Windows 10: Advise on system image and a boot disk.

Win 10 Pro OS. 19042.870 Its been some time since being on and requiring advise of others on these forums. A brief pre-amble, I lost my wife, the kids their mother two years ago, went to bed as we had for the past 25 years, I awoke next morning to find her dead next to me, no pre warnings, no illness, a massive heart attack during the night--my/our world fell apart, things arent better, just more manageable which I suppose does make things better. This may read stupid but that day I turned the PC off, removed both SSDs and eventually put all of it in storage, I couldnt face using the PC, used a stand by laptop. It was our PC, a DIY build together, we did and had everything on it but was complimented by 2 external backups. About 10 days ago, I cant explain really why, I resurrected the PC. Knowing it had been in storage for quite a while and may have got a little damp inside the case I took the side off and left it on a window sill for a few days in direct sunlight, to dry out/climatise, then a can of air and it now sits under my desk complete with the latest version of Win 10, ( 20H2 ) and in use again. The only hardware set back, PC required a new CPU fan so installed a Noctua 89 Redux 1600, nice, quite and a quick fix. My questions and I apologies if answered previously is about system image and a boot disk. But first, is a boot USB/disk and a recovery USB/disk the same thing? My OS drive, ( C ), while 240gb in capacity has only used 68gb and not likely to use much more. I have always been aware when cloning to clone to an equal or larger size GB HD/SSD but does the same rule apply when making a system image? I think what Im asking, I have a spare 350gb external HD, I could install a system image on that but it seems such a waste of GB and a HD, could I purchase an 80 or 120gb SSD and use that to create a system image on to or must it be the same in gb capacity as the existing OS SSD? Having been lucky enough never having to do so, am I understanding correctly, in the event of PC failure to boot I would first use a boot disk/USB then if or ever required use a system image and transfer that image to the PCs existing HD/SSD? Does a system image make a copy of/contain the Win 10 OS but you cant boot from it hence the reason for a separate boot/recovery USB/disk? My next question is what size USB stick should I use to make a Win 10 boot disk? Thanks for reading, advice would be appreciated

:)

 

Advise on system image and a boot disk.

If I were you I would buy a 240GB SSD and clone the boot drive to it. It is not a waste as you think. Windows is constintly creating and sometimes deleting temporary files. It is good to have plenty of space for this. In fact it is probably not good to let a disk especially the boot one not get too full. I don't know what percentage that should be. I have read not to go over 60% but I am not sure about that. Certainly do not let any drive get more than 80% full because it is not good for it.

The imaging program usually compresses the image so it should be smaller that the source. The size of the image is a percentage of the data used not of the drive itself.

I just compared the backup images for my two SSD drives. Here are current results.

Most people now days use a USB flash drive to install or repair Windows 10. A 8GB one is plenty big enough. However, you should buy a 16GB one because they are more commonly found. You should buy a name brand one like Sandisk because you shouldn't trust cheap noname ones.

 

Advise on system image and a boot disk.

Win 10 Pro OS. 19042.870

It’s been some time since being on and requiring advise of others on these forums.

A brief pre-amble, I lost my wife, the kids their mother two years ago, went to bed as we had for the past 25 years, I awoke next morning to find her dead next to me, no pre warnings, no illness, a massive heart attack during the night--my/our world fell apart, things aren’t better, just more manageable which I suppose does make things better.

This may read stupid but that day I turned the PC off, removed both SSDs and eventually put all of it in storage, I couldn’t face using the PC, used a stand by laptop.

It was our PC, a DIY build together, we did and had everything on it but was complimented by 2 external backups.

About 10 days ago, I can’t explain really why, I resurrected the PC.

Knowing it had been in storage for quite a while and may have got a little damp inside the case I took the side off and left it on a window sill for a few days in direct sunlight, to dry out/climatise, then a can of air and it now sits under my desk complete with the latest version of Win 10, ( 20H2 ) and in use again.

The only hardware set back, PC required a new CPU fan so installed a Noctua 89 Redux 1600, nice, quite and a quick fix.

My questions and I apologies if answered previously is about system image and a boot disk.

But first, is a boot USB/disk and a recovery USB/disk the same thing?

My OS drive, ( C ), while 240gb in capacity has only used 68gb and not likely to use much more.

I have always been aware when cloning to clone to an equal or larger size GB HD/SSD but does the same rule apply when making a system image?

I think what I’m asking, I have a spare 350gb external HD, I could install a system image on that but it seems such a waste of GB and a HD, could I purchase an 80 or 120gb SSD and use that to create a system image on to or must it be the same in gb capacity as the existing OS SSD?

Having been lucky enough never having to do so, am I understanding correctly, in the event of PC failure to boot I would first use a boot disk/USB then if or ever required use a system image and transfer that image to the PCs existing HD/SSD?

Does a system image make a copy of/contain the Win 10 OS but you can’t boot from it hence the reason for a separate boot/recovery USB/disk?

My next question is what size USB stick should I use to make a Win 10 boot disk?

Thanks for reading, advice would be appreciated

 

Advise on system image and a boot disk.

Your boot drive has 68 GB occupied.

A traditional "system image" of that will be roughly 40 GB in size. One big file of that size.

You can save it on any other drive that has at least 40 GB of free space. That is typically an external drive, but could be a second internal.

You can move that file around like it was picture of your cat.

It is not a "clone". The drive on which it is saved is not immediately bootable.

The image file must be formally "restored" to a drive, at which point the destination drive becomes bootable.....if successful.

You should NOT be asked for a Product Key when making or restoring the image file.

Correct, you can't boot from an image file.

You need the USB bootable recovery media if you cannot boot from your normal boot drive.........such as if you had a complete drive failure. If you CAN still boot from the normal boot drive, you can restore the image file without using the USB bootable recovery media. I'd guess that most restores are done when the boot drive still works, but you nevertheless want to restore an image because something is seriously wrong with Windows or a software package, and you therefore want to step back in time a few days or few weeks.