First of all, spannermonkey, you are doing the absolutely right thing in creating a comprehensive backup of your entire system on a weekly basis. Don't let anyone dissuade you from that.
If the great majority of PC users followed your example probably 75% of the plaintive pleas for help we see in Tom's Forum would disappear. Just peruse this and similar "forum" requests for help and what do you see?...
"Helllllp! My hard drive apparently died. How do I get my data back?", or,
"I just installed the latest Microsoft update and now my computer doesn't even boot", or,
"I made that registry change XYZ suggested and now I'm getting weird messages from Windows", or,
"I installed that new Super-Duper Anti-Malware program that other users have recommended and now all I get is a black screen",
"All of a sudden I'm getting that dreaded BSOD and my system no longer boots".
"I turned on my computer this morning and find that all my data is gone. How do I get back my precious photos and important files?
"I just learned my HDD failed and all my data is gone. What can I do?"
The list goes on & on, does it not? Does an hour, a day, a week pass where we don't see an enormous number of these and similar pleas for help?
You can make book that virtually all these PC users rarely, if ever, comprehensively back up their systems. Talk about playing Russian roulette with their PCs!
When all is said & done what better backup system can a PC user have than having at hand a HDD or SSD that is a precise copy of his or her day-to-day working HDD or SSD and, as such, contains the complete contents of that drive including the operating system and its configurations, all programs and applications, and all user-created data? In short - everything. So should the time come when the user has to resurrect his/her system because their working drive has failed or the system has become unbootable and/or dysfunctional because of a corrupted OS due to some malware or other software problem, the user will have the virtual instant means to return his/her system to its former completely functional state and do so simply & quickly.
Your problem, spannermonkey, is not with the methodology you're using in comprehensively backing up your PC system, i.e., the disk-cloning process, but with the disk-cloning program you're using. Those freely available disk-cloning programs, e.g., the Macrium Reflect Free program, serve a useful purpose for users who are exclusively interested in a "one-shot" disk-cloning operation usually involving cloning an old HDD to a new larger HDD or SSD. Those programs are simply not designed for performing routine frequent disk-cloning operations as a comprehensive backup tool. Simply stated, they're too damn slow. As you correctly put it, "it seems a bit of a pain".
But with the right type of disk-cloning program and the right type of attitude (as I will explain) the advantages of disk-cloning in maintaining up-to-date bit-for-bit copies of your PC system are enormous.
So let me introduce you to the disk-cloning program I use (and have been using for more than 10 years) - the Casper program.
Let me say at the outset that I am not associated with the developers of the Casper program in any way, shape, or manner. I have no financial interest in the development or marketing of this program. I make this point because since I'm a "zealot" for this program I've been accused of having a commercial interest in the product.
The program is a commercial product and it's not free. It costs $49.99. AFAIK it's available only from its developer -
http://www.fssdev.com
The program is extremely user-friendly with an easy-to-understand interface and straightforward design. No "learning-curve" of any consequence is necessary.
But the chief advantage of Casper and the primary reason I strongly recommend this program is because of its rather extraordinary speed (in comparison with other disk-cloning programs) in undertaking its disk-cloning operations when the program is used routinely and frequently. That last phrase is crucial - the program's true value is realized ONLY when the user employs the program on a frequent basis.
The program's disk-cloning speed makes the program an ideal vehicle for a user to maintain up-to-date comprehensive backups of his/her ENTIRE system since the user now has a strong incentive to do so because he/she knows it will take only a short period of time to complete the disk-cloning operation. As an example, I back up my PC systems at least 3X a week, sometimes even daily. It usually takes me under two minutes to complete a disk-cloning operation - frequently under a minute when I clone on a daily basis. Naturally the volume of data that's cloned, the user's system, the types of drives involved in the disk-cloning process will all have a bearing on the expenditure of time to complete the disk-cloning process. But I can assure you that Casper's disk-cloning speed blows away every other disk-cloning program I've used.
I wish the developer would have available a trial version of the current Casper 8 program. Unfortunately (at least the last time I checked) a 30-day trial version is available, however, it's the version 6 and that version does not really give one the true "flavor" of the current version.
I'm about to buy the 3-pack ($70). And at least of today, they do have a 30 day trial of v.8 on their website.
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