Windows 10: Backup and restore Win 10 drive to a different disk

Great. As an aside, it is a good idea to store a copy of any backup offline.

Get a ransom attack - stick up fingers in a suitable gesture to ransomers, restore offline backup.

Also, it is a good idea to go to Other Tasks menu, and create a boot entry for Macrium Reflect. Then in most cases, you do not even need to use a usb rescue drive, albeit still needed in case hdd fails.

 

Hi,

I read several posts (on this forum as well as on other sites), but I am still not sure which software should I choose. This would be my first time to perform a backup.

Briefly, I have a desktop pc with a 1TB HDD splited in 2 partitions: 150 GB for OS and rest for stuff.
I also have a 2TB external HDD.

I need to create a clone / image (not sure if I'm using the right terminology), that I could restore to a new HDD (even though it could be from a different manufacturer and not necessary the same size), or to even a SSD if in the future I'll choose to buy one. The purpose is not to have to re-install everything: IDE, JDK, app server, db and so forth.

there are a few programs presented here: 7 Best Disc Image Software for Windows to Clone Hard Drives | Mashtips

1) I noticed windows 10 still has the image backup capability that I know was present in windows 7. My only concern is: will that actually work in my scenario?

2) Should I use instead Macrium reflect?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
-Chris.

:)

 

System Image Creation Failed

System Image is a Windows 10 backup program. It can be accessed through Win 7 backup but it is not a win 7 program. (Don't use win 7 backup for backups. It is just for restoring win 7 backups. Use File History for regular backups in win 10.) You must have
an external or second internal drive to store the image, not disks or thumb drives or a partition on the boot drive. What is Local Disk D? It is not listed in the drive list. Local Drive E is listed and seems to be available if you change the backup location
to E. Check Disk Management to see what you have. You can assign new letters and or names to the external backup drive such as Drive R or S etc. Use letters towards the end of the alphabet.

Remember that a system image is diff from regular backups. It is all or nothing. Restoring an image is for complete reinstallation of everything. The hard drive will be overwritten with the image--such as when you install a new hard drive. You cannot restore
individual files. It is for disaster recovery and does not get updated automatically. You should make a new image when there is a big change such as after a big upgrade of windows.

In a computer with a ssd and a data hard drive, the data drive should not be used for backups. It should be part of the system image. You need to access the image on an external drive to restore the image if the boot or data drives fail. A Recovery disk
will be your boot disk so be sure to make one on a dvd or thumb drive. It has to be on bootable media.

To get to system image backup, open File History and use the link in the lower left corner.

 

Restoring Win 10 backup after replacing hard drive

I am sorry but that answer did not match my questions, so let me restate them.

I have no problems with USB drives or drivers.

I made a backup of a failing drive, as requested by Windows, on my local network to another PC.

When I replaced the failing drive with a new drive and freshly installed Win 10, then the new Windows install cannot see the backup made to my other computer by the failing disk, although Windows on the old disk said the backup had been successful.

Is there anything I can do to help the new drive with the clean install of Win 10 "see" or recognize the backup done by the bad disk so I may restore that backup (with all my programs and documents) to the new drive?

Should I try that again with some switch or settings that I did not use and that will make the new drive with the fresh install of Win 10 see and use that backup?

Because I could not get the above done, I thought I try to be "clever" and reinstall the old failing drive and place the new good drive (with the fresh install of Win 10) on a USB enclosure. Then I had the old bad drive again make a full backup to the new
drive with the fresh install of Win 10. It was reported by Windows as a successful backup.

Now, I again exchanged the bad drive with the fresh install of Win 10, containing the new backup of the bad drive. I had hoped that there would be a way to "restore" my programs and documents from the backup (now in the same new drive with the fresh install
of Win 10). But no joy. The new fresh install of Win 10 in the new drive cannot "see" the backup that resides in its C drive as a backup from which it can restore. Is there a way to make it recognize that back up so it can restore my programs and documents?

Thanks for bearing with me. I realize this sounds a lot like a reference to Alice's Restaurant.

-Eduardo

 

Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect Windows 10 Tutorials

 

Ok, already read that article.

Question, if I were to replace my HDD with another HDD / SSD that contains nothing on it , I would boot from the USB disk that has WinPE rescue media on it, connect my external drive that has the backup, browse the backup and this will work?

Haven't done such thing in the past.

 

ok, found this link: Backup, imaging and cloning - KnowledgeBase - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase

so, I'll give it a try.

Thanks for the reply.

 

It may, and I do use it regularly myself - but I wouldn't recommend it. Its most common failing is that just when you need it the most it fails to recognise an image as being restorable. It is now officially a deprecated feature and even Microsoft recommend you use something else.

Features removed or Deprecated in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

 

Hi,
I was just about to clone my disk to an external drive when Macrium said that the process will overwrite the content of the disk I am cloning to.

Does this mean it will format it and I'll lose my data stored on the external hdd?

 

YES! Make an image backup NOT a clone. Cloning is for making an identical copy of a drive. Image backups are a 'clone' of a drive stored in a compressed file (like a zip file) so original drive can be restored to state at time of backup.

 

Thanks for the clarification. But if I make an image backup can I restore that to a different HDD in case of failure?

 

Sure 100%.

Crucial point is you can only have obe clone, but you can gave multiple backups. Many take backups say weekly or monthly, keeping last two or three.

Cloning is useful when you want to swap say an hdd for an ssd in one step, but it is not really for backups.

 

Yes you can and Reflect is very reliable. You might find some useful tips from my guide.
SSD Transfer.docx
SSD Transfer.pdf

 

thanks very much guys. I started the backup process.