what is best practice for image backup/restore of 1TB drive?

gordon55y · 26 Apr 2016

Hi,
I believe the following statements are true for win7 image backup.
1) The win7 image is for the entire HDD (or SSD).
That is, you cannot make an image of just one partition.
2) When you restore the image, there is no option to restore
a single partition. That is, you have to restore the entire image.
3) The new disk must be larger than the image disk.

This is very restrictive. And it discourages large C:\ drives :-(

Are there any image backup/restore tools that will backup/restore
just one partition?

If I could do an image backup/restore for a selected partition
then I could have a C:\ partition of maybe 200GB for OS and a
D:\ partition of maybe 800GB for data on a 1TB disk.

What is best practice?
thanks

MeOnMine · 27 Apr 2016

Hello Gordon and welcome to SF,
Most forum members here would advise you to use Macrium Reflect Free.
The Windows back up system is a little flaky and can fail on you.
Yes you can back up or restore to Partitions or full HDD/SSD.

There is a Tutorial here.

Have fun

mjf · 27 Apr 2016

gordon55y said:

If I could do an image backup/restore for a selected partition
then I could have a C:\ partition of maybe 200GB for OS and a
D:\ partition of maybe 800GB for data on a 1TB disk.

What is best practice?
thanks

This is a very good strategy.
I would not recommend your OS partition be the full 1TB and 200GB for the OS partition is generous enough.
I would also support Macrium. If you go onto their website they have a knowledge base that may assist in the creation and restoring of system images.
It is important that you create and can boot from a CD/DVD/USB restore device. When you make an image (preferably on an external drive) make sure that you can locate the image from the restore boot.