How to copy W10 image for possible re-install.
| # | Post |
|---|---|
| 1 | Before W11, I want to make a copy of my current installation so that I can do a full re-install. IE, plug in, then reinstall and be bootable.. fishb8 - 2021-09-08 06:47:00 |
| 2 | Any program that does a system image - or a clone Edited by nice_lady at 7:34 am, Wed 8 Sep nice_lady - 2021-09-08 07:33:00 |
| 3 | So that I can reinstall with everything (apps, etc) intact and usable? fishb8 - 2021-09-08 07:41:00 |
| 4 | macrium reflect is a good one, with a free version. bitsnpieces2020 - 2021-09-08 07:45:00 |
| 5 | fishb8 wrote:
A system image is a file that is an exact copy of the ENTIRE system. Edited by nice_lady at 7:52 am, Wed 8 Sep nice_lady - 2021-09-08 07:47:00 |
| 6 | Personally I use macrium to write an image of each of our laptops about once a month or so on to an external storage drive. Then if the Sh*t hits the fan for whatever reason, (hardware fault, bad virus, hack, whatever), I can reinstate the system using the most recent backup image very quickly. In your case you can make a clone if you wish onto your spare drive and then literally just plug it in if things turn to crap. OR if you wanted to you could partition the existing system drive, (assuming it's big enough), and write a system image onto the 2nd partition. Then you can setup macrium so that when you boot the system it'll give you two choices - Windows or Macrium recovery environment. If you did this you can then, if you have a major problem and wanted to re-instate the original system without needing to physically swap drives around, you can simply use the Macrium recovery to re-write the image on the backup partiton onto the primary partition. At reboot after that it'd be back to original. Ps: If you wanted to write a system image to a partition macrium will in general create an image file about half the size of the system it's imaging. Thus if your existing installation which you want to backup is 200GB the image file will be approx 100GB. You can increase the compression of that if you needed to also. You have choices. Edited by nice_lady at 8:00 am, Wed 8 Sep nice_lady - 2021-09-08 07:58:00 |
| 7 | Thanks nice lady. fishb8 - 2021-09-08 08:13:00 |
| 8 | Well to do a clone onto your drive you can use the drive in the caddy to write the clone, or you can use it to store an image. Then later if you needed to reinstate the original system you could do one or two things. You could re-write an image from the caddy onto the original drive in the machine, or if you had made a clone of the original drive you could then clone that one back onto the original drive, or you could physically swap the drives around. Either way I'd suggest you install Macrium Reflect onto your 'new' system once you have it running and then set it so that it places a bootup recovery environment on the disk. This will allow you to boot into that PRIOR to getting to Windows if you need to so that you can then access the external drive to re-write a copy back onto the drive, or clone the new drive or whatever. It's really a very good system. Edited by nice_lady at 8:22 am, Wed 8 Sep nice_lady - 2021-09-08 08:20:00 |
| 9 | Hi fishb8 - 2021-09-10 08:11:00 |
| 10 | Good start ! nice_lady - 2021-09-10 08:26:00 |
| 11 | bitsnpieces2020 wrote: lythande1 - 2021-09-10 08:51:00 |
