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Long, long ago, there was a post on my blog about how I back up my files.
Well, things have changed a bit since then. After continuous iterations, my backup strategy has evolved quite a bit—so here’s an updated version.
This time, I’d like to share how I, as someone with mild OCD, keep my Windows system “clean.”
Windows
Have you ever accidentally installed some sketchy software on your PC and felt like it’s never really gone even after uninstalling?
I wasn’t always this obsessive, but ever since collegeprobably because I have too much free time now, I’ve gotten increasingly particular about keeping my main machine spotless.
Turns out I’m not alone—I’ve even found some fellow obsessives on v2ex. https://www.v2ex.com/t/630854 https://www.v2ex.com/t/594189
Still, after prolonged usage, accidents happen—you might end up installing something shady. Windows is complicatedand honestly, I don’t fully understand how it works, so whenever things feel “dirty,” I get this overwhelming urge to reinstall the entire OS.
But reinstalling all my development environments is time-consuming and painful. After going through this a few times, I came up with a system backup & recovery workflow that suits my obsessive tendencies.
Separate the user profile folder from the system partition
I followed this guide online to move the
Usersfolder to a different drive. (I used to keep everything on one partition, but now I have two: one for the system and one for user data.)This is similar to separating
/and/homein Linux.The junction method works like symbolic links in Linux—it’s reliable and so far hasn’t caused any compatibility issues.
After this setup, programs are still installed under
Program Fileson C:, which mostly contains system and application binaries.Drive D: (the
Usersfolder) stores text-based configurations and personal files.Use Syncthing to back up the user folder
I use Syncthing to sync the entire user folder to my NAS (HomeLab). It supports real-time incremental sync, has built-in P2P functionality, and is easy to configure. It also keeps file version history, so I can easily restore previous versions or recover accidentally deleted files—peace of mind guaranteed.
Use Synology Active Backup For Business to back up the C: drive
Synology’s Active Backup For Business performs block-level, byte-for-byte backups of the entire partition. When my Windows system crashes or starts feeling “unclean,” I can simply roll back the entire C: drive to a previous snapshot. The system returns to its former state instantly, while all personal files in the user folder remain untouched and up to date.
The downside? Both Syncthing and my hacked Synology NAS require their own dedicated server—setup is a bit involved. But apart from that, this workflow works great.
Other Devices
Just for completeness, here’s how I back up other devices:
HomeLab server (including VMs running on it)
The unRAID system runs entirely in memory. All critical configuration files are stored on the boot drive, which rarely changes. I can simply download the config backup from the web UI and store it on my computer.
All other data on the HomeLab is encrypted and backed up to Alibaba Cloud Drive using Duplicati—details available in my All-in-One series.
Android phone
Most Android apps are cloud-based anyway, so there isn’t much local data worth backing up.
The main thing I care about is photos. I use Google Photos to automatically sync them to my Google account.
(Gotta admit, Google Photos is chef’s kiss)p.s. You can use the Xposed module Pixelify Gphotos to get unlimited original-quality photo backups for free.
If you’re not into cloud storage or have poor internet, Syncthing for Android is a solid alternative. All other files I want backed up are synced via Syncthing directly from my phone.
This article is licensed under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
Author: lyc8503, Article link: https://blog.lyc8503.net/en/post/new-backup-and-recover-solution/
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