Windows 10: recovery vs image

yesterday I created a recovery disc , do I still need to create an image disc as well ?

:)

 

"backup and restore win 7" or "recovery" for win10, which one to use on Win10?

still confused about system image (win7 terminology) vs recovery on usb (win10 terminology)...

we have 3 machines, some with win7, some with win10. which backup/restore/recovery/system image ??? program should I use to ensure that I have backups/restore/recovery/system image ??? available in case of pc failure?

the terms used in win7 and win10 are very confusing.

If the preference is to use "recovery" in Win10, why is there an option to choose "backup and restore Windows 7" available in Win10

also, re win10, hate to use up a large flash drive just for a recovery in win10 (when creating a recovery in win10, it wipes out all other files on the flash drive). Will the recovery option still work from a flash drive with other files on the drive?

 

Correct Format for USB Stick | FAT32? | NTFS? | Some Other Format?

So, that appears to indicate that Macrium doesn't care about the format... as long as the file system can be "seen" by your system.

I'd suggest exFAT...
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3109559/hardware/why-your-usb-drives-file-format-matters-fat32-vs-exfat-vs-ntfs.html

 

YES! The recovery disc is only the program that allows you to restore the image.

 

so if my computer should crash I would insert the image disc 1st ?

 

No, you would insert the recovery disc first and it will ask you what image do you want to restore from.

 

when I tried making the image it only got to 2% on the first disc how many dang disc will this take ? . plus it said it would take 2 hours to complete is this normal ?

 

Yep. Removable USB hard drive is your best friend for backups.

 

Making a complete Hard Disk Image using Macrium Reflect > Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free
Takes about 10-15 minutes after you create the boot disk..

 

well just yesterday I told the wife the next time she went to Wal-Mart to pick up another thumb drive what size would you recommend to create the image on

 

the other poster says 10-15 minutes yet my computer says 2 hours

 

Depends entirely on how much space you are using on your hard drive. Probably won't be able to find a USB thumb drive big enough to hold a hard drive image if you have anything else besides Windows on it.

That's because the other poster is doing a backup to another hard drive (either installed or external) using a program with better compression than Windows 10 built in backup.

 

It will usually be compressed to be smaller than the total used space on C:. Depending on how much stuff you have there, it could be tens of gigabytes.

The most practical backup device is usually an external (USB) hard disk. You can get those at Walmart, too. My 3TB Seagate one was about $120US at Costco. (You can now get a 4TB drive for that price.) The write speed tends to be higher on such drivers than some (not all) thumb drives. The main problem with the external hard drives is that they tend to die if subjected to mechanical shock while the platters are spun up. (Simple solution: don't drop it while it's on.)

That said, I scored a 128 GB USB3 flash drive on sale at Best Buy for $30US a few weeks ago. It has an image of C: for Windows 8.1 for one desktop, and Windows 7 for a laptop. There's space for more. Another 64 GB drive holds the image for a second desktop. I can restore a desktop in less than 10 minutes. (Did it all the time while I was playing with the preview builds. Always upgraded from 8.1 to whatever preview build was current.)

 

IMO, it is better to get a HD around 500GB, cost around $40 ~ $50, it is faster to backup and restore + you'll have plenty of space.

 

i'm using macruim reflect is there a way to compress the file ?