How is doing a backup of the system before I've configured anything any different from just backing up my files separately and then just doing a fresh install if something breaks?
Disk imaging 101.
I think you may be overlooking how disk imaging works and what it restores.
A. Consolidating your state
The idea of using periodic disk imaging is to consolidate your PC at points in time.
It is quicker to restore an image than to clean install Windows.
As you install more and configure more that benefit increases
B. How is this achieved?
You create a base image. That's bigger and takes longer. It's a compressed image of the used parts of the partitions you select.
Subsequently you create differential images.
Each represents the difference between the current state and the base image.
These are smaller and faster to create.
Restoring either
a. a base image
or
b. any differential image (+ the corresponding base image)
restores the select partition(s) to as they were when the image was created.
The base image is the starting point for an ongoing sequence of images which you continue to create throughout the life of your installation.
C. What is restored and how will my PC behave if I restore an image of Windows?
Windows, your data, your settings and your programs on the partitions you restore will be exactly as they were when they were created.
What does that mean?
- you don't have to reinstall the programs available then
- you do have to redo any changes to programs, data and settings made since the image was created.
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I hope you now see that disk imaging protects partitions - Windows and programs and data on the partitions imaged.
It's an ongoing procedure, assuming you create a base image and continue with differential imaging.
Please review Macrium documentation and read up on how imaging works for more. Thanks.
Also, look at it from a time point of view. How long would it take you to do a clean install of Windows 10, do all Windows updates and tweaks to get everything the way you like it then restore all your data? I know for me it would be 3-4 hours at best.
With a Macrium image backup you can restore it and be up and running with everything exactly as it was when the image was created in about 20 minutes.
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