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Anon

Best Backup Software for Winows 8.1Pro

Tried to post here a few hours ago as well as 5 days ago but post never did not show. If an duplicate post shows, please disregard the duplicate.

According to »www.pcadvisor.co.uk/test ··· 2015-uk/ Easeus ToDo Backup Free 3.5 is the best free backup software for 2015 second only to a software that costs $20. I've seen other posts recommending Paragon, Macrium Reflect and other programs. I used Seagate Discwizard version 11 up through WinXP which has worked without fail, but Discwizard version 13 has failed to restore 2 or 3 times, and I've only tried it a hand full of times. I'm looking for a good backup software that works with BIOS set to IDE mode because I'm dual booting WinXP and Win8.1Pro. Do any of these software work for Win8.1Pro with BIOS set to IDE mode, and are there any other programs that do if none of these do?

mmainprize
join:2001-12-06
Houghton Lake, MI

mmainprize

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It is not that simple these days. But since you are running XP you must be running very old hardware so i would think any of those should work.

These days with EFI and other hardware/BIOS changes it is not easy to answer those questions (with out knowing the hardware involved) and for the many different ways you can make a backup. With these newer systems you may need to set bios setting just right for it to work correctly.

Freddy
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join:2005-05-17
Arlington, VA

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Tator,

Windows 8.1 has a built-in backup capability. You can use that. I've used it and it works well. I'm running Windows 8.1 regular version (not Pro), but I think the capability is similar in either version of Windows. In my version, find the backup as follows, launch:

Control Panel > System and Security > File History

You can turn off File History as it backs up certain files automatically, unless you want that feature.

At the bottom of the File History screen, click on System Image Backup. Follow on-screen prompts. It's best to use a separate hard drive for backup.

To restore the backup, follow the information on following link:

»How I Made Bootable Flash Drive Windows 8.1.1

Again, this is for the non-Pro version, but should be similar in the Pro version. Let us know whether this approach works for you.

Freddy

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Anon

Actually the motherboard is relatively new, an ASRock H77M with BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. P1.40 07/12/2013 which is a UEFI BIOS, and it has no floppy or IDE controllers. I had to set SATA mode in BIOS to IDE for WinXP to boot. I've read there are AHCI drivers for WinXP that will allow it to boot with SATA mode set to AHCI, and I probably need to find those drivers for this system.

Can the Win8.1 backup create backup image and restore FAT32 as well as WinXP or other Windows versions? Most important does it have ability to create a boot media version? No backup program is worth having without boot media in the event of complete hard drive failure or OS failure to boot. Will the programs mentioned in my initial post work with my system and be able to backup and restore FAT32 and WinXP?

Freddy
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join:2005-05-17
Arlington, VA

1 edit

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Tator,

The Win8.1 backup utility copies the hard drive. It copies it as is. The bootable flash drive restores the backup to its original condition. It doesn't make changes.

You should take a look at these functions to see for yourself. The Win8.1 backup utility creates a backup in compressed format. This format is typically called an image, as opposed to a clone.

That is, the backup in contained in one large file. The restore function puts it back in its original configuration. The restore function is contained in the bootable flash drive described in the above link.

If I'm not making this clear, please post back.

Freddy

Later Edit: Using the Win8.1 backup feature, make a backup to see whether it does what you want. You don't have to restore it.

Make a bootable flash drive to see how that feature works. Follow the instructions contained in the above link. You don't need to actually restore the backup to learn how this works.

Tator
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Anon

That means one would need a flash drive larger than 64GB if the OS drive is around 100GB. I really don't like using flash drives as I find them unreliable. Just last week I created backup to a thumb drive using Seagate Discwizard which failed to verify when "Verify Backup" was run. Discwizard bakcup to hard drives has never failed to create, verify and restore in my experience. Does it have a boot CD/DVD version that will facilitate backup creation to another hard drive? It sounds like it may be for Win8.1 only. Do you know if it will work for older Windows versions?

Freddy
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Arlington, VA

Freddy

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The Win8.1 backup can be made to a hard drive, not to a flash drive. You can also make it to CDs or DVDs, but a separate hard drive works better.

The bootable flash drive only contains the restore function, not the backup. Read the information on my above link for more complete information about the bootable flash drive.

You need to try these functions so that you have a better understanding of whether this system works for you. I think the Win8.1 backup feature copies the hard drive, whatever is on it will be copied. Try it to find out.

Freddy

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Anon

Can its backup utility be run from a boot CD/DVD? If not, it's useless to me. I just installed Easus Todo Backup which I thought had ability to create boot CD/DVD, but I don't find it any where in that program. Does anybody know if Easus has that ability, and can somebody tell me how to create boot CD/DVD for Easus if it has that ability?

Freddy
Premium Member
join:2005-05-17
Arlington, VA

Freddy

Premium Member

Tator,

You can restore a Win8.1 made backup from a DVD using the Microsoft Windows 8 system installation disc, if you have one. That disc has all the utilities that the bootable flash drive has that I mentioned in my above comments.

Why can't you use a bootable flash drive to restore a backup?

Freddy

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Anon

As stated in above reply " I really don't like using flash drives as I find them unreliable. Just last week I created backup to a thumb drive using Seagate Discwizard which failed to verify when 'Verify Backup' was run." Also a few years ago I had about 200 pictures simply vanish from a SD card which another type of flash media and had to use a recovery program to recover them, but even that only recovered about 90% f the photos. I've never had Discwizard 11 fail to create, verify and restore images to hard drives either in the PC or external.

Freddy
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Arlington, VA

Freddy

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Tator,

OK, if you want to use a bootable DVD (not flash drive) to recover your Windows 8.1 backup, but you don't have a Microsoft Win8.1 installation DVD, you can make one. Just download the Win8.1 ISO from the following website and you'll have the same thing:

»www.techrepublic.com/blo ··· -81-dvd/

Now you can boot from the DVD and restore your backup. There are frequently several ways to skin a cat. Ha!

Freddy
HarryH3
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join:2005-02-21

1 recommendation

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I'm a huge fan of Macrium Reflect. I do a full backup once a week, then do a differential backup each of the other 6 days of the week. Perhaps my favorite feature is the ability to mount a backup image as if it were another hard drive and then browse through files and folders to copy just the one (or ones) that I want. Windows backup utility just lets you restore all or nothing (unless they added a recent feature that I'm unaware of). I don't want to restore an entire hard drive just because a single file got munched.

And Macrium Reflect does let you build and test an emergency boot disk. There's even a way to add any drivers that may be missing to make certain that the boot disk loads all the drivers required to access your backups (perhaps from a network device or raid array?). Well worth the ~$50 to me.

CCat
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MVM
join:2005-12-06
Wonderland

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+1

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I have a Windows 8.1Pro install DVD. Do you know how to run the restore utility from the Windows install disk, and does it allow you to choose whether to restore Win8.1 or WinXP? If it does, this would be a good solution for me since Win8.1Pro boots in IDE mode or AHCI mode, it should be able to restore from IDE and AHCI modes.

Freddy
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join:2005-05-17
Arlington, VA

1 edit

Freddy

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Tator,

1. Insert the Windows 8.1 system installation disc.

2. Restart your computer.

3. If prompted, press any key to start the computer from the installation disc or system repair disc.

If your computer is not configured to start from a CD or DVD, you might need to change your computer's BIOS settings to boot from CD/DVD.

4. Choose your language settings, and then click Next.

5. Click Repair your computer.

6. Select a recovery option, and then click Next.

From hereon, follow on-screen prompts. You can practice these steps. You don't need a backup to insert the system disc to check out the preceding steps indicated.

The best way to actually make and restore a backup, is to use a separate hard drive, either installed in your computer case or installed in an external enclosure connected by USB cable. You can use CDs or DVDs, but that's going the hard way. Up to you.

The built-in Windows backup utility copies everything on your hard drive. That means everything, including all partitions. You should make a practice backup to gain experience and to check that everything works as you expect.

Freddy
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Re: Best Backup Software for Winows 8.1Pro

Easeus ToDo Backup Free works, but it requires WinPE download from Microsoft to get the boot CD media; however, Easeus ToDo Backup Free automatically names backup files for you using year, month, day, hours and minutes in that order for the backup file name. It does download the WinPE and incorporate Easeus ToDo Backup Free in the ISO it creates for you which makes that part easy. Another issue I ran into was for the backup image it showed 13GB of space available and 14GB required which is the size of the Win8.1Pro partition even though it compresses the backup to 7GB.

I like choosing the backup file name especially for a dual boot system to make it easy to tell which backup file is for which OS when it need be restored. I'm going to try the Windows 8 backup using 8.1 install disk to see if has more favorable results.

sweller
join:2009-04-25
Tucson, AZ

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Another +1

Since the inbuilt Windoze 7 backup has failed me trying to restore now twice on two different machines, I went looking for an alternative. I was aware of Macrium Reflect because WD's *free* version of Acronis had also failed to clone an old drive to a new one.

Macrium Reflect just plain works.
sweller

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Forgot to add: ToDo worked. But From the C:\ drive it cloned an E:\ and A:\. Too much for me to try and figure out. I'm sticking with Reflect.
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maartena
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Re: Best Backup Software for Winows 8.1Pro

I am now only recommending paid, online backups.... I use Carbonite myself, and it works great. I have stored about 280 GB on there of my most crucial data.

It came to my rescue to in December. Within the same week, I did not lose ONE, but TWO hard drives, and one was the backup for the other. I didn't replace it yet that same day because I thought: No worries, all that stuff is on Carbonite. And boy did I end up needing it when 2 days later the other drive crashed. Hard.

I have since then replaced both drives, and increased space while doing it (crashed drives were 1 TB and 2 TB, and I bought a 3 TB internal and 4 TB external.

On top of all this, a friend of mine who has a laptop (with one drive) and backs it up to a USB external drive, had his house broken in to, and someone took the laptop AND the external backup drive. Luckily, he had just gotten Mozy on my recommendation (just as good as Carbonite maybe even better) a few weeks before that, and by that time ALL of his pictures of his kids had been uploaded and saved.

To me, its one of those services worth paying for. It saved my ass, and it saved it good.

mmainprize
join:2001-12-06
Houghton Lake, MI

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Since you are running XP you would have to turn off all the newer features of that Motherboard to get it to work with XP. So like you have stated EFI, AHCI and SATA are all disabled.

Now you still need to get drivers for your very new hardware to work with that old XP OS. I assume you are using the stand Microsoft drivers and you got lucky and XP seems to find drivers for all your hardware. These is not always the case.

So most Backup software will work for that setup.
Win 8.1 backup is a pain as it wants a thumb drive used to boot and you must make that and test it, many find they can not make it or it is a PITA. If you boot form the install disk you can Refresh, Restore, or Install but that is not the same as backup software and you could wipe the disk very easy if you chose wrong.

I use Acronis But the newer home version (2015) is not very good any more (in my opinion) i use the older (2013) version. I used the Workstation or server version for work for years and they worked very good (costs more). But with the new EFI BIOS machines the boot media has some issues and you have to make BIOS changed to get things to work with all the latest backup programs.

Macrium Reflect is used and recommended by many here but i have not tried it.

I like you, don't like thumb drives, as i find they have other issues that CD'd or DVD's don't have. Like with Acronis 2015, it will edit its self, if it fails to boot the first time, it will even try and make changes to the system BIOS or disk to help it boot up the PC. I have one PC that if i use a Acronis 2015 USB thumb drive it corrups the network drivers on the PC and i must reinstall the drivers each time after i run a backup from that boot media. Never had that problem with CD or DVD boot media.