Hello and thanks for reading.
I'll begin by saying that, foolishly, I have never backed up my PC. The main reason for this wasn't money, but rather that it always seemed somewhat confusing (and I'm someone who generally knows my way around PCs...enough to have built my own gaming rigs for years).
Still, since I'm looking at a "mandatory" upgrade to Win 10 shortly (in advance of the July 31 deadline), it's time to start. Plus, I absolutely loathe reinstalling Windows. And I did have an SSD C: drive failure not long ago, lost a small amount of irreplaceable data, and don't want to repeat the experience.
So, here is what I'm looking to do along with some related questions:
- Ideally, I'd like a full backup of my system so, if necessary, I could simply boot from it and run my computer with it exactly as I do with main system today. (Is this a system image?)
- My system consists of an 250 GB SSD C: drive with Win 7 on it along with some other smaller critical apps. Then I have a 1 TB hard drive partitioned into: D: with miscellaneous apps, documents, photos, etc. on it; and E: with exclusively games on it. Finally, I have a 500 GB SSD with just games on it. Nearly all of my games are downloadable off of Steam or a similar service, and the few remaining can be restored from the DVD.
- Total data is just in excess of 1 TB. The vast majority of this are the abovementioned restorable games, leaving me wondering if it makes sense for me to back them up or save backup space and redownload if necessary. Is there a way to create the equivalent of a system image/clone of your OS, certain programs and critical data, but leave out high-volume apps like games for reinstallation? Or is it all or nothing?
- At some point not too long ago I created a system restore thumb drive. But I can't say that I know how to use it or whether I should create another one now. Are there backup utilities that create system clones that don't require a boot disc?
- I've read about cloud-based services that will back up your system. Are these preferable to an external hard drive?
- What would regular maintenance on my backup look like? After creating an initial system image, do these simply search, say weekly, for anything that's changed since the last backup and refresh the image? If you're main drive(s) die, can you boot from these and essentially only roll back to the last backup?
Please advise. Anything you can offer on the world of backup and restore would be greatly appreciated. I am now willing to invest some money into this.
Thanks very much for your time,
ELB
I'll begin by saying that, foolishly, I have never backed up my PC. The main reason for this wasn't money, but rather that it always seemed somewhat confusing (and I'm someone who generally knows my way around PCs...enough to have built my own gaming rigs for years).
Still, since I'm looking at a "mandatory" upgrade to Win 10 shortly (in advance of the July 31 deadline), it's time to start. Plus, I absolutely loathe reinstalling Windows. And I did have an SSD C: drive failure not long ago, lost a small amount of irreplaceable data, and don't want to repeat the experience.
So, here is what I'm looking to do along with some related questions:
- Ideally, I'd like a full backup of my system so, if necessary, I could simply boot from it and run my computer with it exactly as I do with main system today. (Is this a system image?)
- My system consists of an 250 GB SSD C: drive with Win 7 on it along with some other smaller critical apps. Then I have a 1 TB hard drive partitioned into: D: with miscellaneous apps, documents, photos, etc. on it; and E: with exclusively games on it. Finally, I have a 500 GB SSD with just games on it. Nearly all of my games are downloadable off of Steam or a similar service, and the few remaining can be restored from the DVD.
- Total data is just in excess of 1 TB. The vast majority of this are the abovementioned restorable games, leaving me wondering if it makes sense for me to back them up or save backup space and redownload if necessary. Is there a way to create the equivalent of a system image/clone of your OS, certain programs and critical data, but leave out high-volume apps like games for reinstallation? Or is it all or nothing?
- At some point not too long ago I created a system restore thumb drive. But I can't say that I know how to use it or whether I should create another one now. Are there backup utilities that create system clones that don't require a boot disc?
- I've read about cloud-based services that will back up your system. Are these preferable to an external hard drive?
- What would regular maintenance on my backup look like? After creating an initial system image, do these simply search, say weekly, for anything that's changed since the last backup and refresh the image? If you're main drive(s) die, can you boot from these and essentially only roll back to the last backup?
Please advise. Anything you can offer on the world of backup and restore would be greatly appreciated. I am now willing to invest some money into this.
Thanks very much for your time,
ELB
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