Backup Hard Drive OS Image?

AlphaDawg · 14 Jul 2017 at 13:48

Hello guys, I'm constantly reinstalling my OS and messing around with certain things. However every time I do a fresh install I'm spending hours reinstalling software to my main OS Drive. My drive with the software I use is around 200-300GB. Is there anyway I can make a constant backup image of this so I can load the image every time I go to do a fresh install to save time. Maybe make a 'ISO' I know I can make a complete backup of my drive to an external but the problem is that it would make my whole external unusable as It would have the image loaded. If you get my drift.

AlphaDawg · 14 Jul 2017 at 13:55

joey1211 said:
Macrium Reflect is the current favourite.

With a disk clone can I make a image that doesn't clone my whole external hard drive? If so maybe I could partition it?

AlphaDawg · 14 Jul 2017 at 14:10

Brilliant. Yes I just want to image my current setup as we speak with all my programs installed as a complete backup. If I can do this with this software that would be great. Is the image file a ISO? If so how would I transfer this to a Boot drive in the future?

AlphaDawg · 14 Jul 2017 at 14:18

joey1211 said:
Macrium will prompt you to create a bootable CD or USB Stick. You boot from this and navigate to the file you want restored.

See that's my problem. If I make a bootable USB stick from my 2TB External the whole 2TB will be used for the image. That's why I was suggesting if I could partition the HDD? Reserve 300GB of it for my backup.

AlphaDawg · 14 Jul 2017 at 14:36

joey1211 said:
I take it you don't have an optical drive installed?

No I don't. I'll need a lot of disc's for a 200gb image haha. If a bios can read mulitple partition's that would be great. However, literally what I could do is put my hard drive in a caddy then image the file over from my external? That could well work.

AlphaDawg · 14 Jul 2017 at 14:44

joey1211 said:
Can't you just buy a second memory stick. 2GB ones are peanuts

I have a memory stick but I am not 100% sure what you mean. My file size for my image is 200GB+

AlphaDawg · 14 Jul 2017 at 18:12

joey1211 said:
When you install Macrium it prompts you to create a bootable disc. You use this disc to boot your computer (if for example, the hard disc inside your pc is broken, or there is a virus on the Windows installation). Once booted using the disc created my macrium, you navigate to the backup image that you created, be it on a usb stick, external hard drive, nas etc.

The 2GB stick would only hold the software required to get you into a position to be able to pull the image you created back onto your pc which you will have stored on your 2TB usb stick

Oh I see! That sounds more like it! Any chance you could link me a youtube tutorial or a tutorial of some sort?

demonix said:
Most HDD/SSD manufacturers either have their own drive cloning utility or a re-branded version of another drive cloning utility which is normally Acronis True Image which when creating a backup image of a drive puts everything into a single file (which is likely to be less then the actual space used on the drive) and won't allocate the entire drive the backup is being stored on.

I have used True Image before for a disc clone. I have a question regarding backup. Say I make a backup to my external hard drive. And later on down the line my C:// Drive goes a knacker or I completely wipe it how do I then install the backup of my External?