Hello, today I went out and bought a 500GB external HDD for the purpose of backing up important files. However, I need a little help, I would first like to back up windows if it is possible, and anything else that would be good to back up before I do the other stuff. So I was wondering how to do that, back up windows. (Using Win 7) Thank you.
In control pannel there is "back up and restore" - you can use this to image your disks. It is wise to make a recovery disk here as well which will allow you to boot of it and restore an image should you want to.
It all depends if you want a free solution or not. I use Acronis True Image Home 2012. Some really cool features with this product. Windows has it's own back up program however which will do the job. Whatever you use, just make sure you can create a bootable restore disk from it, and please test this disk does actually work before you start to rely upon it.
http://www.downloadcrew.com/article/23720-comodo_backup Comodo do a free back up solution, I used to use comodo and I found it quite good. I only start using windows back up by accident - I think I am goin to start using this new version of comodo though going forward. you also get 5gb free cloud back up, up to 250gb paid.
Thanks for the help guys. I started using the regular windows backup software, but it tells me my backup drive(500GB) doesn't have enough space. My main drive is 1TB, and I have about 600GB used on it, but I don't want to backup the whole thing, just Windows. I'v gone into 'what do you want to back up?' settings and unchecked everything except the bottom box 'Include a system image of drives: SYSTEM RESERVED, Gateway(C' and under that it says that those are the drives required for Windows to run. I don't think that would take over 500GB, so what am I doing wrong? Thanks.
Is the disk "Gateway C" just one partition? if so, Windows will not be able to differentiate between what is an essential system file, and what are just documents, music etc... it will just image drive C: Is the drive partitioned into more than one logical device? (Drive C and D for eg?)
No I don't think the disk is partitioned, this is a pre-built computer. Any tips on anything I can do to get back up Windows, or will I just be able to back-up non-essential files now(ex:games, pics)? The good news is I will be building my first computer in a few weeks, so I'll have Windows on a separate SSD, so I'll be able to back it up then.
Why is it so important to back up windows? Surely your personal data (photos, documents, music etc) is more important? Windows can always be reinstalled. Why not just manually copy your valuable data to the 500GB hard drive for now, until you get a bigger back up drive. Your back up drive should at least be equal to the capacity of the drive(s) being backed up regardless of how full they are. It's not working as you have no partitions, and drive C is has 600GB on it, and your back up drive is 500GB. Windows back up is trying to back up the entire drive C:
