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.
Hi everyone, replying to all... @USAFRet @Lafong @Phillip Corcoran So I am glad to hear a few more opinions and I feel better knowing there is pretty strong consensus on Macrium (as I'd never heard of it). So to clarify things assuming I'm using Macrium.... So I think I get what you're saying about an image being like an iso... I've used and mounted them virtually before (like can take stuff off them if want then turn off). And so to make a clone is an active thing your doing copying the image onto a drive 'right now'... yeah? So my immediate concern is as I'm setting up my fresh Win 11 install on my new build.... I want to make images at various stages eg before I install anything, and after etc... Save for later just in case. So - my question regarding partitions has to do with this Win 11 System drive. I have a 1TB drive.... but my understanding is if you want to be able to 'clone' an image to make a bootable win 11 sys drive - you need to clone the whole drive or partition? So I'm wondering if I can make a 250gb Partition (be more than enough for Win 11 - as my games will be on their own drive....)? And leave the rest as 750gb partition (whatever)... Can I just make images of that smaller partition and that's all I'd need to 'clone' to reinstate a bootable working copy of my win 11 install? And does that mean I could even move that to another m.2 if I wanted as long as it's big enough.... literally any m.2? And different question now... When it comes to setting up regular auto-backups eg weekly etc.... Can I select specific folders all over the place and even whole partitions/drives. Can I get it to only copy or modify the backup image to reflect changes only.... and/or opposed to just making repeated 'full' images of those areas I want to back up? And can you point me in the right direction to terms to look up to find how to do that stuff easily? I've never set anything like that up before. Only used iso's for example to backup CDs DVDs etc. Relating to partitions in general. If I want to setup my new Win 11 install this way eg on a 250gb Partition on my 1TB m.2.... how do I do that from the very beginning? Or can I not do that? Do I have to install it as the whole 1TB then somehow partition it down into the smaller and larger chunks? How do I do that? Do I need some software or just use Disk Management etc? BTW I don't have another PC with m.2 drives so I cant just pre-partition it before hand? P.S - could someone please edit the title of my thread if possible to this: Best Cloning / Auto/Backup / Restore Software for Win 11? Thanks for your help guys
Yes. I usually take two pictures of my systems: Day 1 is just the start with the original operating system and no apps yet. Day 2 happens after I run everything and install all the updates and applications they recommend. These snapshots go away to save space, then when it's time for a regular backup, that process starts. You don't need partitions because they aren't very useful here. Even though you can make folders in Macrium, you are likely to forget one thing along the way. It is much better just to work with the whole drive at once. Whether using incremental or differential backups depends on what you need exactly... but for getting changes after a full backup, that's what you get. This shows my last few days of the C drive. A complete image started on January 3rd, then small daily updates followed. It took up 1TB total space. The instructions in Macrium are quite clear and will guide you step by step. Here is how I usually do things: What is your backup situation at home? Why don't you just do that instead? If you skip it completely, what would be the problem? Every single day, I read many posts online asking "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Maybe it's a broken disk, dropped phone, virus, bad deletion, or even accidentally formatting the wrong place. These questions come from forums like forums.
You don't really "clone an image" or even just "copy the image." Cloning is completely different from imaging and works in no way to create images. Imaging and cloning are two separate things that can give the same end result, but they serve different reasons. You clone drives usually by taking a working drive and moving everything to a new one. It's like when you buy a bigger or faster drive and want to move all your stuff over there. You restore imaged partitions mostly when something goes wrong in a way that stops you from fixing it easily, such as Windows getting corrupted, the hard drive failing completely, or bad software being installed. Maybe you made a picture file of every partition on January 10th, and then suddenly your drive dies on January 15th. You restore that old picture to a new drive on the 16th, and your computer goes back to exactly how it was on the 10th. That is disaster recovery, not cloning. Both cloning and imaging can move all of a working system to another drive; if both work well, they give the same end result. I always prefer using imaging over cloning, but you are free to use either one. Image restoration is an official process inside Macrium, it's not just "copying" things around. If your drive has 1, 2, or even 10 partitions, you can image any number of them separately or all at once in one big picture file. You can also restore any number of those same partitions that way. If you don't put the right partitions into the image file when you create it, then trying to restore that file might not give you a bootable drive when you finish restoring it. Notice that on the left side of Macrium's main window there is a menu choice that says "Create an image of the partitions required to backup and restore Windows." You can choose to do this for all partitions at once, or you can pick individual ones one by one. For saving things just in case, like backing up your dog's pictures, you would usually make an image of every single partition on the system drive. So if your dog's photos are on one of those partitions, they will be saved inside that picture file. Images cover whole partitions or none at all; it is either everything or nothing. Some apps might claim to let you pick only certain folders and files within a partition, but I don't know how well these work right now. To my knowledge, Macrium does not allow you to image just some folders inside a partition; instead, it gives you a full picture of the whole partition or no pictures at all. You get to decide which partitions you want to include in your picture file. You can make complete images or smaller incremental ones. That is up to you personally. I only use full images and usually make one every month. There are lots of tutorials online on places like YouTube and many websites. Macrium also has a PDF help book with over 400 pages that you can download from their website. Normally, you just install Macrium directly onto your hard drive like any other program. If your computer is already set up to start automatically, that's how you would run it. But after you install Macrium on your hard drive, you should also make a rescue media file on a USB flash drive so that you can still use Macrium if your system isn't starting properly.