Please.... for your own peace of mind!

[Bob Morgan]

My systems are virus free and all device drivers are up-to-date.

PS: I'm trying to AVOID a reformat, since I don't want to loose my key applications.

 

[Trouble]

Can Acronis help in this situation?

Nope.
All Acronis (or any imaging / backup software) can do is provide you with a strong fall back position should you experience any catastrophic problems, by allowing you to recover your system to a point in time that preceded the event.
Say for instance, given your current situation

past few months I've not been able to upgrade. Getting the 0xc1900101 error code

You decided to use the Media Creation Tool to download the ISO for the latest version / build of Windows 10 and use that ISO to manually perform the upgrade yourself, thereby circumventing the normal Windows Update process.
AND
That decision, for some reason failed and left your system crippled.
You would then be able to boot from the Acronis Rescue Media and recover the disk and all partitions from the image you created in advance of the failed upgrade.

 

[StevenG]

I only use "Macrium Reflect" its the best and safest way to backup and restore (and if you pay for it, then you can also do incremental backups) of your system, this is especially a solution for a total system failure. Its got a built in "Windows PE" feature that can be installed straight into the boot image so and if you lose your USB Windows PE, you can automatically do a system restore (that is and only, if you got a Macrium backup image) and if your system dosen't boot up or fails. This "Windows PE" feature is called "Adding a Boot Menu option for system Image recovery" and it works perfectly with all versions of Windows that you want to restore. See images below of how this looks and you can install it. Cheers and hope this helps.

 

[Jorn Johanesson]

For some years ago, at the time I was in buiesenes and programming, I lost my programming HD with 3 years work. So I leant it the hard way, since then I use Macrium Reflect and have set it to backup once a week. Windows have a habit now and then to rearrange my screen layout in a way I don’t like, so here I am pleased that macrium can restore it back. I have the rescue macrium software on 4 GB memory stick (Bootable) so that I can move it around to all my computers.

I only use "Macrium Reflect" its the best and safest way to backup and restore (and if you pay for it, then you can also do incremental backups) of your system, this is especially a solution for a total system failure. Its got a built in "Windows PE" feature that can be installed straight into the boot image so and if you lose your USB Windows PE, you can automatically do a system restore (that is and only, if you got a Macrium backup image) and if your system dosen't boot up or fails. This "Windows PE" feature is called "Adding a Boot Menu option for system Image recovery" and it works perfectly with all versions of Windows that you want to restore. See images below of how this looks and you can install it. Cheers and hope this helps.

 

[StevenG]

For some years ago, at the time I was in buiesenes and programming, I lost my programming HD with 3 years work. So I leant it the hard way, since then I use Macrium Reflect and have set it to backup once a week. Windows have a habit now and then to rearrange my screen layout in a way I don’t like, so here I am pleased that macrium can restore it back. I have the rescue macrium software on 4 GB memory stick (Bootable) so that I can move it around to all my computers.

Yes so true "Jorn Johanesson" we always learn the hard way as I've done also, but its so easy these days and there is no excuse(s) not to do it! as I found with Macrium Reflect. I've paid for it and its got some great features and its already restored a few systems for me that have crashed, through my restorations and repairs of customers systems. Great program and I recommend it for all.

 

[Jorn Johanesson]

I also use the paid version and it allows me to have the paid version installed on 5 computers with all its facilities in place. The free version allows you to make a full system backup, I use a 500gb HD as backup medie and there is plenty og space to store the 3 full backups of my windows system. I for sure sleep with peace in mind.

 

[Beingdinu]

Getting All my 7 PCs ready for the next one, will be informing the office team as well for that

 

[StevenG]

Nah. I just run regular backups with AOEMI. A disk image on this thing would be way too big for my external drive. And the only PC that's going to see Windows 10 anytime in the near future, is my tablet. There's nothing of significance on that.

But good advice,. A good backup at the very least, is a must.

That might be appropriate for some but, it should not stop anyone from either having an old spinner HDD or purchasing a spinner HDD or even an SDD HDD, which are very cheap these days!

For me, a slave drive e.g. if your boot is (C then a (D slave is the safest and most appropriate way to store your personal files like documents, photos etc, in my case I have an 8 year old laptop and the slave HDD is in the DVD slot, so it works out very conveniently, to have it all in one, which saves all these files and whiteout having to worry about crashes and BSOD's. I use ‘Macrium Reflect v7’ and I also used their embedded ‘Rescue Media PE’ feature, which is in their ‘Other Tasks’ section of their program, which integrates into the boot system of Win-10 and adds a feature called 'Macrium Reflect System Recovery' to your boot menu, this is very handy and convenient, whiteout having to rely on their PE boot type USB, which can be lost or misplaced !

To add this 'Macrium Reflect System Recovery' feature go to ‘Macrium reflect v7’ program, at the top go into Other Tasks>Create Rescue Media>Windows Boot Menu, this will create the 'Macrium Reflect System Recovery' integrated into your boots menu.

I've always back-up my system with the ‘Macrium Reflect v7’ or their previous versions (I've been doing it for the last 10 years) and also always use their feature of ‘Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows’ feature (like 'MyloTcat' has explained above) which can vary in size and it depends on ‘what you have on your (C drive’ in my case it consumes about 95GB, as I only have Win-10 and a few essential programs e.g. antivirus, MS Office, Adobe etc which C: drive is consumed with only 135GB total, which makes your boot drive quicker and more efficient, especially if its an SSD drive! My backup 1TB HDD, which is a spinner HDD that I replaced from my laptop to an SSD HDD so, I can put 9 backups on this HDD. This is the safest and most convenient way to backup/restore your system especially if you have Macrium’s ‘Create a File and Folder backup’ (that you have to pay for) as you will be able to backup all your files and folders as a complete backup, so that you never ever lose anything!

 

[ClippyBeer]

I have also been imaging all my computers for years. Started with Norton Ghost 5 in DOS and moved over to Acronis 2009, 2011, 2017, 2019. I have backed up AND restored Windows XP, 7 and 10 with Acronis.

One of the key advantages is the ability to try different operating systems on your computer. Case in point. I have a Dell Zino HD 400. It came with Windows 7 Home. I wanted to try Lubuntu so I imaged the PC, reformatted the hard drive, and installed Lubuntu 18. I played with it for a few days, installed some apps from repo, but decided I also wanted to try Windows 10. I made an image of Lubuntu with Clonezilla (none of my other imaging utilities were compatible with EXT4), formatted the hard drive and installed Windows 10.

I installed all my favorite software, did some tweaks to improve performance, and imaged it with Acronis.

Just for laughs I formatted the hard drive and restored the Windows 7 image with Acronis. 25 minutes later Windows 7 booted up perfectly with all my software and settings. No hours to re-install OS, drivers, software, updates, etc.

Formatted hard drive again.

Restored Lubuntu with Clonezilla in about 10 minutes. Lubuntu booted up perfectly with all the software that I had installed. Cool.

Formatted hard drive again.

Restore Windows 10 image with Acronis 2017 in about 15 minutes. Windows 10 booted up perfectly, like I never erased it.

Yes you can install any OS in a Virtual Machine but you aren't going to get the same performance as on actual hardware.

Drive imaging allows you to test drive any OS you can install on your computer. If you aren't happy with it restoring from an image is quick and painless.

The time you invest in learning drive imaging is time you will save when having to restore your computer to a working state in the event of a hard drive failure or malware/ransomware.

Incidentally the new version of Macrium 7 free offers cloning/incremental/differential backups. I haven't tried it with Windows 10 yet but have backed AND restored Windows XP and 7 with it.

 

[StevenG]

Macrium Reflect v7 is the best backup especially with the embedded PE pre boot feature, tried EaseUs Todo didnt like it after Macrium. All in all a backup program is a must if you want a quick uninterupted rebuild and boot into your computers pre crash files with no great dramas.

 

[bassfisher6522]

Not me.....I'm old school and do a clean install. However, I do back up my personal data.

 

[Martina Calberg]

I do back up my personal data.

You did a great job.