I use Macrium Reflect (paid) on my desktop and laptop and Hasleo Backup Suite (free) on my always on PC that I use as a server. Both will run scheduled backups to a network device directly. Both can explore and recover files from an image and use a bootable recovery image to do a full disk restore
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DNS Benchmark v2 Release 5 with Consultant License Guest:
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BootAble – FreeDOS boot testing freeware
To obtain direct, low-level access to a system's mass storage drives, SpinRite runs under a GRC-customized version of FreeDOS which has been modified to add compatibility with all file systems. In order to run SpinRite it must first be possible to boot FreeDOS.
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Try Aomei Free Backupper. It saved me a couple times so I decided to pay them the nominal Pro fee. Might have to buy the Pro version to get Scheduling. It has it but I never used it so cannot really comment on viability. I can tell you it also gives selective access to files so you can restore just what you need and that too has helped me on several occasions. The few times I needed it it did prove to be 100% reliable. I give it 
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.Been using Clonezilla. My setup is an ssh transfer to a Linux box in my tornado room in the house. You can automate the process with a string that is created for all input parameters and presented just before the actual clone begins. Makes things quite easy for any follow on backups. The PC has it's own backup power supply in the room and runs headless with Wake on LAN in a telnet session from whatever PC I'm backing up. Only the actual data gets backed up and does not make a mirror image of every sector of the "cloned" drive. Free to use. The backup to drive is a software MD RAID 1 4TB set that can keep about 4 to 5 backups of all my PCs that I'm backing up. And is also host OS agnostic as Clonezilla boots its own live Linux based OS and can be used on some mac hardware as well as anything else x86/amd64. https://clonezilla.org/
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Looks like lots of good options these days.. I did get a copy of Image for Windows and it worked great to get a backup of the entire drive over to a samba server. Had a slower usb laptop I wanted to backup and the 1gb ethernet had great transfer speed to the smb share. I wish there was a product like Image for Windows for linux, ie live filesystem with VSS. I know there's SNAPSHOT if you if you have the right setup..
I am also glad to see more/updated options.
One thing I'd like to confirm with those that have used all of these various apps, can you recover on bare metal by just installing windows, installing the 'backup software' then pointing it to the image and after the image fully recovers, installs, etc a reboot occurs (likely) and you are back to your old desktop?
One thing I'd like to confirm with those that have used all of these various apps, can you recover on bare metal by just installing windows, installing the 'backup software' then pointing it to the image and after the image fully recovers, installs, etc a reboot occurs (likely) and you are back to your old desktop?
You can't restore over the OS you're actively booted into, so it works a bit differently. You boot from "rescue media", which is typically a bootable CD or USB stick containing the image/restore program, then use the program to locate the image (typically on a external/portable hard drive or perhaps a network share) and restore it to the internal disk. You don't have to "install Windows" first. Once the restoration is complete, remove the external boot media and reboot from the internal disk.
If you're new to these concepts, I created a video that might help you wrap your head around how it all works: "Principles of Cloning and Imaging"
If you're new to these concepts, I created a video that might help you wrap your head around how it all works: "Principles of Cloning and Imaging"
I was just listing a scenario, I wasn't sure how the recovery worked which is why I posted. I guess what I'm trying to say is that....I want to find something that doesn't require me having created something prior to that I can't easily create/put together when I need to restore my image. If it is as simple as creating rescue media from another PC, then I can live with that, but if there is something that needs to be created, initially, on day one from the computer where I installed the image software, then that's not something I'm interested in (hopefully that makes sense).
I want the ability to navigate to my NAS, see the image files and pick any image file and restore (and I'm fine with making 'rescue media' as long as it can be done anytime it is needed). I know it won't be a CD/DVD since I don't have that drive in my PC, it would be a USB stick.
I'll take a look at the video you put together and post if I have any questions, thanks.
The primary issue is the rescue media must (1) be able to boot, and (2) must be able to see your image file. Part (1) is easy because the imaging program can be installed on another PC after the fact and new rescue media created using a generic WinPE image (sometimes part and parcel with the program itself). Part (2) is a bit more iffy because if your image file is on your NAS then that rescue media must include the proper network driver for the hardware the media will boot from, which may be dfferent from the hardware on which the media is being created.
One way to work around this problem is to install the imaging program on the subject computer, then immediately use the create-rescue-media function to make an .iso file rather than physical media. Then at any point in the future another computer could use that .iso to create a USB stick when needed. (Of course, you'll want to do a trial run to make sure that .iso can successfully see your NAS.)
This solves the problem of having to carry around a janitor's keyring worth of USB sticks for every machine you support, since you can use a single USB stick and just reburn it with the .iso you happen to need at any given time.)
Another way is to restore the image to a target disk in another working computer. For instance, a bare metal disk can be attached as a secondary disk to another Windows or Linux machine on which the imaging program has also been installed, and the program can be run from there, pointed to the image on your NAS as the source, and pointed to the secondary disk as its target. Then the secondary disk can be moved back to its rightful computer and booted from there. That method can have some potential pitfalls, as I've noted in my video, but there are usually repair options if that should happen.
There is a lot of good information here. I want to be clear, I'm not against creating rescue media, I don't have an issue with that. I want to avoid using software that requires the rescue media to be something extremely specific requiring a 'day one' file from the host PC. For example, "in order to create this rescue media, you first must copy xyz.ini file from this specific folder" which is obviously going to be a problem if I'm discovering that after the computer has been compromised.
This could also just be me digging myself into a hole. I'll need to demo some of the software that was recommended here. Also, this is only for my single PC which I already have a paid subscription to backblaze (with encryption) and my extremely important files are saved on two NAS drives and another PC on my network, so I have several safety nets in place for the actual files I want to keep safe. The computer image was more for 'I don't want to redo my windows desktop, shortcuts, etc."
I did click the link to your video but I was not expecting it to be that long (which is good, more info/details) I just can't watch it right at this time, but I have it bookmarked and will get to it tomorrow or this weekend for sure.
Thanks.
