What tools are needed to back up laptop to external HDD?

I have acquired a hard drive enclosure for a hard drive from my former laptop and would like to proceed with using it to do a full back up of my laptop in case of a future crash. The question now is, what software is needed to do this?

I've been doing some research here about it, and keep seeing references to Macrium. I had downloaded that before and then discovered that they wanted personal information that I didn't want to give out. I also read that it's a 30 day trial version, which would be good enough to allow me to do a backup, but I can't guarantee my laptop will also crash and need recovery within those 30 days. I'd like a program that will be there when it's needed. It would also stand to reason that the recovery program would have to be present on the backup drive in order to be used. I could be wrong about that.

For simplicity's sake, would using the image backup feature in Windows 10 be good enough? Here's what it is and how to use it: How to Take a Full Backup of Windows 10 on an External Hard Drive

Delly10 said:

I'd like a program that will be there when it's needed. It would also stand to reason that the recovery program would have to be present on the backup drive in order to be used. I could be wrong about that.

For simplicity's sake, would using the image backup feature in Windows 10 be good enough? Here's what it is and how to use it: How to Take a Full Backup of Windows 10 on an External Hard Drive

Avoid the Windows 10 backup. It's fussy, inflexible, and not very intuitive.

Macrium does NOT have to be installed on the backup drive.

If your primary hard drive (C partition) is still in working order, you can restore after booting from C as you normally would. Run Macrium off the still functioning hard drive.

If your primary hard drive is dead and unbootable, you would need to start your PC from the Macrium "recovery media", which you should make immediately after first installing Macrium. You would need an ordinary USB flash drive of 1 GB or larger capacity. CONFIRM that it will in fact boot your PC immediately after making it. If it won't boot, it isn't of much use. If it boots the PC, you will see the Macrium interface, just as if you had run it from your hard drive.

To backup important files there are options:
a) copy and paste users folders
b) make backup image
c) make backup clone

These can be done with a flash drive, HD, or the cloud.

For backup images there are free and pay versions depending upon the features:
(Acronis, Aoemi, EaseUS, Macrium, Paragon, etc.)

Macrium is widely used in TF:

Macrium Software | Your Image is Everything
Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect

RolandJS said:

I recommend any one of many free and fee 3rd party backup/restore programs. Such are mess problematic than windows built-ins. I've been using MR and Image for Windows for some time now, they never caused a restore problem.

Does Macrium Reflect have to be loaded seperately on the external hard drive in order to be used to do a backup if my computer crashed? I imagine it would have to be since a crashed computer would no longer be able to use anything that is/was in it.

Oops! I see ignatzatsonic just answered that.

ignatzatsonic said:

Avoid the Windows 10 backup. It's fussy, inflexible, and not very intuitive.

Macrium does NOT have to be installed on the backup drive.

If your primary hard drive (C partition) is still in working order, you can restore after booting from C as you normally would. Run Macrium off the still functioning hard drive.

If your primary hard drive is dead and unbootable, you would need to start your PC from the Macrium "recovery media", which you should make immediately after first installing Macrium. You would need an ordinary USB flash drive of 1 GB or larger capacity. CONFIRM that it will in fact boot your PC immediately after making it. If it won't boot, it isn't of much use. If it boots the PC, you will see the Macrium interface, just as if you had run it from your hard drive.

I currently have a flash drive that I made what I believe to be an image backup on it that I made when I first got this computer. If I'm not mistaken, it would restore the computer back to the way it was when I first bought it. It's a 64GB drive that reduced itself to a 32GB drive after making the backup. If I remember correctly, the instructions I followed to make it were to make a "recovery drive". Would this be the same thing as you're referring to, except for the Windows backup feature rather than Macrium?

Delly10 said:

I currently have a flash drive that I made what I believe to be an image backup on it that I made when I first got this computer. If I'm not mistaken, it would restore the computer back to the way it was when I first bought it. It's a 64GB drive that reduced itself to a 32GB drive after making the backup. If I remember correctly, the instructions I followed to make it were to make a "recovery drive". Would this be the same thing as you're referring to, except for the Windows backup feature rather than Macrium?

I would assume that it's a method of restoring your PC to a factory state. I'd further assume that's not what you want to do. Instead, you want to be able to restore to a much more recent date--today, last week, but not as of the day you got the machine.

Whatever your USB is, it's not able to restore a Macrium image.

No need to waste a 64 GB drive on the task. 1 GB is enough. 64 will work.

The flash drive will NOT contain an image. The image would be stored on some other hard drive, internal or external. The USB recovery media is only a way to access Macrium and direct the restoration process.