Help "Creating a Full Backup Image"

thanks cereberus for those excellent explanations.

Thanks ImLost. Now we know how much free space is available on your USB drive D.
Now I believe it's a good time to determine the actual size of your system image backup.
I'm heading out right now and will be out of town for a couple of days.
Your doing fine by hanging in there.

I know it's been mentioned that someone used a system image recovery only a couple of times over quite a few years and that isn't unusual for many people but in todays world, MSFT implements feature updates twice a year. It would be best to keep up with system image backups to stay current with those schedules at a minimum.

Gotta go.

@ImLost, thanks to you many of us are learning or recalling what we do know on the different subjects you have been inquiring about in this thread as well as your other threads.
BTW yesterday I helped a friend recover his computer using a system image backup I created for him last year even though he complained about purchasing an external HDD, using Macrium instead of Microsoft's built in system image backup. He still doesn't understand the why's etc. but he sure appreciated the end result.
Have a great day and enjoy your new computer.

So my screenshot says about 17gb is used up. But under system/storage, it says about 32.

I look up "system restore"/system properties/system protection. Says restore your computer back to a previous restore point. Doesn't say you "lose" anything you added. So if I made a restore point today, and comp starts acting up couple of days from now.....couldnt I go and click on the restore point I made today. Is this 'image" I made just a faster way to get it right again?

Also, this is new computer. But seems like it has an old version of windows. System summary says version 10.0.16299 build 16299. "About" windows specs says version 1709, OS build 16299.547. I see others talking about 1803.

Yes, 1709 resolves to year 2017 month 9 and 1803 is 2018 month March.

1803 is the latest 'edition' of W10 and todays update brought us to 17134.234

If you type winver into the search box at the lower left and click the winver function you will get to see what version you are on and who it licensed to... which should be you.

ImLost said:

So my screenshot says about 17gb is used up. But under system/storage, it says about 32.

I look up "system restore"/system properties/system protection. Says restore your computer back to a previous restore point. Doesn't say you "lose" anything you added. So if I made a restore point today, and comp starts acting up couple of days from now.....couldnt I go and click on the restore point I made today. Is this 'image" I made just a faster way to get it right again? .

System restore (I assume you are talking Windows now and nothing to do with Macrium) is an old feature that has continued through Windows XP, Vista, W7/8 and 10 and tbh is of very limited use. It is NOT a disk imaging program but merely attempts to restore your PC's vital operating system files and registry back to a previous time while leaving other files intact.

Its a poor option compared to a full disk image and can be problematic when used. At best it will get a PC operable again, at worst it creates other problems due to conflicts with a partial restore of files.

Stick to disk imaging and also backing up user files to a flash drive (using drag and drop).


And more...

So my screenshot says about 17gb is used up. But under system/storage, it says about 32.

The 32Gb is the space used by Windows on your C drive. It is as F14tomcat says, the Macrium image is compressed (most backup programs do this) to save space.