Win-10, Retaining ISO of Win-10 After Upgrade From Win-7

I only clone if changing a drive that is still working and using a hardware clone. I use the MCT/Media Creation Tool from Microsoft, to get both the .iso file to burn the bootable DVD, and also create the bootable USB drive. I get the combination of x86 and x64 but do use a 16GB USB drive or an 8GB DVD-R/DL disc so I can have them at hand when needed.

I only clone if changing a drive that is still working and using a hardware clone. I use the MCT/Media Creation Tool from Microsoft, to get both the .iso file to burn the bootable DVD, and also create the bootable USB drive. I get the combination of x86 and x64 but do use a 16GB USB drive or an 8GB DVD-R/DL disc so I can have them at hand when needed.

Hardware clone? What else is there? A clone is hardware to hardware in my book.

I don't bother downloading ISO anymore as they become stale rather fast - I just make one when I need it - got enough backup PCs to not worry about it. If I only had one PC, it would be a different story.

If my drive failed, I would just restore a Macrium Reflect image to a spare SSD as/when needed - I'm not mission critical to warrant a hot spare - can wait 30 minutes to restore the image to a SSD.

The hardware clone I use is not/cannot be connected to any computer, has 2 sockets and copies byte for byte from a source drive to a destination drive.

The hardware clone I use is not/cannot be connected to any computer, has 2 sockets and copies byte for byte from a source drive to a destination drive.

Drive docking station/duplicator.

Just download and keep the latest ISO file.

I have them all, but I`m just silly like that

It seems to me, you do not fully understand difference between cloning and imaging.

A clone's function is to have an identical version of source drive on a target drive so you can hot swap drive if source drive fails. Sure you know this but problem with cloning is you can only have one version at a specific point in time.

Imaging is like cloning but clone is copied to a compressed file (rather like a zip file).

This means you can have multiple copies at different points on time on backup storage which can be any suitable type of backup media or cloud based even.

An image's primary function is to restore backup image to the source drive BUT it can be used to create a clone if source drive fails. Minor downside is have to use restore software as an intermediate step.

Keeping a cloned drive upto date may take a lot of time unless you have Rapid Delta Cloning (paid version of Macrium Reflect).

In reality, you are far more likely to get software related issues, necessitating an image restore rather than a drive failure, and imaging means you do not need to swap drives if things go wrong.

Most imaging tools will also do regular differential or incremental backups (much faster) to a schedule if you wish.

To me, cloning is too limited just to get the convenience of a hot swap, when it is little extra effort to restore an image.

Good advice, I made a clone of my 860 Pro onto another 860 Pro the other day, plus I have my images.
I got a new Samsung 870 Evo 500GB on Saturday, I`m gonna try the Samsung Migration software for the 1st time.

I registered it so that was enough for the day

AddRAM said:

Good advice, I made a clone of my 860 Pro onto another 860 Pro the other day, plus I have my images.
I got a new Samsung 870 Evo 500GB on Saturday, I`m gonna try the Samsung Migration software for the 1st time.

I registered it so that was enough for the day

Good old Macrium Reflect always does the job just fine for.

I used the Samsung Data Migration software to clone my 860 Pro 256GB SSD to my new 870 Evo 500GB SSD.
It worked fine and fast except for 1 issue. When you are done, the new SSD still thinks it`s the old SSD.
All you have to do is uninstall the new SSD in Device Manager and reboot the PC.
After that, the 870 Evo now knows it`s a 870 Evo.
It`s up and running great, there`s nothing like a new SSD, well maybe catching a big shark is better