Where/how does one store HD backup images?

Howdy folks-
I'm a noob here, so apologies in advance if i'm posting in wrong place, etc.

I have the sinking feeling i'm missing something obvious but the geniuses at AOMEI [of Backupper fame] never address the problem of where to put ones OS drive backup image, so that, if W7 dies on one [again!], one can rebuild without starting from square one. [Tech problems on their forum [and silence on issue] ensured their forum useless, so i'm asking here]
They blithely advise putting it on USB, or DVD. Excuse me? How does one put 148G on 16Gb USB key, or equal-sized DVD? Even if i stripped my HD image down to OS only, it would still be too big, and half the point of making the backup was to avoid reinstalling all the software, settings, etc.
And if i put it on a secondary HD, well, to reach it post-crash, i'd have to reinstall W7 on another HD to reach the image [and, having done all that work, what would be the point in making/recovering the backup at all?!]. I'd appreciate some help here.

A related question: I understand there's a settings transfer in Windoze 7. I can't find it since my W7 "help" refuses to answer any questions [Microsoft glitch #34,465,907!]

Marni

Why are computers like hemorrhoids? You sit down and the pain returns.

You might have misunderstood their posted geeky information. What is put onto a usb or dvd is only a boot-strap; files that are required to boot a Portable version of any backup/restore progam, in this case AOMEI. Concerning OS and Data saving: the full image backups are to be stored on any affordable, reliable, containing more than enough byte-space, external media. Some have used stacks of DVDs and DVD-RWs, some have used giant USB sticks [128-256GB or larger], many have used 1TB-3TB usb external platter-driven hard-drives, some have used NAS systems.

roland-
thanks for yr help. In retrospect, yes of course, it was implied, but it sure would've been helpful if AOMEI had reminded one of huge external storage need. The file-based backup systems available just trade one set of problems [hassle, time of rebuilding] for another [less hassle, cost]; sigh.
What's needed is for them to work when based on secondary internal HD's. [Your C:\ would crash so you'd just crack open case, remove it, and boot from the drive w the OS backup on it.]
But that would be too logical.

I'm no familiar with Aomei but, assuming it works similarly to Macrium Reflect Free, which I am familiar with, The only thing you will be putting on a CD, DVD, or USB flash drive is the recovery software that is less than 1GB and is used to restore an image onto the drive that was imaged, not the image itself. The image has to be stored on larger media, such as an external HDD.

Also, 148GB is an awfully large image. I'm guessing that you are imaging your entire drive which means your images will be large like that, take a long time to make, and will limit how many you can store on an external drive. I only image my System files—OS and programs—and use a folder/file syncing program (I use FreeFileSync) to backup my data files. My System images are only a little under 38GB.

What I suggest is keeping you OS and programs on their own drive or partition and your data on another drive or partition. As long as your backup drive is large enough, you can use a folder/file syncing program to backup your data to a folder on the backup drive and have the imaging program store your images in another folder on the backup drive. Doing so will dramatically reduce the amount of time and space needed to do your backups.

marni said:

...The question was: if my system has crashed and i have my [compressed!] image on a secondary hard drive, HOW DO I REACH AND THEN ACTIVATE IT?

The same software you used to make the full image also has a Restore button that will activate the restore operations. You only have to pick or "aim" the RestoreFromWhat? at the particular full image you want restored. Of course, you have to boot the usb stick or dvd you earlier made.