New
#1380
@Scoop
Given you say you are new to imaging experimenting with it using your spare HDDs is absolutely the best way to build confidence that you are using imaging software with some confidence. Macrium Reflect (free or paid) gets the thumbs up from many forum users and you will find tutorials here on it.
You need to understand the the difference between
(1) file/folder backup and
(2) System imaging
(1) is just for backing up your personal documents or non system installed files. I believe this is the backup gregrocker is referring to.
(2) gives you a full snapshot of every aspect of your drive - all the OS including installed programs.
With Windows native imaging and Macrium you can copy individual files from your image without affecting the image. It is a good idea to keep the size of your OS partition with installed programs smallish, say on the order of 50GB or even less. This makes regular imaging more manageble.
Large data files like photos, videos and music are best stored on a separate partition using a different backup strategy since many of these files won't change. Some form of incremental backup may be best here. However, be warned Windows inbuilt file/folder backup is slow as a wet wick.