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Ricky
Tutor

Full PC Backup Software

I am looking for software to make a complete backup of my PC to my external hard drive. I had Acronis and it failed me when I needed it, so that is out. Anyone using something that they can suggest I look into?

 

Ricky

28 REPLIES 28
BirdDog
Assistant Professor

Hi Ricky, I use Macrium Reflect, has always worked for me. Be sure create a boot disk.

 

https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

Great. I am going to give it a whirl.

C0RR0SIVE
Associate Professor

Acronis and Norton Ghost are the best things to use, however, you have to create a boot disk with the proper drivers for your machine, and test said disk after creating a backup.

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

@Ricky

 

I forget, but what OS do you use? 

 

Windows' built in system imaging has never failed me, and I've had to reinstall an image more times than I care to remember.  

 

With that said, during the initial release of the uprade from W8 to W8.1, one of the smaller, closed system partitions wouldn't resize to a large enough size during the upgrade and the system image creation always failed as the size of the partition was not enough to create the volume shadow copy.  There was a great workaround for those that experienced this, and Microsoft fixed in on their next W8.1 upgrade version.  

 

I have Windows 8.1. In fact a remote session with Microsoft they reinstalled Windows 8.1. So it is fresh. I still am fighting the Windows update issue at this time. So I am trying to get that straight first.

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

@Ricky

 

This is just an idea, but if you don't have considerable data and time tied up into what's going on with your updates right now and you have plenty of Bonus Bytes data and the time, you might want to look into downloading a new copy of Windows 8.1 from Microsoft and performing a fresh install with that (if it's different from whta they did with the remote session).  When I was having all of the problems with my Windows 8.1 updates and installed the freshly downloaded copy it worked very well,  though I had to install two files (one required prerequisites) after the fresh OS installation in order to be able to perform normal updates, but they were just the June 2016 Update Client and the July 2016 Update Rollup (and the prerequisites for the latter).  Once those were installed the updates went perfectly.   

 

I can't guarantee that this will solve your update problems and such, but it may help.  Of course, again, this takes more data and more time, unfortunately.   

  

GabeU, on one of the remote sessions they did download a fresh copy of Windows 8.1 and they still won't work. The remote session yesterday resulted in the same errors when downloading updates. I just don't know what is wrong and apparantly neither does Microsoft. The last guy told me a upgrade to Windows 10 would fix it. I am just not sure about that though. I am still trying to decide if I want to do that or not. (SMH)

C0RR0SIVE
Associate Professor

Ricky... What error codes are you seeing exactly...? I just spent most all night getting two Server 2016 Standard systems to connect and start their updates...

The error code I just got was 8024402F

C0RR0SIVE
Associate Professor

HAH I GOT THAT LAST NIGHT ALL NIGHT LOL....  I spent MANY hours trying to troubleshoot that one...

It boils down to...

M$ update servers are too busy servicing everyone else...

OOORRRR

IPv6 is causing issues, disable it, this solved the issue for me strangely...  It wanted to use IPv6 but couldn't.

OOORRRR

Check the "advanced" update options and make sure that your not trying to grab updates for other microsoft products, this solved it for a few.

There are other things to try, but those three are the simplest and stupidest ones that can solve the issue.

Disabled IPv6 and updates still fail. This time no error code. Just says there was a problem checking for updates.

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

@Ricky

 

After the installation of the freshly downloaded copy of Windows 8.1, did they install any files before checking for updates?  

 

If not, you need the following in order to make the updates work corrrectly.  

 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3172614/july-2016-update-rollup-for-windows-8.1-and-windows...  -  July 2016 Update Rollup.  This one has two prerequisites that are listed on the page.  Make sure to download and install them, too.

 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3163023  -  June 2016 Update Client.  No prerequisites.

 

I installed them in the order the Microsoft rep gave them to me.  The prerequisites for the rollup, the rollup, then the update client.  

 

Here is the link to the discussion in which I was helped....  

 

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-update/clean-windows-81-installation-wi...

 

They did not install any files. I am trying to follow your suggestions now. Problem I am running into now is the download says it will take 4 days. Speed test shows great speed so I don't know what the heck is going on.

 

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV


@Ricky wrote:

They did not install any files. I am trying to follow your suggestions now. Problem I am running into now is the download says it will take 4 days. Speed test shows great speed so I don't know what the heck is going on.

 


If you are speaking of the download of the Windows 8.1 installation file taking that long, being that you already installed a new copy through the remote service, perhaps you can just forego that step and try installing the Rollup and its prerequisites and the Update Client.  Of course, those may take a while to download, too. 

 

Microsoft's servers may be having a fit right now with all of the downloading going on (Tuesday Update & Creator's Update), and I don't think they play nice with Hughesnet's latency when they are stressed with lots of downloads.  I've had so many problems with extremely long updates from them when my Hughesnet speeds were fine.  At other times they were great.  It's a crapshoot when it comes to the speeds of Windows updates.  

 

 

Well I am making progress.. At least now I can check for updates. I have a ton of them as well. I am attempting to download them now. So that is good news. Saved up token bytes down to 2.1 GB. Guess I will be checking out the smart browsing feature this month since I don't reset til' the 3rd. (SMH)

 

Thanks GabeU!

Well that was short lived. I got excited way to early. Problem checking for updates error is back. Starting at square 1 again.

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV


@Ricky wrote:

Well that was short lived. I got excited way to early. Problem checking for updates error is back. Starting at square 1 again.


Ugh.  Well, I'm clueless.  This is one of the instances where a finite amount of data per month can be a definite hindrance to something important, as it's not like you can just start over again so easily when you don't have the data to do so, or prehaps even the time.    

 

When I was having the problem I started again from scratch and used the new Windows 8.1 installation media I had created (I made a DVD).  I started from scratch, perfroming a clean install, because when I finally got the answers about the two files I should install, plus the prerequisites for the one, I had, by then, tried a slew of different things to get the updates to work, and I thought that perhaps I had tainted the installation I had and wanted to start fresh.  But, I had data left, plus the notebook I was trying to do all of this on was more or less a spare, so I could do it at my leisure.  At least data wise you are in a different situation, and from the sounds of it the computer you are trying to get this to work on is either your main computer, or at least one you use very often.  

 

I truly wish I had some other ideas for you to try.  From the sounds of it, there's nothing wrong with your computer itself and it's strictly software related.  That doesn't make it any less frustrating of a problem, though.

     

Everyone keep your fingers crossed. Some updates have downloaded and installed. Now a ton of them are in the process of downloading. We will see if they are sucessful.

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

I hoped it worked, or is at least still working (we know how long MS updates can sometimes take) for you.  

 

I have noticed that sometimes, if it's been over a month or so since I last checked, my Windows 8.1 updates still tend to be a bit twitchy and will still show a failure to find updates.  I try it again a couple more times and it eventually "catches" and downloads them.  

Updates are still failing. Even remote assistance with level 2 techs can not fix it. To top it all off I can't even download Windows 10 from the Microsoft website. It will not go past 0%. Gheesh. The tech is going to make a exception so I don't have to pay for it even.

 

I must be crazy. With all the issue I have now I am adding something else in the mix. Gen 5 is being installed today. Oh boy I must love misery.

 

Anyone know a link I can try to get Windows 10 instead of this one....?

 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10