Windows.. Backup? Clone?

Unicorn · 4 Sep 2013 at 22:44

Right am looking at trying out Windows 8 i have a laptop which has 2 drives in ones a 64GB SSD which i will be looking at installing windows 8 onto and wiping out 7. The other is my data drive so this won't be touched. Problem is if i don't like it and have to come back to 7 i don't want to mess about for 10 hours finding drivers for this damn machine

Is there a way to "Clone" my whole drive? So if i were to wipe it out i could restore it exactly how it is now.

RJC · 4 Sep 2013 at 22:46

Macrium Reflect which is free or Acronis can take a image of the drive.

I use Acronis which you need to pay for but Macrium is free.

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Unicorn · 4 Sep 2013 at 22:56

Do i need to burn it to a disk if i want to restore though? Or can i put the files on my desktop and plug my laptop SSD into the desktop and restore it back onto my laptop SSD

Im quite confused how this works after reading it for 10 mins im honestly no closer to understanding how it works

semajjames · 5 Sep 2013 at 00:37

your drive manufacture may well have some cloning software as does seagate

using this i can clone my os drive complete with installed software this clone drive can be used to clone back to another drive or can just be plugged in instead

Unicorn · 5 Sep 2013 at 00:58

Nah its crucial M4 i put it in myself and used my windows 7 disk to install it

semajjames · 5 Sep 2013 at 01:14

yes
but does crucial not have free cloning s/w

Unicorn · 5 Sep 2013 at 01:18

Only if you buy the upgrade kit i believe as i know they sell an upgrade kit for pc/notebooks

marc2003 · 5 Sep 2013 at 01:21

if you plan to image your windows partition, you'll typically need to boot from a USB stick or CD/DVD with whatever backup software you're using so you're "outside" of windows. you'll then need a separate partition or drive where the image will be saved to. this can be an internal drive or even a USB drive - provided it has enough space.

then when you want to restore, you boot again from your USB/CD/DVD and restore the image file.

Unicorn · 5 Sep 2013 at 02:38

marc2003 said:
if you plan to image your windows partition, you'll typically need to boot from a USB stick or CD/DVD with whatever backup software you're using so you're "outside" of windows. you'll then need a separate partition or drive where the image will be saved to. this can be an internal drive or even a USB drive - provided it has enough space.

then when you want to restore, you boot again from your USB/CD/DVD and restore the image file.

Yeah i get what you mean

Yeah its the entire C Drive (Windows partition) that i want cloning. Wipe it out and install win8.. If i decide its not for me.. Restore it as it is now