Windows 7: backing up my C drive

Hi,got a desktop running windows 7 home premium.I have downloaded the macrium software
Here..Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download.

Question is when I do decide to use it on my C drive,Will it backup all what's on the drive.??
What I would like to know I have printer software etc on the drive will all that software be backed up?
Then if something does go wrong I can then transfer everything from the Macrium backup that will be on an external HDD on to the new C HDD will it all be there or is it just the bare windows set up?

Any help on that please.



Forgot to say,Al my documents photos etc are all on another drive.The C drive only has the O/S etc.

Hi,

Everything on the C:, including the installed device drivers and installed software, are imaged. When you restore an image, you get back exactly how C: was setup at the time the image was taken, including any device drivers and software that were installed at that time.

Regards,
Golden

I would install programs to C, not D. They become part of the OS writing keys to the registry until uninstalled, so should be part of the image of C. Then if OS ever becomes irreparable you can reimage C to exactly how it was when the image was taken, your data will be waiting on D safe and current.

Of course you need to keep the data backed up too, either by dragging it or syncing using an app like SyncToy. I keep mine sync'd to Skydrive so that each device I use stays instantly current when its turned on.

Remember - there are many ways to recover the OS with imaging being the easiest.

But there are few ways to recover your data if that gets lost, corrupted or the HDD dies.

Message: Backup your data as often as you change it. I use imaging but sync is faster.

Many thanks all,Question answered.Regarding Data,I use the sync toy 'microsoft'
Just what I required.

Many thanks to all,And a Happy New Year to all.

David.

Understand, that if your drive goes bad, or some other error occurs that prevents you from booting into Windows 7, since you have the Free edition, you would need to use the Linux Boot CD in order to boot the PC and then run a Restore.

So, as soon as you can, use the option to create that CD.

Hi Mark.
Have done the CD,Thanks for your thoughts.
Happy new year to you.
David.

The Linux CD is not very good, it sometimes does not find the backup drive. The WinPE is much better. WHS has created a pre-built WinPE ISO that you can just burn to disk. The link is in a note to this tutorial. Imaging with free Macrium

[QUOTE]The Linux CD is not very good, it sometimes does not find the backup drive. The WinPE is much better. WHS has created a pre-built WinPE ISO that you can just burn to disk. The link is in a note to this tutorial. Imaging with free Macrium[QUOTE]

So are you actually telling me to burn another disc with ''the WinPE''.

Am I correct in thinking so.???I'm getting a bit confused

Thanks.

Yes I am. You also need to test that you can boot from it and locate your backup images.