Windows 7 forum: general backup question

I suggest you get away from the Windows backup program and get yourself a good commercial backup program. I've seen forums fraught with problem reports for the Windows one. I know I was very unimpressed when I tried it. Three I'm familiar with and like are Norton Ghost (which I've been using for 8 years without the 1st problem), Easeus Todo Backup Free, which you can download from http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/free-backup-software.htm and Memeo which has a 30 day free trial and you can buy it for $29.99 - you can download it from http://memeo.com . You can get Ghost for next to nothing (like I did) if you watch the sales.
The March 2012 issue of PC World was very high on the FREE program from Easeus and so is CNET. In my experience with a variety of configurations I have to say I'm very impressed. Like Ghost it will back up to a networked drive, and it will create a boot CD for when your PC won't boot. See CNET's review of it at
http://download.cnet.com/Easeus-Todo-Backup-Free/3000-2242_4-10964460.html?tag=mncol;1#editorsreview .
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CNET has a lot of backup program reviews at
http://download.cnet.com/windows/backup-software/?tag=contentBody;sideBar .

Some of these are free (last time I checked there were over 300), some have free trials (over 1000), and some are purchase only (over 200).
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External hard drives are best for backup. You can get a 500 GB one for around $60 and a 1 TB one for around $70. You can also buy a 32 GB flash drive for under $15. It's the best insurance you can ever buy!

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I hope this helps. Good luck

Do not rely on those MSFT backup apps. MSFT keeps trying but it's not reliable enough (well, maybe 99.99%) and even at 99.99% of the time you get the message the day you can't get your files back for any of the old or new reasons.

Look at the ideas put out there and consider simpler SYNC apps such as SyncBack or similar since those save a copy of your files as-is without any proprietary touches or handcuffs.
Bob

either in a aluminum case that connects to with 2 USB as an external hard drive, uner How To above. I have that and another option, I have an extender for four extra USB slots already. I will be buying A WD 500GB hard drive and the SATA conectors cost $10. The best part is I can delete the recovery section(D:) and that 2nd drive will be D: - I found one that is perfect! 01/03/13, it is a done deal. that means EVERYTHING on (C:) will be backed up completely on D: Any updates on C: willl have to be added to D: I have NERO Multimedia 12 Suite an it has BackItUp or restore from Backup. Darrell