Im looking for help to create a system image on my 64gb usb memory stick. I have a lot of games that takes a lot of space. I want to create a system image backup without the games so i can put it on my 64GB usb drive. I also want the system image to be one file, instead of multiple files.
Solved, i went with aomei backupper instead of macrium reflect. ✔
Last edited by Cerawy; 21 Feb 2021 at 14:43.
I assume you want to create an image of your C partition, store it on a 64 GB USB flash drive, and later be able to restore that image from that drive to an internal hard drive. Do I have that right?
How much space is occupied on C?
Are your games also installed on C?
Generally--system images are of an ENTIRE partition, not parts of it.
I think there are imaging applications that at least contend they can EXCLUDE portions of a partition, but I don't know how well that works out in actual practice.
Additionally--I would not have major faith in any image file placed on a USB flash drive. Those things are so fragile and flaky that I wouldn't count on one for anything serious. I've had them fall apart into 2 pieces in my hands. Better than nothing, but that's about it.
A system image created by 'Backup & Restore (Windows 7)' can only be stored on an ntfs partition, so a USB memory stick would have to be formatted as ntfs. A better (safer) media to store system images would be an external USB HDD (where storage wouldn't be an issue anyway). An even better solution would to use another imaging solution entirely (Macrium Reflect is often recommended on these boards). Even Microsoft now say so...
Features removed or Deprecated in Windows 10 Fall Creators UpdateMicrosoft said:
"...I want to create a system image backup without the games so I can put it on my 64GB usb drive..."
[I just now included the phrase that led to my post below :) ]
From what I read across The 'Net, many backup / restore / cloning programs allow folder and file backup into one image file on any reliable external media, such as an external usb platter-driven hard-drive for example. However, if your OS partition ever "goes broke", a restore of such folders and files will be only the beginning a long, uphill, restoration of your OS partition, along with having to reinstall every program pretty much from scratch, Windows and all else.
Last edited by RolandJS; 04 Sep 2017 at 22:33.
146 GB used on C.
An image file of that using Macrium would normally be in the range of 60 to 80 GB; maybe a bit less, maybe a bit more. You won't know until you make the file.
That's with standard compression. You could use a higher compression level, but as I recall that won't reduce the size a whole lot. You'd have to experiment to know for sure.
I'd suggest that your 64 GB stick is too small for comfort. It may not even hold one image file now and it certainly would not if you expect that 146 GB to grow in the future.
My C occupies about 31 GB; my most recent image of it resulted in a 15.6 GB file--almost exactly half the size of the occupied space. Half of 146 is 73. You might get lucky in your case, but I wouldn't count on it.
Hi.
As stated above, I wouldn't use a flash drive. I'd get a proper external hard drive to do this. You want to have several images, in case one gets corrupted in the future. And, I'd use Macrium Reflect (free) as suggested.
Can you put your games/libraries on a separate partition? If so, then your C/OS partition size would be drastically reduced. That way, imaging it would be a lot faster. You can figure an image will be about half the size of the original (give or take).
Create a second partition and move portable games to second partition.
Format usb drive as ntfs
Create image backup using macrium reflect free to back up all partitions EXCEPT partition containing portable games.
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