W7 - Backup plus clone. How does this plan sound?

[pc-twitchy]

My intention is to:

a) First, clone my C (system) drive to an external USB drive. This will quickly provide a 'last resort' backup.
b) Then, I'll image my C drive, again to an external drive, and set it to do periodic incrementals.

My question: I thought of using Macrium or Acronis for the job. Paid versions. I assume they're capable of also creating bootable media to effect an image-type recovery.

Anyone used these apps? Or have better choices of software?

Thanks

 

[Doctor Rob]

I have and use acronis and it works for me nicely.. I have used it a few times to restore files I deleted off an SSD in the past.. and also of course as backup (auto to an external RAID array) (with my windows 10 system). I have also done a bare metal restore a few times with it or migrating to a different SSD or HDD a few times and its always worked for me (older systems I have used it with when I was on XP and Windows Vista / 7 I had to also load a driver on loading the image to a new drive if the new motherboard didn't have the drivers for the SATA stuff built into the program but that was easy.. load the driver on an USB drive and then setup and you are good to go with your old system on a fixed / new computer.

 

[USAFRet]

My intention is to:

a) First, clone my C (system) drive to an external USB drive. This will quickly provide a 'last resort' backup.
b) Then, I'll image my C drive, again to an external drive, and set it to do periodic incrementals.

My question: I thought of using Macrium or Acronis for the job. Paid versions. I assume they're capable of also creating bootable media to effect an image-type recovery.

Anyone used these apps? Or have better choices of software?

Thanks

I use Macrium exclusively.
http/www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3383768/backup-situation-home.html

Your "Step a"..."clone to an external"...is not necessary. That doesn't need a fulle 'clone'.

You can just do a Full Image, then a series of Incremental or Differential.Then another Full...repeat as many iterations as you have drive space.
On one or more externals.
And you also create a Macrium Rescue CD or USB, and store that away.

In case of need, boot from that Rescue, and tell it which Image to use, and which drive to apply it to.

And the Free Macrium will do this easily.
I have the paid version on my main system, and Free on all my others.

 

[pc-twitchy]

Thanks, Dr.Rob:
So Acronis would do exactly what I want, then?

Thanks also, USAFRet. Yeah, I know the clone isn't really necessary, but it straightaway gives me a reliable emergency backup option if imaging doesn't work. There are more things that can go wrong with imaging than cloning - worst is being unable to restore the image.
I'm not saying I won't image, just that cloning, in my experience, is a rock-solid backup method. Obviously, you can't do incremental clones, but that's not a big disadvantage.
BTW, it's not uncommon for many users to make an image-style backup and never test it Still, it offers peace of mind. Like home insurance, LOL. You never know what your insurance DOESN'T cover until you make a claim.

Thanks again to both of you. It sounds like either program will do what I want.

 

[USAFRet]

Yes, no matter how you do it, you must test it.

I've test recovered my system from a Full image, or a Full + Incremental.
Also, recovered a single file from an image, either Full or Incremental. Just to see if it works.