Backing up from a Netbook

[northZephyr]

Hi
I recently got a acer netbook and the built in factory backup only recognizes a external drive in order to backup.
So someone told me to try DriveImageXML.

But from what I understand, the software creates an image of the actual content of a drive (including the entire windows 7 64 bits+all software installed),
then its recovery feature allows me to re-copy the backed up files once a new fresh install of windows has been made.

However, what if I don't want to use the software's recovery. Like, telling BIOS to boot from an external hard drive where the image has been stored, overwrite whatever its in the computer with the backed up version of windows.

I never quite understood the principles of backup image.. (the only "backup" I do is copying my photographs into a external HD lol)

thanks for clarifications..

 

[Wurd-of-the-Nerd]

I Usually don't backup my computer. What I do, is , every file I need on a constant basis I keep on a flash-drive or external Hard Drive. Now from what I understand you want to reformat your computer with Windows 7, but you don't want to lose your files, so you can do one of these three things:
Copy them to a Flash Drive
Copy them to an External HDD or SSD
Copy them to a network location

All of your programs can be reinstalled once the reformat is complete.

 

[sminlal]

If you want to create a "backup" and then be able to boot from it, then you're not really doing a "backup", rather you're creating a "clone" of the boot drive.

Windows 7 includes a built-in "system image" backup that lets you create a backup (not a "clone") of the entire OS + Recovery partitions. You can also use the same utility to burn a recovery CD.

If you loose your OS drive, you can replace it with a fresh, virgin disk, boot from the recovery CD, and restore your backup. No need for another Windows install. I've tested this to back up a Windows 7 system from an HDD and restore it to a SSD and it works perfectly.

 

[jsc]

smindal, if you have a netbook; because it doesn't have an optical drive, it probably didn't come with a recovery CD.

I'm still planning a backup strategy for my recently acquired Samsung N150.

 

[sminlal]

smindal, if you have a netbook; because it doesn't have an optical drive, it probably didn't come with a recovery CD.

It has nothing to do with a CD that may or may not come with the Netbook. The Windows backup utility will burn the CD you need to restore a "System Image" backup that it creates. Any CD that comes with the Netbook would not work for this purpose.

Of course you need a USB DVD drive to do this, but you also need an external disk to write the backup to.