Windows 7: Imaging, cloning...need advice

Thanks :-)
Yes I understand it now!
I will need to make an image of my system when everything is just fine to use it when (if) the thinks go really wrong and i need to restore the system to a good state!
About backup: I usually do not have much data in my computer! About everything is in an external 1TB portable HDD! I just use the laptop for control my astronomy gear (and for that I use a huge amount of differente sw) and for processing the data I collect. The data and the resulting processed files are in the external HDD. The problem is the astronomy sw and the processing sw (PS CS5 suite and a lot of specific ones...). All those took time to get the right settings for...And it is precisely for that, that I need to make an image of a stable system for the worst case scenario.

Is my thoughts correct?

You may call me crazy but usually I do not like free sw! So I will pay for a sw capable of imaging my system to a USB 3.0 portable HDD :-). And if that imaging sw is simple (not necessarly the less expensive) the better :-)

Regards,
paulo

You are generally correct.

Do you have a backup of the data on the external drive?

Regardless of where you store the data (C, internal, external, whatever), you are foolish if you don't have it backed up somewhere else---you should have at least 2 copies of all data.

If you prefer to pay rather than get something free, I would buy the Pro version of Macrium:

http://www.macrium.com/personal.aspx



Note: imaging is not foolproof. Know what you will do if it does not work as expected.

Thanks. Yes I have it backed up in a Buffalo usb2 hdd too ;-)

I will learn to do it properly...I think!

My concern now is (and still is, what SSD to choose that will give me the least amount of problems the possible , starting with the compatibility with my Tecra R840). Too much info in the www!!!

paulo

Ok, i bought acronis home...2010! The site sent me for the portuguese site and the only version there was the 2010!
I do not find it specially user friendly!!!
I made some kind of backup for my no trouble laptop (a Toshiba MX30 running XP where I have a copy of all my software and all settings...I mean a perfect functional computer with all stuff running great!). I would like to make an image of this stable machine for my external HDD. The result was a file called "System" that I hope is the image of my system!!! Now I need to know how to use it in the case of a major crash!

Paulo

Did you have any particular reason to choose Acronis over the free edition of Macrium, which IS user-friendly? Maybe 5 mouse clicks to make an image. You then burn a boot disk and boot from it to make a restore.

I haven't looked at Acronis in several years, but the comments here about it are pretty good if you understand it.