1st Win10 restore used

Dandytf

Only been a week or two and I've already run Win10 restore point.
When I thought my Lenovo win10 recovery USB was 100% completed last night.
Unfortunately I chose the option to delete the backup data stored on ssd which -failed as it didn't delete any data.
Found my ssd storage was missing quite a few GB's
Tried my computer- seemed like my win10+progs were almost mirrored.
Though some had some progs where other had other progs if that makes sense.
What is the correct backup file to search for in this example?

Gave in and ran win10 restore point which succeeded and got a few GB storage back.

For testing purposes if were to boot from this USB recovery drive -does it immediately start writing files to ssd or can I just boot to 1st screen to establish if my usb recovery is working.

Dandytf

I've answered one of two questions.

Since run usb recovery-thankfully it didn't re write to ssd.
Managed to cancel at beginning at win10 language select settings.
Established I have working Lenovo Recovery usb.

Frozen_up_north

You need an external backup drive and use software such as Acronis True Image to keep a weekly full backup. Don't rely on Windows restore!

There are some free backup programs, Macrium is often mentioned here, but I only have experience of Acronis and find it works very well.

Dandytf

Frozen_up_north wrote: »

You need an external backup drive and use software such as Acronis True Image to keep a weekly full backup. Don't rely on Windows restore!

There are some free backup programs, Macrium is often mentioned here, but I only have experience of Acronis and find it works very well.

Haven't used Acronis for years.
With only 128gb ssd-is there a usb drive with sufficient capacity.
Iv'e been enjoying keeping tech small and portable recently.
Thanks

Edited -lazy Sunday afternoon.

Quick search and 128gb usb drives are affordable approx £40.
If I'de thought I coudl have picked one up rather than the 16gb .
I'll keep Lenovo win10 recovery for time being.

Thanks mser's

that

Not sure if you are aware, but creating a restore point does not backup anything. What is does do is freeze the current blocks from being modified, and writes their position of the clocks to a file.

Initially this does not take up any extra space, but as the blocks change, the original blocks will be kept and the changes will be new blocks referenced by a new pointer. these new blocks take up space.

It is not a backup.

My fave backup software is redo backup, as beside options, has only 2 choices: Backup or Restore - hard to get wrong. No I do not use it myself

Dandytf

that wrote: »

Not sure if you are aware, but creating a restore point does not backup anything. What is does do is freeze the current blocks from being modified, and writes their position of the clocks to a file.

Initially this does not take up any extra space, but as the blocks change, the original blocks will be kept and the changes will be new blocks referenced by a new pointer. these new blocks take up space.

It is not a backup.

My fave backup software is redo backup, as beside options, has only 2 choices: Backup or Restore - hard to get wrong. No I do not use it myself

Thanks the Lenovo restore usb drive I created is a fsctory reset, I don't except to use this unless I plan to sell this laptop.

I'll search redo as I thought other backup software is expensive
Edited
I'll need a backup device, prob purchase 128gb usb for backup next few weeks then try redo or Acronis-though redo seems very inexpensive.

Dandytf

Done a very quick redo search yesterday-whilst it's free .org type backup software

I continue to search brand name alternatives-with Norton security for 1 year
I'm since on 30day trial 1TB cloud backup-only 117gb required.
Slightly disappointed it's going to take +24 hours.
Why Norton are only using 5-9 mb/sec from 40 mb fibre is beyond me.
Anyway I'll have a £25 upgrade option if required 1 year.-with usb backups/restore etc included.
Almost purchased non brand name external ssd via Amazon-didn't go ahead it went up from £51-£60 today-though not the reason-I found £10 Argos voucher today from i3 purchase.
128gb scandisk usb3 drive with voucher £34.99
Almost 100% this could be my backup solution.

grumpycrab

Dandytf wrote: »

Almost purchased non brand name external ssd via Amazon-didn't go ahead it went up from £51-£60 today

Not sure of the merits of an external SSD but may be cheaper to buy a standard SSD via https://www.hotukdeals.com/tag/ssd and USB3 adapter separately.

that

grumpycrab wrote: »

Not sure of the merits of an external SSD but may be cheaper to buy a standard SSD via https://www.hotukdeals.com/tag/ssd and USB3 adapter separately.

I more or less did this but had a spare ssd usb. Go to amazon and buy the usb 3.1 sata adaptor. make sure it is the 3.1 as they are about twice as fast as 3.0. 3.2 adaptors have the new plug style - the reversible one.

On a good day on a newish machine I top out at over 230Mb/s. Funny enough with a new SSD drive, on the first use throughput was abysmal, less than traditional disk. This has happened on 2 out of 2 different bands and sizes of ssd drives.

Frozen_up_north

I use a 3TB external HDD for backup. A full backup (circa 25GB of data on most of my kit) only takes a few minutes. IMO having only a small drive (SSD or HDD) for backup is hardly worth the effort.

I have backups of the original builds and a weekly backup of a couple of laptops in addition to my desktop PC, etc. Be careful over incremental backups, if one early one is corrupt you could have to go back a long way to restore... I only do full backups as storage is cheap these days.

Dandytf

Thanks mser's
My silliness I deleted Lenovo recovery from usb drive which could restore laptop to factory settings if and when required.
E-chat since pointed me to £35 usb drive with recovery-should I choose to purchase.
At this stage I have some options-
Purchase Acornis £25-35 approx
Purchase 128gb usb drive £25 including voucher via Argos
Purchase Lenovo recovery usb-win10+drivers recovery £35

Edited I think I'll avoid hdd or ssd at leat this year-I use very little storage.