Advice Request Looking for backup software with specific options

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yarr

yarr

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Jul 5, 2018
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I'm looking for a program that can create a mirror image of my current Windows 10 Pro installation, not only the system files and settings but the file and folder contents as well. I'd like to reformat my PC and start fresh but be able to load into the old backup virtually so I can sort through the mess I made of this installation and transfer the things I would like to keep. Things like unsorted downloads or programs I never got around to testing, bookmarks etc.. I am having trouble finding something myself (I think i may just not know what to call it when i'm googling) Any answers or a nudge in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read my post. You all have a great day.

Kind Regards,
yarr

(sorry if my post would have been better suited for rollback and virtualization I have just never had a want or need for backing up before but now I think it's a must for me)
 
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Yep try marcium reflect. It can do exactly what you need even in the free version. You mount the backup and you can browse it.
 
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I often use Macrium Reflect to retrieve old files, by mounting a system image, like the people said.
With the paid version, you can even boot a system image, i.e., you can use it like a virtual machine.

If you are just going to mount an old system image, remember before you nuke your current system to export all the settings you need from your softwares. If the settings are stored in config files, and you know where, you can always retrieve them from the mounted image. But often, the settings are stored in registry, so you need to export to a file if you want to reuse that kind of settings.
 
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I had a lot of fun playing around with reflect last night. @shmu26 Thanks for the tip! What did you have to select in order to create such a backup? The one I made seems to be more like the backups that are created through Windows Backup & Restore. I made sure to select the VM options while installing Macrium Reflect so I know I am doing something wrong
 
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Well, if you want to image your C drive, choose "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows."
If you want to include other drives, choose "Image selected disks..."
 
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shmu26 said:
Well, if you want to image your C drive, choose "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows."
If you want to include other drives, choose "Image selected disks..."
Click to expand...
ok thank you! I did that so I guess i'm on the right track. Thank you to everyone in this thread. You have been so helpful and I feel so much better about backing up now!

Kind Regards,
yarr
 
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If you are going to use Marcrium, you should get a usb hard drive or stick and make that bootable with Marcrium.
 
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You can also add the Macrium recovery environment to the boot options, so you can boot directly into it, without need to go looking for your flash drive.
 
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