I wouldn’t have computer systems without backups here. The Mac OS has had automatic Time Machine backup capabilities for quite some time now.
With Windows it’s a slightly different story. Windows 10 has a built-in backup client though I don’t think its accessible thus users who are blind and wanted to make backups of their data still have to rely on third party backup and restoration software similar to the software we’ve been discussing. Thankfully making a backup on the whole has become a lot easier, a lot les time consuming and a lot cheaper, you can buy an external portable hard drive with a very high capacity for your backups for less than a hundred dollars now or you can take out a Cloud subscription very cheaply. People are still under the impression that creating a backup is a day long or longer process and they say that they just don’t have the time. Backups can be created automatically at scheduled times without the user having to do anything. I use backups here when trying to troubleshoot problems, for example I may backup a Windows machine and then install software piece by piece to see if I can track down a particular issue in the full knowledge that all data pertaining to the computer I’m working on is safe and secure so once I find the problem I can restore what’s needed to be restored and have that machine up and working within minutes or no more than a couple of hours. As Gordon says, Roolback is a most helpful tool when doing this sort of thing as well. From: Gordon Smith <gor...@mac-access.net> Sent: Thursday, 23 August 2018 5:09 AM To: techno-chat@techno-chat.net Subject: Re: [Techno-Chat]: Terabyte Drive Backup & Restore Suite Hello Roger That’s what this group is all about, helping one another. It would appear to be prudent, I think, to maintain a working backup of any computer system. In actual fact, backups are a very large percentage of my working week. As I’m responsible for some mission-critical projects, and also for the smooth-running of my own servers, I simply couldn’t sleep at night were it not for the ability to perform centralised backups and, if need be, recover from a disaster situation using them. Primarily, my mission-critical systems are not Windows-based. Much though Microsoft has improved windows 10 in terms of resource-management and also stability, I don’t take system integrity for granted. Therefore, all of my own servers are MacOS-based. Each one has a working and licensed copy of Carbon Copy Cloner installed on it. I am, of course, aware of the very excellent Super Duper! For MacOS, However, Carbon Copy Cloner or, as it’s often referred to, “CCC”, has some additional functionality. For instance, there is the “Safety Net” which captures your essential files as they change. Therefore, if the worst were to happen, you simply restore the contents of the “Safety Net” as well as the system files etc.. That way, your backups are current right up to the second wen problems occur. Sort of like “RollBack" on the PC, I guess. On 20 Aug 2018, at 14:13, Roger Firman <ro...@golden-chord.com <mailto:ro...@golden-chord.com> > wrote: Dear Gordon, Very many thanks for your really helpful response. I’ll certainly take a look around. Best wishes, Roger. From: Gordon Smith [ <mailto:gor...@mac-access.net> mailto:gor...@mac-access.net] Sent: 20 August 2018 14:09 To: <mailto:techno-chat@techno-chat.net> techno-chat@techno-chat.net Subject: Re: [Techno-Chat]: Terabyte Drive Backup & Restore Suite Hello Roger Yes, there are ways to migrate Windows from one PC to another. There are quite a few applications out there whose function is to “Clone” either the contents of a hard drive, or else clone the drive’s layout on a sector-by-sector basis. The only proviso being that the “Target” drive must be at least the same capacity of the “Source” drive. There are a variety of ways you can accomplish the task. Obviously, the easiest would be to use an application such as the Terabyte suite. All you’d then do is use an external USB drive for your “Backup” of the original system. Then, use the same external drive to “Restore” on the destination system. Obviously this would involve booting from an external third drive, but TeraByte and other utilities can help you create the boot media. Actually, it occurs to me as I write that the Paragon software suite may be more appropriate for this purpose. It would probably make the job simpler to accomplish. But in essence, Roger, the answer to your question is, quite definitely, “Yes!”. You can indeed do this with Windows 10. Older versions of Windows were much more fussy about this kind of thing, due to the activation processes which Microsoft used on those versions. Much has changed, however. And the tight compliance requirements have been substantially relaxed. But anyway, you should be able to find the information you need on one of the search engines. I urge you to research this issue if you’re planning such a move. What’s best for my circumstances may not be best for yours, and visa versa. Before I close, may I just remind the group that there is a dedicated Windows list, running alongside the Techno-Chat group. It’s name is, predictably: <mailto:windows-acc...@windows-access.net> windows-acc...@windows-access.net. You may join this group in the same way that you joined the current one. Send a blank message to: <mailto:windows-access-j...@windows-access.net> windows-access-j...@windows-access.net And then follow the instructions in the auto-cookie message the server sends back. Please be assured that there is no data collection or other function in the Cookie, other than that of fulfilling your Join request to the server. On 20 Aug 2018, at 05:20, Roger Firman < <mailto:ro...@golden-chord.com> ro...@golden-chord.com> wrote: Dear Gordon, Many thanks for your postings and related responses. While my posting doesn't answer your point, it does, however, prompt a question I've had in my mind for ages but never understood what is going on behind the scenes as it were. If I want to upgrade my PC and decide to buy a totally new computer with a different version of Windows, is there a way to avoid having to go back and reinstall software from scratch, or is there a way with a utility such as the onew you are describing, or another product, which would avoid this? I can totally understand why avoiding the process of starting again, in the circumstances mentioned in your post, is best avoided. Regards, Roger Firman. -----Original Message----- From: Gordon Smith [ <mailto:gor...@mac-access.net> mailto:gor...@mac-access.net] Sent: 20 August 2018 01:05 To: <mailto:techno-chat@techno-chat.net> techno-chat@techno-chat.net Subject: [Techno-Chat]: Terabyte Drive Backup & Restore Suite Good morning everybody, or whatever it happens to be in your timeline as you read this post. I just wanted to open a brief discussion about a product which, in all honesty, I haven’t used for quite a few years, but really must get back too. It’s called: “TeraByte Drive Backup And Restore Suite”, these days. When I first used it, it was simply called: “Image For Windows”. For the convenience of anybody who would like to check this out, it can be found at the below secure website: < <https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image-for-windows.htm> https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image-for-windows.htm> Now, it would appear, that product has changed out of sight since I last looked at it! There is now an integrated suite of applications, of which Image For Windows is an integral part. You have the ability to backup to network devices, even whilst Windows is in everyday use. You can burn images of your backup to CD/DVD/Blu-Ray, as well as to USB devices such as external storage media. Naturally, as with any other professional disaster recovery suite, you can create DOS, Linux and Efi recovery disks, and I think those can be tailored to your requirements. The one thing I’m unsure about just at this moment is how, exactly, one is supposed to boot into an environment whereby one can perform a complete restore, given the need, (at least here), for accessibility during the restore process. If there is anybody on list who uses this product who can advise me on this point, I’d be grateful in the extreme. But that aside for a moment, it certainly looks as though this product has a lot to recommend it if you’re serious about full-system disaster recovery backups. Something which I think everybody who values their personal data and their working operating system environment would concur with. I for one know from experience just how troublesome those occasions where something gos disastrously wrong and your computer is left US as a consequence. If I can avoid it, despite the fact that Windows now has an accessible restore process, I have every intention of preserving my working system now, whilst it’s good to go. I have invested significantly in terms of both the operating system and associated software, plus the man-hours it has taken to build the system up to its current working status. I can assure you, I have absolutely no intention of repeating the laborious and intensely frustrating task of building this thing up again from scratch! If only, if only, it were possible to do things as simply as it is in MacOS. Although I do not wish to create a debate about which system is superior. That is entirely down to the individual or entity responsible for the device. But, I digress. Having had only the opportunity to play briefly with the software since I installed it on Sunday, it would appear that much has changed since I originally bought a license for the product. Since that time, there has been an upgrade charge for access to the current version. However, I don’t begrudge that in the slightest, given how much more powerful this product now is. The cost of the upgrade was minimal, so I opted to pay it without question, and I regard it as an investment. Believe me, if it saves me the countless hours of work, and all the frustrations of a total reinstall, then I consider the upgrade fee to be a most worthwhile investment. Getting back to the product itself. The options presented even in the Windows shell context menus appear to put lots of control at your fingertips. Although it is true to say that, if you’re prepared to spend the time required to learn the interface, the command-line version is, as the developer states on their website, more powerful than the GUI interface. However, one thing at a time. Possibly though, the command-line, (text-only) version is the way to go for a full system restore. I do like the fact that, if you configure it as such, your every change to the hard drive is shadowed in a contiguous backup. It sort of puts me in mind of Data Horizon Systems RollBack RX Professional, but this seems to be a much more flexible system. Another product which I intend to reevaluate shortly is NTI Corporation’s NTI Drive Shadow. That, too, has undoubtedly evolved since I last tried it. Thoughts, anybody? ======================================== My compliments and kindest regards Gordon Smith: < <mailto:gor...@mac-access.net> gor...@mac-access.net> Accessibility & Information Technology Support Specialist.. 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