
               2 File(s)         54,706 bytes

 Directory of Z:\WindowsImageBackup\14393-447\Logs

[.]                                    Backup_Error-09-11-2016_03-19-33.log
[..]
               1 File(s)              4 bytes

 Directory of Z:\WindowsImageBackup\14393-447\SPPMetadataCache

[.]                                      {b6147e72-0a3c-4981-a8e6-dfddd1fab1d6}
[..]                                     {b7971339-870c-468d-9d81-1c5cbe5ab1cf}
{276fdc67-0086-4fd1-8606-dc12613fc82b}   {e6c33233-ed46-451c-8066-b636d88acb9a}
{2a8c8219-05a8-429c-bfc1-02d0a532373e}   {ecbd6458-b928-42b7-a3f6-2a8ecc8b414a}
{3a7d403d-af17-4579-ad32-164508a9acc4}   {f5d04ead-f487-4863-8eea-b6620f261694}
{5d8aa5a4-d7b8-4bf9-ba34-6e1e3bb9e096}   {f63e87d1-64f8-40f3-ad85-afc17b40e98e}
{7cae3fcc-29d6-43d5-805e-a16de18b263e}
              11 File(s)      1,096,384 bytes

Code:

     Total Files Listed:
              29 File(s)  1,564,913,840 bytes
              14 Dir(s)  30,168,240,128 bytes free

Disk2vhd creates a single .vhdx file, a clone of the disk, but with only those partitions you selected to include having data in them. Any remaining partitions (such as the MSR partition) will be included in their correct size and position, but will be empty.

A single file is more convenient to use, can be mounted as a virtual disk, and could even be attached to a VM and booted up.

SIW2 · Aug 20, 2023

How did you restore it ? Does it do differentials?

There are certainly advantages in non proprietary formats such as vhd or wim, as I have posted many times

cereberus · Aug 21, 2023

TairikuOkami said:
EaseUS Todo Backup is the only free software with PreOS, so you do not need a bootable media to restore.

This is not really true. Even if OS does not come with Pre-OS, it is a simple matter to copy restore pre-os to a partition on hard drive, and create a boot entry.

Fabler2 · Aug 21, 2023

Macrium and ~~Aeom~~i free versions also have the Pre-OS options in Windows boot menu.

hdmi · Aug 21, 2023

SIW2 said:
Perhaps they prefer to make their backups from within windows.

The title of the thread includes the word reliable.

Consistent Backup vs Inconsistent Backup, which is right for your critical data? : @VMblog

What's the difference between the three types of backup? Which is the best solution for my IT system? If you ever find yourself stuck on such problems, hope this blog can help you out.

vmblog.com

johnlgalt · Aug 21, 2023

And reliability is defined differently when you're talking mission-critical enterprise systems versus home users. Pretty sure the differentiation between crash-consistency and application-consistency is not only going to be too hard to understand for the average end user dealing with a home system, but largely irrelevant.

Comport Colin · Aug 21, 2023

Bree's assessment of windows' own backup does not do it justice.
The internal backup is easy, stable and allows bare metal restore as well as restore of single files/folders on a running machine.
Why anyone would resort to other tools, I don't know - can't be the quality of windows' own. The only thing that it does not feature that someone might want is compression.

johnlgalt · Aug 21, 2023

Comport Colin said:
Bree's assessment of windows' own backup does not do it justice.
The internal backup is easy, stable and allows bare metal restore as well as restore of single files/folders on a running machine.
Why anyone would resort to other tools, I don't know - can't be the quality of windows' own. The only thing that it does not feature that someone might want is compression.

Where in this thread does Bree discuss Windows Backup?

Ghot · Aug 21, 2023

Comport Colin said:
Bree's assessment of windows' own backup does not do it justice.
The internal backup is easy, stable and allows bare metal restore as well as restore of single files/folders on a running machine.
Why anyone would resort to other tools, I don't know - can't be the quality of windows' own. The only thing that it does not feature that someone might want is compression.

I think @Bree feels the way he does because of this...

Deprecated features in the Windows client

Review the list of features that Microsoft is no longer actively developing in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

learn.microsoft.com

Most of the rest of us feel the same way for the same reason.

Poll on Backup software

A poll to see which imaging programs people use. You can select up to three options (eg some people use more than one program or use a regular imaging program plus a cloud based one).

www.elevenforum.com

Bree · Aug 21, 2023

SIW2 said:
How did you restore it ? Does it do differentials?

No, disk2vhd does not do differentials. SysInternal's design aim for it was to make a .vhd(x) of a physical disk that could be used as a VM.

So far the easiest way I've found to restore is by booting to a command prompt from a WinRE usb, mounting the .vhdx with Diskpart, then using MiniTool Partition Wizard. See post #20 for details and screenshots.

PW allows you to copy the whole of the source disk to the destination, or just pick individual partitions. Resizing partitions as they're copied can be done too. Only problem is you'll need an older version of the free PW so it will in WinRE. PW12 does run in WinRE, but checks to see if it's a registered copy, and wont work if it's not. I was using PW Free 9.1.

johnlgalt · Aug 21, 2023

@Bree - how about this one:

GitHub - wooxo/Vhd2Disk: V2P tool working with Microsoft's VHD image. This tool is working like a mirror of the Sysinternal's Disk2Vhd tool.

V2P tool working with Microsoft's VHD image. This tool is working like a mirror of the Sysinternal's Disk2Vhd tool. - wooxo/Vhd2Disk

github.com

Bree · Aug 21, 2023

Comport Colin said:
Bree's assessment of windows' own backup does not do it justice.
The internal backup is easy, stable and allows bare metal restore as well as restore of single files/folders on a running machine.
Why anyone would resort to other tools, I don't know - can't be the quality of windows' own. The only thing that it does not feature that someone might want is compression.

johnlgalt said:
Where in this thread does Bree discuss Windows Backup?

Maybe not in this thread, but my opinion of Microsoft's System Image Backup is well known. It comes from years of experience using it for both imaging and restoring, at one time I was restoring three or four images a month using it. When it works, it works well. When it doesn't it fails to recognise one of its own images as being available to restore.

SIB has been deprecated (ie, no longer in active development or support) since 2017. I stopped using it after Microsoft broke the 32-bit version in Windows 10 version 1803 and neither acknowledged the issue or bothered to fix it until the next Feature Update to 1809.

1803 creating a system image fails with RPC server error 0x800706BA - Windows 10 Help Forums

In 1803 build 17134.1 32-bit (x86) as released on 30th April creating a system image fails with "The RPC server is unavailable. (0x800706BA)". This happens with an upgrade or a clean install. Creating a system image works correctly in 1803 x64,

www.tenforums.com

Bree · Aug 21, 2023

johnlgalt said:
@Bree - how about this one:

GitHub - wooxo/Vhd2Disk: V2P tool working with Microsoft's VHD image. This tool is working like a mirror of the Sysinternal's Disk2Vhd tool.

V2P tool working with Microsoft's VHD image. This tool is working like a mirror of the Sysinternal's Disk2Vhd tool. - wooxo/Vhd2Disk

github.com

Thanks, but its readme.md says it is "....designed to work only with "dynamic" VHD like Disk2vhd's ouput". However, the current version of disk2vhd makes vhdx by default, and it can't open those. A .vhd is limited to 2TB maximum disk size while .vhdx can be up to 64TB.

SIW2 · Aug 21, 2023

and it can't open those.

Have you tried it?

The original vhd2disk from 2012 probably can't, but that is a different animal.

If you want to mount in winpe, then almost any decent partition manager can copy the mounted disk/individual partitions.

I have often used diskgenius to apply the contents of a vhd partition without mounting.

SIW2 · Aug 21, 2023

Just tried and vhd2disk does not appear to work for vhd(x).

doesnt matter, I would use diskgenius anyway.

Bree · Aug 21, 2023

SIW2 said:
Have you tried it?

The original vhd2disk from 2012 probably can't, but that is a different animal.

Yes, I have. the 2020 one still only handles VHD ....

SIW2 said:
If you want to mount in winpe, then almost any decent partition manager can copy the mounted disk/individual partitions.
I have often used diskgenius to apply the contents of a vhd partition without mounting.

Yes, diskgenius would be a good alternative to partition wizard, and I'll very likely be using it myself in my home-brew imaging solution from now on. But I was trying to find a solution that stayed within the constrains of the OP's original question. From post #1:

TexasBandit said:
I would rather rely on System Image backups rather than trust Chinese software.

Diskgenius would only ever be used on the bootable recovery usb, so its Chinese origin is of no real consequence anyway

TairikuOkami · Aug 21, 2023

SIW2 said:
It is booting into a wim file that it has created on your hard disk. Many other tools do the same.

I do not know any other free software that does this. Aomei used to do it, not anymore, it is paid now, that is the reason I switched.

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