I do not do online backups for my OS. I use boot disks. Actually a flash drive ( My Rescue Flash Drive ).
Tried:
Acronis True Image PE Boot Disk
Macrium Reflect Windows 10 PE Boot Disk
Clonezilla Live CD
All three were successful at backup and recovery.
Acronis and Macrium both require you to install the program to create a boot disk. Macrium I don’t mind having installed. Acronis is another story. This program now installs a ton of crap on your computer not the least of which is the Bonjour Service. Yes, the same POS that Apple uses for iTunes (among other things). Many of you will remember me linking to Ed Bott’s, The unofficial guide to installing iTunes 10 without bloatware many times over the years. He says in part, “I strongly recommend not installing Bonjour unless you need it. Bonjour has required patches for security issues in the past and has been known to cause a complete loss of network connectivity on Windows networks. (Yes, I’ve seen Bonjour disable local and Internet connections on Windows networks. It was not a fun troubleshooting exercise.)”
Using Macrium Reflect I restored my PC from backup after creating the Acronis boot disk.
I’m glad I have left that nonsense behind and switched to Macrium and Clonezilla.
That’s depressing. My Synology box uses an internal Bonjour for some interaction with Mac stuff.
I guess I’ll switch off its Bonjour and see what are the implications.
Nevertheless, Merry Christmas!
Hey Eric. Until recently I used to use the built-in Windows system image program and Acronis also. I liked the built-in program but had been having more and more bad backups with it, and then in the latest version of Win10 they are cutting it’s features and beginning to phase it out (I found several links saying that Microsoft is recommending 3rd party software for this reason.)
I also used Acronis but was never really comfortable with the interface, and then started having more frequent issues with the backups being corrupt or not loading.
I tried Macrium (free version) starting last week and have had no problems with it so far, and I really like the interface. It’s a lot more self-explanatory not only in how to use the program but also in how it tells you what it’s doing when you are using it. I’m going to give it a few more weeks but if I still don’t have any issues with it then I’m going to get the paid version.
Just wanted to share my experience so-far with this program. Thanks for recommending it.
I personally only backup my important files to the cloud and to an external HDD. Wishing you all a happy new year in advance guys.