Back up Entire Disk and Restore - Recommendations

Hello Forum,

I've got to send in my new HP Spectre notebook for HP warranty repair due to a faulty keyboard.

I intend to image the disk to a portable external drive, and then reset the computer to as new condition before I ship.

The notebook disk size if 500GB.

First, what are your recommendations for a portable external disk? I'm looking at a couple of Seagate models: STJM2000400 & STGX4000400 Is there a size recommendation? I'll use the portable external drive for regular back ups as well.

I've noticed Macrium Reflect is popular on this forum. Does Windows 10 Pro have a back up and restore program that will restore a drive with all partitions? Do the portable external Seagate drives come with a program to do the same?

What's the advantage of using Macrium over Windows or Seagate?

Thanks for your help. Regards

I use a 1 TB WD My Passport Ultra.

I don't know what Seagate does, but Macrium Reflect Free would be my choice over the old Windows 7-style backup.

Are you wedded to the idea of a "portable external drive" as such (pre-manufactured from Seagate or a similar company) or would you consider something like a much faster NVMe drive within a separately purchased enclosure?

I'm not wedded to anything. That's why I posted the questions.

Where's a good source to purchase a NVMe and enclosure?

tjg79 said:

I'm not wedded to anything. That's why I posted the questions.

Where's a good source to purchase a NVMe and enclosure?

Amazon or Newegg.

Preferably DIRECT from them, not from somebody who sells through them.

I bought both an NVMe and an enclosure from Amazon direct within the last 2 weeks.

TDBT enclosure; 23.99

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Western Digital Blue SN550 NVMe, 500 GB capacity; 54.99;

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1


83.95 with my state tax.

I think the drive is now up to 59.99; price can vary daily.

Took maybe a half hour to read over the instructions and assemble.

4 screws to attach the drive to the PCB of the enclosure.

4 screws to attach the heatsink to the PCB.

Then slide all of that inside the enclosure and button it up with 2 more screws.

Comes with 2 cables; you'd use just one of them to attach to your notebook.

No issues.

The enclosure comes with the necessary mini-screwdriver.

Advantages of this "make your own" method:

You choose your preferred NVMe drive and enclosure. There are dozens of choices for each.

I'm not sure at all that you can find a Seagate/Western Digital unit with an NVMe drive inside. I think they are SATA SSDs.

A bit cheaper--20 to 50 bucks, depending on capacity.

Enclosure is all metal; no plastic.

Smaller; maybe 1.5 inches by 4, rather than maybe 3.5 by 3.5?

You can disassemble the enclosure and replace the drive at will. You might even want to some day put the NVMe inside a PC rather than use it externally to give you higher performance. Or buy a higher capacity NVMe for the enclosure if you need more capacity next year.

Some enclosures come with thermal pads which will reduce temperature. Attach like a bandaid. Mine did, but I'm not using them.

Advantage of pre-assembled, like the Seagate:

No assembly required.

Might be more pleasing to look at?

Decide on capacity you need.

Do you intend to leave this thing attached and running on your notebook at all times?

When you restore a disk with an image, does the restore program create the partitions,or do you have to create the partitions before you perform the restore?

Thanks, Can Reflect use a Windows back up image, or any image for that matter, to restore a disk, or do you have to use Reflect to make the image first?

tjg79 said:

Thanks, Can Reflect use a Windows back up image, or any image for that matter, to restore a disk, or do you have to use Reflect to make the image first?

Reflect can only restore from a Reflect image...