Windows 8 System Image Backup

davidhk129

Senior Member
Joined
May 19, 2012
I have an external hard drive which I have been using to do System Image Backup once a week on my Windows 7 computer.
The backup goes to WindowsImageBackup folder.

Now, I have another computer with Windows 8 Pro. I did a system image backup to the same ext. hdd. It went to the same folder, thereby erasing the Win 7 backup. I see no way I can tell the image backup to go to a different folder.

So, my question :
I suppose I'll have to buy another external hdd for the Win 8 Pro. Yes?
 
No, just create a separate partition for each image. If the system sees more than one partition, it should ask you where you want to place the image.

I have all my images written on one hd on different partitions:

Drives.jpg
 
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No, just create a separate partition for each image. If the system sees more than one partition, it should ask you where you want to place the image.

Thank you.
I should have added this..... I don't believe in doing backup, any backup, within the computer.
My backups are always on a removable media.
The main reason of doing backups are to ensure that not everything will be lost in the event the computer crashed and could not be restored.
Backup within the computer defeats that purpose. It is illogical, in my opinion.

Thank you for your reply.
 
Thank you.
I should have added this..... I don't believe in doing backup, any backup, within the computer.
My backups are always on a removable media.
The main reason of doing backups are to ensure that not everything will be lost in the event the computer crashed and could not be restored.
Backup within the computer defeats that purpose. It is illogical, in my opinion.

Thank you for your reply.

Yes, all those backups that I have are in an external hard drive connected to my PC via USB 3.0 hard drive dock (the white hd dock on the pic below). The 2 black hard drives to the left of it are my network hard drives which can be accessed on any PC within my network. I'm saying you need to create partitions on your external hard drive .

IMAG2382.jpg



The partitions from the external hard drive appear as separate drives when connected to the PC.



.
 
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I should have added this..... I don't believe in doing backup, any backup, within the computer.
That, IMO, is a bit extreme. FOR SURE, it is important to have a via backup in the event the computer is stolen, lost in a fire or flood, or some how totally lost. But many backup and recovery needs are not because the entire computer was lost.

While time consuming, it is relatively easy to reinstall Windows, download my favorite programs, setup networking etc. But to recover all my personal data files, that would be near impossible without a backup.

Since all my data files are located somewhere under My Documents, simply dragging a copy of the entire My Documents folder to a different drive is a quick and easy backup method. Now it does require two physical drives, but that's not a problem.
 
An image backup does not overwrite a backup from a computer with a different name......
 
Thank you for all the replies.


With the money I have saved purchasing Win 8 Pro from ebay, I'll get another ext.hdd.
I am still ahead of the game.... for a change.

It's a lot simpler than changing C:\Users\(username) folder.
 
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