Advise on system image and a boot disk.  

Bree said:

Do not use the built in Microsoft system imaging. Apart from some crippling limitations like the one you found, it tends to be temperamental and unreliable. Don't just take the advice of a stranger on the web though. Follow Microsoft's own advice, first issued over three years ago....

Thanks Bree,

It will be Macrium more then likely, I'm 90% sure that was freebie I used to clone my original spinner before installing an SSD but as Macrium can create other things like backups and system images, I will likely take that road. What I won't use is Microsoft's own tool for system image.

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RolandJS said:

Recovery disk means to me: the DVD or USB flash drive, when booted, allows one to restore full partition images and just certain folders and files. Not too long ago, computer vendors included a recovery disk that was the gateway to a Recovery partition (returns computer to left-the-factory-condition) and often some simple to use tools for fixing the internal drive's boot sector, fixing Windows' Startup, and more.

Thanks for your responses Roland.

I am finding some descriptions used a little confusing but, I should have known--should have realized that almost all disks/flash drives are bootable, as Dalchina wrote, it's their function and content for creating them that's important--I really should have known that when asking for help.

Jaylob4 said:

I'm asking, operationally should I have a separate recovery disk and a separate system image disk or partition an external drive, have a system image on one partition and recovery on the other, would that work, keep them separate or combine them on to one drive?

If you were to use Macrium......the standard procedure would be to save the image file on a standard hard drive, probably external, but could be internal. Might take 10 minutes.

And then to make a separate bootable USB flash drive "recovery media" from within Macrium itself, from a menu. This stick can be as small as 1 GB. Takes a similar few minutes.

Two distinct and separate items....image file and bootable recovery media.

You choose which partitions to include in the image file. Typically, you would include C and all other partitions on that same drive. It takes maybe 8 clicks to make a system image file. Macrium will give it a default name. You can change it if you want, but I don't. That image file will be roughly 50 or 60 percent of the size of occupied space on your hard drive. In your case, circa 40 GB.

You should confirm that the recovery media will in fact boot the PC. If it won't, it's useless and you can't recover if your internal hard drive is also not bootable.

If you get in a jam and your hard drive remains bootable, your restore the image by running Macrium from your hard drive.

If your hard drive is NOT bootable, you start your PC using the recovery media, which leads you directly to the Macrium interface.

In either case, you then navigate to the system image file you previously made and tell Macrium to restore it to a hard drive.....a new drive if necessary or the existing hard drive if it is still serviceable.

RolandJS said:

Hey, not to worry about should have knowns, for your enjoyment -I give you Donald Rumsfeld:
"...Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tends to be the difficult ones..." -- a short snippit from Wikipedia

Wow! how did the guy ever decide which shirt to wear to go to work in.

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ignatzatsonic said:

If you were to use Macrium......the standard procedure would be to save the image file on a standard hard drive, probably external, but could be internal. Might take 10 minutes.
And then to make a separate bootable USB flash drive "recovery media" from within Macrium itself, from a menu. This stick can be as small as 1 GB. Takes a similar few minutes.

Thank you ignatzatsonic,

That was clear and understood, two separate drives it will be.

I'm hoping my new SSD will arrive tomorrow and just get on with it.

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Well that turned out to be a bit of a non-starter.

Nothing wrong with the advice given or my PC--nope, I ordered a 120gb Kinston SSD.

Despite some poor reviews there were more good ones, in my eagerness just to get a system image created, I went for a branded SSD that I could lay my hands on fast.

SSD arrived on time, installed into an enclosure---nothing, no boot, no drive letter-- nothing in disk management--zilch.

Installed in to another enclosure, then internally to my PC, then a laptop, same nothing showing, would not boot.

Why did I not trust the poor reviews, impatience I guess, I should have stuck to and have now ordered a Sandisk 120GB but Amazon have none in stock, so will take some time to get to me--damn it!!

That's two SSD returned to Amazon in as many weeks, how hard could this get.

The first one returned, a Crucial 500gb MX model, the case was seriously dented, didn't bother to install it, went straight back to Amazon, This Kingston 120gb was it's replacement albeit a great deal smaller in capacity but it is only a system image I'm making but want an SSD that will get me out of trouble--reliable when needed.

I could have opted for a Crucial 120gb, their BX range and in stock but there have been mixed reviews on BX reliability so opted for the Kingston.

Kingston A400 SSD range, avoid, I didn't, why should you.

Quick update, received Sandisk 120gb SSD yesterday, installed briefly in to an external HD enclosure, used AOMEI Backupper to create a system image and on a smaller usb, a boot/recovery disk.
Thanks everyone.