How to backup HP stock OS?

[suresh43]

I am buying the HP star wars edition laptop (an003tx). The OS is modified with the star wars theme and it also has related content. What I want to do is backup the initial system exactly with all the star wars content and everything, in case I lose data along the way or I do a clean install. I want to be able to restore the star wars themed OS basically in case I format it. Also how much size will the backup image be? If I backup to an external HDD, can there be other files in it or only the backup image? A detailed procedure of how to backup and restore would be helpful. Or a link to a detailed tutorial.

Also can anyone mention a compatible keyboard cover for that model? Or mention another laptop which has the same key layout?

Any help is welcome.

 

[drtweak]

Best thing it sounds like is to use Macrium Reflect and then save an image of your PC as it is to the external. It will save the OS and all files. It will also compress it so lets say you have 150GB it would probably get anywhere from 20-50% compression. Then all you need is the Recovery Disk it ask you to make when you first install it (And can be made later and on another PC if need be) and then you boot form the recovery disk, browse for the backup image, and restore it. Pretty easy.

 

[wpgwpg]

I agree with drtweek, use the free version of Macrium Reflect, it works very well. When I back up my systems, the resulting backups are about 70% of the data I back up, due to compression. You can put other files and folders on the backup drive. If you can, use USB3 because it's much faster than USB2. I did a backup using USB2 that took 2 hours. Then I did it again with USB3 and that took only 50 minutes.

Good luck.