Setting up & Restoring Registry Backups using Tweaking.com

[skargas]

HI Shane,
I recently started using Windows All in One as a Newbie and I totally love it!  It repaired my wife's computer very easily!  I am writing to ask your advice with regards to my new computer.  I recently purchased a new PC that runs Windows 8.1 Pro, using 3 GHz, i7, 64 bits computer with an SSD drive.  I installed Malwarebytes Endpoint Security and also use Bitdefender Antivirus with no problems (I had to add Exclusions into both programs to make them work).   Using your Tweaking program now, I am backing up my registry manually quite regularly (all 6 files) as well as my User Registry files (all 6 files) using Volume shadow copy under a System acct.  I am saving the Backups in the default location specified in the C-drive AND also on a Thumb drive for convenience (in the event of an emergency restore is needed).   

My questions have to do with the following:
--Will the backups I am creating restore ALL my files (Windows and my documents and data and photos), or do I have to save my personal files separately as an Image ISO file (which program do you recommend that works well and is easy to use), or back them up into the cloud, or external device, for example?   (I was told by my IT friends that Windows image copy is not a reliable program and I should not use it…)

--If I have to do an emergent restore, how do I do it?   Should I boot up in Safe Mode using my Thumb Drive (which contains all my backups), and run the dos_restore.cmd file?  Will that restore all my files from the Thumb Drive automatically?   Or do I have to paste the latest backup into the ROOT (which I do not know exactly where that is located), and then reboot?   I looked at your You Tube videos but these questions arose in my mind (my Newbie knowledge base).

--I also just created a "Windows Recovery Folder" of about 250 MB on a separate Thumb Drive with Utilities on it but am not certain how it integrates with my Registry Backups.  I wanted to ask you about that too. 

--For redundancy, incidentally, I did sign up with CrashPlan into the Cloud and would like to backup all my Personal files there (as well as all my Windows program files too -- if you think that would be a good idea?), but have not set that up yet – pending your suggestions and advice.

I am looking forward to hearing your expert opinion! 

Best Regards,

Steve

[Samson]

I use Macrium Reflect (free) to create disk images of all my machines to external HDDs. It is easy to use, well supported, free and reliable.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/macrium_reflect_free_edition.html

[Shane]

There are so many backup programs out there that it is hard to say which is the best to use.

I am a power user and I do things differently. I have over 300 GB of data I keep backed up. I do NOT do full system images because of the size and time. I only backup what I cant replace. I can reinstall windows and my programs, but I cant replace my code and personal files. So I only back those up.

My registry backup I use as well. 90% of the programs in Windows are normally registry related, so I do back it up and it has saved me a few times from having to reinstall.

So my setup is I have 2 external drives that I rotate and have I have a simple file copy backup program setup. It only copies changed files over, so it goes quick after the first main backup on the drive is done. Then I have my registry backup set to backup at the start of windows and to keep just 7 backups. Anything older than that I would never use anyways since those registry files would be outdated after updates to windows and such.

Shane