How does Jow Forums prefer to backup non-system files/drives on Windows?
The goal is to create an offline back-up of an entire drive. The system isn't installed on this drive. Options I currently recognize:
>Third party proprietary cloning software such as Acronis and Macrium
I'm unsure about this route due to vendor lock-in and proprietary file formats that are not ubiquitous. Could be annoying having to restore the backup if access to the program is somehow lost. I'm also not sure if I want to pay for something I can do for free or how well these programs work in comparison.
>Windows Image Backup
Creating an image makes a .VHD file which as far as I'm aware isn't compressed. This also doesn't seem suitable for non-system backups as the imaging is not file based.
>Windows Backup and Restore
This does compress the files but it seems to be rather slow and not suitable for large amounts of data.
>Windows DISM or ImageX
Creates a .WIM file which is file based and also supports automatic verification of the data, something I'm not sure even some third party options support. Free, seems to be fast. File format is proprietary and I'm not sure if all third party options allow easy restoration from these files. Restoration may require DISM.
>File archivers like 7-zip
This is the poor and lazy man's way of backing up. Relatively straightforward, no long installation process required, no need to learn commands. Can have a high amount of compression. The only issue I see with this is that it doesn't support verification/validation of the data, so no way to make sure the backup was copied correctly.
