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hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
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just tried to back up the Windows 7 partition of my Macbook Pro 2-10. First plugged in a Samsung T5 and Windows could jot recognize the ssd. Then, plugged in a LaCie 2TB external HD. After spending four hours to backup, unplugged it and plugged it back to Windows. It stated disk directory corrupted. What is wrong? I Is this Windows problem, my mbp usb port hardwre problem or what? Never have such problems under MacOS. Is this Windows 7 problem? Willsuch thing happen under Windows 10? Now I hesitate to choose Windows machine also.
 
just tried to back up the Windows 7 partition of my Macbook Pro 2-10. First plugged in a Samsung T5 and Windows could jot recognize the ssd. Then, plugged in a LaCie 2TB external HD. After spending four hours to backup, unplugged it and plugged it back to Windows. It stated disk directory corrupted. What is wrong? I Is this Windows problem, my mbp usb port hardwre problem or what? Never have such problems under MacOS. Is this Windows 7 problem? Willsuch thing happen under Windows 10? Now I hesitate to choose Windows machine also.

Windows is more complicated to backup than MacOS.

With MacOS, you can generally get away with just doing essentially a full file and folder copy to a new blank drive.

With windows, there are partitions that are generally “hidden” and essential to operation. Likewise, there are hidden system files, and beyond that, even files that must reside physically at a very specific physical location on the drive. Therefore a simple backup of data or all files will not yield the results you want. It won’t be bootable.

You need to use a utility program to duplicate the drive exactly. Clone the drive, not the contents of the drive, but the exact drive as it exists. Google for clone windows hard drive bootable. That should find the tools and instructions you need.

Additionally, the fact that Windows resides as a separate partition on your Mac does complicate it slightly more than if it were on its own drive. Search google for backup windows boot camp. I think a utility I once used for that was called winclone.

Here, I found the link:
http://twocanoes.com/products/mac/winclone/

Otherwise, I find windows to be comparable these days in operational reliability.
 
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It has happened many times that when I just dragged and dropped to backup files, some folders/files could mot be copied. What is the reason?
 
What is
just tried to back up the Windows 7 partition of my Macbook Pro 2-10. First plugged in a Samsung T5 and Windows could jot recognize the ssd. Then, plugged in a LaCie 2TB external HD. After spending four hours to backup, unplugged it and plugged it back to Windows. It stated disk directory corrupted. What is wrong? I Is this Windows problem, my mbp usb port hardwre problem or what? Never have such problems under MacOS. Is this Windows 7 problem? Willsuch thing happen under Windows 10? Now I hesitate to choose Windows machine also.
What is the disk formatted as? It has to be fat32 to work on both
 
It has happened many times that when I just dragged and dropped to backup files, some folders/files could mot be copied. What is the reason?

Ignore this post. I misunderstood the problem.Sorry. a2
 
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You really need to check the formatting of the drive for your answers
If you are going to use the drive for Windows and for macOS you will need to account for that in the formatting or in special drivers
 
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TBH you need to spend time to understand the operating systems. I can tell you that the problem isnt Windows.

I run and reload backups frequently and W10 has yet to fail, with over a million files on the drives.

I recommend that you slow down and spend some time with it as it will benifit you in the long run.

People often blame software and hardware, when often the computer is only doing what it's been instructed to do.

Windows has it's own backup solutions built in no need for 3rd part SW. It's not as elegant as the Mac however it's solid and reliable which is what counts.

Q-6
 
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I commected the drive to a wimdows 10 laptop amd issued chldsk b: /r

To fix the disk structure is corrupted and unreadable. After spending the entire night to do it, the operation terminated with disk error fixed. When I opened the disk, all the files disappeared as if the system reformatted the drive. Checked the format. At least now, it is ntfs.

I guess one problem is thatover the past 30 years, sometimes I bought backup drives for the Mac but sometimes for Windows. I did not mark down the format and all got messed up. Those in bootcamp are better as I-used Winclone to backup except yesterday.

So the advise of just drag and drop folders in Windows as a way to backup is very bad?
 
Is there a Time Machine-like "hassle free" backup system for Windows 10? I've been looking for one and have yet to find one.
Acronis True Image is as close as I have been able to find. I used it for about a year, but after shifting my workflow to OneDrive and investing in cloud-based backups, I stopped using it.

But it's very Time Machine-like.
 
but after shifting my workflow to OneDrive
That's what I've done, with the exception of my lightroom library, I'm all in with OneDrive and that works well. So if I have to rebuild my laptop, my data is on OneDrive and I just reinstall windows. I've started using a recovery image as well, so that backs up my windows stuff though I've not tried restoring from that yet
 
Is there a Time Machine-like "hassle free" backup system for Windows 10? I've been looking for one and have yet to find one.

I've been using ARQBackup for a couple of years.. does the trick.
It gives me the freedom on what/where to store my backups (I use a NAS destination, in addition to Amazon Drive). It's never failed me.
 
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That's what I've done, with the exception of my lightroom library, I'm all in with OneDrive and that works well. So if I have to rebuild my laptop, my data is on OneDrive and I just reinstall windows. I've started using a recovery image as well, so that backs up my windows stuff though I've not tried restoring from that yet
Right - my work is nearly all in MS Office, and with an Office 365 subscription, you get 1TB of OneDrive storage. If you save Office documents in OneDrive, it enables continuous auto-save, so work is never lost, and it has historical/iterative/incremental backups like Dropbox.

Everything else is gravy - my machine dies, I reinstall Windows and whatever apps I need, that's it.
 
Is there a Time Machine-like "hassle free" backup system for Windows 10? I've been looking for one and have yet to find one.
Have you tried the built in File History backup Windows has? Just do a Windows search for file history. I never used time machine so can't say how much a like it is.
 
just tried to back up the Windows 7 partition of my Macbook Pro 2-10. First plugged in a Samsung T5 and Windows could jot recognize the ssd. Then, plugged in a LaCie 2TB external HD. After spending four hours to backup, unplugged it and plugged it back to Windows. It stated disk directory corrupted. What is wrong? I Is this Windows problem, my mbp usb port hardwre problem or what? Never have such problems under MacOS. Is this Windows 7 problem? Willsuch thing happen under Windows 10? Now I hesitate to choose Windows machine also.

The answer is yes, you will spend a lot of time on Windows figuring things out and trying to make things work. There is a reason why Mac users are so loyal.
[doublepost=1561096033][/doublepost]
TBH you need to spend time to understand the operating systems. I can tell you that the problem isnt Windows.

I run and reload backups frequently and W10 has yet to fail, with over a million files on the drives.

I recommend that you slow down and spend some time with it as it will benifit you in the long run.

People often blame software and hardware, when often the computer is only doing what it's been instructed to do.

Windows has it's own backup solutions built in no need for 3rd part SW. It's not as elegant as the Mac however it's solid and reliable which is what counts.

Q-6

honest question, on Mac I use CarbonCopyCloner. How can I backup a Windows in the same manner?
I have heard on Windows you can do something like save state of some kind, like you open a backup and specific apps are running with specific files open.
 
It’s a reliable OS but it needs more maintenance and it does need a fresh install from time to time. It’s weakest point is File Explorer which is still stuck in Vista days feature wise and technology wise it is stuck in the late 90s. No thumbnail or preview support for some very common file types, nothing like Labels or Tags, nothing like Quick Look, the Properties panel is poor compared to Get Info, etc

File Managers are the center of the user experience. Surveys always show that Mac users feel more productive because the Finder gets the job done quicker and easier.
[doublepost=1561096680][/doublepost]
The answer is yes, you will spend a lot of time on Windows figuring things out and trying to make things work. There is a reason why Mac users are so loyal.
[doublepost=1561096033][/doublepost]

honest question, on Mac I use CarbonCopyCloner. How can I backup a Windows in the same manner?
I have heard on Windows you can do something like save state of some kind, like you open a backup and specific apps are running with specific files open.

If you have a Samsung SSD then Samsung Magician can clone drives.
 
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The answer is yes, you will spend a lot of time on Windows figuring things out and trying to make things work. There is a reason why Mac users are so loyal.
[doublepost=1561096033][/doublepost]

honest question, on Mac I use CarbonCopyCloner. How can I backup a Windows in the same manner?
I have heard on Windows you can do something like save state of some kind, like you open a backup and specific apps are running with specific files open.
Have to disagree with you on this one. The reason people spend a lot of time figuring things out and trying to make it work is not because one or the other really is harder/easier to learn. When I switched from Windows to mac in 2001 on my iBook g3 running OS X 1.0 it took me forever to figure out why it booted first into OS 9 and that i could run OS 9 Apps in OS X, also couldn't figure out how to play a dvd on OS X 1.0 since it didn't have a dvd player app but OS 9 did. Trying to figure out what a DMG drive was because I was used to installers was a nightmare. Apple didn't even make OS X the default OS and not shipping with OS 9 pre-installed until Jaguar 10.2 which was the third update of the OS, and believe me, there wasn't this ship a new OS build every back then. But in-spite of all that I loved it and used nothing but macs until 2014. All of this was way before you could just go to a website geared towards apple and ask a question and or research it online. Using AOL and a dial up internet. Back then it was probably easier to jump from a Mac to a PC because OS 9 wasnt far off from Windows 98 ui wise. No one is loyal because mac is easier to figure things out now. They are loyal because they don't want to take the time to learn a different but no less dificult way to do things
 
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The answer is yes, you will spend a lot of time on Windows figuring things out and trying to make things work. There is a reason why Mac users are so loyal.
[doublepost=1561096033][/doublepost]

honest question, on Mac I use CarbonCopyCloner. How can I backup a Windows in the same manner?
I have heard on Windows you can do something like save state of some kind, like you open a backup and specific apps are running with specific files open.

Use the Windows 7 backup solution from settings (Update and Security - Backup) works flawlessly. It basically takes a snapshot of the system and creates a image file.

SSD to SSD takes just a few minutes to create or restore. It's all I use for physical backups and it has never failed. If I want to look at a SW package I'll often do then roll back to the known good backup image.

Q-6
 
I think Windows has some kind of restriction on the file name. If I remember correctly, I used UNIX and Windows for three years without a Mac. When I copied files from unix machines to Windows machine by ftp or drag and drop, Windows reported that it could not copy files that had long filenames. Same thing happened last week.

Apple II is my first computer. I also installed A/UX on Quadra 900. In addition, I used CP/M, DOS about 40 years ago. Just don’t have the interest to spend time on those Windows commands. Windows 10 is much better but it looks like I also need to deal with some troubles while MacOS and linux just work.

Last week Windows could recognize external backup drive but after I unplugged and replugged again, it adked me to reformat the disk before use. I took the drive to a Windows laptop and used it to recover error. After an entire night, everything in that drive got erased for no reason. That is why I considered to buy a MBP 2019. Then I heard about T2 crash, screen coating getting worn off, slower or hotter machine running bootcamp, etc. Now I am back to the loop of looking for a Windows laptop to run Hackintosh, linux and Windows.
 
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Have to disagree with you on this one. The reason people spend a lot of time figuring things out and trying to make it work is not because one or the other really is harder/easier to learn. When I switched from Windows to mac in 2001 on my iBook g3 running OS X 1.0 it took me forever to figure out why it booted first into OS 9 and that i could run OS 9 Apps in OS X, also couldn't figure out how to play a dvd on OS X 1.0 since it didn't have a dvd player app but OS 9 did. Trying to figure out what a DMG drive was because I was used to installers was a nightmare. Apple didn't even make OS X the default OS and not shipping with OS 9 pre-installed until Jaguar 10.2 which was the third update of the OS, and believe me, there wasn't this ship a new OS build every back then. But in-spite of all that I loved it and used nothing but macs until 2014. All of this was way before you could just go to a website geared towards apple and ask a question and or research it online. Using AOL and a dial up internet. Back then it was probably easier to jump from a Mac to a PC because OS 9 wasnt far off from Windows 98 ui wise. No one is loyal because mac is easier to figure things out now. They are loyal because they don't want to take the time to learn a different but no less dificult way to do things

Of course different platforms get sometime to get used as is with every other device on the market, but I find myself researching issues and playing around a lot in the control panel whenever I am in Windows. I hardly remember a time when I went to System Preferences to fix something, usually just to alter settings to my liking.

Use the Windows 7 backup solution from settings (Update and Security - Backup) works flawlessly. It basically takes a snapshot of the system and creates a image file.

SSD to SSD takes just a few minutes to create or restore. It's all I use for physical backups and it has never failed. If I want to look at a SW package I'll often do then roll back to the known good backup image.

Q-6

How does a 500GB drive gets backed up in few minutes? Or does it just copy system files? Why do you mention Win7 specifically? what about win10?
 
I work in a school environment. I share a lot of files (especially Words, pdf, Excel) with students and colleagues. Some students do not even know what machines they are using! I worry that I may get virus from these people. In this case, is it more secure to use Mac OS?
 
does a 500GB drive gets backed up in few minutes? Or does it just copy system files? Why do you mention Win7 specifically? what about win10?

Fast SSD's and CPU's, takes less than 5 minutes to back up my system drive, you can pick and choose which drives are backed up.

The backup routine is from Windows 7 and part of Windows 10, that's also how it's labelled if you look. It backs up all your data by volume same as it restores the same.

TBH it couldn't be simpler to use. I have multiple images so I can pick and choose, as long as the image is on the root of the backup drive the system will pick it up and restore, even if no OS is present booting from the recovery partition.

I also test the backup images as if needed they must work without failure.

Q-6
[doublepost=1561179325][/doublepost]
I work in a school environment. I share a lot of files (especially Words, pdf, Excel) with students and colleagues. Some students do not even know what machines they are using! I worry that I may get virus from these people. In this case, is it more secure to use Mac OS?

No its more important to understand the vulnerabilitys of the systems. All computers are vulnerable to malware.

Thinking your safe just because it's a Mac is dangerous especially if working in mixed environments with a lack of control.

Q-6
 
I work in a school environment. I share a lot of files (especially Words, pdf, Excel) with students and colleagues. Some students do not even know what machines they are using! I worry that I may get virus from these people. In this case, is it more secure to use Mac OS?
If you don't take the normal precautions on your mac then is it really as safe? True the vast majority of viruses and malware are on the PC, but that doesn't mean malware doesn't exist on the Mac and will say people blindly assuming macs cannot get malware opens the door to infections. I'm not in school, but it seems the majority of students use macs and if they don't pay attention, then you're just as likely to get something on your mac as a PC.

Just look at this article: What to do when ransomware strikes your Mac Clearly malware is out on the macs and thinking your safe because macOS is a mistake.

True, I felt when I was running on a mac I was safer, but I still used malwarebytes, I didn't open any attachments I didn't know about and there's the issue of social engineering and phishing which kind of gets grouped into malware as it opens the doors to infections and other problems, such as identity theft.
 
If you don't take the normal precautions on your mac then is it really as safe? True the vast majority of viruses and malware are on the PC, but that doesn't mean malware doesn't exist on the Mac and will say people blindly assuming macs cannot get malware opens the door to infections. I'm not in school, but it seems the majority of students use macs and if they don't pay attention, then you're just as likely to get something on your mac as a PC.

Just look at this article: What to do when ransomware strikes your Mac Clearly malware is out on the macs and thinking your safe because macOS is a mistake.

True, I felt when I was running on a mac I was safer, but I still used malwarebytes, I didn't open any attachments I didn't know about and there's the issue of social engineering and phishing which kind of gets grouped into malware as it opens the doors to infections and other problems, such as identity theft.

In my school, most students use Windows machines. Do you think only using a VM when I open files from them and colleagues is a good way? School uses outlook but they have some kind of filtering system.
 
While using a VM will isolate the environment and protect against ransomeware do you think that's a really feasible solution. It will work but will you go through the hassle and performance issues of always running a VM? I can only speak about myself and I won't
 
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