Articles in Category: Backing Up & Backup Programs

Nothing can save your computer and data from almost any disaster like a proper and recent back up. These articles discuss backup techniques, tools and more of the things you need to do to keep your data safe.

Can I use backup software to move programs?

Moving data to your new machine from your backup is easy. Moving the programs is a different story.

External Backup Drive

Will backups run if my PC asks for a password?

Scheduling regular backups is an important step in your overall backup strategy. But they do have to run when your computer is on and accessible.

Your Disk is on Fire!

Why does my computer crash when I try to back up?

Backing up shouldn’t crash a computer, and neither should attaching a hard disk.

External Backup Drive

How Do I Recover My Data from a Crashed Computer?

As long as the problem isn’t a damaged hard drive, you may be able to access your data with a Linux CD, or even better, a backup recovery CD.

Will locking my computer prevent scheduled and autorun programs from running?

Macrium will run just fine as long as your computer is still turned on. Other automatic programs may have trouble, depending on their configuration.

An Active Hard DIsk

Is cloning to a second internal drive a viable backup strategy?

Any backup system puts you ahead of the game. But a few “gotchas” could sneak up on you when relying on cloning a hard drive.

XP Mode Being Installed

Does Restoring Windows 7 from a Backup also Restore XP Mode?

When you create a backup image of your machine, it contains everything; that’s the definition of a backup image.

Windows

What is WAIK that Macrium seems to want me to download?

The Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) allows programs like Macrium Reflect to create bootable rescue media. If you don’t have this, you have two options.

Make a Backup!

Is It Better to Use Incremental or Differential Backups?

Incremental and differential backups store your data changes differently. Ultimately, the difference is one of granularity and managing disk space. But the biggest thing is that you are backing up regularly and happy with the results.

Infected!

Should I back up if my machine is infected?

If you believe you’ve been hacked, you will want to protect and preserve your data right away. First, make sure exactly what has been hacked.

How Do I Back Up Multiple Partitions?

How you backup partitions depends on your backup software. Most allow you to backup multiple partitions into a single backup image file, but more than likely, you get to choose.

Can I Just Run Macrium and Do a Restore?

You typically can’t just run Macrium in Windows to do a restore because you’d be restoring on top of a running operating system. But yes, you can easily restore the whole machine. I’ll explain.

Can I create rescue disks for any point in time?

You can indeed create rescue media to restore your machine to any point in time. Rather than calling it rescue media, though, it’s nothing more than an image backup.

CCleaner Drive Wiper

Can I Use a Backup Image to Wipe Free Space?

There’s an app for that! An easy combination of programs can help you clean a computer before you sell it or give it away.

Do I need to have a separate data backup if I backup my system regularly?

If you are doing regular image backups of your computer, and incremental backups of new data you’re good. But what about the files you are working on today?

Windows 7 Boot Options

How Do I Restore a Registry Backup if I Can’t Boot?

For a full, catastrophic failure where you cannot reboot into Windows, it may not be possible to restore a registry backup. You may need to have previously done a full system backup that you could then restore to get your machine working once again.

CD-R

Can I Back Up Files to Save Space?

If you have only one copy – it’s not backed up. If you delete files to save space on your hard drive make sure that doesn’t leave you without a backup.

Macrium Reflect Disk Space Management

How Do I Automatically Clean Out My Accumulation of Backups?

Many backup programs allow you to specify that old backups be deleted. It’s not always obvious how, so I’ll show you in Macrium Reflect.

Can I Simply Copy Everything on My Drive in Case Something Bad Happens?

There are in fact utilities that can do an actual clone of your computer, but I would prefer you move to a more traditional image backup system.

Safety Deposit Boxes

Is My Data Safe in an Online Backup Program?

Whenever we use an online service, such as an online backup, we’re trusting that they’re doing what they say they do: keeping our information secure.

Back Up!

If There’s Only One Copy, It’s Not Backed Up

Not a day goes by that I don’t get a question from someone in trouble; trouble that could have been completely avoided by having a simple backup.

Images versus Files and Folders

What’s the Difference Between an Image Backup and a Files-and-Folder Backup?

This choice is about what you back up on your computer. It can make the difference between an easy or difficult recovery.

Email envelope

How Do I Back Up Email to an External Hard Disk using Outlook?

Backing up or archiving portions of your email collected in Outlook is pretty easy with one basic concept: creating and opening your own PST files.

Is an Image Backup Useful if I Need to Restore to a Different Machine?

While image backups are optimized for restoring back to the original hardware, they remain critically useful in other scenarios as well.

Macrium Reflect – Powerful Windows Backup Software

Macrium Reflect is a full-featured backup program that supports everything that I consider critical to keeping your important data safely backed up.

It Crashed Again!

How do I recover my data after a computer crash?

The most painful part of a computer crash is often the loss of data. I’ll look at what to do to minimize the loss and to try to recover.

How Did You Back Up While on Your Trip?

I took technology with me on my three-week vacation, as most of us do. It was an opportunity to think through how best to prepare for the worst.

How should I backup my music library?

The really good news is that you’ve already backed up the part that most people miss: the licenses. The rest … well the rest is pretty easy.