Create back-up of C/boot SSD

[9-Ball]

Hi folks,

(apologies if this isn't in the correct forum).

I have just rebuilt a system with a new 220GB SSD drive and I want to create a back-up .iso of the SSD/C/boot drive and store that .iso on my 2TB SATA E drive.

I have W7 Ultimate installed alongside all updates, programs, drivers, etc.

System drives config is as follows:

C: - 220GB SSD
D: 400GB 10k SATA
E: 2TB 7200 SATA
H: 1TB e-SATA

My C drive is 50% full.

I'd appreciate advice on how to create an .iso back-up of the C drive and save it on the E drive. I see ways to do this via the Getting Started/Back Up Your Files link in W7 but it wants to back up the D drive too, which amounts to 220GB. I'd prefer to back-up only the C drive and lose the few programs in the D drive's Program Files directory (I'm assuming this is why it's marked as a system drive, as I have a half dozen non-critical programs/games installed there).

My main concern is how to make such a large back-up .iso file stored on E to be bootable in the event of a C drive failure or Windows corruption. How would I boot from the E drive and specifically the backed-up .iso file? Is an .iso file automatically bootable and if so should I put it at the root of the E drive or are there other considerations?

Aside from the W7 built-in backup provisions I also have Nero 7 Premium installed, in case its back-up processes make this easier. Again, the main inquiry is how to make the back-up bootable.

Thanks in advance, to anyone who can offer advice.

regards,
9-Ball.

 

[Hawkeye22]

If the D drive is marked as a system drive, then most likely the boot loader is on it. This will especially be the case if you had more than one drive (SSD) hooked up when you installed the OS. If this is the case, you will need your D drive backed up also.

Windows 7 has the ability to make images (iso), but you can use other software such as clonezilla.

Backup (imaging) software has you create a rescue disk. If your C drive dies, you boot from the rescue disk which allows you to restore the image. In the case of windows backup, I believe you use the windows install disk to boot into recovery mode and can restore your image.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Restore-your-computer-from-a-system-image-backup

To answer your question, you don't make a backup bootable, your restore your backup to it's original location (EDIT) or to a new larger hard drive that will replace your original drive.

 

[9-Ball]

Hawkeye,

thanks for the information - that makes sense. The link explains the bit I wasn't too sure of. It's odd to me that the D drive is marked as a system drive - it wasn't connected at all when I installed the OS onto the C/SSD drive. I've subsequently installed a few programs onto it, however. Could that mark it as such? Again, many thanks.

 

[Hawkeye22]

If the only drive that was attached was the SSD, then both boot loader and OS should be on that drive. If you previously used your D drive as as an OS drive it could have an old copy of the boot loader on it. Also, if your D drive was hooked up during the installation of your old OS, it's possible the boot loader was on there.

Anyhow, if the SSD was the only drive installed when you las installed your OS, then you can get away with just imaging the SSD drive, however, if you ever lost your D drive, you would need to reinstall those programs.

 

[adamsmith111]

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[9-Ball]

Hawkeye,

thanks for the additional info. I got the back-up created without issue.

 

[9-Ball]

Best answer selected by 9-Ball.