Thanks Endeavor. So after I have created the clone of my entire HDD, I can just restore the things I want to without the OS that is installed in it causing any problem, right? What will be the approximate size of the cloned image? The HDD I am using now has around 375-400 GB data. And more importantly, where do I save that image? I do not have any flash drive or external drive that is this big.
To your first question the answer is yes, but it's wording reading it again I'm not exactly sure what you're really asking since it could be taken a number of ways.
The second question as bigmck has said the compression ratio is about 60% at the default recommended compression settings. However I don't mean to be picky but the exact wording of your question has me wondering what you are asking when you say Cloned; iow, when you create a backup image of your OS partition which is predominately (but not always) C:\, or even if you created a backup of your other file storage partitions like D:\ E:\ ...etc, then it is these individual backup images that are compressed 60%. On the other hand when the term Cloned is used 'within' a software program, generally it's always talking about Cloning from one HD to another HD, and so in that case it's not compressed and it's one-to-one since it's cloning an exact copy from one HD to another. Yes though, you can create a Cloned imaged of all partitions your entire HD and save it to another medium and that image file will be compressed as well, but, doing it that way is not necessarily the best or norm, and takes much much longer but then to use it you would have to re-image that compressed image back to a HD to use it... ...and so it's much more practical if you are going to create a cloned image of your 'entire' HD you would clone it to an identical HD and save that HD aside, if/when it's needed, you unplug the old, plug in the new, and it's immediately available to boot.
You mention your HD has 400 GB of data, but you didn't say how many partitions you have on it which will determine my answer to your question. For instance my HD is 2 TB, and it's divided up into 8 partitions, three of which are OS partitions, and the others for specific things of category, like one is labeled Backup, another is Music, another is Storage, another is Movies, and so on. The Backup one is where I save my backup image .tib's for my first 3 OS partitions and is where I (second level convenience) store and backup my partition image backup files... ...Now Naturally!!! for a foolproof backup scenario you would not fully depend on storing your backup images to the same HD for obvious reasons, but it's used only as a second level but quick convenience since 99% ! of the time that is where you will draw from, but for proper first level nearly 100% foolproof backups, here is where you Always Always Always (and here's the word used in it's true sense) Clone that HD to an exact identical HD, and that secondary HD when you're done you do not leave connected in your machine but you put it somewhere safe, so that, if/when your main HD fails which they sometimes do, you simply remove it and go get your identically cloned HD, plug it in, and you are good to go...this is the ultimate backup scenario and what I and many other avid imagers do.
On the simple side of things (depending on what image program you use) yes you can easily browse your backup image files and copy/paste out of or restore to the original location individual or groups of files/folders from that image, without restoring the entire image, if that's what you were asking?
It's a big subject to talk about in a few paragraphs and I've already too many words for a simple reply, but it's sometimes not that simple.
It's best to partition up your HD yes, and that requires software and knowing how to use it too, but no matter what or which way you do it though, you will need to buy another storage medium for backup. You can use USB drives, etc for basic backup... but along side that or alone, preferably you'd buy an identical HD to the one you have in there (or even larger) for the ultimate backup % scenario.
