Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect  

Matthew Wai said:

Of course, I do that. Even if I don't, the data partition will remain unchanged after I have clean installed Windows in the unallocated space before the data partition.

And you will have to reinstall all your non-portable apps after you clean install Windows - that must not be a concern for you.

steve108 said:

And you will have to reinstall all your non-portable apps after you clean install Windows - that must not be a concern for you.

That's why I always back up all the partitions.

CountMike said:

That's why I always back up all the partitions.

Me too as well as the others who make full backups. We'll have to see how he responds.

CountMike said:

That's why I always back up all the partitions.

steve108 said:

Me too as well as the others who make full backups. We'll have to see how he responds.

Plain common sense.

Matthew Wai said:

I never use disk imaging, as I never found any need for it.
A wise user would never behave like me.

You got that right, Matthew!

I hardly ever have any problems with malware, but when it happens, I like to know I can fix things without having to reinstall.

cereberus said:

I am glad you qualified your statement.

Of course, the most important thing is backing up critical data. I assume you do that!

Ultimately, image backups are not essential provided critical data is backed up.

However, they save a lot of time in getting pc back to a working state if hard drive fails. It would take me several days to get pc back to fully working state (lots of apps to reinstall, settings to change etc). With a backup, I can be up and running again in less than an hour (I always have a spare hdd available for emergencies).

This is especially critical for me in these COVID working from home days.

You said it better than I could. And yep, time saved with an image backup is well worth it for me.

steve108 said:

Me too as well as the others who make full backups. We'll have to see how he responds.

My partition with games sees more changes than C; partition, I think I made mistake partitioning 500GB drive which is now 50/50, thinking of joining them even if I had to reinstall all games. My idea was to make separate backups for each but that's not as practical as change in one almost always necessitates changes in other. It would be different thing if partitions after C: are for data only. In that case separate backups would make more sense. Windows would need to be backed up only after large updates while data would change more often and so need backups more often.

CountMike said:

That's why I always back up all the partitions.

Me too, Count! I'd hate to have to reinstall everything on this teaching computer. There's always something I forget with a total reinstall instead of using a backup.

CountMike said:

My partition with games sees more changes than C; partition, I think I made mistake partitioning 500GB drive which is now 50/50, thinking of joining them even if I had to reinstall all games. My idea was to make separate backups for each but that's not as practical as change in one almost always necessitates changes in other. It would be different thing if partitions after C: are for data only. In that case separate backups would make more sense. Windows would need to be backed up only after large updates while data would change more often and so need backups more often.

My main computer I use at home to prepare lessons came with an SSD for the OS and a separate HDD for data. I have always added a Data HDD to all my computers before that one. And yeah, the Data Drive is always backed up onto an external USB drive.