Windows 10 Back up system image issue

hello

just registered to seek assistance on an issue that is puzzling me

I am running windows 10 on a SSD with my media files on several SATA connected 2Tb HDDs.

I used the feature in the OS to install programs on one of them, named G in windows explorer.

I want to back up my files and include a system image with the Windows 7 back up function, on an external 1Tb HDD. But even if I have unticked any G drive folders in the process, the feature mentions system image contains EFI, C (where my OS is) and this famous G drive

but if I try to launch the back-up it says not enough space on the external HDD to proceed since I believe windows tries to back up my entire G drive all together with C and EFI considering there are registry entries of the programs installed on the G drive

I am thinking about uninstalling all programs on G as a solution but if there is a workaround which allows me to keep my system as it is and allow an image back-up then obviously I would prefer that one

thanks so much

olivier

nolive721 said:

I am thinking about uninstalling all programs on G as a solution but if there is a workaround which allows me to keep my system as it is and allow an image back-up then obviously I would prefer that one

You have installed programs on G: so it is seen as part of the 'system' that needs backing up. The system image will attempt to make an image of everything on G: - your data included, that's why the image is so large it won't fit on a 1TB drive. Backup & restore's 'create a system image' is very simple-minded. It cannot selectively image just the installed programs, it has to copy the entire drive.

Workarounds? Well, it's a lot of work, but you could repartition the 2TB drive so there's a smaller G: partition just containing the installed programs and a second partition (H: ?) for your data. Or you could just buy a larger drive to put the image on.

@josey

yes I am looking at 3rd party software to create a system image

@bree

I should have mentioned G is a 1Tb partition on a 2Tb sata drive and I have installed some Games in it as well as aforementioned programs, no media as such. I should have maybe made it much smaller from the start when I installed programs in there, my bad.
I am going to consider creating another partition on the disk to transfer my games but I think I will need to recreate links to the registry to get them to launch right? assuming it works out OK, G will become to a size needed for current and future programs, as small as possible and I should eb able to back up my system image finally.

does that make sense?

bit offending considering that is not the point I am trying to address and find a fix for.....the image back-up will be stored on an EXTERNAL USB drive as I mentioned in my original post which only has the function to store my media files back-up and the windows system image copy I am trying to create

nolive721 said:

@bree

I should have mentioned G is a 1Tb partition on a 2Tb sata drive and I have installed some Games in it as well as aforementioned programs, no media as such...

OK, so G: should be a part of the system image, at least because of the installed programs. But it's still a 1TB drive before you add in the C: drive and recocery/efi partitions. How do you expect that all to fit on a 1TB external drive?

There is no configurable compression settings in Backup & restore's 'make a system image'. It does have compression, but ony uses it if the target is a DVD. For an HDD the image size will be approximately the total used size of the disks being imaged.

Other imaging software is more configurable, I believe Macrium allows you to choose a compression level. I still think your best solution is to buy a larger external drive, particularly if you want to keep more than one revision of the system image.