Backup Questions

DennisColes · 15 May 2013 at 18:53

I have a 64GB Crucial M4 with Windows 8 installed and some programs. I have another 1TB Samsung internal SSD with music, documents, pictures and videos.

I have just bought a portable 2TB external hard drive to use to store my backup.

What is the best way to back up the SSD and HDD.

If my SSD becomes corrupt, how will i use this backup to restore it so that i can boot from it?

Many thanks.

DennisColes · 15 May 2013 at 19:38

What I don't understand is how I would restore an image if I one if OS SSD fails and i therefore cannot boot into windows?

UnworthyBean · 15 May 2013 at 19:43

With most software, You should be able to create a bootable usb stick. Boot from that, restore image, job done

DennisColes · 15 May 2013 at 23:00

UnworthyBean said:
With most software, You should be able to create a bootable usb stick. Boot from that, restore image, job done

Is the bootable usb stick basically an image of my SSD that has my windows installation on it?

Philtor · 15 May 2013 at 23:27

DennisColes said:
Is the bootable usb stick basically an image of my SSD that has my windows installation on it?

No the drive image is stored on your portable HDD. You can create a recovery disk or bootable USB flash drive to boot from if something goes wrong.

This allows you to browse to the image you have taken and then begin the restore process.

DennisColes · 18 May 2013 at 15:54

I just created my first system image. If i want to update this, is it possible? Does Windows 8 create incremental image backups or will it completely overwrite my previous image?