* Some days you just can't make a farthing, disk crash

[Ron Melby]

I am on windows 10 64 bit now. I had a wonderful migration plan. well, the disk cakked in mid migration. havent lost my gedcom or pictures and documents, backed up in a different place. I did lose three very valuable files, but here I sit, moved my program files, program data program, and program(x86) when I go to execute fh.exe, it asks for my key---tap tap tap type type type. turns out I am a wonderful feller. and it executes, fails path for a dll. ok, well I guess I can reinstall (6.2) and do the 3 upgrades, and then move my plugins and other customizations over (and they are not all approved customizations, but minor. This is the second time a drive has failed me. SO--- I am looking for free backup software that does disk images. Or, barring that a disk image, and then incremental backups so that I can plug in the external hard drive (I have several) and say: give me back my disk just as it was in total registry and all, and all my programs within one millisecond of the big bang and drive: no media messages. WD Backup aint it. (but thanks for what it did save.) Anyone have a end of the world free backup system and plan that is not cloud based? 1 other issue I have changed my account from user to USR, and did a backup and restore family historian settings plugin 10 Nov, and shouldnt have fh FH changes since. Will that get me out of an install and move from ground up problem? skip that idea, .dat file is empty.

[Jane]

I have not used free Drive image software for years so I have not looked at them, I currently use and pay for "Acronis True Image", it does not have to use the cloud and I have used it to recover my C drive several times. I don't backup my Data drive with it as my data is around 2Tb so a full drive image is not really sensible.

[tatewise]

It is usually not possible to move/copy installed program files from C:\Program Files and C:\Program Files (x86) and get them to work correctly, mainly because they rely on Windows Registry entries, but I agree a disk image may be a solution.

You must re-install every application program including FH using its installation media.
For FH you only need your purchased installation CD/download media and your licence keys.
Then upgrade to the latest free download V6.2.7 from https://www.family-historian.co.uk/down ... ee-upgrade.
You don't need to install any intermediate free upgrades.

[wianb]

I use Acronis True Image to clone my System Drive every 2 weeks. Thankfully I have never had a System Drive crash but rather be safe than sorry! It is a major pain in the backside re-building a system drive!!

[DavidNewton]

An observation (not a recomendation as I haven't used it) but Windows 10 has a built-in facility to create a system image. Full instructions here:

https://windows.gadgethacks.com/how-to/ ... 0-0162966/

David

[trevorrix]

In addition to using Dropbox for automatic backups of all of my data, including all historical versions for the last decade, and more copies of my data on other cloud services, I use ARQ Backup.

My ARQ is set to automatically copy the whole of my Drive C to Dropbox on the fly, including the registry etc. In the event of a problem I can retrieve any file/folder, or restore the whole lot onto a new drive. ARQ is also recommended by Dick Eastman who is an expert in such matters.

https://www.arqbackup.com