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PC Backup

Discussion in 'Windows 10' started by Almost Nearly Sociable, Feb 20, 2022.

  1. Almost Nearly Sociable

    Almost Nearly Sociable Registered Members

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 2021
    Messages:
    120
    Location:
    Philippines
    Operating System:
    Windows 10
    Computer Brand or Motherboard:
    Acer
    CPU:
    ?
    Memory:
    4 G
    Hard Drive:
    ?
    Graphics Card:
    ?
    Power Supply:
    Acer
    I have a 2 TB USB drive ordered to be delivered soon. What I planned to do with it is use it as another backup by having Windows put the image of the PC on it. I am doing this just in case I have any more failures and even my SSD Ext hard drive could fail at some point too. I presume I would be able to reboot with it if I have a failure? Furthermore, I have not had much experience with this, so I thought I had better ask. Also, will the image include everything that is hooked up to the PC (including my Ext hard drive), or will it only capture what is actually on the PC itself? I want to include all that is on my external Hard Drive also and still back up the computer and be able to reboot the pc from the USB should that be necessary.
    Thanks
     
    Almost Nearly Sociable, Feb 20, 2022
    #1
  3. Tony D

    Tony D Administrator Administrator

    Joined:
    Sep 25, 2009
    Messages:
    5,105
    Location:
    SE Pennsylvania, USA
    Operating System:
    Windows XP Professional
    When you create an image, a single file is created on a backup drive that contains everything on the single drive you backed up. You can't open the image files and see the individual files; you need the software that created the file to do that. Well, that's my understanding of how Windows backup works. Then you have to restore that image file to another hard drive so that you can boot with it.

    If you want to be able to boot to your backup drive, you need to make a clone of the original drive. I don't think Windows backup does that. However Macrium Reflect (https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree) does. So does Acronis True Image. A clone will be an exact copy of the original drive. Once a clone is created, you can remove the original drive and use the clone drive instead. You won't know the difference.

    I like to make image file on one drive and then copy individual files to another drive. It doesn't hurt to have a spare cloned drive around also. No one ever regretted having too many backups.
     
    Tony D, Feb 21, 2022
    #2
    IJAC and allheart55 (Cindy E) like this.
  4. Almost Nearly Sociable

    Almost Nearly Sociable Registered Members

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 2021
    Messages:
    120
    Location:
    Philippines
    Operating System:
    Windows 10
    Computer Brand or Motherboard:
    Acer
    CPU:
    ?
    Memory:
    4 G
    Hard Drive:
    ?
    Graphics Card:
    ?
    Power Supply:
    Acer
    Okay Tony, I will check out Macrium when my 2 TB USB gets here, so I can reboot from the USB drive. As far as the info on my ext hard drive is concerned, there should be enough room on the USB (2 TB) for the clone and all the files on the external drive as well. If that scenario works, I should be all set. At that point I will have all my data in three places and be able to boot if necessary.
    Thanks for your help and information. Problem solved.
     
    Almost Nearly Sociable, Feb 21, 2022
    #3

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