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#1
Backing Up Windows, general noob question.
I'd like to get a layman's answer to a question that has bugged me for too long: Why can't I backup my hard drive by simply cloning its contents?
I don't mean doing an exact "hard disk clone" including multiple partitions, MBR, etc., although maybe that in-and-of-itself is part of the answer, but I get frustrated trying to understand why Windows won't allow itself to simply be copied -- activation concerns aside. On my Mac or my Linux machines, I can literally do a rsync or cp or whatever I want to do and have the entire disk copied over to an external, a thumb drive, a secondary internal disc, etc., and can then boot off of that disk. There's no additional configuration, aside from first formatting the disk (if needed) to whatever file system the OS needs.
Is it because Windows relies in the MBR in a different way? Is it because of activation / security concerns? Am I wrong in my question in the first place?