How do I backup the complete system drive

Hopefully, I have the proper discussion group.

I am running some older software, most notably Adobe CS6, that has been automatically updated without the update files first being downloaded and stored on my computer. My computer is about 5 years old and I am concerned that if I have a hard drive crash I will lose many of my programs and be unable to reinstall the automatic updates (they may not longer be supported by the vendors). I will have the same problem if I buy a new computer.

I am wondering how I can backup the ENTIRE C: drive, my system drive (program files, windows files, registry, etc.), so that in the event that it crashes I can offload the backup to a new hard drive and quickly pickup from where I left off. In the event of a problem I would like to be able to boot from the backup drive or copy it to a new hard drive and continue as though nothing had happened. Is that possible?

I have two external Seagate backup drives, but they do not seem to be backing up the ENTIRE C: drive even if I check every folder for backup.

Thanks for your advice.

Get yourself an Imaging backup program like Macrium Reflect or Acronis True Image or etc. and store multiple copies of your entire base computer hard drive on both of your two Seagates.

whs said:

You can also backup with command prompt. If you use this command, everything relevant will be backed up.

wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:S: -include:C: -AllCritical -quiet

"S" would be the disk to where you backup. The image is stored in the root of S.

I've been computing forever whs and although I've probably seen this one somewhere past it's nice to have you post about it.

It's not clear to me from a quick look at /help how one would RESTORE using wbadmin, but no doubt it's there somewhere. I do wonder if anyone has made a GUI front-end for this (well I suppose it is MS' own Backup and Restore control panel).

Somewhere no doubt is detailed the shortcomings of this method that caused many of us to embrace e.g. Acronis and Macrium and etc.