System Backup

We had a thread about backing up your data and I noted there that backing up your OS and associated software is just as important. I had some issues recently with my Samsung EVO 250GB SSD and yesterday it completely bit the dust, and this is only after less than five months of use. I always maintain a son, father, grandfather set of drives in order to always have a known good OS available, should anything go awry with the main drive. I use Paragon Hard Disk Manager to maintain the drives and what I do is maintain the usual updates etc with the 'son' drive, which is the active C: drive and when I know that any new updates or other additions are fine (usually a couple of weeks), I then overwrite the OS to the 'father' drive and leave the 'grandfather' drive alone. On subsequent updates etc to the 'son' drive, I repeat the process, but before doing that, I overwrite the 'grandfather' drive with the 'father' drive, so I have a know good OS available.

What this means is that no matter what happens to the main drive, I have a fully working OS available at all times, with only a small difference in status level, which is usually easy to manage. I also keep a separate set of all installed software and related information externally, such as activation codes, passwords etc, so that if anything needs to be reinstalled, I have everything at hand. This has saved my bacon a number of time over the years. Anyway, after the drive died, I tired to resurrect it several times, wiping the drive entirely and trying a new OS migration and no joy. So I called Samsung and explained the situation and after they checked with whoever, I was told that I had done all the correct things and that they would replace the drive. I'm happy with that.

What does bug me is that my HDDs are around 4+ years old now and still seem to be working fine, yet an SSD that's not even five months old has bitten the dust. It may just be Murphy doing his dirty work, but it does make one wonder about the actual reliability of today's latest technology. I did read that there were some firmware issues with the pre-production models (sent to reviewers), but mine was well past that date. I also have a Samsung 830 SSD in my tablet and it's been working fine for quite some time.

At the end of the day, it's good to worry about backing up your data, but also consider backing up your OS, for if it fails, you could be in a world of hurt trying to restore your PC to a useable state. You could also end up losing valuable/vital information, as things such as your saved emails will likely disappear as well. A lot of stuff that you don't think of is stored in your C: drive, but when you lose it, you will realise their importance. HDD are pretty cheap nowadays and all you need is a HHD dock and some software and you can maintain safe backups at all times.

 

Paragon makes backups just as easy, it's just a matter of doing them that's important.

 

I was using Acronis until I discover Paragon, I find the latter a lot easier to use, but both do much the same job.