Backup of your files and a system image backup in same hard drive

So, I got a 2 TB hard drive and my computer just has 250 GB of storage/memory. Is it possible to backup all my files using file history and make a backup system image as well onto the same hard drive? Or do I need two different hard drives for that?

roxieno said:

So, I got a 2 TB hard drive and my computer just has 250 GB of memory. Is it possible to backup all my files using file history and make a backup system image as well onto the same hard drive? Or do I need two different hard drives for that?

The problem with using the same drive for backups, of any kind, is that if that drive dies, you lose your Windows install and all your backups.

It's best to use a different internal drive, or even better... an external drive to store backups.


You mention 2TB and 250GB, and I'm not entirely sure what you mean by that. it would be best to post a screenshot of Disk Management.





Quickie screenshot directions.

1. Use the PrtSc key to take a screenshot.
2. Open an image editor like "Paint", and click Paste > Paste.
3. Click on Select > Rectangular Select and drag a box around what you want to show.
4. Click on Crop.
5. Click on File > Save as > PNG picture and save it to somewhere like your desktop.
6. Now, in your Ten Forums post, click on the Insert Image icon.

Attachment 323285

7. Then click on.. From Computer > Browse (to where you saved the screenshot) > Upload File(s).

Attachment 323286

8. You will then see something like this. That's your "posted" image.

Attachment 323287

Hello @roxieno,

roxieno said:

So, I got a 2 TB hard drive and my computer just has 250 GB of memory. Is it possible to backup all my files using file history and make a backup system image as well onto the same hard drive? Or do I need two different hard drives for that?

Yes, you can, but it is NOT recommended because if the HDD fails you will also LOSE ALL the System Images.

I normally keep ALL the System Images on an External Drive, along with the NEWEST one on an INTERNAL Partition because I find that RESTORING [ If needed ] is quicker.

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I would also advise that you do NOT use the Windows Built-In Imaging & Backup option for the following reasons . . .

Information:

Windows Built-In Imaging & Backup:

It is common knowledge that most of the time you CAN'T trust ANY of the MS built-in Backup or Image facilities because they just DON'T work. The System Imaging facility is a deprecated feature which is NO longer being developed or updated [ it used the same executables in every version of W10 ]. Even MS say that the built-in System Imaging facility should NOT be used . . .

System Image Backup (SIB) Solution
We recommend that users use full-disk backup solutions from other vendors.

SOURCE: > Features Removed or Deprecated in Windows 10

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I hope this helps.

roxieno said:

It's a new external drive and I wasn't really planning on keeping the system image. I was planning on deleting it as soon as I'm sure my PC has been updated properly. Is it not still okay to do so? Honestly, I'm just not sure which route to go with backing up.

Oh, so you're saying the laptop has a 250GB drive, and that you also have a 2TB external drive.

In that case...sure, you can store images on the 2TB external drive.
Most of us on here use Macrium Reflect to make backups. Some also use AOMEI Backupper. Both have free versions.

Macrium Software | Reflect Free Edition

Download Free Windows Backup Software 2021 | AOMEI Backupper


Personally, I keep lots of full OS image backups.
I make one before any major changes... then make another after those changes, if everything went well.
As time goes by I delete the older backups.

Agree with Ghot but I'd go with an External USB drive that could be accessed on a different/new computer in the event of the current computer has a catastrophic failure that would affect a second internal drive.

Also a note about memory, the storage on a drive uses the same unit description as RAM/Random Access Memory, Bytes, KiloBytes, MegaBytes, GigaBytes, TeraBytes so 250GB would be for the boot/system drive, usually computers have 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB or combinations for RAM, such as an old WinXP Notebook I have that works but with 1.5GB RAM but has a maximum of 2GB. Storage on a drive is mostly permanent but RAM is volatile, holds data only as long as it has power, computer is running.

Hello @roxieno,

roxieno said:

Oh, thanks for this. I honestly didn't know that the built in software is not any good. I just keep seeing a lot of tutorials on using that and I thought it was okay to use.

You are VERY welcome.

roxieno said:

Yes �� I accidentally hit post before reading my post again. Haha! Sorry ��


So I can keep like a separate folder of my files that I can access on different computer too? And also a full OS image on the same hard drive? I read somewhere that full system image backup can't be read on other computers? I don't trust Windows update at the moment and my computer, and I don't want to end up losing all files.

Thanks for the recommendations as well. I'm really glad I didn't just make a backup immediately with Windows software now.

With a full OS image backup, you don't really need to keep a separate backup of your files.


But even if you wanted to do that, you can. When a backup of something is made it's like a zip file... they won't get mixed together.

Both backup softwares that I mentioned above, also allow you to make bootable rescue media. This will allow you to access your backups... even if Windows won't boot.


As for your 2TB external drive... you can make some partitions on it, if that's easier for you.
Like... maybe a 500GB partition for full OS image backups. And a second partition for storing files that you want to access on other computers as well.

A full OS image backup will be about 1/2 the size of the data on the C:\ drive.
If your 250GB laptop drive has... 100GB on it... the backup will be about 52GB.




For example, one of my drives is partitioned like this....
All this stuff can be accessed by whatever Windows computer I hook the drive to.