BART: make complete drive backup

Hello,

I searched for but did not find a topic similar to this:

Can BART do a mirror backup of an entire SSD (or HDD)? This function would be great to create a drop in replacement SSD in case of catastrophic failure of a primary SSD. I use a notebook for various offsite projects (various countries) so it would be great if one could do a scheduled backup say every 2 to 3 days to provide a recovery in case of HDD failure at the customer.

Thanks!

It will not work for a complete system disk image and also if you want to set the system back you also need the small partition created by the win installation . You need a program that can use the windows volume shadow copy service to copy changing or locked system files .

Unfortunately most third party vendors have removed their free lite versions and offer only free trial 30 days . Easus is the only one that i know ( and use ) to still have a free ( slower ) version of its image backup software . But most prices for this kind of disk imaging are around 80-100€ so i think it is worth that for a peace of mind . Some vendors only offer a subscription which is terrible imo . Macrium still has still one you can still buy and own for around 80€ .

There is still a build-in backup imaging app in win10-win11 that uses the old win7 code but it is a pain to use when you are in panic mode and you cannot mount the image file as a drive for single file restoring !

This backup is critical so best to choose carefully and test it out before relying on it . There are open source solutions but i never tried them and with win11 update you never know what changes you get so you need a reliable app with updates if needed .

I use the free Easus one for many years now and its good and very easy to use , only it has the stigma of a chinese compagnie but i never see a bad review about it and before this obsession with chinese owned compagnies it had a very good reputation .

Like guest_today says, Bart won't make a block-level backup of a drive, which will capture everything about it and on it, including files and also making it bootable.  However, I'd suggest that in 2024 it's easier all the time to not need that.

Yes, you need a backup of your data files, either with something like Bart or OneDrive, but if my SSD blew up I'd sigh, then reinstall the software from scratch, and then copy the files back on from where I've copied them using Bart.  I do use OneDrive as well, but Bart is how I back up my day to day work.

It's not what you ask for, but if you carry a copy of all the data files, and a USB stick with the Windows install media on it, then if you suffer from a drive failure, you could buy a replacement SSD wherever you were, then boot from USB to install Windows, get online, re-install your apps, copy on your data and you're done.

...but that's not what you asked for, is it

Tom