can you copy c drive to external hard drive

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Matt1403

Matt1403

Reputable
Nov 27, 2015
75
0
4,640
hi,

is it possible to copy the contents of the c drive (including the os) to an external hard drive too back up in case of drive failure (just out of curiosity? or would you have to reinstall windows or would you have to go with a system image restore?

thanks :)
 
Solution
COLGeek
Sure, you can clone a HDD as proposed. A free application for doing so is clonezilla. Just make sure that the target HDD is the same size or larger than the original drive. Clone the drive and store in a safe place. Easy.
Sort by date Sort by votes
COLGeek

COLGeek

Cybernaut
Moderator
Apr 6, 2009
54,607
3,551
179,340
Sure, you can clone a HDD as proposed. A free application for doing so is clonezilla. Just make sure that the target HDD is the same size or larger than the original drive. Clone the drive and store in a safe place. Easy.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
jsmithepa

jsmithepa

Polypheme
Jun 14, 2014
13,096
263
60,840
There are DATA BACKUPS, including multiple generations for archival as desired and then there are DISASTER RECOVERY BACKUPS. I will concentrate on the later since it sound like what you are asking.

This is made easier if you plan in advance and make your C:=OS+Apps, and say D:=Everything else including personal data.

Then when everything works just right, or before a major update etc, you make an IMAGE BACKUP of C:. Microsoft has something built in but there are also third parties that will do this. An Image Backup copies EVERYTHING including any system stuff, hidden stuff, settings, configurations, boot instructions etc. to one gigantic file on your backup drive. Typically select highest compression so that file will be ~1/3 of the total space taken. Think of this as a SNAPSHOT of your system. I like utility such as Macrium which makes a Recovery Boot Flash right on its menu, because your OS maybe bad enough that is not able to boot, so another Boot Medium is highly helpful. Even if you are able to boot original HD, you will not be able to restore and override some files because they maybe open and locked and prevented from being refreshed. A Boot Flash overrides that restriction.

When something happens and you are not able to resolve the problem, or you have a hardware failure (fix hardware first, replace HD as needed) you pull out your Recovery Flash, Boot from it, and restore the saved image to the Boot HD (or SSD), the result will be like a time machine, you go back EXACTLY to the point when you did the backup, and there will be no doubt things is exactly as it was then.

Of course you maintain your backup file on a separate physical drive other than C:
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

DiegoD

Honorable
May 12, 2015
288
0
10,860


It really is the best way to do what you are wanting. It isn't very complicated either. As stated above make sure the drive size is the same and that both drives are the same type of drive (don't clone an HDD to an SSD or vise-versa). You're left with two identical drives that each contain OS and all.

However, If you plan on doing this to make two machines run off of the same windows licence, It won't work. Microsoft will see two machines running on one copy and one of yours will stop working. 1 licence for one machine.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom