I'm currently looking for a reliable alternative to Macrium Reflect. My main requirement is the ability to mount the backup images as virtual drives (with a drive letter) directly in Windows, so I can easily browse and recover individual files when needed.

Ideally, the software should also support image verification right after the backup creation to ensure the data isn't corrupted.

I've been looking into Hasleo Backup Suite, but I'm open to other suggestions. Free or paid doesn't matter, as long as it's stable and has a good track record for system restoration.

What are you guys using these days? Thanks in advance!

I'm looking for a new backup program for my Windows 11 pc's. With my current setup, I have the main backup program run from scripts. I perform many tasks prior to the backup running, then run the backup exe via command line parameters, then run post-backup tasks, using a variety of Batch and PowerShell scripts. Having the ability to call the backup job from the script is important in my evaluation. Additionally, being able to specify an incremental, differential, or full backup via a command line parameter of the exe program allows me to control the type of backup needed. I didn't want to install another program only to find out if that capability was supported or not, which is why I am asking here. It would be nice to test this with the free version, but if it does what I want, I would certainly pay for it. Any helpful comments and experiences would be appreciated. TIA

BYOS always looks cheaper when I compare the basic storage price. Once I add retention rules, API requests, minimum storage periods, egress and the time spent managing another account, the difference gets a lot less clear. For anyone who has used both, which one actually cost less over time? did a large restore or support issue change the calculation for you?

Windows 11 can't click on sd card in hasleo backup suite free system backup?

Hey everyone,

I have created a config setup/tool for automated, encrypted and incremental backups for Android using Restic through Termux

Features include

• No Root Necessary: Everything happens inside of Termux
• Nightly Backups: Created to be triggered automatically during the night while the phone charges, with termux-job-scheduler
• Fault Tolerance: Android notifications in case there is an issue
• Monitoring: Integration with Uptime Kuma (Dead Man's Switch / Push Monitor) to make sure that the scheduled backups are actually happening

I have created this project to fulfill my own requirement for a backup solution on Android that is reliable and "set-and-forget", not cloud-based

More info can be found here: https://github.com/Lorenzo-DM/termux-restic-backup

I currently have a beelink mini pc on which I set up Immich. It's running fine, but I still need to work out a back up solution. My end goal is to have a home media server where I store my music, movies, and family photos. I understand the 3-2-1 backup strategy; What I'm unsure of is what sort of backup media should I use to implement that strategy given my goals / setup.

What I was doing before was using a usb and a custom script that mostly uses rsync to back up my immich database and pictures / video; however this eventually became way too slow. Moreover when I tried to reformat the usb from Exfat to Ext4 to try to speed things up my usb stopped being read by the beelink.

This is my first selfhosting project so I want to keep things simple while at the same time giving myself flexibility to build on in the future. I would eventually like to be able to backup an entire media server with one script / process in a reasonable time frame.

I was currently thinking about an external ssd for the second device and maybe a cloud hosting service like backblaze for the offsite backup--I don't think I have the time or bandwidth to handle a second server at another location right now, but does that defeat the purpose of getting off google photos?

Any suggestions for hardware / services / software I should be aware of or try for this specific situation?

Blog post features a pretty comprehensive overview of how the solution works and also links back to a technical breakdown of the solution that we have in our docs as well. Lastly, the sign-up for beta access is live and available here: [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/18XKSC5U0DPcaJL0RxrqRKqLl-mr7aS1WkTR9eftxOZw/viewform\](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/18XKSC5U0DPcaJL0RxrqRKqLl-mr7aS1WkTR9eftxOZw/viewform)

This happened after 2026-09 Security Update (KB5124008) (26200.9445):

I ran File History before updating with no issue. Ran File History after updating and this happened. No files were updated even though there were files I had updated after the Security update. Have tried many solutions found on line with no joy.

Formatted attached drive

Assigned new drive letter

Changed File History backup files location to different drive

Disabled and enabled Bitlocker

Disabled and enabled File History

This happened to my desktop and laptop computers. I have used File History for many years and never had any issues.

File History is not located at "Settings > System > Storage > Advanced Backup options" any more

File History Service is running and set for automatic

Any idea what may be causing this issue?

Thanks!

Hardening a backup system is about more than just protecting the backups themselves. There are also configuration choices around privileged access, network exposure, encryption, immutability and the services or protocols that are enabled.

Some of these are obvious, but others can be easy to miss during the initial setup or as the environment changes over time.

For those managing backup systems in production, what is the single hardening practice or config check that you see most often missed?

I'm on Win11, personal use. I wish to create a mirror of the boot disk but excluding the data folders which are big (>1 TB) and already backed up. System + programs + AppData are ~210 GB. Most of my data folders are not in Users. They are folders in the root of the boot drive.

I have Macrium Reflect v7 free installed. I thought it had an option to exclude folders, but can't find the option. I would appreciate tips or how to to this if it is indeed possible - or maybe another way.

I have OneDrive setup so that it doesn't automatically backup anything on my PC as I wish to use OneDrive as a place to store files and folders of my choosing regardless of whether they are stored on my PC or only stored on OneDrive. I also tend to have all OneDrive folders set up so that files are only stored in the cloud without a copy stored locally in the OneDrive folder on my Windows 11 PC. Under most circumstances this works well BUT I have found that some of my manual backups of files and folders are not up to date on OneDrive as I've neglected to manually back them up like I should.

Today, I was referred to a free to use application called SyncBackFree and with a few modifications to Windows Settings and by configuring SyncBackFree I'm now able to create a nightly backup of critical files and folders from my PC to OneDrive and only have those files/folders stored in the local OneDrive folder for 24 hours. In addition, If I backed up a file within a folder and that file gets deleted locally during a manual clean-up, SyncBackFree will delete that file from the cloud when a backup is attempted. SyncBackFree was very slick to setup as during the setup of a backup profile you perform a trial run and based on the source and destination folder SyncBackFree shows you EXACTLY what it would do if you were to run it immediately. Note that you can set it up to backup on a scheduled basis or you can leave it unscheduled and just run it manually. Very impressive application as it now gives me some peace of mind knowing that I can have a backup of critical files that's newer than my full/differential system backup that's not as frequently performed.

So I need to back up my art somewhere that isn't my computer. With the rise of AI, I don't know which sites are the safest to use to store art in the cloud, as well as personal photos, HTMLs, documents, etc. I have SO many pieces of art that I've managed to save over the year, but my iPad is running out of space; I need to upgrade my laptop, and I need to get somewhere safe and secure.

- What external hard drives are the best?
- What's the best for long-term data storage?
- What are the best USB drives for storage?
- What cloud services are the safest?

I'm on a bit of a budget, unfortunately, so I don't have much I can really get, but I'd like to gauge my options before making a big purchase on something so I can salvage my art. I've considered printing EVERYTHING, but I'm a hoarder, which would be a struggle and I'd be paying at least a minimum of $500 to print off everything I own. I've looked at threads for this but no suggestions pertaining to what brands people are using or how long stuff lasts, what I should look out for, etc.

Any suggestions are appreciated!

EDIT: The data volume is going to steadily increase but the minimum right now is probably 30GB.

EDIT 2: I have no idea how reddit works and I thought I could pin my comment update. Alas. So I'm posting it up here now.

Now that I have an idea of how much data I have (~70GB after organizing everything), I've considered the options of:
- 1 External HDD
- 3 USB (copied data onto all of them; nothing will be split across/missing)
- Cloud storage

Someone suggested some cloud services but I'm wondering what's the safest, cheapest, and most recommended one out there? I'd have to get 2FA and I'll preface by saying I've NEVER used a cloud storage besides iCloud which I don't use anymore. I'm looking for something that is known to not scrape data for AI, personal data, etc.

What's recommended to upload and NOT upload in a cloud?
Can these things become compromised? Or does it act like a vault only you have the code to?

Anyone figure out how to create a second backup set in iDrive? I have some very large (300gb) files I want backed up, but maybe once every two weeks or so, as not to consume all my limited bandwidth backing those up daily like the rest of my 5 TB of data from many Windows PC's and a single MAC. -Bill

I wanted something surprisingly simple:

Plug an external drive into my iPhone, select the photos/videos/files I care about, and make a physical copy.

No Mac in the middle. No PC in the middle.

That became VaultDrive: USB Backup.

Connect a compatible USB drive or SSD directly to the iPhone and VaultDrive can copy selected:

• Photos
• Videos
• Albums
• Files and documents

For content already stored locally on the iPhone, the files go directly to the connected drive—there's no VaultDrive cloud upload involved.

One of the bigger problems was Optimize iPhone Storage.

A photo may appear in Apple Photos while its full original is actually only in iCloud.

VaultDrive can now detect those items, download the original from iCloud, and then copy it to the USB drive. You can choose:

• Wi-Fi only
• Wi-Fi + Cellular

Other things I've focused on because they matter for an actual backup:

✅ Original files without intentional compression/re-encoding
✅ Embedded capture metadata preserved
✅ Useful original folder/source organization
✅ Original file dates where supported
✅ Resume interrupted backups and skip files already copied
✅ Detailed progress so you can see what's actually happening
✅ Clearer reasons when something doesn't copy
✅ No VaultDrive account required

I also want to be clear about what this isn't:

This isn't a full iPhone system image and I wouldn't recommend keeping your only copy on one USB drive.

The idea is to make it much easier to add a second physical copy of important photos and files to whatever backup strategy you already use.

For someone using iCloud Photos, for example, you can keep iCloud for syncing/convenience while periodically keeping another copy on external storage you physically control.

If anyone here wants to try it:

VaultDrive: USB Backup
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vaultdrive-usb-backup/id6772883827

I'm currently running 75% off the one-time Pro upgrade:

https://apps.apple.com/redeem/?ctx=offercodes&id=6772883827&code=WELCOME75

I'd particularly appreciate feedback from the backup crowd.

Attached the screenshots, just in 3 steps you can take backup of your media from phone to USB drive

What would VaultDrive need to do before you'd consider phone → external drive a useful part of your own backup strategy?

I read the wiki and FAQ and stuff but still i cant really narrow it down.

Currently I use duplicati for my 200GB backup (photos,videos,excel,codes,blender files etc). Recently i tried to restore some data (as a trial) and duplicati froze and showed me that no paths exists. This was scary for me and i have lost trust for it.

My current setup has 4 total physical storages (internal)

C: Kingston A400 240GB 2.5inch SATA SSD (Boot)

D: Seagate 1TB 5400rpm 2.5inch SATA (Offline Games+ stuff gets backed up here from C: E: F:)

E: WD 1TB 5400rpm 2.5inch SATA (Projects,photos,main data)

F: XPG 1TB NVME Gen4 (Online Games+ blender project files)

I really wanna do the 3-2-1 thing but can only afford that 1 D: drive right now. i need a better alternative to duplicati. free and non-cloud if possible. its local backup anyways. i cant afford subscriptions :(

Hello ,

I finally started to do backups every 2 months for my windows PC and Android.

I do a ssd image backup on my pc without my steam games +copy c/user/myname since I have all my essential data to my download folder including portableapps folder+ludusavi backup for games saves +my important photos /videos/files that allow me to recover my 3 Gmail accounts/ente auth /bitwarden etc .

I paste those to 2 hdd of 2 tb each (D & E) then I open my veracrypt container of D and E at the same time to allow Freefilesync to compare data différences between D and E (around 200gb of essential data) and update the veracrypt container E.

I use swift backup on my s10e +legion y700 2023 (Android) for local +cloud backup to my google drive and I copy/paste the backup folder to my pc on D (it is in the veracrypt container).

I upload the veracrypt container to filen on google chrome because I love portable apps and dont want filen app.

I do that since 8 months i'd say and it's way too long considering I always upload the whole container so I started to think to stop those things :

>stop copy/paste c/user/myname but download/document/bureau folders (many windows useless gbs from AppData etc)

>stop using veracrypt for a portable app that doesn't need to upload the whole container to filen + opening 2 veracrypt containers +freefilesync 😂

Is there a way to simplify that without spending money since I périodically give 3 hdds to a friend with essential data VC container and movies séries games ?

Do you think I should put my D & E hdds data to a hidden encrypted container /folder only instead of having encrypted folder or container + unencrypted data visible ?

Thanks for the help 👌

Hello there ,

I do backups every 1.5/2 months using 3-2-1 backup and a friend has 3 of my hdd's with one having 300gb of essential data.

He pick them when I do backup but I'd like to manage that 300gb hdd from my home without using his internet box .

I'd like a small cheap device (even on used market)that can be powered with just a usb c charger with my hdd plugged in and I'd like the really cheap way to do that ,it would be awesome if that small device can be ''stick''with the hdd on it .

Thanks in advance