Again this is not always so simple - things to do with UUIDs of the disk and having to use delpart in DOS to change things about. You may want to backup your system and OS to another external disk, but you might also want to clone a hard disk, so if one blows you have a backup ready to slot in. Then you can do whatever if it is possibly allowed. The main thing is to get your system backed up NOW. Anyway, you will figure that out for yourself. Some scenarios might work for some programs, but it's not a one stop solution. Doesn't hurt and I would always tell people to do this (to an external drive).Īlso it's not as simple as doing this the once and expecting to be able to upgrade your OS. Having it on another external disk is prudent in the case of a PSU blowing or a power surge. Obviously it won't write to the same partition. It actually is forced that you can't put an image on the same disk even if it's another partition with a lot of programs that you get these days. It really needs to be placed on an external drive. It'd be good if it would be something that could be placed on an external drive, which can then simply be restored after any future fresh Windows install without having to go through all the reinstallations and reauthorisations in future. It's all very well having an image but you need to be able to re-install it in the event of catastrophe.

I can also say that I have researched it pretty thoroughly. I can do the same and tell you what I use. But in reality few people have really researched that much and have not actually restored that many images on that many systems either. Lots of people (or maybe not) will just tell you that it's what they use and that it's never failed.

What is the best software for creating something like a backup image to restore the entire system from? There is a difference, though they can mean the same thing. Not to be pedantic, but you don't really clone your system, you clone a hard disk.

I'm now therefore at a point where it'd be good to do a system clone that can be restored.

Think and Grow Rich for windows instal