A Security measure to protect your data and your computer-- Back up your computer!
Always backup your computer because in the case of mishaps or accidents you will have a copy of your data intact and you won't be at a loss.
I recommend cloning your Windows PC.
In an earlier post I recommended Drive Clone 11 by Farstone Technology, Inc. Well, they updated the program and it is now at version 11.10 and supports Windows 10.
It is free for personal use.
Backing up data is basically copying your data on your computer to a destination drive such as an external hard drive or SSD or usb flash drive.
You can manually drag and drop the files into your destination drive or save files to the cloud or use backup software built into Windows 10, such as Windows Backup- just search for it and it is in the Control Panel and run it.
But I find Cloning is the best method of backing up.
Cloning your PC is like backing up -- the cloning software will make an exact bootable copy of your hard drive boot disk onto the destination drive, so if your hard drive fails, you have a bootable copy on another drive and can use that cloned drive to continue working.
Drive Clone 11.10 is a good program for migrating your cloned PC hard drive to an SSD. It will defrag while cloning!
I recommended it to my relatives, friends and clients. I personally used this on clients' PCs.
Drive Clone 11.10 Free Edition Features
Download link:
http://www.farstone.us/download/DriveClone/DCFree-11-GM-ML-20141022.exeBackup/Cloning Software I personally use and recommend for Mac:Carbon Copy Cloner
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-clonerMakes bootable clone of your Mac OS X Partition and can make an image file of your Macintosh HD if you choose.
It is $39.99 but definitely well worth the cost.
The current version is 4.0.3 and requires Mac OS X 10.8 and up.
And for Bootcamp
WinClone
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/25932/wincloneClones your Windows Bootcamp Partition From Mac OS X and can be made to boot on an external HD. It can make bootable clone or backed up into a image file. Plays well with Mac OS X and Macs.
It is $29.99.
The older version is version 4 and requires Mac OS X 10.7 and up.
The current version is version 5.5 and requires Mac OS X 10.8 and up.
More Info:
Winclone allows you to clone your Boot Camp partition. It also includes Windows 7 and 8.1 cloning!
Winclone 5 is the most complete solution for protecting your Boot Camp Windows system against data loss. Winclone is the most reliable cloning solution when migrating Boot Camp to a new Mac. The all new Winclone Backup feature provides scheduled, incremental snapshots of your files so you can retrieve earlier versions or accidentally deleted data. Winclone Backup is included with every edition of Winclone 5.
Winclone 5 Pro includes a package installer for managed deployment of Boot Camp to multiple Macs. Winclone packages can be deployed using all the Mac management tools available today. If you can deploy a package, you can deploy a Boot Camp partition.
Features:
- Clone Windows 7 (64-bit only) or 8.1 with ease.
- Clone to your Boot Camp partition either on a separate drive or on the same that contains your OS X partition.
- Creates image documents that can be stored on any media and double-clicked to open in Winclone.
- Verbose logging so you know what is going on.
- Built on the open source
ntfstools, which are included in Winclone, so you don't have to install anything else. - Fast: Restore a 10 GB image in less than 10 minutes.
- Create a Boot Camp partition from within Winclone.
- Do it all from the boot drive: You don't need to boot from a Firewire drive to clone the Windows partition.
- Clean, uncomplicated, and updated user interface
- Support for OS X Core Storage volumes
- Performance optimizations
- Winclone Backup feature for scheduled, incremental backup of Boot Camp user files
- Winclone Basic and Pro editions also available
What's New
Version 5.0: - Winclone Backup feature added
- Winclone Basic edition now offered
- Support for OS X Core Storage Volumes added
- Performance optimizations
- Updated user interface
- Intel
- OS X 10.8 or later
- Windows 7 (64-bit) or 8.1
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It is always good to backup your computer in case of data loss from computer failure mishaps, etc.
Have peace of mind.
