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Windows 10 backup. Ain't working


Parliament

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That ransomware thread was a good reminder to check my desktop's backup settings.  I have Windows Backup and Restore set to do a backup every day at 2 am.  Seems that hasn't happened since June of last year.  I clicked the "backup now" button, to no avail.  Tries for a bit then tells me "The last backup did not compete successfully."

What's my next play here?

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I've never trusted imaging programs. I use task scheduler to back up all my important directories to an external HD. Discovered a powerful command called ROBOCOPY /MIR. You can google the syntax. (something like "robocopy c:\dir e:\dir /MIR) (a space before the e: drive) You can set up multiple tasks to run whenever often you want, or you can have one task with multiple robocopy commands. They key to robocopy is that it only updates files that have changed (it MIRrors the directory being backed up). So most of the time, when it runs, the CMD window only appears for a fraction of a second. It doesn't seem to slow down the computer one iota. And it works flawlessly.

Edited by Irish Wrist Watch
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Yeah, I wouldn't trust a Windows backup any further than I could throw the box Windows was installed on.  Irish is on the right path above.  External storage is so cheap these days that it makes sense to use it for your backups.  I assume that you are not only concerned with backing up your data, but also would like to be able to create a "snapshot" of your system for restoring purposes.  Keep in mind that your "snapshot" would have the same vulnerabilities that allowed the ransomware hackers into your system in the first place.  Also keep in mind that the ransomware hackers could just wait until after your scheduled "snapshot" takes place and then you are screwed anyway.  You're probably better off just restoring your data and rebuilding your machine from scratch than trying to restore an image if in fact you do get hacked with ransomware.

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BTW, be careful with Robocopy syntax. If you mirror a directory on your C drive (your hard drive) to a root drive, say your thumb drive, without specifying a directory, it will wipe the thumb drive and simply put the contents of that one directory on it. It's easy to set up a test to make sure you have the syntax right. BTW, I'm willing to bet that most commercial backup programs that you pay for use these native Windows commands.

Edited by Irish Wrist Watch
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