Do you need a free program to clone, backup, or restore your Windows 11 computer?
Do you need a free program to clone, backup, or restore your Windows 11 computer?
Hey guys! Do you know what programs and versions are best for a PC? Let's rank them from the best to okay. First, here is exactly why I am asking this... Can someone tell me which software is best for doing ONE or BOTH of these things: 1) Copy everything from my System drive so I can review it later in Windows folders. AND/OR do a complete CLONE of the whole system drive like this so we can RESTORE the Windows on a totally different drive and run it? My Dad's PC system drive is breaking very badly but we still need to make sure the Windows installation works and find lots of things he saved inside weird system folders in programs. So I want to BACKUP all the files just as plain files AND more importantly, make the clone so I can RESURRECT it on a brand new drive? Our System drive is currently a 2013 Samsung 128GB SSD 840BW Pro 2.5". I have never actually restored a Windows system backup before! Can I restore this clone on ANY kind of drive, any size? How does that work exactly? Will it need to be restored to a specific partition if we put it on a much bigger drive etc.? Thank you for helping me out here!
Most folks in this group think Macrirum Reflects is good enough. You might even check what Windows offers by making a full image of your hard drive. But do have a spare drive ready just to save the files safely.
Be careful about using Windows Backup. It is very fussy, cranky, difficult to work with, and full of quirks. If you don't know what those problems are or how to fix them without breaking things, it might be a bad idea. I suspect Microsoft has official documents telling you to switch to a third-party program instead. The software is officially being stopped in favor of that choice now.
Hi @ Alabalcho and @ Lafong Yeah, I don't really want to stick with Windows anymore. Was hoping to hear about some other popular ones that are thought to be the best - what makes them special or why people say one is better than another? I need to get my build started right now so I can find out which software to use to copy a clean Windows install both before and after installing everything as a backup for next time. Cheers
Macrium Reflect is top choice. Once you figure out all the settings and set up a schedule, it just works perfectly fine. It's the foundation of my whole backup routine. What do your backup plans look like at home? And if you don't have any, why not? Every single day I read lots of threads here asking "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" It can be a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong... forums. (I tweaked some links since then, but that's the general idea) And don't forget the difference between Clone vs. Image. A clone is for changing drives right now. An Image (Full, Incremental, Differential) is for actual backups.
Macrium Reflect Free Edition is for everyone who needs backup software. There is a paid version with extra features you might want later, but Aomei Backupper would be my top pick. Acronis would be a third choice at best. If your goal is just to save everything in one file, use imaging because the image file will be big and have an .mrimg extension. But if you only need to move data from one drive to another, use cloning instead. "Can I restore this clone on any hard drive, no matter how big?" No, it doesn't work like that. It needs to fit inside a specific size limit. Clones are not fully restored drives; they just contain the file structure and files, but if the process fails, you can't boot from them. Only images get fully copied over to new locations, though opening these image files in Explorer isn't my usual habit. Would it need to be fixed or formatted for a bigger drive? Yes, sometimes. In regular use, you create one big image of all your drives and then restore that entire picture to a fresh drive, which wipes everything clean but makes the new hard drive look exactly like your old one. This step handles all the setup, making sure it's ready to run immediately.