Image of My Win10x64 Home Edition

Hi:

I would like to know (approximately) how much memory space is required to create an image of my desktop Win10x64 Home Edition Operating System?

I am thinking of using multiple flash drives for this (am ready to purchase from Amazon.com); or is it possible to store the image(s) on a partition(s) of a USB Hard Drive (Western Digital My Passport, 2 TB)? I would need to learn about mapping the HDD/flash drive. I am willing to reformat or repartition the WD USB HDD.
Must an image be stored alone?

1. on a flash drive,
2. or on a DVD,
3. or on a partition of a Hard Drive?

How can I determine the required amount of memory space? FWIW, I have:

1. Speccy, v1.32.740 (64-bit) and also
2. MacriumReflect7, v7.2 build 4942 installed, but have never made use of either of them.
3. A version of Seagate Toolkit; but it is giving error message on rebooting WIN10, so I must yet attempt a repair of that software installation.

Thank you for reading this. Be well and stay safe.
Regards,
VinceB.

VinceB said:

I would like to know (approximately) how much memory space is required to create an image of my desktop Win10x64 Home Edition Operating System? ... Must an image be stored alone?

A Macrium image can be stored anywhere except on one of the partitions being imaged.

I would need to learn about mapping the HDD/flash drive. I am willing to reformat or repartition the WD USB HDD....

No you won't. Just plug in a USB stick or (preferably) your USB HDD then select where to put the image by drive letter and folder.

Must an image be stored alone?

No.

1. on a flash drive,
2. or on a DVD,
3. or on a partition of a Hard Drive?

All of the above with Macrium, you'll need a lot of DVDs though (and it's slow). An external USB HDD is the best (and fastest) choice.

How can I determine the required amount of memory space?

Macrium uses compression and by default will only include the used space of the partition(s) being imaged. Expect the image to be approximately 70% of the total used space of the partition(s) to be included in the image.

I have:MacriumReflect7, v7.2 build 4942 installed, but have never made use of ....

Then try it out, it's not that difficult to use....

Macrium said:

...By selecting 'Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows'.
Using this option will choose all the partitions required to boot Windows. This may include hidden system partitions that are essential for Windows to start and run.

Creating a backup image of your computer, drive or partitions - KnowledgeBase v7 - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase

You apparently have 2 external high capacity drives.

And you have Macrium.

The easiest thing would be to use Macrium to make a full image of ALL partitions on your boot drive, saving that image to one of the externals. Avoid DVDs or USB sticks as a location if at all possible.

Just accept Macrium's defaults as a starting idea. You needn't worry about the finer points yet.

You can make a full image in perhaps 10 mouse clicks.

That will be a single file with an .mrimg extension. A big file.

Your second task should be to make "recovery media" within Macrium (preferably using a USB stick) and confirm that it will boot your PC.

Worry about the finer points after you've gotten that far.

Bree:

Thank you for the information.
I'll check out the KB v7 first.