Hi, 

I'm on my third sim now (P3d), because I was having CTD issues with FSX boxed and Steam.  At one point, I wasn't getting CTD's with FSX, so I created a restore point called, "FSX Working Great" that I could go back to if I ran into issues.  Unfortunately, because Microsoft deletes backups older than 90 days, it totally wiped out that restore point!  I haven't had crashes with P3d, and I'd like to figure out how to back up my system in case it doesn't work.  Is there any type of workaround for the 90 day limit, or should I just back it up on an external hard drive where I can go back to it if needed?  

Regards,

Kevin Davis 

External back up. While you are at it back up W10 as well, then you have everything you need to restore your sim.

 

Ian Harrison

You're much better served by using third-party backup software that creates an image of the drive(s) rather than the System restore feature.  I use O&O DiskImage, others out there include Acronis, Macrium etc.

This gives you a full block-by-block snapshot of a working system that you can fall back to.

Regards

 

3 hours ago, w6kd said:

You're much better served by using third-party backup software that creates an image of the drive(s) rather than the System restore feature.  I use O&O DiskImage, others out there include Acronis, Macrium etc.

This gives you a full block-by-block snapshot of a working system that you can fall back to.

Regards

 

Bob, how easy is O&O to use? I had Acronis but have not used it with my new build as I didn't really care for it. Even when not in use, it still had 5 background processes running all the time. UI was not user friendly either. 

4 hours ago, w6kd said:

You're much better served by using third-party backup software that creates an image of the drive(s) rather than the System restore feature.

OP didn't specify if he has a second drive to back-up images to?  Having one is well worth the price (a 1TB spinner can be had for as little as $40.00US).  AOMEI Backupper (freeware) is a good option... https://www.backup-utility.com/download.html

So easy to use even my wife can do it!

Greg

Try Blackblaze.  I've been using it for several years.  I works great, places very little overhead on the system and is relativity in expensive.

 

Jim Driskell

I backup FSX-Steam frequently on My Book with three terabytes, which Iv'e had  for more than five years.  It's a really simple external drive to use, and is not subject to any Win 10 update intrusions.   The newer My Books go all the way up to at least 10 TB's.

  

8 hours ago, B777ER said:

Bob, how easy is O&O to use? I had Acronis but have not used it with my new build as I didn't really care for it. Even when not in use, it still had 5 background processes running all the time. UI was not user friendly either. 

I think O&O Diskimage is relatively straightforward.  When getting it set up, it's important to create a bootable recovery medium (CD or USB drive) to use if your boot drive needs to be recovered on an unbootable system (e.g. boot disk crash), and that was the only (minor and one-time) hassle.  I use it with a USB3 Thermaltake BlacX external dock and a 10TB Seagate Barracuda Pro HDD...holds about 320MB/s transfer rates.

Regards

Been using Macrium Reflex for years. It has saved me more  than once. One time a hard drive crashed, went to Best Buys, bought a Brand New HD, up and running with everything in about 1 hour. 

 

+1 for Macrium. Easy to use and worth getting the paid version for the extra options. I used Acronis in the past but the one time I needed to restore my system, it wouldn't recognise its own backup files! Once bitten, twice shy. It's worth noting also that System Restore will not usually restore config files which live in the Documents folder, it only restores apps and Windows files, not any content created by them.

On 7/2/2019 at 7:31 AM, vortex681 said:

+1 for Macrium. Easy to use and worth getting the paid version for the extra options

On a pc only used for flight sim what are the extra options used for?

13 hours ago, reecemj said:

On a pc only used for flight sim what are the extra options used for?

The free version only allows full and differential backups (the difference between the last full backup and the current state) - to restore, you need just the full backup and the latest differential backup. The paid version also allows incremental backups - after the initial full backup, each subsequent backup contains just the changes since the last incremental backup (so much faster). The drawback is that if you need to restore your system, you need the initial full backup and all of the incremental backups. The paid version also allows you to just backup individual folders and files. All backups can be scheduled so you could have a system backup once a week and a folder or file backup daily.

Although the paid version is obviously more flexible, if your system is just used for flight simming, the free version will probably be all you need. The differential backup should be small (unless you install a lot of big add-ons between backups) - it usually only takes about 15 minutes for a differential backup on my general-use system.

See: https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

Edited July 9, 20196 yr by vortex681

Thanks I have the paid version. I wanted to know how you use macrium. I have learned a lot from reading your posts over the years here.

Nice to know, thanks! I just schedule a differential backup once a week on a Monday evening to have a fallback just in case the Tuesday MS updates affect my system (hasn't happened yet, though).

Edited July 10, 20196 yr by vortex681

Here is an article about Windows 10 Backup & Restore, I did it in the same way and everything worked perfect.